14. Florencia

14

Florencia

H e leaves me little time to dress, not bothering to look away for any moment of it. It's not a dress he chose for me, but a pair of leather pants and riding boots. The shirt was a simple button-up, the sleeves long and the fabric thick. Camazotz's mood soured once again, the swing of his emotions unending and their effects dizzying, leaving me unable to catch up.

A gust of cold air bit my cheek as we stepped into Elio's territory. I closed my eyes, protecting myself from the frost, but when I opened them again, I braced myself to face the chill that seemed to follow Elio. Instead, it was the exact opposite at my disposal.

My face still felt cold, like it had been numbed by ice, but what was waiting for me was a luscious green lawn as far as my eyes could see. Hills of wild flowers in the most amazing colors were rustling in the warm breeze like the most harmonious song. Their fragrance was calming, sweet, but not overbearing.

It was paradise.

"He knows we are here." Zotz said, his tone growing more distant than before.

He shifted his face to the daylight sky, as if somehow reading for the time. There was no Sun. It was brightly lit, but the source of the light wasn't something I could bring to corporal form. I knew it was there, but I couldn't see it for what it was.

Much like a dream .

Camazotz made no effort to slow his steps, as if our trek through the woods hadn't been difficult enough. The sound of the nightmarish monsters his forest held back were bad enough within the castle walls. Being in there, walking through that dark thicket of trees in pitch black obscurity with nothing but Camazotz's cold, bony fingers to hold, was a million times worse.

The more I tried to recall our walk through the forest, the less I remembered it, as if I was somehow waking from a dream and losing my grip on it as I came to full consciousness.

My least favorite feeling.

With three more steps into the warmth of The Dream Kingdom, I could only remember darkness and the way I clutched Camazotz's cloak until we'd finally broken through.

Every fear had fallen from my chest with ease, like a mountain of burdens dissipating from the effects of steeped chamomile. With a full inhale, the smile found its way to my face. I was headed to my destiny.

This was right.

This was right .

This was–

Wrong. I couldn't put my finger on it, but something deep in my belly was screaming that everything here was wrong.

We continued our journey in silence until we found ourselves on the edge of a hill where Camazotz stopped, remembering my human legs could only handle so much. I looked beyond the flower hills, my breath escaping my lungs at the sight of the beautiful crystal castle in front of us. Tall, magnanimous, and reflecting the warm sun, Elio's castle sat perfectly in the middle of the garden, looking like a.... dream.

Its towers were tall, and detailed windows made it look like a princess castle. Light reflected off the crystal structure shimmering like beautiful marble. It was as if the entire castle had been carved from a diamond.

He snarled, not bothering to hide his distaste. "We are close."

It was starkly different from the Nightmare Castle; there were no guards to see us in, faceless or not. I wanted to ask why, but Camazotz was behaving so out of himself, I swallowed every single one of my questions.

Maybe there were no threats in this kingdom.

That had to be it. The monsters, the beasts, the evil, it was all on the other side of the forest. This kingdom was so safe, it had no need for protection.

But who was responsible? The nagging thought tugged at the back of my mind, my feet aimlessly moving forward without noticing the flowers I crushed beneath them. I looked back, watching as every dead flower I left in my trail quickly blossomed back to life.

"Did you see–" I began to ask, but Camazotz's disinterest was shaking me to my core.

Kame growled at the flowers, something like suspicion clear on his face. I reached behind his ear, scratching to comfort him. "It's okay, boy," I whispered to him only.

As we got closer to the castle, Kame became restless. My hand went to his head, trying to make him feel better, but he shook me off, his eyes going down to slits while he growled when the crystal door opened slowly on its own.

"I don't think he likes it here." I turned to Zotz.

He nodded. "He's not meant for this place. Go home, Kame." Camazotz's words rang with power, the cat whining in discomfort, stretching his rear end into the air as he dug his claws into the ground.

"He'll be alright going through the forest without you?" I asked, worried for the jaguar's safety.

Kame was a large cat, but it wasn't just wild animals in that forest. I was right to question that he could trek the journey alone without the King of the monsters himself at his side.

He cupped my face in his hand. "Kame is the terror in the night. There is nothing he fears." With a chuckle, he let me go. "It is the forest that cowers under his paws."

With a dramatic whine, Kame pushed his head against my stomach, needily begging for another caress before he was off. My worry dissipated, the frightful look in the creature's eyes, the discomfort he exuded in this land, palpable.

With a savage growl, Kame stamped away in powerful strides, disappearing into the brightness until we could no longer see him.

I exhaled, watching him disappear into the brightness again before turning back to face Camazotz. He looked just as miserable as the beast.

He too did not belong here.

All the sadness and annoyance by his sudden need to get me away from his home faded. I was just tense now, suddenly feeling more alone than ever before, unsure about my decisions.

I laughed at myself. Nothing had been my decision, and my choice of words was really just another way to convince myself I had any say in what had been happening to me at all. I had none.

I was tossed into space without a jetpack, and I was floating in the cosmos, lost, without a tether, with no way back home.

The palace doors were soon in front of us, twice as large as they looked from a distance and three times more grand. The crystal walls glimmered, a heat exuding from them as if they truly possessed the power to reflect the sun, though it was certainly not visible in this realm.

The walls opened on their own, but no guards waited inside either as we crossed the threshold. No servants expected us, no animals came to frighten us. We crossed the entrance, my shoes tapping over the hard floors. I swallowed my unease once again, letting my eyes wander and search for the man who came for me in my dreams.

"Where is Elio?" I turned to find Camazotz still several steps behind me.

His lips were pressed to a flat line, no response coming from him or any reassurance that all of this was right. I frowned, exhausted of his foul mood when coming here had been his decision. I parted my lips to speak again, but before I could voice my dissatisfaction with him, he exploded into hundreds of bats right before my very eyes.

The scream never left my throat, staying lodged deep in the center, like something I couldn't swallow or bring back up. Realization flooded through my veins as I pieced together that every single time the bats would appear, Camazotz would somehow be gone.

It always happened so quickly, and I was always in the thick of it, disoriented by the bats flying so close to my face, the sound of their wings flapping in unsynchronized harmony. But from this distance, I understood now that they were a part of him—no, they were him.

Quickly, I covered my head just as the bats flew toward me. Bracing, I closed my eyes, expecting some sort of bat attack and feeling relieved when the short burst of wind dissipated. I blinked to find them flying down a hallway.

My legs moved to follow with no command.

"Zotz?" I called for him, my echo bouncing off the crystal edges of the castle, uncertainty vividly laced over my words as I spoke. "You can turn into fucking bats?"

There was a part of me that felt ridiculous even saying it out loud, partially because I was annoyed that he'd withheld information from me and partially because I felt stupid for not having recognized it sooner. His seven-foot wingspan should have been a dead giveaway.

I followed the bats throughout the castle like a mad woman, cursing Camazotz loudly, vocalizing my discontent with him and his half-truths. Sure, I had kept my own secrets from him, but he'd ravaged his way through my walls, breaking them down and forcing me to give up what little I had kept for myself. It wasn't fair that he'd demanded all of me and had given me so little in return.

Fair.

I scoffed at the thought.

Here he was, discarding me like yesterday's trash, a reminder that gods did not suffer humanity's need for fairness.

It was obvious after thirty or so minutes that he was fucking with me, getting pleasure from leading me around what was starting to feel like a maze. Still, he never materialized, staying in the shape of hundreds of bats above me. After a few floors down, the steps turned from white marble to stone and the crystal walls to dull gray.

"Zotz?" I hesitated to project my voice, only uncertainty gripping my words.

The winged beasts flew overhead again, forcing me to duck and cover again. My heart hammered in anticipation or fear or maybe a combination of both, a part of me wishing he'd end this cruel game and just be here in person.

From the beginning, he'd wanted my pain, my misery, my undoing. He salivated for my fears and never once proved otherwise that it was his craving. Yet, a part of me ached for comfort, for reassurance from him that everything would be okay.

I got none.

I followed the bats down a spiral staircase, the thin corridor getting darker with each step until a torch came into view. I pulled it from the wall, yanking harder than I thought I'd need to, oil spilling from the edges.

With each step, the flames flickered, my breathing unsteady with each draw of oxygen until I faltered at the scent of musty air filling around me. No longer crystal walls but stone, reminiscent of the very castle I had been calling my home since The Nightmare King had stolen me away.

Extending my arm out to provide some illumination to the room in front of me, I gasped at the sight unveiled from the shadows.

We were in a dungeon, much like the one Camazotz had put me in the first night I had spent in his castle, except this one had no cells. A single wooden stool was propped in the middle of the room, and on the wall were iron chains and shackles, bolted down.

"Camazotz?" My voice trembled, unable to mask my fear.

"Florencia?" a smooth voice answered instead.

One I recognized from my dreams.

The gasp escaped me before my eyes had even landed on the pile of dirty white feathers over the small wooden stool. I was sure they hadn't been there before, but with another step, the mountain of feathers parted, and there he sat. His back was curved, his shoulders slumped with his head hanging, turned slightly in my direction.

The man who would be my fated husband.

I lifted the torch, the yellow glow of the flames bringing his face to view. Beautifully carved, every feature on his face was divine, worthy of his status as a god.

"My queen." He sighed something that sounded like desperation and relief. "You've escaped."

I reached out instinctively, my hand caressing the soft feathers that stretched out of his back. He was so majestic, so flawless, so awe-inspiring. "N-not quite." My response sounded just as nervous as I felt, the uncertainty becoming far too much to handle.

Just as Elio began to stand, his back still to me but his height just as immense as his brother's, the bats flew past me, knocking me back two or three steps before Camazotz materialized between the two of us.

"We weren't supposed to meet like this." Elio's voice was distant, lacking that warmth and connection I felt any time he appeared in my dreams.

But I couldn't focus on him. My eyes were locked on the chain keeping him in place. An iron shackle closed around his waist, the chain attached to it dragging from the stony wall where it was secured.

"Camazotz, help me! He's chained!" My voice broke with panic as I stumbled forward toward Elio, but Camazotz stuck his arm out to keep me from reaching past him.

He swooped me up by my midsection, walking me three long steps back from his brother before putting me down. As soon as my feet connected with the ground, I pushed back Camazotz and rushed toward Elio again, only to be blocked by the hoard of bats that easily shifted from winged creatures back to man just in time to lift me once again. Without a word, he walked me back those three steps and placed me down, a single look telling me he'd do it again and again until I finally obeyed.

"What are you doing? What are we doing here?" I cried out in frustration, confused and feeling more helpless than I had in as long as I could remember.

"You shouldn't have brought her," Elio finally said, the words somehow feeling like a knife to my chest.

Did he not want me? Had he not been filling my head with ideas of rescues and a destiny that we were meant to fulfill? "Zotz?" I tried to hide the hurt in my voice.

"It's time to put your leash on, brother." Camazotz ignored me, extending his hand out as if waiting for something. Within a second, an iron shackle flew from the wall, dragging its chain with it as it made its way into Camazotz's hand.

"No, not now, not with her–" Elio's voice turned into a pleading panic.

Camazotz's face expression turned to disgust. "She deserves to see the truth of her fate."

"Argh!" Elio's rage came out in a roar, his body crashing into his twin's as he sent his head into the middle of his chest.

Camazotz flew through the air, but before his back hit the wall, a cauldron of bats exploded, rushing toward Elio instead. Almost as if his fist materialized ahead of his body, the punch hit The God of Dreams first, and then I saw the shape of Camazotz again in its entirety.

I heard a crack, and then Camazotz hit him again, Elio's body moving through the air, only to be jerked back by the lead of the chain pulling him by the waist. I felt locked in place, unable to move, unable to blink, unsure if I was even speaking, though it felt like my voice was hoarse, my throat burning from screaming.

"Help me!" The words finally escaped me.

Camazotz's snarl was the only thing I could hear in the room. "I am."

He was hurting Elio, hurting his brother, hurting my husband, and yet all he could say was ‘I am', as if any of this was somehow helping me at all. I finally snapped, unable to contain any of my feelings any longer. "Why are you like this? I didn't ask for any of this. Why couldn't you have just left destiny alone?"

The tears streamed down my face involuntarily, but the cracking in my voice was enough to halt his next punch, his fist unmoving midair as he turned his head back to the side to speak to me.

"Destiny has a funny way of deciding who gets wrapped up in its strings, don't you think, Haxia?" he hissed, his arm extending as he gripped his brother by the throat and lifted him into the air.

"You keep him prisoner here?" I clenched my fist to my chest, as if it would somehow ease the burden of watching the scene unfold.

"I do my job." His words came out through clenched teeth, the hatred in them so obvious, the disdain for me so evident.

"If your job is to hurt others, then you are no king." My nostrils flared, my heart tightening inside my chest, as if it would somehow burst into flames of its own accord.

What I felt for Camazotz just hours ago, the heat, the passion, the way our bodies made sense together—every one of those feelings felt like a lie. It was a trick by a cruel god who understood how weak the mind of his victim was.

He took advantage of me, the same way he took advantage of his twin.

Camazotz made no effort to reply, the expression on his face clearly painting his dissatisfaction for me. He closed the shackle in his free hand over his brother's throat. Elio sent his forehead down, slamming it into Zotz's nose, the blood bright blue as it poured down his lips and drenched his neck.

The smile on Camazotz's face told me it didn't matter, though. He had won this, and it looked like he had Elio exactly where he wanted him. With a flick of his wrist, as if he could somehow command the shackles, he sent Elio's body flying past me, slamming into the stone wall with a hard thud.

The remaining shackles opened on command, enclosing Elio's wrists and ankles and keeping him secured to the dungeon wall. "Florencia!" His shout was filled with agony, and I rushed to him, my palms flattening on his chest for just a brief second before Camazotz pulled me into him. His nose buried in the crook of my neck, his hiss hot against my skin as he held me in place, my eyes wide and unblinking as I stared at Elio.

It felt like an eternity, trapped there in Camazotz's arms while Elio watched. It felt like betrayal, like cheating.

My mind was already doing all the work of convincing me everything that had unfolded was simply an outcome of my own actions, my own doing. I was responsible for it all.

Every ounce of pain on Elio's face.

Camazotz chuckled, one arm still holding me tight while his free hand caressed my cheek. "She's safe with me, don't you worry, Dream God." Before I could part my lips to speak, to protest, or argue, he'd lifted me into the air, and we were gone from the Crystal Castle.

The King of Nightmares finally did what he'd been wanting all along: he stole me right out from under his brother's nose.