I woke up in bed alone. Confused. Turned on. Heartbroken.

"Nyx?" I covered myself in the top sheet and went downstairs. "Nyx?!"

He was cooking?

"Oh, good morning Princess. I'm sorry these earbuds are great for listening to my music and not wake you. I've made you a fruit smoothie with some added minerals and a couple of fresh dew drops to help heal your aching heart." He kept his head down and worked on the eggs in front of him. "Please sit. Eat." He tried to smile but it wasn't convincing.

"What's up with you Nyx? Something seems different." I stood leaning on the counter watching him cook finish the eggs and turn off the stove. His head hung low, his black hair hiding his eyes.

"Princess, do you know that you talk while you dream?" He still couldn't look at me.

"Uh-oh what did I say?" I put the delicious smoothie on the counter and tried to reach out to Nyx who pulled away.

"At first I thought you were joking with me, trying to scare me or something as you spoke of murder. Not a very funny topic but with all the emotions we had just been through it wouldn't be totally out of the woods for you to say 'let's kill the Queen' or something like that." He paused and walked around his counter, eggs still in hand and placed them on a white plate at the table.

After he put the pan back he asked me to join him.

"What did I say?"

"What you said troubled me so I went into your mind and it's what I saw that is of grave concern to me." No pun intended?

"What did I say?!"

"You were saying no please but said something like 'hero' to someone who loved you very much, and still does, he just isn't good at showing it. You said that you thought you had murdered him, but your memory had been tampered with." He picked up his fork and took a bite.

"Tampered with? How?" I know it has to be about what happened with my stepfather.

"Certain vampires can compel other species, but since he didn't know you were half faerie, it only worked in the sense that he was left out of the memory for you. You believe you killed your stepfather, correct?"

I stared blankly and nodded my head.

"But see, you didn't." So either I know a vampire or one of my vampires has been lying to me.

"Who? Which one lied to me? Who was there that night?"

"His Majesty, King Rian."

"You're lying." I laughed. "That's impossible. He didn't know who I was when we met."

"Or... he wanted you to think that." Nyx shrugged his shoulders. "Oisin didn't know about your stepfather's abuse until you told him. King Rian did and killed him." His fork clanked as it fell on the plate. "You don't want to believe there is any good in King Rian. He scared you. You were able to be bitten by Oisin, correct?"

"Yeah...yes." I gulped dumbfounded. "He said it must have been a special power. His fangs couldn't penetrate my skin." My hand went immediately to my neck.

"Hmm, or he wanted you and Oisin to think that."

"Why?"

"If I had to take a guess, I'd say for you."

I shook my head visibly distraught. "I need to get dressed and get back to the castle."

Nyx nodded his head and didn't follow me upstairs. It felt like the sexual nature of our relationship, what little there was, had already disappeared.

When I came back downstairs he was dressed. "Let's fly Princess." He smirked.

"Nyx, can you find out why Rian did what he did for me?" Nyx nodded and opened the door to the bright day.

"Anything for you Princess."