The Sweet Series Box Set: Books 1-4

by Bailey Ardisone

  Warmth. I felt warmth against my skin. Something soft and gentle caressed my cheek. I slowly opened my eyes against the hazy glow of light.

  I sucked my heart into my throat upon finding Mycah’s aqua irises gazing into mine.

  It wasn’t just his stunning features that took my breath away. Or the intensity of the way he looked at me, full of longing and lust, or the way he felt against my skin.

  I mean, yes it was all of those things. But the real reason was—

  Well, it was that he was here in front of me at all. I wanted to open my mouth to speak, to ask why he came back, but I couldn’t. My throat was closed from tears and shock. The overwhelming emotion of gratefulness and relief washed over me, keeping me silent.

  But most of all—my soul danced within me. Literally. My soul, heart, bones, flesh, felt almost whole again. And they danced, like the pieces were coming together, reforming and singing in triumph.

  I gazed into the deep blue pools of his eyes and fought against the obstruction of tears to see him clearly.

  I finally found the ability to speak so I moved my lips and tried to say, “You’re here—” but there was no sound. I tried again.

  “You’re here!” I went for stronger this time, but still nothing. He pressed a finger to my lips and shook his head, looking somber. What was going on?

  I looked around and found I was no longer in the ‘Duck Room’ of the O’Malley B&B I knew I had fallen asleep in. Instead, I sat on a large bed of pastel peonies that were suspended in the air by long arms of weeping willow trees from each corner, similar to a hammock. The leafy branches held the flower bed over a crystal blue pond that sparkled below. Huge swaying weeping willows encircled the serene pond. It was exquisite. I started to panic, although I wasn't sure why. If Mycah was here, surely I was safe.

  And I did feel safe. Actually, I had an overwhelming feeling of home surrounding me, so I forced myself to calm down.

  Mycah laced his fingers with mine, and I could see his sexy smirk begging to appear. I was conflicted between staring at his dazzling face and looking at my surroundings again.

  But Mycah won, because he never looked more handsome. The tight cut of his jawline practically called out for me to press my lips against it. Not to mention his chest was bare and the way his abs formed the perfect outline of all his muscles made me weak in the knees.

  He spread his fingers behind my ear and cupped the crown of my head, a familiar gesture of his, and I immediately melted into a puddle.

  I pressed my fingers against his chest.

  He felt real.

  This all felt very, very real.

  But even still, something told me that it was not. I didn’t care.

  I threw my arms around his neck and pulled him down to me, pulled him against me, as tight as he could possibly be. Tears spilled out of my eyes. I forgot how good this felt. How good it felt for him to be near. He kissed my shoulder, my neck, my ear, my head, my eyes, my nose....and then...

  He kissed my lips. My mouth instinctively opened to his. I needed him. I needed his tongue on mine like I had never needed anything before in my life. I needed his kiss so badly it hurt. I stretched my fingers through his soft hair and knotted my hands through it. I didn’t think I could ever let go.

  He kissed me with such wild passion I felt drunk, completely intoxicated and euphoric.

  Then he was gone. I opened my eyes to blackness. I sensed I was back in the ‘Duck Room’ with utter agony.

  Alone.

  I was all alone. Again.

  Despair. Anguish. Those could be the only words to describe what I felt descend upon me after that dream I had of Mycah. Or whatever it was.

  It felt more than a dream. It felt...

  So dang real. It kept me up the entire rest of the night.

  I dialed Rydan with my cell phone, for the millionth time tonight, wanting to beg and plead for him to come home. Beg and plead to bring his brother back to me. I needed him to make me whole again.

  He didn’t answer. It didn’t even ring. I listened to his low-timbred voice in the greeting message, seeking that fleeting sense of relief.

  But it never came.

  Nothing could help me find sweet escape from the wretchedness my soul was in.

  I violently threw the phone across the small expanse of the room and relished the way it cracked against the wall.

  Then regret filled my stomach as I scrambled out of bed in a rush and dropped to the floor on my knees next to my only lifeline.

  I ever-so-carefully picked up my cell phone in horror at myself, at what I might have done, and examined the small technological wonder.

  Please don’t be broken. Please don’t be broken.

  I pressed and held #8.

  “I’m sure you already know you were trying to reach me, Rydan, so leave a message. But only if it’s important.”

  I fell to the floor with the phone tightly pressed against my ear, vaguely noticing the pain of it, and sobbed.

  No, there would be no sweet escape for my tormented soul tonight.

  I slammed my locker door closed and begrudgingly headed for the cafeteria. If it hadn’t been so cold out, I would have gone outside. I didn’t need food. I had no appetite. The only thing I needed was—

  I shook away the thought before I could even think it. It was getting harder and harder to force my way through an entire day of acting normal. I walked into the lunch room of Port High School and abruptly stopped.

  I saw Zaylie, Desmond, and Liam all laughing at their table, eating their food. Zaylie threw a Cheeto at Liam’s face in an angry attempt at revenge for something, but Liam caught it in his mouth and grinned. She huffed and rolled her eyes in exasperation. Desmond laughed.

  They were normal. They were happy.

  I desired to be with them, to be normal and happy with them.

  But I was in no mood for faking it today. So I turned around, making my way in the opposite direction, and braced the cold as I pushed the door to the outside open.

  It had started to snow—the first snow of the season. I looked up toward the sky and let the snowflakes fall onto my face. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, inhaling the fresh clean scent of beautiful frozen water called snow.

  As much as I didn’t, and did, want to think about it, I couldn’t stop the memory of my beautiful dream with Mycah from flashing in my mind every time I closed my eyes. It had been two nights since then and it still haunted me.

  The day after it occurred, I skipped school entirely and spent the day curled up, buried under blankets in bed. I was too spent to move or even try to do anything other than wallow in my misery.

  I was so pathetic.

  I hated myself like this. I was ridiculous. Completely ludicrous.

  Yet...there seemed to be nothing I could do about it.

  A big piece of me was missing and I was desperate to get it back. I couldn’t function properly without it, so I was just going to have to learn to accept that.

  I took a few steps to who knows where and huddled my arms closer to my body across my chest. It was cold.

  It matched my heart.

  A few minutes later, Zaylie, Desmond, and Liam came barging through the way I had exited.

  “There you are. When I didn’t see you I got worried. Why didn’t you come sit with us?” Zaylie asked as they walked closer to me. I kicked my foot against the building snow on the ground and shrugged.

  “You alright there, Sheila?” Desmond, Zaylie’s twin brother, in his equally appealing Australian accent, asked as he bent his knees to put his eyes at my level. Darn all these tall boys.

  “I’m fine,” I lied, clenching my teeth. I didn’t like lying to them, but what else could I say? Oh, no Desmond. I'm miserable actually. Completely and utterly miserable because my best friend up and left me without even so much as a goodbye, and then, to top it all off, the boy I am so unforgivably in love with decided he was going to leave me behind as well.

  Yes, I was fan-fr
eakin-tastic, thank you very much.

  I looked up into his eyes, because he clearly waited for some other reaction from me, and without any other thought I dropped my head onto his chest. The moment I saw the caring concern in his face, I lost it.

  But I didn’t cry.

  I just...fell into his chest. I didn’t know what was wrong with me or what I was doing. I was not usually one for hanging onto men so easily. I usually steered clear of them and repelled their touch; unless of course, they happened to be Rydan...or his stupid sexy brother.

  But ever since Zaylie and Desmond entered my life, and then Mycah...and now even Liam, I had grown to really care about these two knuckleheads. They were my friends.

  Desmond put one arm around my body and rubbed the back of my head with his other. It was comforting. He smelled like a boy.

  Soap and...I didn’t know what—shower or something.

  Then surprisingly, Zaylie joined us. She wrapped her sweet arms around the two of us and laid her head against my back.

  Of course, Liam could not be left out. So he, too, wrapped his big boy arms around the three of us. That was when I felt the sting of tears against my eyes, but I pushed them back.

  They were not sad tears I had grown unfavorably accustomed to. They were tears of...appreciation. Love.

  Friendship.

  I felt my heart heal just a tiny, eensy, weensy bit.

  But it still wasn’t enough.

  Chapter Four

  ~Naminé~

  “Find him!” the back of the false King’s hand collided with my swollen face.

  “No,” I retorted defiantly. “Never.”

  Never would I hand our true king, Remycah, over to the hands of this vile creature. Ohtar would have to torture me relentlessly until my dying day before that transpired.

  “If you do not connect with Remycah and persuade him to divulge his whereabouts, I will roast your bird for my evening meal!”

  I stayed silent for but a moment. I could not entertain the idea of Calen ceasing to exist. My heart could not take such an atrocity.

  “You do that, and then you would lose my gift as a resource, for I no longer would be able to dream-weave with anyone,” I reminded him. Calen was the source of my power. It would be considerably difficult to dream-weave without her.

  Ohtar paced the room with long strides, caressing his chin. He was deliberating, and I truthfully did not wish to know what about. He was desperate for me to deceive Remycah, find out where he was, only to break his trust and relay the coordinates back to Ohtar so he could capture Remycah. Never would I do it.

  “Find out whether my hunters have captured Remycah. Do it now!” he roared as he violently slammed the door as he left. I jolted from the sheer force that rattled even the ornaments.

  The veranda just outside my temporary chambers thankfully had a protective cover sheltering us from the tempest storms. Temporary; yes, that was how I must view my situation if I was to remain hopeful and not give up. Grave as my position was, it was indeed temporary. I had to keep believing that.

  Sarqua informed me previously that I was now the newest occupant in the Maite'Ona servant chambers. I did not fancy the thought those words elicited. However, I could not help but think it was at least one step up from being in the dungeon.

  It was nearly morning; the rain had stopped, but heavy clouds hovered in the sky as somewhere the sun rose steadily. They resembled the despair I felt churning in the deepest parts of my heart. My dearest brother, Cathar, was certainly dead. The King had confirmed it. I could not bear the thought; I could not allow the tumultuous heartache take over if I had any hope of succeeding with my plan.

  Tearing my eyes away, I glanced at Calen for the hundredth time this morning, thankful I at least still had her. A phoenix was extremely rare. Calen was the only one I had ever laid eyes upon during all my cycles of life. I still had tears streaming down my face as I relished the feeling of our connection. Before, I had thought her lost forever. Now, here she was in my sight. I couldn’t stop myself from stroking her beautiful purple-red feathers and gazing deeply into her bright green eyes that matched my own.

  My stomach clenched at the sight of chains shackled around her leg and neck. She vehemently disliked being chained up and had been sick from the lorda potion they were pumping in her system. I hated the predicament we were in, but I felt blessed that she was alive. To feel our connection and the strength that accompanied it once again was a gift I never realized I would feel empty without. To have that vanish as suddenly as it had and known something was indeed wrong, was a feeling I at no time wished to experience ever again.

  After the King revealed that Calen was alive, he instructed we gather our strength just before dawn, for he would have us dream-weaving throughout the day. Night Elves were nocturnal, sleeping mostly during daylight hours. I had refused to connect with Remycah, but I could not deny my own burning curiosity on whether Ohtar’s hunters had found him yet.

  I felt panicked for my decision to defy the King, yet confident at the same time. I had a plan. I would certainly have to do as the King commanded. Yet, I could still continue to dream-weave with whom I wished unbeknownst to him.

  It had been nearly a fortnight since I gazed into his silver angelic eyes. How I yearned to behold him once again, but alas, I could not relish the thought for long. Taking a look around at the dilemma I was in, how could I explain? Not only was I a servant, but also a prisoner in my own castle. He...well, he was a royal heir. He and his brother Remycah must finally return to Luïnil and rightfully claim the throne of Aselaira. They were our only hope, and I had to help them come home.

  I only had a short time, but I had to make sure they understood what needed to be done. The fact they had not shown up as the years had passed was worrisome. Did not their Guardians explain our dire situation to them? They were very young when they escaped from Aselaira, and I did not know what befell their cycles in the Earthly realm, but surely their Guardians prepared them for what was to come.

  Every time I weaved a dream for Rydan, we were never able to speak. We had tried, but no words had ever been heard…Until last time. Something different had happened, and though I did not know why, I had every hope that we would be able to speak again this time.

  I felt a bit apprehensive. We connected on a level so deep from the very start; it was a constant wonder how we managed to form a relationship without any words ever being spoken.

  Once I wove a dream, I had to work to connect my mind with the recipient. If they were already asleep, it would not take long at all for the connection to be made. Every day I was forced to dream-weave with evil men of the King.

  Nevertheless, I did not have to make it pleasant for them. I could create the dream however I pleased. I could do anything, and it would be out of their control. Of course, I suffered the same effects, but it was worth it to see their discomfort.

  Moments before, I had been dream-weaving with N’taurn, the King’s captain, to discover the status on Remycah’s capture. Before I had connected with him, I had created a fiery furnace so hot it took just about everything out of me to create it. Even Calen had grumbled with discomfort.

  Even so, the strong-willed N’taurn had been a force to reckon with. He had stood there boldly like it had been refreshing. I could see the sweat pouring down his face, but he had been still as a rock the entire time. He had quickly given me the message that they had yet to locate Remycah, much to my joy and satisfaction. Not waiting to hear anything else, I had just as quickly disappeared.

  Taking a deep breath, I weaved the dream for Rydan and placed us where we always met—in the clearing overlooking the Erulissë Sea. With Castle Edhel-N’dor rigid in the distance, I sat atop a tree stump and waited. I could feel Calen sleeping beside me, giving strength to reach out to him. I hoped he would be asleep; we did not have much time.

  Creating a slight breeze in the air, I closed my eyes and basked in the warmth of the simulated sun. I suddenly sensed his connec
tion.

  I opened my eyes to see him walking up the hill. A couple yards from where I was perched, he stopped. His dark black hair was wildly disheveled, and I could see a glint of red where the sun hit a few strands. He looked ragged, like he had spent days in the wild.

  I drew in a sharp breath at the sight of him. Both hands in the pockets of his dark trousers and the sleeves of his grey shirt tugged up around his elbows, he stood very still, avoiding my eyes. He looked more vivid than I ever could have imagined. The haziness that sometimes clouded my vision was no more. I could see him perfectly clear as he stood firm and finally focused his gaze upon mine in question.

  I decided to test the waters. “Rydan?”

  He remained so stoically motionless it was as if he were in some sort of trance. He only stared in return. Perhaps he could not hear me after all. I carefully stood up and walked over to him. Gazing into his eyes, I felt lost in the exquisiteness of the celeb color I found staring back at me.

  As I went to stand right before him, he instantly took a step back. I stopped rigid in my place, wondering what was wrong.

  “What is it?”

  He ran a hand over his face while releasing a deep sigh. "It's...everything." My heart soared at the smooth-timbred vibrations of his deep voice. I reveled in the moment of finally being able to speak with him.

  “I will do my best to help you return home, Rydan. However, I fear we do not have much time. Are you with your Guardian?” I needed to know their plans so that we could get them home.

  He heavily sighed and shook his head. He met my eyes with a questioning look on his handsome face and said, “I have no idea what you’re talking about. Mycah asked the same thing about some Xavier guy.” He shrugged his shoulders and crossed his arms over his muscular chest.

  With a questioning look of my own, I suddenly realized his words and delightedly squealed, “You have been acquainted with Remycah? That is favorable news!” I could hardly believe it. They were together! “Rydan, manke naa lle vahka?”