The Nightmare King (The Kings Book 11)

by Heather Killough-Walden

  And in that moment, when the slightest motion edicted the worst outcome, the biggest regret in the universe, everything became crystal clear.

  Life was pain. It was pleasure. But it never had and never would make sense. It was a never-ending battle that had no purpose. It was us and them and you and me and we and they and there was no rhyme or reason, no end-all, no goal, no transcendence.

  Except this. This moment here. When everything slowed down and time stopped and took a bow and the veil was pulled back at last. That moment – when going to sleep meant waking up. At last.

  Colors moved before her mind, streams of rainbow hues. There was no discomfort. There was relief, instead. And somewhere beyond her new sphere of comprehension, chaos reigned. But she was no longer a part of any of it.

  Chapter Forty-One

  She fell. It took forever.

  She was an angel losing its wings, a bird callously shot from the sky. And as desperately long as it took for her to fall, it took twice as long for him to get to her, to slide into kneeling position beside her descending body, and catch it in his arms.

  Everything changed. Then and there, everything was different. One moment, he had owned everything. A kingdom. A queen.

  Now there was nothing in the world that belonged to anyone. He would make sure of it.

  “Move away, Nicholas.” Someone was at his side, their hand on his shoulder.

  The rest of the world was still out of focus, but time slipped back into its normal pattern and the wheels of life’s clockwork motion returned to their breakneck pace. Typical of time to speed up just when you needed it to stop completely.

  There was acid in his veins. An explosive sensation in his mind.

  Adelaide’s eyes caught his, and her lips parted. But no sound came out. Or he couldn’t hear it over the waterfall of blood in his eardrums.

  And then she closed her eyes. Her aura began to fade. It was like watching a bonfire without oxygen. Nicholas’s grip on her body tightened. He felt his insides go completely and horribly numb. At the same time, by way of a terrible dichotomy, his outsides began to heat up with uncontrollable pain. His Nightmare raised its head. If she died…

  Then everyone would die.

  Every. Single. One of them.

  “Nicholas!” the voice sounded again, and this time the hand on his shoulder squeezed, exhibiting unnatural strength. When his collar bone made an uncomfortable sound, he finally but distractedly looked up. It took a moment for his vision to focus on the face beside him through the blurriness of agony.

  “You have to move right now,” the woman said firmly. He’d never seen her before. But she peered deep and hard into his eyes, and her voice was very, very clear. “Get up and let me help her.”

  His vision was going red; the woman’s outline was not only focused now, but becoming stark in contrast – a hunter’s vision. It was possible that because of this, he wasn’t seeing her quite right… because she appeared to have purple eyes. Violet, like the flower, but a little lighter. Lavender, he thought vaguely.

  He wasn’t thinking quite right either. It was as if his mind were trying to protect him from something. Something worse than anything else.

  He turned away from the stranger with lavender eyes and looked back down at the woman in his arms. Open your eyes, he thought. Look at me with your amber magic.

  “Sorry Nick,” said the woman beside him, her tone hard now. “But we can’t wait any longer. Boys, I need you to help me out here.”

  Someone grabbed Nicholas by the arms. Several pairs of hands were on him, strong and tight. They lifted him into a standing position. But he didn’t lose his grip on Adelaide until someone literally tore her from his arms.

  “Nicholas, look at me.”

  He looked up, meeting someone else’s gaze. He recognized this one. “Andros,” he whispered.

  Andros nodded, taking Nick’s head in his large hands to maintain eye contact. “Nick, Adelaide is not yet dead. Understand? She’s still alive, but barely. Time is short. Evangeline is a healer. She is going to help her.”

  Andros stepped to the side so Nicholas could see what he was talking about.

  At once, the rest of the world seemed to snap back into conscious focus like a rubber band that had been stretched nearly to the breaking point – but not quite. The hall was crowded, but there was no movement or sound from students or teachers because every single human being in the school had been enveloped in some kind of energy field. They were frozen immobile, some of them having been caught in running positions, others trapped on the floor, where they had clearly dived for cover. But all of them were wrapped in blue-white light, and fixed, motionless and stationary.

  He was familiar with that particular spell and knew they neither saw nor heard what was happening around them. Once the spell was ended, they would simply move again as if no time had passed.

  Roman, Kristopher, Thanatos, Alberich, Siobhan and Poppy stood on either side of Nicholas. Alberich’s eyes were glowing, as were Siobhan’s and Roman’s. They were obviously the powerful triad it took to cast the spell that held the entire school in stasis.

  But it was Nicholas who had their attention. They watched him steadfastly, glowing eyes or not, their expressions stern, their faces serious. They were far more concerned about him than the students and teachers. Why?

  Andros dropped his hands to his king’s very broad shoulders, and then turned back to face him. He glanced at something on either side of Nicholas, then leaned in and cleared his throat, “You’ve changed… your majesty.” He leaned back and glanced down at Nick’s hands.

  Nicholas frowned. He raised his hands in front of his face. His skin was pitch black.

  That must mean…. Nick glanced over his right shoulder. Massive bat-like wings had sprouted from his back and spread out behind him. He swore internally. He hadn’t – there had been no…. He turned back around, resigned. He’d never noticed that he’d made the transformation.

  But now that he was thinking about it, he did notice there were fangs in his mouth – and he probably had horns to boot.

  “Can you reign it in before the stasis spell ends?” Andros asked.

  Nicholas looked past him. A few feet away, the woman who had touched his shoulder was knelt beside Adelaide’s still form. Her aura was bright but impossible to read. Her soul was powerful and old, but… its colors and patterns were chaotic, as if they were trying to hide something. Even that deep down. Even from him. He did get her name, though. At least, it was the name she allowed people to know: Evangeline.

  That was what Andros had called her too.

  Across from Evangeline was another person Nicholas had never met, but his aura spelled magic user plain as day. Nick dug deep – because that was what he did. The man’s name was Rodney Stokes. He was Adelaide’s butler and bodyguard. He was a seer. He had drawn Evangeline there to help Adelaide. To heal her.

  She’s a healer, he realized. And then he realized that, too, was something Andros had told him. Nothing had been registering before, but now it was. Now it was all that was registering – the fact that Evangeline was a healer. That explained at least part of her aura. There was more, but that was all that mattered right now.

  “Nick,” said Andros, drawing his attention back to his preceptor. Andros glanced pointedly to Nick’s wings.

  “Oh,” said Nick softly. His voice was gravelly, changed as it was by his monstrous transformation. But his attention was again diverted before he could tend to his form. He looked back down at Adelaide. The light had now cocooned her completely. There was a flash that temporarily blinded him. He raised his hand to protect his eyes, as did everyone around him.

  When he lowered it again, his gaze was immediately back on Addie. She didn’t move. He watched her chest. He held his breath as if in empathy. There was no rise and fall.

  There was no life.

  And then, quite suddenly, there was.

  Chapter Forty-Two

  The first thing Ade
laide heard when the universe decided to return to her was the voice of Andros, Nicholas’s preceptor. She recognized it at once, deep and powerful, the voice of a protector. Not only Nicholas’s protector, she realized. But hers too.

  “My liege, you really must return to your human form!”

  She opened her eyes, pushing at them as if they’d gained weight. When she could finally see, she found herself staring up at a massive, dark and blurry form. She blinked a few times, clearing her vision.

  There were actually several forms around her. But the largest, the darkest, and the one that had her attention and held it fast, was most certainly the Nightmare King. In all of his Nightmare glory.

  She parted her lips and tried to speak. But her throat felt gunky. So she closed her mouth and cleared her throat again.

  “It might be hard to talk at first,” said the woman beside her. “You probably had blood in your throat, though I hope I cleared most of that out.”

  Adelaide recognized the voice, but vaguely. She looked at the woman to find light purple eyes staring back at her. Now she remembered. She was the woman from the airplane. Eva… or something like that. Evangeline. That was right.

  She tried to say her name, but it came out very scratchy. She cleared her throat again and looked back at the Nightmare King.

  “Your majesty, the queen is okay. She will be fine. Now I must insist that you –”

  “Shut up, Andros,” said Nicholas. His voice was deep, dark, and wonderfully frightening. Adelaide found herself smiling. She felt a warmth in her eyes and knew they were changing colors.

  Nicholas stared down at her through red glowing orbs and grinned, flashing his long, sharp fangs. “There’s my girl.”

  Eva turned where she was kneeling and looked up at the monstrous form beside her. “Dude, you’re enormous.” She laughed, sounding a little tired. “That’s pretty bitching.”

  Nicholas’s smile stayed in place as he leaned in, scooted his arms underneath Adelaide, and pulled her gently into his lap.

  She cleared her throat again and said, “Hi.”

  “Hi back,” he growled.

  Eva cleared her own throat. “This is sweet. But your bodyguard over there is probably right. You should probably shelve the awesomeness for now.” She seemed to be looking past Nicholas at something else, and she looked a little worried suddenly. “I have a feeling this stasis spell isn’t going to last much longer.”

  Nicholas rubbed his thumb over Adelaide’s cheek, gently brushing a lock of her curly hair from her face. Then he nodded and closed his eyes. His shadow seemed to lengthen. It grew longer and darker, bigger and thicker, until it consumed the light around him, wrapping him in a protective veil of black. Addie felt that darkness against her skin since he was holding her. It was cool and soft, like those black satin sheets on his massive bed.

  And then it lifted away, wisps of shadow turned to tendrils of fog that dissipated into nothingness, leaving behind Nicholas Wargrave in his very handsome, but once more human form.

  “Damn,” she teased softly, since softly was the only way she could speak at the moment. “Gone too soon.”

  Nicholas chuckled. “I can fix that later. Think you feel well enough to sit up?”

  “I feel fine,” she said, speaking the truth. She knew she’d been shot. She remembered the impact. But at the moment, nothing hurt, and her limbs felt fine, and – “Oh crap,” she said a little louder this time. “Where is Rachel?”

  Nicholas blinked. Then he frowned. “Actually, I don’t know,” he told her as he looked up, and she used his body to help her get into a sitting position. Now she saw everyone who was around her.

  Including Rodney.

  “Rodney?” she asked, confused.

  He smiled. “Hi boss. We have a lot to talk about. But not now. We’ll talk later.”

  She wanted to smile back at him, but something was different. There was a white-pink aura, for lack of a better word, around his form. It shimmered a little like the pixie dust sparkle that enveloped the Crystal Carousel in the Carnival of Night.

  “He’s a mage,” supplied Nicholas. “That’s what you’re seeing.”

  Rodney looked at Nicholas, and Nick shrugged apologetically. “She’s noticing the aura around you. She’s gaining her ability to see souls.” He turned to Adelaide. “You’re becoming the Nightmare Queen. You’re going to notice a lot of new things,” he told her. “And… I have a feeling that’s why you were able to outrun me back there.”

  “She outran all of us,” said Andros. “I’ve never seen anyone move so fast.” He shook his head, his expression bewildered and impressed. “All I can say is, I’m glad the queens are supposed to be so much stronger than the kings, because with moves like that, Minnaea and I won’t be able to protect you.”

  “You won’t have to,” said Nicholas. “I will protect her.”

  Addie shook her head. “That’s my caveman.”

  “Girl can protect herself,” came a new but familiar voice. Addie turned around on the floor and looked up. Minnaea was walking toward them, smiling. “Now that she seems to have made the switch, I don’t think she’ll have any trouble seeing to her own safety.”

  Addie blushed a little when her face grew hot. Because she may be changing and growing stronger – but all it had managed to do so far was get her killed. Or very nearly, anyway. And they all knew it. Fortunately, they were kind enough not to say anything.

  Minnaea was holding a young girl by the hand as they approached. Adelaide recognized her at once.

  Rachel.

  Rachel Reyes had red-rimmed eyes, slightly puffy from what had clearly been a bout of serious crying. She looked up as Minnaea led her down the hall, but just after making eye contact with Addie, she looked back down again, and her upper lip quivered. She was a mess.

  Addie’s heart broke. This was a huge fucking mess. And in the end, deep down, she couldn’t help but wonder how much of it was really Rachel’s fault.

  “Adelaide, you already know Rachel Reyes,” Minnaea said as they stopped beside them, and Nicholas helped Adelaide get to her feet. She felt good. Unusually strong, actually. She glanced at Evangeline, and caught her gaze. Eva smiled, nodding just once.

  Addie turned back to Rachel. Her aura burned bright as a star, but it had tears around its edges, as if it had been brushed with sandpaper on a dry day. It was damaged. She was hurt. Far more hurt than Adelaide was now. She was as hurt as Adelaide had been twenty years ago.

  “You already know about her bullies,” said Minnaea, who turned around and settled a burning mad gaze on several young women caught in the stasis spell not far away. “We’ll be dealing with them soon enough.” She turned back to Addie. “What you don’t know is that Rachel here… is a seer too.”

  Addie looked from Minnaea to Rachel, who again met her gaze, this time just a touch more confidently. Rachel took a shaky breath, one inhibited by a pent-up sob. “I… I saw you,” she said, a mere hair’s width away from breaking down again. “In-in my d-dreams. And then, when you were here, and s-suddenly in the hall….” She broke off, and the sob escaped. She lowered her head, placing her face in her hands.

  Adelaide was moving before she could even think about what she was doing. At once, she rushed forward and wrapped the young girl in her arms. “I’m okay,” she told Rachel. “I’m okay. Alright? I’m alive. I’m just fine. Everything is going to be okay.”

  She squeezed the girl tight as Rachel sobbed into her shirt. “I’m so sorry!” Rachel screamed. “I didn’t even know what I was doing! I barely remember it… only in flashes, r-red and dark… and then I pulled the trigger, and… you were there!”

  Adelaide closed her eyes. “And I’m here right now too,” she told her. Then she pulled back and grasped Rachel firmly by the upper arms. “Look at me, Rachel.” There was power in her voice, power she’d never heard there before. It was new – but it was good.

  Rachel hiccupped – but her sobs calmed. She gave a shudder and looked up
into Adelaide’s eyes.

  “Rachel, you’ve been terribly mistreated, and everything that happened here today happened because of that. So listen to me now and hear me. No one is ever going to mistreat you again. Do you understand?” More power laced her words – more magic.

  Rachel nodded, and Addie noticed that one of the ragged edges to her aura smoothed out. A warmth flooded Addie’s chest. She smiled. “But there’s more, Rachel. The world is so much more than this tiny bubble of hell you’ve been subjected to. There’s magic out there,” she told the young seer. “And you’re a part of it.”

  Chapter Forty-Three

  Mimi Tanniym watched in stunned and rather traumatized fascination from where she knelt behind the school’s recycling bins just outside the cafeteria doors. She had a clear view of the happenings from her location, but she was pretty sure no one could see her, which was lucky since everyone they could see was being held in some sort of force field spell.

  She wasn’t supposed to be there. But when the seer man had come to Eva’s home, Mimi had heard everything. She had good hearing. All dragons did. And she’d just desperately wanted to see Eva in action. She wasn’t kidding when she’d told Eva that she couldn’t tell what kind of dragon she was, but that was only the half of it. Eva seemed different in other ways too. She felt like walking power. What was she?

  Mimi had hoped following her to the school would give her more of a clue. So she’d used the transportation spell Calidum had taught her and even traced Eva’s signature when she’d used it, though that wasn’t nearly as hard as she’d expected it to be. Eva gave off a powerful signature, and it was different from other dragons. It was different from other everything.

  But now there was a part of her that wished she hadn’t made the decision to follow. She wondered if she would ever be able to un-see what she’d just seen. So many thoughts traveled like a hurricane through her head. Who was the girl with the gun? What had happened to make her do what she’d done? Who was the old man who had told Rodney Stokes to come find Eva in the first place? How had that old man known that Eva had healing powers? What kind of dragon had healing powers? She couldn’t think of any except the legendary Great White – and he’d been dead for thousands of years. If he was ever even alive to begin with.