Finn stops dancing abruptly and looks at me. “How did you hear his name? Tell me the truth. I can tell when you lie.”
There is something in the way that Finn is looking at me that makes me want to lie to him, but I’m not willing to risk finding out how he knows when I lie and what will happen if I do. “I had a dream.” That won’t satisfy him, but I try anyway.
Finn startles me by grabbing my wrist and hauling me off the dance floor and back outside so we’re alone. He’s not rough, but he’s never handled me like this before. “Do go on, Daphne. I’m not a dentist. don’t make this like pulling teeth.”
“If you weren’t so cagey, maybe I would be more forthcoming.”
Finn doesn’t seem amused by me. “Please,” he deadpans.
“I had a dream, and in it, I was on a beach, talking with someone, Essos I think, and the name Dion was mentioned. It felt real—it felt like I was going to find sand in my bed when I woke up. Essos confirmed that Dion was a real person—well, god.”
“Have you had other dreams?”
“Yes,” I admit.
Finn cups my face, slouching so he’s eye level with me. “Understand what I’m about to say to you. Stop poking around for answers. You’ll get them when you get them, but right now, this will lead to nowhere good.”
“What does that evenmean?”
“It means a good queen knows she needs patience above all.”
He doesn’t give me a chance to respond, just skulks off before leaving altogether.
I stare after him, trying not to scream. A waiter comes by with champagne, but I wave him off, remembering how sloppy I got the night before.
I never get a chance to dance with Essos, because my feet are bleeding and blistered, and I call it an early night.
When I get to my room, Dave is sitting outside. I hold up my shoes, and he looks at me, head tilted.
“You were wrong about the footwear. This is the last time I take fashion advice from a dog.” I open my door, and he bounds in and onto the bed, ready for a night of snuggling.
Asking questions of Finn only made me more confused. It leaves me wondering what that dream was…and how I knew a god’s name.
CHAPTER11
We fall into an easy pattern wherein every day, we listen to Sybil impart myriad facts and figures about the world of Solarem, and each evening we don our finest gowns to dance and party. Each night, Finn accuses me of murdering his feet, and each night, Essos accuses him of being a drama queen. Every night, I watch girls try to get closer to Essos, but he seems aloof toward almost everyone. Zara is the only one brazen enough to kiss him goodnight.
Essos has become a recurring presence in my dreams, which feel more and more like memories. One night, I dream about him outside.
Essos floats lazily in the tide pool his brother-in-law has kindly created for us. The water is calm, and the full moon and stars are my only light as I walk down the beach toward him. The moonlight glistens off his honed muscles, and a fire lights inside me. His erection stands tall and inviting and I actually lick my lips at the sight of him.
“My love, why are you out of bed?” he asks as I close the distance. His tone is nearly chastising. He’s not wrong to scold me; I’ve been restless at night, unable to sleep when he doesn’t come to bed. I’m wearing a silk robe, and only the robe, as I dip my toes in the water. It’s the middle of the night, and I know his work makes him keep odd hours, but this is a bit much.
“Why don’t you come back to bed?” I plead as I untie the robe and slide it off my shoulders. He swims to the lip of the pool with a wolfish smile on his face.
“On a beautiful night like tonight?” He watches me closely, and I drop the robe to the ground and slip into the water beside him. His eyes never leave mine.
“I suppose it would be a waste with this beautiful sky above us.” I swim away from Essos, and he follows me, as if attached by an invisible tether. The air is warm, and the water is cool on my skin, even though I feel like I’m on fire around him. He swims close and is finally able to grab my hand and pull my naked body against his. He doesn’t say anything as one arm snakes around my waist and the other slips up my back and into my hair. Being with Essos never gets tiring; hundreds of years together, and every time he touches me my blood sings for him. We behave like two teenagers driven by hormones; it’s why I’ve needed to take an office separate from his. We would get nothing done otherwise. I lean my head back, dipping my hair in the saltwater as he presses a kiss to my collarbone. With every kiss, Essos awakens a desperation deep inside me, a need to have him andonlyhim in my arms, in my heart, in my bed.
“You undo me,” he says with a laugh. “I am King of the Underworld, and the sight of you drives me to my knees.”
I smile, loving the power I have over him. “My naked body has that effect on men,” I tease, not that there is any truth to the statement. The only man to see what’s hiding under my clothes is the man currently worshiping me, and it’s going to stay that way.
“I’d better be the only man who has the privilege of this vision,” he huffs, pressing my back to the hard-packed sand on the side of the pool. It grates against my skin, at odds with the pleasure coiling in my belly. He grabs my wrists then slides his fingers between mine before covering my mouth with his. At first, the kiss is demanding, but then it gentles, and he nibbles on my lower lip. He’s teasing me, and I love him for it as he releases one of my hands so he’s free to explore other parts of my body. He lets his fingers dance along my skin under the water before resting that hand on my hip.
“I will gladly exalt you for the rest of our long lives.” He kisses my lips once more before swimming away. “That is the glory of being gods, is it not? Having forever with the one we love, knowing that we will have a thousand more nights just like this.”
I wake feeling weighed down with a stone. Each of these dreams fills me with the deepest sense of a love that goes beyond carnal pleasure, but waking and feeling its loss makes it a struggle to get out of bed every time. On numerous occasions, I’ve swept into breakfast late, the last one to arrive, having to scarf down whatever food is piled on my plate before going to lessons.