Even though I’ve been Riley Thorne since my first foster family, I used to love being Nine’s Shadow.
Right now, though? I would gladly never hear that name again if it meant that he hadn’t just said that the fae have found me. My whole life, the fae have always been my very own personal bogeymen. For reasons I’ve never been told—because Nine always insisted I was too young to learn them—the fae have been hunting me for years. At least, that’s what I let myself believe.
Because, you know, this isn’t real.
I cling to that certainty. What else can I do?
Nine has an answer for that. “Come on. Get up. We have to go. You have to leave with me.”
Leave? Doesn’t he see the bars on my window? “What? No. I can’t.”
“But you can.” His silver eyes flash hypnotically. “I’ll show you. Now give me your hand.”
I almost do, too. There’s something about the way he said that, so simple, so insistent… I have my right glove halfway off before I realize what I am about to do.
I shake my head, clearing it. Angrily, I yank my glove back on. “Don’t do that!”
“Do what?” he asks.
“You know what! You’re trying to trick me.”
“I’m trying to save you. It’s all I’ve ever done. It’s all I can do.”
He’s not real, he’s not real…
The chanting inside my head doesn’t help. Nine’s still standing there.
“Let me prove it. Don’t you want to know why I’ve come back now? I’ve just learned that this place isn’t safe for you anymore.”
Um. Does he not see the bars on the window? My door’s locked. No one can get to me—
Before I can point that out, he says, “They’ve already found you. Haven’t they? I’m not the first from Faerie that’s come to see you. Am I right?”
He’s not real, he’s not r—
“How did you know that?”
He blinks. I think it might’ve been the first time since he stepped out of the shadows that he shutters his eyes, before opening them wide. The silver shines, illuminating the dark expression on his beautiful face. “I didn’t know,” he says roughly. “But I feared it. Rys got to you first.”
“Reese?” The single syllable sends a shiver down my spine. “Who’s Reese?”
Nine shakes his head, long hair rippling down the back of his coat. “There’s no time. When it comes to you, I can’t even trust my kind not to interfere. A Seelie? Impossible. You’ve got to come with me. We’
ll talk later.”
Yeah. No. “I’m locked in an asylum, having an argument with one of my hallucinations. I think I can decide if there’s enough time or not.”
Nine scowls. It doesn’t do a damn thing to make him look any less gorgeous. “You know very well that I’m not a hallucination.”
I ignore that. He’s right, of course. My meds are supposed to keep them away, yet here he is, even after I took my complete dose. I reach over and pinch my arm. It hurts. There goes the hope that I fell asleep without realizing it and this is all another crazy dream.
“Either tell me what you’re talking about or go. Who the hell is Rys and why should I care that he’s after me?”
“Not after you. He already knows where you are. He can take you away whenever he wants to. That’s why you have to come with me now. You can’t let him get his hands on you. He’ll do anything for a touch.”
Anything? Like, I don’t know, use magic to step into my dream, disappear my gloves, and compel me to dance with him while pressing his palm against mine?
Uh-oh.