Night Fae (Dark Fae Kings #3) - Meg Xuemei X. Page 0,28
them. “Brush it off like it’s an annoying spiderweb.”
A whirl of darkness closed in on me like a dark hurricane meant to raze the world to the ground and rip me apart. Before I could react, its claws sank into my being, the nightmare so thick it choked me. But I didn’t grab my throat as it expected me to but stared into its deadly essence.
A streak of dark light sliced into my consciousness like a fallen star, and a buried genetic memory swirled to life with a spark of dark fire.
Death is your domain, an alien voice hummed on the fringe of my mind, carrying magic that didn’t belong to this world.
I couldn’t grasp the meaning, but I knew the voice spoke the truth, and the nightmare creatures had made a wrong move and underestimated me. They’d soon be humbled and learn that their darkness and nightmares had no effect on me.
Hell is your home, the voice chimed, wreathed in hellfire as if it indeed came from Hell.
That, I reject, I answered, and then suddenly, without meaning to, I laughed. Like someone laughing at a funeral, I knew it was utterly inappropriate yet couldn’t help it.
“Ileana?” Rydstrom asked beside me, but he didn’t slow his pace.
“Were you laughing at us, girl?” a terrible voice straight from a haunting nightmare demanded from a corner in the impenetrable darkness.
The knights tensed, and my parents stepped closer to me, wanting to shield me from any nightmares.
“Ileana is your future queen, Basilisk,” Rydstrom hissed. “Back off.”
“Neither Basilisk nor any of the rest has ever talked to anyone besides our king before,” Drake whispered.
“Basilisk, right?” I asked lightly. “I know what you are. I know what you all are.” I paused and pulled Rydstrom to a stop with me. Every knight skidded to a halt, forming a protective formation around me and my parents. But I didn’t need protection. I gazed into the faces of the nightmares all around me. “You’re eaters of all living things, ancient as the earth and more powerful than Hell’s creatures. Even before I looked at you, I’d already had enough scares. Ever since I learned about the existence of the supernaturals, of the things that go bump in the night, of a usurper queen who wants my head on a spike. But I’m not afraid of you. You’re the things of nightmares, but you also have deep honor.”
They’d accepted Rydstrom as their king and sworn their allegiance when he was a child, because he never sought to rule or control them, and they’d guarded his realm faithfully ever since.
“I laughed because of a new discovery,” I continued as we resumed our march. “I also laughed in appreciation that you might be terrifying nightmares, but that is toward our enemies. To us, you’re the faithful guardians of our realm. You’re the first defense line, and no one can pass through you to invade the Realm of Night and Dreams. I laughed because I appreciate the perfection and beauty of the design of my mate’s court—the nightmares safeguard peace and lovely dreams.”
A moment of silence rippled across the temple, and Rydstrom squeezed my hand gently, heat and approval in his midnight eyes that shone with starlight and nightmares all at once.
“You spoiled our fun, Queen Ileana,” another voice said grouchily.
“Too bad, Scylla,” I answered, discovering her name easily as I probed them with my power.
The nightmares shuddered, perceiving my own kind of darkness within my light and fire. I entered their hive mind, even though they weren’t like any other living thing. For a breath, I wondered if Rydstrom could sense this and know I also had my own dark secrets, or if he’d known it all along as my mate and mighty King of the Nightmares but had been waiting for me to come clean.
The kings and I had talked about some things, but secrets were like intimacy and couldn’t be forced. Despite our mating bond, we hadn’t known each other for long. I had never peeked into Rydstrom’s secrets, not even the tip of the iceberg.
As if answering my thoughts, Rydstrom shifted into a twelve-foot-tall gargoyle, a form of pure nightmare. He lifted me in his vast claws, gazing down at me with uncertainty, yet heat and tenderness still swirled in his shadowed eyes.
He wasn’t sure how I was going to take this form of his, no longer the breathtakingly gorgeous Night King. But this was his true form in the Court of Nightmares. He wasn’t sure if