Well, I thought, good luck there. Because even though they didn't know it, I knew I was no kind of prince. And if any of this shit should ever come to fruition, the first thing I would do is step down and hand my cousin the crown. Royalty or not, all I ever wanted was my freedom.

3

Lex…

I thrashed as the darkness threatened to overtake me. “No. Please. We’ll be good. Please… Don’t hurt him.”

Wet, cloying cold wracked my body with shivers. Distantly, I saw a figure silhouetted by light, and I reached for it. Desperate for help and companionship, I twisted to try to reach it, but the silhouette remained forever out of range. When the darkness overtook, burning pain seared through my body.

With a cough and a silent, strangled cry, I bolted upright in bed, panting for air. Sweat clung to my skin, and my sheets were twisted around my legs.

Like many nights before this one, I freed myself and dragged my now-wet T-shirt over my head and tossed it toward the hamper. It used to be months and months between nightmares; now it was days. Any first-year psychology student could tell me it was stress. My birthday was coming up, and with it, the anniversary of the one night I never wanted to remember.

I wasn’t an idiot though, the dreams started again this week under the stress of the sale. My subconscious was out to torture me.

With everything adding to the pressure cooker, the one beacon of light was the impending sale of my small software company. Even with this new royal bullshit, it meant freedom. Not just financially, but from the oppressive disappointment of my father. And it meant if I walked away from my mother’s apparent legacy, I’d be okay.

I knew why I was having the dreams. I understood it exactly, so I wasn’t going to spin out, though what I wouldn’t give for a week of dreamless nights.

Throwing off the sheets, I climbed out of bed and stalked to the dresser. As I dragged on a new T-shirt, I noticed the light coming from underneath the door. I padded into the living room to find the television still on and a lithe brunette huddled in the corner of my couch with a quilted throw slung around her shoulders. “Gemma, what are you still doing up?”

She turned wide eyes toward me. “I got caught up watching horror movies, and then I couldn’t sleep.”

“Yeah, well, that makes two of us.” I shrugged.

She narrowed her gaze and studied me. “Another nightmare?”