Daylight

Chapter 18

LUCIEN

It had finally stopped raining. Lucien knew that because the moon was now shining directly into his face. A glance at the clock on the small bed-side table told him it was after three in the morning. He knew if he got up to close the curtains, he'd be too awake and have trouble going back to sleep. So, he rolled over onto his other side and closed his eyes.

In the same heartbeat, his eyes shot back open. He was hallucinating. He had to be.

Elain was in his bed.

He rubbed his eyes and opened them again. She was still there.

Someone had to be playing a cruel joke on him. This was a glamour. It had to be. Probably Cassian's idea, the stupid prick. But... Lucien tried to think rationally, though it was nearly impossible. It couldn't be a glamour.

His golden eye could see through glamours and spells and any other enchantments. It was how he'd known Feyre was up to something when she'd come back to the Spring Court. He'd seen the tattoo on her right hand, the tattoo she thought no one could see. This wasn't a glamour. Elain was right in front of him. Close enough to touch. He slowly propped himself up onto his elbow.

Elain opened her eyes just as she made a tiny sound of frustration, as if she'd been seconds away from finding out something and was woken from her dream. She rubbed her eyes... and saw him staring back at her with his own mismatched russet and gold.

She drew in a sharp breath that sounded like a hiss and scooted back until she was at the edge of the mattress. Even though she was wearing a modest nightgown, she snatched the sheets up to her neck, nearly pulling it away from him completely.

Shit.

He snatched one of the spare pillows and held it in front of him. She blushed as crimson as his hair.

"What are you doing here?" He forced himself to ask as calmly as he could manage.

She didn't answer, still looking absolutely horrified. Lucien's eyes automatically went to the hand clutching the sheet. Her ring was gone. She was in his bed and her ring was gone. His heart was beating fast and erratically. Lucien breathed and made himself think, when all he wanted to do was pull her close to him and—

Her ring was gone. He was dreaming. This had to be a dream. She'd said she would throw the ring into the river when she chose not to wear it anymore. But she'd had it on at dinner and there was no way she'd gone to the city and back in those few hours.

"Is this a dream?"

Elain was so still, he wasn't sure she was breathing. Definitely a dream.

Slowly, so slowly, she nodded.

"I was afraid of that," he said with a miserable sigh. "It's always just a dream."

She didn't move or speak.

"Someday, if I'm lucky, it'll be real." He chuckled softly. "And even then, I probably won't believe it."

He allowed himself one long lingering glance at her. She was beautiful no matter what, but her honey-golden hair and smooth tanned skin illuminated by the moonlight streaming through the window was otherworldly. She looked almost ethereal.

He hated these dreams, just as much as he longed for them. Waking to find her in his bed only to realize he hadn't actually woken at all. He sighed and rolled back over toward the window. For being just a dream, the moon was irritatingly bright as it shined in his face, but that was a mild annoyance compared to the pure torture of the phantom that masqueraded as his mate, taunting him with something he feared he would never have.