A tapping. On my window pane.
Since my room was on the second floor, this wasn’t exactly normal. I clutched my sheets. My heart began to race.
More tapping made me sit straight up and swing my legs out of bed. Slowly, I made my way over to the window. I clenched my fist at my side, and I could feel the tingling as I summoned a little energy into my hand. Not enough to create an energy ball—I had to be in Darkling form to do that—but enough to help give me some courage. I held my breath and pulled the curtain slightly away from the window.
I peeked out, half expecting to see only a tree branch brushing against the glass.
It wasn’t a tree branch. Someone sat on the ledge of my window sill.
I relaxed. A little.
Then I unlocked the window and slid it open. Cold air rushed in.
Michael smiled at me. “Hello, Princess.”
Chapter 3
I wanted to be angry with him for scaring me. And for disappearing completely from my life for nearly two full weeks. But I wasn’t angry right now, just elated to see him again. Still, I didn’t want to be overly friendly.
“I’m sorry, what’s your name again?” I asked. “You look really familiar, but I can’t quite place you.”
His smile slipped and a frown creased his brow. He pushed the dark hair back from his forehead and away from his vivid emerald-green eyes. My heart skipped a beat. “It’s me, Princess. Michael.”
He looked so serious that I had to laugh a little. “I was just kidding.”
“Oh. I...knew that.”
“No you didn’t. You really thought I’d forget you that easily?” I shrugged a shoulder. “I mean, it has been a while.”
His smile hadn’t returned yet. “I know.”
“No visits. No lurking. Nothing at all. Total silence.”
“I wanted to come here...”
“Did you?”
“Of course I did.” He slipped a little on the window ledge, which was too narrow to hold him for long. It was meant more for squirrels and birds and maybe a flower pot or two, not for a six-foot-tall seventeen-year-old boy.
“You’re going to break it,” I warned, opening the window wider. “Come in, but just...be quiet.
If my mother finds you in here she’s going to lose it.” Quiet was definitely one thing a Shadow could be. He swung around and slid his long legs through the open window in two seconds flat to stand next to me in my bedroom. This immediately made me self-conscious and fully aware that I was wearing pajama bottoms and a tank top and had just emerged from my very messy bed.
He’d never been in here before. His gaze moved over the dark interior as if assessing the area for potential danger. In the darkness of the room, his amulet glowed a little, pulsing with a soft, green light.
He always wore it. An oval stone, about two inches tall, which looked like an emerald—an exact match to the color of his eyes. All Shadows had one. And all Shadows had green eyes.
From what I’d been able to understand about the very enigmatic Shadows, the stone was essential to their existence. Without it, they lost solid form and became, just as their name suggested, formless shadows. They could also summon energy through the stone and use it as a weapon—but that was forbidden. Plus, it was exhausting and draining for them.
If Shadows lost their amulet, lost form, then it wouldn’t be long before they lost their hold on the world completely and faded away to nothing. In other words, it would kill them.
Shadows had been servants to demonkind for ages. Well, maybe “servant” was the wrong word, even though that was the term everyone used. Shadows had no choice in what they were and were punished if they tried to rebel. To me, that made them slaves. It was a thought that turned my stomach.
Michael had lived in my father’s castle since his parents died when he was only a baby. His father and my father had been good friends. But, despite those close ties, my father still considered Michael a servant. Embarrassed by this lowly status, it took Michael a long time to come clean to me about who he was and what it meant. By then I had developed some serious feelings for him. None of which involved me ordering him around like a haughty princess would.
He was my equal. All Shadows were my equals. I refused to think of them any other way.
However, nobody seemed to feel this way except for me, and I had no idea why. I guess some stigmas and traditions were hard to shake, even if they were wrong.
“Why are you here?” I asked, breaking the silence between us. Just being close to him made my heart twist into crazy shapes. I was ready to forgive him way too quickly. “Did my father send you?”
“No. I came on my own.”
I frowned. “You did? I didn’t even know you could do that.”
“Sometimes I can. I am allowed some freedoms.”
Which made his absence even more troubling. “I guess you’ve been really busy lately.”
“I have.”
My forgotten anger began to bubble up. “Two weeks, that’s how long it’s been since I last saw you.”
“I know.”
“Rhys is back at school with me.” I wanted some sort of reaction out of him—he didn’t like the faery king. It was totally petty of me, but I’d have been grateful for even a little jealousy. It would have meant Michael still cared about me the way I cared for him. “He even gave me a present. A faery rose.”
“How generous of him. Faery roses are very rare.”
I was disappointed by his calm tone. “It’s beautiful. I’ve never seen anything like it before.” He studied me for a moment. “You’re mad at me.”
“You’re smart.” I thought he might smile at that, but he didn’t. He grew more grave. I glanced out the window to the dark street past the driveway.
“I stayed away for a reason, Princess. A good one.”
I turned from the window. He’d drawn closer. He was way taller than me and always dressed in dark hoodies and faded Tshirts. It was as if he was trying to look like a human teenager who would fit in with everyone else but hadn’t quite gotten the hang of it yet.
“I want to show you something.” His expression darkened. “It’s a secret. You have to promise not to tell anyone about this.”
“Of course.” Concern gnawed at the edges of my mind. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. Better than before. Are you watching?”
I nodded, finding it difficult to breathe for a second.
He took a step back from me, his gaze fixed on my face. He pulled his amulet from around his neck and tossed it to the side. It landed on my nightstand.
I stared at it with horror. “Michael, what are you doing? You can’t take that off!”
“I can.” A smile stretched over his face. “I figured it out, Princess. They’ve been lying. We’re not what they think; what I’ve always thought we are.”
“What are you talking about?”
He closed the distance between us and reached for my hand. I was surprised when he was able to take it. He was still solid, even without the amulet. The feel of his skin against mine made me shiver.
“See?” he said. “I’m still here.”
My eyes widened. “I can’t believe this.”
“Believe it.”
“How is this possible?”
“It’s the reason why demons have tried to keep Shadows repressed for so long. They’re afraid of us because they know what we can do. How powerful we can be.” My head spun. I knew demons had rules and laws about Shadows, mostly due to fear. Most Shadows had no idea how strong and powerful they could be. But none of this had been confirmed, especially when it came to their amulets. “Please put it back on. I’m afraid you might be wrong.”
“I’m not wrong.” He took my face between his hands. Strong hands. Warm skin. His eyes glowed green in the darkness of my room just as his amulet had before. “I need to show you something else, too.”
The night was full of surprises. I didn’t think I could handle another one.
“What?”
I saw something then in the darkness of the room. Behind Michael. Stretching out behind him on either side.
Were they shadows? Dark forms, stretching, spreading.
Oh, my God. They were wings...black wings.
“Isn’t it incredible?” he whispered. He still had my face in his hands, his eyes staring deeply into mine.
“The sketch,” I whispered. Chris’s sketch of the form with black wings. Had it been a drawing of Michael?
“I came here tonight to show you this. And to kiss you.” He leaned over and brushed his lips against mine. It felt good, but it still filled me with a strange fear. “I’ll only take a little, I promise. I can’t be near you anymore without wanting this from you. I need it more than anything.”
I felt him drawing something out of me through his hands on either side of my face. They’d heated up so much that they almost burned me. I began to feel weak and I couldn’t seem to break away.
I began to fear him as I grew dizzy as my energy drained away.
This suddenly reminded me of something that had happened before. Another Shadow—he’d absorbed the life force of a demon right in front of me. And then he’d tried to do the exact same thing to me. But he’d been in full Shadow form at the time.
Michael...wasn’t.
His green eyes burned into mine. His hands moved down to either side of my throat.
“Michael...stop,” I managed to say as I began to feel weak.
“I can’t. Even if I wanted to, I can’t.”
Suddenly, he staggered back from me. There was a dark look on his face now. It was greed. It was hunger. And it was directed at me.
He reached toward me in the darkness. His hand glowed with green light, like his eyes did, and cold fear raced through me. “More.”
Just then, someone clutched my arm.
“Princess,” Michael said. “I got here just in time.”
It was another Michael standing there next to me.
“What the hell?” I managed, panicked and confused. “What is going on? What is this?”
“You can’t trust him.” The new Michael grabbed my shoulders. “He’s a liar. He’s evil. And he will hurt you. Do you hear me?”
“But he is you. Isn’t he?”
His expression tensed. “Don’t look at him.”
But I did look. The Michael now standing in the corner of my room had grown darker, his shape becoming less familiar. Those dark wings grew bigger. Soon, it was just a black silhouette with piercing green pinpricks of light where his eyes had been.
I bit back my scream and turned to the other Michael, the one still wearing his amulet.
“What do we do now?” My voice shook.
“Now,” he said, reaching out his hand to me, “we run.” The two of us ran out of my room and thundered down the stairs to the front door. I grappled with the handle, but it was locked. Of course it was locked. It was after midnight.
“This is all my fault,” Michael said as I tried to twist the lock. My hand kept slipping.
I shook my head. “That’s not you. You’re not like that. That was a monster who was trying to look like you.”
“Nikki,” my mother called down from the top of the stairs. “What’s going on?” I looked up to see her staring down at me over the railing, bleary-eyed. She tied her blue bathrobe tightly at her waist.
I was about to say something, but the words stuck in my throat. The black winged thing approached from behind her. She didn’t even sense anything was there until those scary black wings wrapped around her. Her scream filled the air.
Terror gripped me like a clawed hand. “Mom! No!”
Then she disappeared. The shadowy winged thing disappeared. And Michael disappeared, leaving me standing there all alone.
I finally woke up from my nightmare.
My eyes shot wide open and I stared at my bedroom ceiling, sweat pouring down my face, my heart pounding like a jackhammer.
A moment later, my mother opened my door and peered in at me. “Hey, Nikki. You okay in here?”
“Yeah.” I was so relieved to see her that I almost started to cry. “Just a bad dream.”
“It’s not every night I get woken up by a scream from my daughter. You almost gave me a heart attack! You sure there’s nothing else wrong?”
I took a ragged breath. “I’m fine. Sorry.”
“Okay. Well...goodnight, honey.” The door shut with a soft click.
Just a bad dream, I told myself again and again until I started to believe it. Just a stupid, stupid dream.
If only it hadn’t felt so real.
o0o
Thursday. School again.
Melinda was acting distracted, but fakely happy. Rhys was ignoring me to the best of his ability, even though I still caught him looking at me frequently. Chris was lurking at the edges of the hallway, scribbling in his ever-present sketchbook.
Nothing new here.
Today, however, when I left school to walk home after a long and tiring day—especially since I wasn’t able to get much more sleep after my nightmare—there was someone new waiting outside.
When I turned the corner, I found Michael leaning against the wall. My heart began to hammer hard in my chest. His smile faded little by little when I didn’t immediately return it. And I didn’t slow down to give him a proper greeting. Without a word, he followed me, quickly catching up so we were side by side.
“Happy New Year, Princess.”
It was January the sixth, but whatever.
“Let me guess,” he said when I didn’t reply. “You’re not speaking to me.” I stayed silent, keeping my focus on putting one foot in front of the other and ignoring the cold. The temperature never bothered Michael. Even today, all he wore for protection against the sub-zero temperature was a black hoodie. Faded jeans encased his long legs. I couldn’t see what color T-shirt he wore, but his amulet was clearly visible on the outside of the zipped-up garment.
Slightly reassuring that he wore it. But not by much.
Despite the nightmare I’d had, I was thrilled to see him. I fought hard not to show it, though.
A ton of emotions stormed through me at seeing Michael again—a flood of happiness just by the sight of him, a trickle of fear from the dream, a lightning bolt of anger from feeling abandoned.
::Princess, are you going to say anything to me?::
The telepathy almost froze me in my tracks. It wasn’t mind reading. We had to willfully project what we were thinking toward each other, which meant our private thoughts could be shielded, but it was a handy tool when we were near each other. It didn’t work long-distance. It came along with the bond created between us when my father had officially assigned Michael to me as my servant. I assumed it was to make ordering him around easier.
Not a nice thought.
We reached the park that was part of my shortcut to get home. This was where Michael and I had first met, actually. He’d followed me here to tell me my father was a demon king and I was a half-demon princess. I’d thought he was dangerous at the time—not to mention crazy—and hadn’t reacted well. I ran for my life at my first opportunity. It took a while for me to accept everything. Quite honestly, I was still working on the acceptance. Avoidance, however, hadn’t gotten me anywhere.
I felt his gaze on me as he waited for me to say something.
I finally stopped walking and faced him. “Where have you been?” This time, he was the one who didn’t answer for a moment. “Pardon me?” The ache in my heart I’d been trying to ignore all this time increased. “Two weeks, Michael.
Two weeks and nothing. Not a word. Even if you didn’t want to see me socially, aren’t you supposed to be protecting me? Watching over me like some sort of guardian or bodyguard?
Where have you been? Or have you been here lurking in the shadows and not saying anything like you used to do. If so, I don’t appreciate that very much.” He was silent for a moment, his gaze locked with mine. His brows drew to
gether. “I wanted to see you. Trust me, I did. But I couldn’t.”
“Why? Did my father ground you?”
He didn’t answer me. If my father had been the one to keep him away, he didn’t want to just come out and say that. My father was a king, after all. And tattling on a king, even to his daughter— especially to his daughter—wasn’t necessarily a smart idea.
His jaw tightened. “You’ve been safe?”
“I’m still here, aren’t I?”
“Yes, you are.” He exhaled slowly. “Just for the record, I’m glad to see you.” My heart skipped a beat, but I refused to forgive and forget quite that easily.
I tore my gaze away from his and forced myself to start walking again. “So he just refused to let you come here? He’s such a jerk.”
“Don’t say that. He’s trying to protect you.”
“He didn’t protect me for the first sixteen years of my life, so now he’s trying to make up for all that time by making me miserable?”
He studied me. “You were miserable not seeing me?”
I opened my mouth to say yes, but closed it. While I really liked Michael— more than liked him—I didn’t want him to get all cocky about my feelings toward him. “No, I mean...whatever.
It doesn’t matter. It was only two weeks.”
“Your father wants to know if King Rhys is still going to your school,” Michael said a moment later. “Is he?”
I hesitated before I nodded, then flicked a glance at him to see if this meant anything to him. It did. His face tensed and his eyes flashed with anger.
“Has he been bothering you?” he asked.
I couldn’t help but smile at his fierce look, so different from the reaction of the Michael in my dream who didn’t seem to care if Rhys and I were friends. “Constantly.” Michael clenched his fists at his sides. “Have you been spending a lot of time with him?”
“He’s dating Melinda now.” It was sort of a non-answer, but it would do.
“A human?”
“She is.” Among other things I didn’t feel ready to disclose.
Reign Fall Page 3
