Мишель Роуэн - Reign or Shine

"Please, Princess, listen to what I'm telling you. You can go back to your normal life. Go back to school and to the dance and forget all about this."

I shook my head. "I can't do that."

"You have to drink the potion. Forget about me. There's no other way for you to be safe."

He sounded so broken, his voice barely a rasp as he told me to forget about him. He didn't look well at all. In addition to his eyes, his skin grew pastier the longer he stood there. He looked sick and weak and tired.

"Why do you think she'd just let me go now?" I asked. "After everything that's happened?"

"Because that's what I told him," a now-familiar voice said.

I turned to my left. Elizabeth was about twenty feet down the hall and approaching slowly. Even after everything that had happened, she was smiling warmly at me.

"Nikki," she said, "I can't begin to tell you how badly I feel about all of this. I never meant to involve you. I didn't want you to be hurt."

I looked at her, wanting to run, but not able to leave Michael behind. "How can you say that to me?"

"Because it's the truth. I don't blame you. It's not your fault that you were swept up in all of this, but it was unavoidable." She fixed me with a concerned look. "I tried to make it easy for you. I wish you'd never learned the truth."

"The truth that you're murdering my father?"

Her shoulders stiffened. "You make it sound so horrible."

"How is it not horrible? How is there anything about it that isn't horrible? You're poisoning your own brother. How can you do that?"

She ignored my question. "How did you escape from your room? I know it was locked very well."

I used my Darkling strength and busted it open, I thought. But I didn't say it out loud.

Michael, I projected telepathically, what's wrong with you? What has she done to you? Please tell me.

There was no reply, even though he was standing six feet away from me.

"You didn't answer me," I said to Elizabeth, trying as hard as I could not to sound scared to death. Her casually polite demeanor was now scary rather than pleasant. "Why are you doing this?"

She spread her hands. "The time has come for a change. The Shadowlands have been a protective barrier for so long. But who's to say that it must always be that way? I'm looking for progress instead of stagnation. My father was stuck in the old ways, and Desmond is much the same. But there are new ideas. Demons have been relegated to the dark worlds for too long. We should be given the opportunity to move out to other places if we so desire."

"Is that what Kieran wants?" I asked coolly.

She gave me a small smile. "Kieran is very wise. He knows how the worlds should be. And he loves me. Together I believe we could change the universe."

"You're insane," I said.

Her eyes narrowed at me. "Actually, I've never been more sane than I am right now," she said. "My love for Kieran has shown me possibilities other than those I was raised to believe. He has opened my eyes and helped me embrace my own potential, my own power. That is what love does, Nikki. Since you're so young, I don't expect you to understand."

I thought back to my conversation with the hot-but' creepy Kieran and shuddered. "Kieran made sure to tell me that if something happened and you didn't become queen, he and I should 'get to know each other better,' " I said, making air quotes. "And I don't think he meant because he was in love with my aunt, if you know what I mean. The guy is a jerk."

Her mouth twitched a little. "I'm sure you misunderstood him."

"No, I'm thinking that you're the one who misunderstood him. Did it ever occur to you that he's just using you to get to the Shadowlands? So he can take control for himself?"

"Kieran loves me," she said simply. "He's absolutely perfect. And he only wants what's best for me."

"I had a date who seemed perfect this evening," I said, flashing back to what had happened with Chris and sensing a ghost of the panic I had felt well inside me again. "He attacked me in the back of a limo."

But I could tell that she didn't want to hear what I was saying. She was so far into the decisions she'd made for the sake of true love and progress that anything else was just white noise to her.

"I'm sorry you don't understand what true love is," Elizabeth said. "I hope, for your sake, that one day you'll get the chance." She stretched out her hand and I saw that my potion bottle rested on her palm. "I took this from you to ensure that you didn't break it or dispose of it somehow. I'm giving you this last opportunity to do the right thing. Drink the potion, Nikki. Your presence has caused a disturbance in my plans, and this is your last chance to make it right."

I just glared at her.

Her expression stiffened. "Dax," she called. "Come here."

The thug came around the corner. Indoors he looked even bigger than before. He glanced at Elizabeth and then came toward me.

Instinctively I moved to where Michael stood silently and reached out to him. But as our hands would have normally touched, mine slipped right through his as if he was no more than a. . than a. .

… a shadow.

There was no substance to Michael. Not solid-like he was just a ghost.

His expression was pained as I looked into his now-gray eyes. "I'm sorry, Princess. I didn't want you to see me like this."

"Your amulet…"

"It helps a Shadow maintain solid form," Elizabeth said from behind me and chills ran down my spine. "There aren't many Shadows left after all this time. It must be horrible to have to rely on an amulet to live or die. Without it, he'll simply fade away to nothing before too long."

My eyes widened as I looked at Michael. "Is that true?"

He didn't say anything, but I could tell by the look on his face that this was one thing Elizabeth wasn't lying about.

I turned to face her. My hands were in fists at my sides. "Where's his amulet?"

She sighed. "I don't do this to be cruel, Nikki. I want you to know that. But he has been given several direct orders and he's failed me every time." She glanced at Michael. "It's almost as if he believes that you care for him as more than a servant. Or else why would he continue to protect you so single-mindedly?'' "I do care for him as more than a servant," I said fiercely. "Now give him back his amulet."

Her eyebrow raised. "Oh, I see. This is your 'somebody,' is it? The boy you think wants you to forget him, and whose true feelings are unknown to you?"

"His amulet!" I said louder.

"I'm afraid you're not really in a position to demand anything from me." Her expression turned graver. "But I do empathize. I know what it's like to care for somebody others feel is wrong for you-Desmond never approved of my relationship with Kieran. But you know, even if all was normal again, there is no way your father would ever allow you to be with a Shadow-it's forbidden, just as demon/human romance is. As I said before, Desmond is very set in the ways of old."

She sounded oddly empathetic for a power-hungry, murderous demon.

"I appreciate the pep talk," I said dryly.

"Oh, Nikki." Her forehead furrowed deeply. "You remind me so much of myself. I know what it's like to be a woman faced with a destiny she didn't ask for, you know. You didn't ask to be half demon. What a horrible burden to put upon someone so young. The very thought that if you harness that power you risk your own death-it's tragic, really."

She still didn't know I'd turned Darkling and had lived to tell the tale. But I wasn't telling the tale to her. It was my secret.

And Michael's. And the thug Dax's. But a quick glance at Dax's ugly but worried face told me he wasn't going to be spilling the beans anytime soon.

"Nikki," she pressed. "There's no time to continue to argue this. You have to drink the potion."