Total pages in book: 153
Estimated words: 140462 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 702(@200wpm)___ 562(@250wpm)___ 468(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 140462 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 702(@200wpm)___ 562(@250wpm)___ 468(@300wpm)
“If you don’t tell anyone, I won’t,” he says and holds the door for me, as if he sees worth in serving me. I’m greeted by a cool damp scent, which relieves the burn on my skin as I step inside and face a wooden floor covered by all manner of scattered items, from books to furniture and artificial flowers. At the very end, behind two rows of identical benches, the floor is elevated, and on the stage is a pulpit, and behind it—a kind of piano.
“I used to come here with my ex,” Hawk tells me, taking a deep breath as he rolls out the checkered blanket and places it in the middle of the floor, away from the rays of light streaming through the windows above.
Based on the television shows I’ve seen I decide he means a former lover. “Are we close to where you lived then?”
He shrugs, resting his hands on his hips and offering me a somewhat tight smile. “Yes. It’s not far.”
When I sit down, movement catches my eye in the hollowed back of the pulpit. I lean in when I spot the culprit—a large brown spider with long legs. I reach out to it with a smile and look back at Hawk when it crawls on my hand.
“Look! He’s so cute and fuzzy.”
He blinks, stiffening as he sits on the blanket, but then his face brightens. “I think this is only the second time I’m meeting someone who actually likes them.”
“They’re lovely. With their many eyes, the delicate webs they create, and you can often use their parts or venom in alchemy. Which, I admit might seem grim, but such is life. Death is often just around the corner.” When the spider starts walking faster, I let it back into its shadowed hiding place in the pulpit. “Like over there,” I point to a rabbit carcass in the corner which is now just a pile of bones with mushrooms growing inside it. “Nothing goes to waste. The beast is no more, but it fed a different kind of life.”
Hawk bites his lip and lies down on his side, facing me. The nearest ray of sunshine falls behind his head, its glow a sharp contrast to his dark hair. “You’re really different,” he says after a moment of silence, and reaches out to stroke my shoe.
I sit down, feeling such relief without the sun on my skin. “To understand me, to understand my family, you need to know where I’m from. And where I will take you.” I smile at the thought of bringing him with me, already my Dark Companion, so no one can take him and his shadow away from me. Of course, his presence will put a target on my back as well, but it’s a risk I’m willing to take to finally be somebody.
He shifts closer and, after a moment’s hesitation, places his head in my lap. “I want to know everything,” he declares, and his forest green eyes peek at me, shining with flecks of gold.
I stroke his long dark hair and watch his lids shut. “What will be most striking to you from the very beginning, is that we don’t have the sun. The day is illuminated by moonlight, and the night is like the darkness under your eyelids. We, the elves of the Nightmare Realm, appreciate the shadows, but it will take you a while to get used to the change. My world is dangerous, filled with unimaginable beasts, ancient plants, and we, at the Nocturne Court, live on the shores of a violent ocean, also known as the Sea of Sorrows. But the realm is also beautiful. Like that spider.” I point to the pulpit, then grab a pretzel to feed Hawk. “Once you learn to live in its web, you can appreciate how intricate it is, and how to survive within it, instead of struggling against it. And you will have as much time to adjust as you wish, because you will not age.”
“Really? There will be no twink death for you?” Hawk laughs, chewing on the pretzel as he winks at me and pulls one of my hands to his chest.
I stroke him, amazed that I’m invited to touch this gorgeous man and that he seems to want me as if I were as tall and strong as my older brother was. “What is that?”
Hawk clears his throat. “Well… it’s when a guy who’s kind of boyish when it comes to looks grows out of it. Just a joke, babe. I’m sure you’ll always be hot.”
I shake my head. “At twenty-five, I’m in my prime, and unlikely to change, unless by injury, or curse. Unless I’m forced to stay here for the remaining length of my banishment. Fifty years.” I shudder at the mere thought of it. “But if I am lucky and determined enough, I will get this collar off soon, then make you my Dark Companion, and we will find our way back to the Nocturne Court. I am not sure how I will convince my Lord to allow it, but I hope that when he sees your shadow, bound to mine, he will realize I’m worthy of a place at his side. You see, I’m only a minor prince, from a side branch of the family, but as royals, we have obligations to the Realm.