Despite his insistence that we were made for each other, I can’t help thinking about our two worlds.
The world he describes sounds scary to me with the perfection it demands from everyone.
Or maybe I just can’t picture a world where women are in charge. I wonder what my world would be like if women ever had been.
But still, new things are scary. And this feeling growing between us, this love, is starting to sear the edges of my heart.
At first, he was a hallucination. Then he was ridiculous. Then he was annoying. But now he feels like a part of me. Like I’d feel torn in half if we were torn apart.
I haven’t wanted to do any fighting lately, aside from Sandra’s call.
It’s not that I don’t care anymore. It’s just that I suppose I don’t need the smaller, less serious revenge quests to keep me busy.
Before Lorien came into my life, I was just trying to forget. To forget what was done to me, to forget how things had been, and to focus only on my work and friendships.
But my life was a mess. Now things are different, and it’s not just because he magically poofed away all the trash on my floor.
Instead of floating through life trying not to feel anything, Lorien is waking up my heart.
It’s not a sensation that I’m always fine with.
As we reach the door, I stop and pull him in for another kiss, and we’re only stopped by the sound of a door opening a little ways down.
“You bastard,” a voice calls out, and I look out to see Josh charging toward us in his usual bathrobe.
At least he seems to be wearing a gray sweatshirt and black pants under it.
Lorien, who has one hand on the door next to me, his gorgeous eyes pinned on mine, stands tall immediately, turning with folded arms to face Josh.
Josh stops a few feet away. “I knew you were plotting something!” He looks at me, limp brown hair around his face. “I tried to warn you with that note!”
“So it was you!” Lorien steps forward in front of me, putting out a hand to guard. “Nightmare! I knew it.”
The men stride toward each other, and I’m surprised to see Josh is about the same size and height as Lorien, just not as honed and sharp.
They circle each other on the narrow walkway, and I’m too shocked to know how to react right now.
My neighbor is another dream fae? A nightmare? I have no idea.
“I’m no nightmare,” Josh says. “I’m rogue, same as you.”
“Rogue?” I ask, coming up to Lorien who blocks me gently from getting past.
“No dream link,” Josh says. “This asshole doesn’t have one, which means he did something wrong. But I was fine with that.”
“Wait, why does this involve you anyway?” I ask, shoving past Lorien to glare at Josh.
Lorien grabs me by the back of my hoodie, gently yanking me back. “I’ll deal with this, Tess.”
Josh sighs. “I sensed your energy when I moved in here. I thought, what the hell? I’ll keep an eye on it. Hadn’t seen a queen here, after all. But then he came, and I thought someone should warn you about their world and what they’re like.”
Lorien glares fiercely at Josh as though he is something beneath him. “As if a nightmare like you could know anything about what I am.”
“How do you know I’m a nightmare?” Josh asks, glaring back.
Lorien scoffs, gesturing. “Your body is completely ill-maintained. Your strength is negligible. I can tell you have little hold on your magic, and you have zero respect for my soul bond’s space.”
“Respect?” Josh asks. “That’s rich coming from a dream fae who would throw out or kill anyone for looking at them the wrong way.”
Lorien cocks his head. “No, we don’t.”
“Ha!” Josh exclaims. “If someone doesn’t agree to your happy little plans up there, poof, they’re gone.”
I frown. “That does sound a bit like Lorien’s world.”
Lorien sends me a betrayed look, but I just shrug. From what he told me, it seems very strict and punishing.
“No, don’t listen to him,” Lorien says. “We have rules, yes, and sacred beliefs, but—”
“And slaves! Men are slaves there!” Josh spits out.
“No, we don’t—”
“You weren’t asked to join a harem,” Josh says. “Or were you? Is that why you’re here, trying to bother a queen who just wants to live as a human?”
“We are not slaves,” Lorien says, angrier than I’ve heard him. “We serve our queens gratefully, happily. We are free. We are trained. We are equal.”
Josh lets out a scoff. “Right.” He points to me. “Well, just leave this queen alone and go back to your happy fluffy fantasy, or you’ll have me to deal with.”
Lorien raises his head, and his entire body radiates with danger. “She is my soul bond. And this is not your concern.”
“Yes, it is,” Josh says, hands in fists, bathrobe whipping in the night wind. “Because she doesn’t know about your crazy world or how she’s being drawn in.”
“Drawn in?” I ask.
Josh points at Lorien. “Did you know that if you don’t choose him, he’s going to go in a harem? That’s right, he only came here because he was about to go up for auction.”
Lorien blinks. “What are you talking about?”
“Don’t play stupid,” Josh says. “I still have a few connections to the dream world. You only came here because you were at the end of your rope.”
My entire body is tightening at the tension between the two men. I have no idea what Josh is saying. Lorien using me? It makes no sense.
He’s the only man who hasn’t ever even tried to use me.
“Didn’t you wonder why it took him so long to show up here?” Josh asks, eyes glinting. “Seems weird that he waited so long when he could come here at any time.”
“I couldn’t find her,” Lorien says. “I tried—”
“Save it,” Josh says. “Maybe I’d believe that if you weren’t already scheduled for auction. Pretty convenient. Can’t find a queen in our world, so you come to this one and pick someone with dream blood to be your dream mate so you can get out of being in a harem like everyone else.”
Lorien frowns. “Princes are happy in harems. But I do have a dream mate. I have seen her in my dreams for so long—”
Josh shakes his head, exasperated. “You know, I would almost believe you except I know you’re up for auction. Which means you waited a very long time.” Josh looks at me. “I don’t care too much about this, but no one deserves to just get used and hurt by someone from that messed-up world.”
“Messed-up?” Lorien’s voice rises. “This world is the messed-up one.”
“At least people here have freedom,” Josh says. “And aren’t boring as hell.”
“It’s not boring!” Lorien shouts. “It’s peaceful!”
“Then go back there and leave this woman alone!”
“I won’t!” Lorien says, taking a threatening step closer. “I love her. I’d die for her.”
“Duel me, then,” Josh says, pointing a hand at him, looking somewhat comical with his bathrobe belt still streaming in the wind. “I challenge you to a love duel.”
“What?” Lorien has never sounded so shocked. “You don’t love her—”
“Maybe not, but I care more than you do since you’re the one coming here with a trick.”
“There’s no trick,” Lorien says. “Though, I’m not afraid of a love duel.”
“Ha! Then why are you lying about the auction?”
“I’m not,” Lorien says. “My kingdom knows where I am. Yes, my dream link doesn’t work, but we weren’t sure how long they would function this far from the dream realm. When I’m bonded with Tess, we can go back—”
“Just another way you’re using her,” Josh says. He looks at me with a somber expression. “Tess, that’s your name, right?”
I nod.
“That man is fooling you. I’m sorry. Why else w
ould he wait a thousand years and then only find you when he’s due for auction?”
“What’s an auction?” I ask, my heart still beating rapidly.
“When a prince doesn’t have a dream mate, after he’s been given time to find his, they are given to a queen at auction because they are considered a liability. One that needs to be watched.” He laughs. “At least that’s the excuse, right? But either way, even if it’s unfortunate that you’re going up for auction, why involve some innocent woman in it? That’s selfish as hell and should label you a nightmare right there.”
“I’m not selfish or up for auction,” Lorien says, looking at me in panic. “Tess, you’re my dream mate. I don’t know what he’s talking about.”
“He probably swept you off your feet, right?” Josh says. “How long has he been here? A few days?”
I nod.
“And he’s probably already talking about taking you back to the dream realm as soon as possible, right?”
I nod, feeling slightly off-kilter, my old, untrusting nature rising in me. I’ve been trying to let my walls down, to trust.
“Let me duel him,” Josh says. “I’ll prove that he doesn’t love you. I mean, I don’t either, but without love in his heart, he won’t even be able to summon his whip.”
“Whip? Summon?” I shake my head. “I’m so lost.” And everything Josh says makes my heart feel as cold as the wind.
Because as much as I’m falling for Lorien, all of this did seem too good to be true.
“He is lying,” Lorien says, turning to me and taking me by the shoulders. “Tess, I don’t know why he’s lying, but he is. I’m not going up for auction. My family would never do that to me. They know I’m here looking for my dream mate.”
“He’s lying,” Josh says. “If you let him do this, he’s going to hurt you.”
“I will prove my love for her to both of you,” Lorien says, though his eyes are slightly hurt as they dart to mine. “Though, I shouldn’t have to. Tess, what have I ever done to make you think I would lie to you now?”
“I…” It’s not that I think he could lie, but my head is filled with confusion. And I’m so aware I’ve been tricked by love before.
I fold my arms. “What is a love duel?”
“We fight with whips,” Josh says. “Their strength is proportionate to the strength of our love for whomever we are dueling for. It’s a way for a queen to choose when two warriors are claiming to be her dream mate. A way to know who loves her most.” He smiles bitterly. “And perhaps queens simply think we look sexy with whips.”
I snort, but then the seriousness of the situation settles over me. He’s saying everything about Lorien is a scam. Lorien, whose touch is imprinted all over my body, who I’m starting to trust as I’ve never trusted anyone else.
But he never said anything about an auction. Or harems.
And he did show up out of nowhere. And since then, all he’s done is try to win me as hard as he can. Mate pursuit indeed.
But despite all that, I do trust him. He’s… Lorien.
I saw his genuine anger when he attacked that abusive man and when he came to save me.
He makes me breakfast, he dances sexily with his friends, and he smiles at me like I’m his universe.
It doesn’t seem possible that he’s been tricking me. Or lying to me.
He’s a lot of things, but he has always been honest.
At least I think so. There’s a part of me that calls me a fool for giving him the benefit of the doubt.
But I don’t think that part of me necessarily has my best interest in mind.
Still, everything is confusing right now.
“You believe me, right, Tess?” Lorien asks, and his dark-blue hair is falling over his shoulders, his ears slightly pointed as his human disguise falters. “You can’t think I would lie to you.”
“Here,” Josh says, holding up his hand as a little hologram plays above it. There’s a piece of what looks like paper with Lorien’s face and words beneath. “His auction announcement. I’m sorry, but he’s lying to your face.”
I step forward, wondering if this could be faked. It looks official. And it’s Lorien’s face, definitely.
Josh snaps his hand closed, and the hologram, if that’s what it was, disappears.
Lorien’s face looks blank now, panicked, as he looks from Josh to me. “Tess, it’s not what it looks like—”
“So there is an auction?” I ask, my heart sinking to my toes. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I didn’t know,” he says. “I…” He looks at Josh. “Why are you doing this?”
Josh glances at me. “Because she doesn’t deserve to be tricked by someone from the dream realm.”
Lorien looks at me. “Tess, tell me you believe me. I love you.”
“Do you?” Josh asks. “Prove it with a love duel.”
“I can’t,” Lorien says. “That announcement says I’m wanted. If I fight you, I’ll be immediately captured and taken to auction, if it’s even real.”
“Convenient,” Josh says, folding his arms. “That you claim to love her but you won’t pull out your whip to prove your love.”
“You aren’t in love with her!” Lorien says. “You aren’t her dream mate. You have no right to challenge me.”
Josh folds his arms. “Someone has to show her who you are.” His mouth turns up in a sneer. “And I hate dream fae, so who better than me?”
“He hates us,” Lorien says. “See? Don’t listen to this traitor.”
“Is the auction really happening, then?” I ask softly, making Lorien’s face fall.
“Yes,” he says. “Or maybe. It would seem so. But don’t worry. Once we’re mated—”
I take a step back. “So it’s true, then. If you mate me, you don’t have to go in… What was it, a harem?”
“Yes, but—”
“If you had just been honest, maybe I would have helped you,” I say, still feeling like the ground fell out from under me, like I’m about to fall in a canyon at any moment.
“I have been honest. I didn’t know there was an auction or that I’d been declared rogue, though my link was turned off. But if I use my dream whip, release that kind of energy, they’ll find me,” he says. “I do love you, Tess. I think I prove it in every moment. But if I prove it to you now, I might never have a chance with you again.”
I blink, trying to think rapidly. What Josh said, what Lorien is saying, it just makes me want to take a step back from both of them.
“I know I’m not like the men from your world,” Lorien says. “I know I moved faster, but that’s not because of some auction. It’s because I love you, because I’ve been dreaming of you—”
“If you could find her now, you should have come sooner.”
“My brother ended up here after finding his mate in the fae realm. I—”
“A likely story,” Josh says. “If he could come here now, he could have come sooner. And now he comes on the eve of an auction.” His gray eyes flash. “If this ridiculous story isn’t a lie, then prove it with your whip.”
Lorien looks at me in frustration. “Tess, please believe me.”
“Pull your whip out!” Josh shouts. “I won’t stand for this manipulation anymore. Maybe you do care for her, but that is unrelated to the fact that you were trying to trick her to save your own skin.”
“Fine!” Lorien says. “I’ll duel you and show my dream mate how much I love her, and then if I’m taken, you’ll both feel terribly bad!”
He reaches behind him and pulls something out from behind his back, something blue and bright and coiled. He plants a hand on the railing and jumps over it, landing in the middle of the parking lot below. “Come down and fight me, nightmare!” Lorien’s fierce eyes meet mine. “I will show you, dream mate, exactly how I feel.”
23
Tess
Josh jogs down the stairs and walks over to face Lorien. “So you’re just going to do it here, where humans can see?”
<
br /> “I don’t care what they see or what they do,” Lorien says. “I’m a dream fae. I can make them forget or make them unable to see us or anything Tess wants me to do. But right now you’re causing her distress, and you’re hurting her with lies whether you believe them or not.” He points the coiled object at Josh. “And I can’t let my dream mate be hurt.”
Josh just scowls. “Big words for a con artist.”
I stare over the railing at the two tall men circling, one in blue sparkling armor, one in a ratty bathrobe.
Why would Josh be interfering if he didn’t believe Lorien was bad?
But looking at Lorien, I can’t think the worst of him. Even if he was up for auction, even if his attempt to win me was desperate… Well, it hurts my heart, but I don’t think I’d hate him for it.
I just don’t know what to think, though, because it would be easier to believe this is all too good to be true than to believe someone like Lorien could just show up out of nowhere and love me.
Lorien looks up at me one more time, and his eyes grow sad for a moment before he shakes his head and turns back to Josh. “You have made her doubt me. And I haven’t been strong enough to gain her full trust. So we will do this, because no matter what happens to me, I want my dream mate to know I love her. That she is worthy of love.”
I can tell Lorien is hurt, that he expects me to call out to him to stop this, but it’s all moving too quickly.
And in a part of my heart, I do know that this has always been surreal.
I don’t even really understand what this duel is, but if it proves his love…
I should stop him. But the auction… Everything is too much.
I hear a crack in the night air and look down to see Lorien’s whip unfurled, twitching at the tip as it lands on the ground. It has a thick, dark handle and then a chain of pure blue light. It’s at least a dozen feet long, and as he raises it over his head and cracks it again, the night flashes.
He cracks it to the side, dragging the tip as he advances on Josh, who’s just staring at him.
“Did you see? Is this proof?” Lorien asks Josh, raising the whip over his head and cracking it again. The sound is terrifying in the night.
Sweet Dreams Page 18
