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He let out a booming growl. “You’re not even wearing any damn panties? For fuck’s sake, Doe! Do you want me to rip Madoc’s eyes out?”
Ace manhandling me out of the kitchen suddenly made sense. I hadn’t considered what I was wearing. It probably wasn’t my best idea to greet my boyfriend’s best friend wearing basically nothing.
I was wearing a shirt that hit my thigh, but it did little to hide that I wasn’t wearing a bra. I just hoped my nipples weren’t hard when Madoc saw me.
Ace brought me back up to his room and carefully dropped me down on his bed.
I instantly covered my hot face with my hands and groaned. “Did Madoc see anything?”
“He better not have,” Ace grumbled. “I’d rather not have to kill him.”
“I’m sorry,” I continued, speaking into my hands. “I-I wasn’t thinking. I didn’t know he was here. I was looking for you.”
Ace gently grabbed my wrists and pulled my hands away from my face. I was relieved to see he looked more worried than mad.
“You’ve been crying,” he said as he took in my red-rimmed eyes. He searched my body for any signs of damage. “Why? Did I hurt you? Are you in pain?”
I shook my head. “No! No, it’s nothing like that.”
“Then why are you crying? Are you getting a migraine?”
I did have a headache but that wasn’t why I was crying. “I…I had a nightmare,” I admitted softly. “A bad one.”
“Doe,” he whispered as he cupped my cheek. “My poor girl. Is that what woke you up? You were sleeping so soundly when I left. I didn’t think you would even notice I was gone.”
I nodded. “I was confused when you weren’t in bed, so I went to find you. If I’d known Madoc was here, I would have put clothes on …or just avoided going downstairs altogether. I’m so embarrassed.”
“Don’t worry about Madoc. He didn’t see anything. I’m just sorry I wasn’t here to comfort you when you were scared.”
He wiped beneath my eyes with his thumb as if to dry the tears that had been there before. “Do you want to talk about it?”
I searched his face. I was more concerned now about the conversation I overheard downstairs, but the nightmare was still weighing heavy on my mind, replaying over and over.
I took his hand in mine. “Do you remember the car accident I was in when I was fifteen?”
Ace pulled away from me as if I’d slapped him. “Car accident?” he demanded. “Why are you asking about that?”
His reaction made me pause. There was fear in his expression…trepidation. It was unexpected and more than a little unsettling.
Ace and I hadn’t talked about the car accident much, despite it being one of the more traumatic experiences of my life.
I’d always got the sense he didn’t like talking about it—that it had been as traumatic for him as it had been for me, no doubt from seeing me in so much pain.
Plus, I didn’t remember any of it, and it’s hard to talk about something you can’t remember.
“Why do you look scared?” I propped myself up on my elbows.
“I’m not… I just…” He shook his head and sat on the edge of the bed. “I just wasn’t expecting you to bring up the car accident.”
“That’s what my nightmare was about.” I pulled myself up and sat down next to him, eyeing him warily. “Does that bother you?”
“You dreamed about the car accident? As in you remembered what happened?”
Before I could answer, Ace’s phone started to ring from its spot on the bedside table behind us.
I frowned. Who the heck was calling him at two in the morning? Probably Madoc just checking to make sure everything was okay after what happened in the kitchen.
“Ignore it,” Ace told me. He didn’t even glance in its direction, keeping his gaze locked on me.
I was grateful. I wanted his full attention during this conversation.
“I didn’t remember anything,” I explained. “At least, I don’t think I did. The dream was after the accident, I think.”
I did my best to ignore the incessant ringing coming from his phone behind me. It wasn’t too loud, just a gentle thrum, but it was enough to distract me.
“You were there. You were taking care of me, worrying about my concussion.
“But we weren’t at my house. We were at another house—somewhere I didn’t recognize. It was big and fancy and…I think we might’ve been in a guest room?”
Ace’s phone stopped ringing, then immediately started again.
“Are you sure you don’t want to get that?”
He shook his head. “No. Keep going. What happened next?”
Okay… “Um, so, I don’t know why, but you had invited this man over. He was super creepy—skinny and old, with these white eyes, like, ~pure white~ eyes, like a demon. I’m not even sure he had pupils.”
Ace was completely still next to me. Like a statue. His face was completely blank. I couldn’t read his expression at all. He was hiding it from me.
I glanced back at his phone, which was still ringing on the bedside table. The least he can do is turn it off.
“When he introduced himself, he…” I felt uneasy. “Well, does the name Gulius Mallor mean anything to you?”
There it was again! This time I was certain! I thought I had seen his eyes turn black before but always convinced myself it was a trick of the light. But there was no mistaking it now.
“Ace,” I gasped. “Your eyes. They just changed color—”
“Gulius Mallor?” he interrupted, his tone rigid. “His name was Gulius Mallor?”
So, I guess we’re just going to ignore the fact that he had literal ?devil~ eyes for a second there.~
“Yeah,” I replied. “At least, I think that’s what he told me his name was.”
“You’re telling me you had a dream about a man named Gulius Mallor coming to visit you after your car accident?” He spoke through his teeth as every muscle in his neck bulged.
I was starting to freak out a bit. If it weren’t for Ace’s reaction, I may have been able to write the dream off as just weird. But the way he was reacting to the name told me it was important.
It was real…
I nodded slowly.
His phone started to ring for the third time.
I held in a groan of irritation. “Are you sure you don’t want to get that? Someone is obviously very eager to get a hold of you.”
“Um.” Ace stood and ran a hand through his hair. To my great annoyance, he continued to ignore the phone. “You had a dream about Gulius Mallor.” He seemed to be talking more to himself now.
“You know him?” I straightened up on the bed, my heart rate spiking. “He’s a real person?”
Ace’s gaze pinned me, laser-focused with its intensity. After a moment’s hesitation, he nodded. “Yes. He’s a real person.”
“You mean”—I could hear my heart beating in my ears—“white eyes and all?”
His silence was answer enough.
“Please don’t look at me like that, Doe,” he begged. “You don’t have to be scared of me.”
Ace took a step toward me but stopped when I leaned back. His face dropped. He no longer tried to—or no longer could—hide his emotions. His intense affliction was now painted across his features.