Page 103 of Realm of Dreams & Shadows

I freeze, suddenly remembering that I’d fallen asleep naked. I glance down, then exhale in relief when I see that I’m wearing a satin nightgown, its hem almost brushing the sand.

Adric chuckles, the sound disembodied. “You see, my Bride? Chivalry is not yet dead.”

His voice slides through the air like silk edged in smoke, and though I look around, I don’t see him. I do see the sand monsters, now moving backward, widening the corridor that is now both inviting and inevitable.

“They will not harm you,” he promises.

At the far end, Kali stands just outside the opening of the cave. I can’t make out her expression, but I can feel the weight of her gaze. Adric may want me here, but she definitely doesn’t.

The sand monsters don’t move or even look at me as I walk the corridor. There is neither welcome nor malice. Simply duty.

I quicken my pace. “Why am I here?”

“Because I wish you to be.”

My path has curved a bit, and now I can see the cave mouth and the scrying pool, both ribbed with shadows. Adric stands at the threshold, his shadow-coat fluttering around him like smoke.

He’s brought me here without my consent, and yet instead of digging my heels in and demanding to be returned to my own realm, I quicken my pace, my entire body going warm when he lifts his chin, meets my eyes, and smiles that devastating smile.

I draw in a breath, reminding myself that he simply took—he asked no permission. Worse, he took me naked from Chase’s bed, making the violation even more, well, vile.

And—oh, god—if Chase is right, this man, whose pull on me is undeniable, is capable of the most brutal of torture.

I need to remember that. I need to keep my head.

I lift my chin. “You had no right to bring me here like this.”

“Perhaps not. And yet here you are. And while you may be furious with my actions—even furious with me—you cannot deny your pleasure in seeing me. Or, rather, you cannot deny it without lying. To yourself, and to me.”

“I know what you did to him,” I say, studying his face. “How the hell can you think I’d ever be pleased to see you again?”

His brow furrows. “What I did? My love, I have done many things. You’ll have to be more specific.”

“Torturing Chase, you son of a bitch. And don’t call me that ever again.”

“Torture?”

I’m watching his face, and he looks genuinely confused. Then again, after being alive for literally forever, he’s probably learned a few tricks for hiding his emotions.

“I’ve seen the scars on his back. Did you think he’d never speak of it? A thousand years of being whipped. A thousand years imprisoned and tortured?”

My voice breaks, and Adric steps toward me. I thrust up a hand, keeping him at bay. “You indescribable bastard.” The words are a whisper. A hiss. And so very true. Warm tears streak down my face. Horror at what was done to Chase. And grief for this man, too.I don’t know what I was beginning to feel for him. But I know what I feel now. Hate. Pure, clean hate.

He’s shaking his head. “After the Breaking, I needed a moment to organize my people. To step in as the leader of the realms. The new Guardian, if you will.”

“And so you locked him away and whipped the shit out of him.”

“I locked him away, yes. For one day.”

I cross my arms. “Which is what? The equivalent of a thousand years?”

He actually laughs. “No, my love. The kind of day that means nothing to me. Less than a second as I move through time. Your day,” he says. “The turning of the earth one revolution on its axis. Enough time for me to bring the realms under my rule. Except,” he adds with a nod, “for your realm. As for my brother, I released him as soon as my rule was accepted across the realms. It was barely a blink of an eye. And, yes, he was chained. But he was not tortured.”

His brow furrows as he studies me. “What makes you think he was?”

“I’ve seen the scars.”

For a moment, he doesn’t react at all. Then he rolls his shoulders back to stand taller. “I see.” He turns away from me, looking off at the waves. “I sent him away in the custody of a prison guard who has since been taken by death. He was to take my brother into the Realm of the Real. It was that realm, after all, that he believed too primitive to survive without the barriers. It seemed fitting.”