Life in the Bone Court is honestly a lot better than I thought it would be. Antimony and Tristan promised Spencer and Chance that they would take good care of me, and so far they have. I have a nice room, decent human food, and free reign to explore the palace and grounds. Mostly. Some rooms I'm not allowed to go into, like the dungeon, but I am one hundred percent okay with not spending my time in the dungeon. I am usually followed around by a guard or two, these scaly reptilian beasts with slitted eyes and sweeping tails, but they don't really bother me. By the third day, I'm kind of used to them. 

         The dreams are the only real thing that bother me, the nights when my mind is taken over by the dark king that is sharing my body, and I am haunted by his past deeds. It gets better when I wake up, but every second I worry that Nikolaius will get into my head during the day. I feel like a ticking time bomb, like at any second I could be completely taken over and Nico Song will just cease to exist. 

          To take my mind off of that, I find myself wandering around the halls of the palace. I don't really talk to any of the court, and the most they give me is a brisk nod when I pass them in the halls. I do my best to avoid Antimony, because Tristan is gone on some sort of scouting/hunting mission, and I don't want to face the prince without his boyfriend around to reign him in. 

          The palace is massive, and it could take me all day just to explore one wing of it, but that doesn't matter to me. I just need to do something to distract my from the anxiety and the images flashing through my head of blood and death and madness.

         After wandering around aimlessly for a couple of hours, barely paying attention to my surroundings, I find myself in a corner of the castle that I have never been in before. Everything seems less fancy here, with not as much decor on the walls and floor. There are less torches lit, too, shrouding the whole corridor in inky shadows. I yelp as something brushes my ankle, and look down to see a blur of darkness zipping by me around the corner.  "What the-"

        I look back and discover that my guards have not followed me down this hall. I am completely alone. I really don't want to keep going, but something in me urges me forward, around the corner and after the shadowy blur, the tug in my gut stronger than the fear in my heart. 

        I turn the corner and end up in another corridor, this one short and dark and ending in a dead end. I keep going until I'm standing right in front of the smooth wall, made of what seems to be jet- black marble. As close as I am to it, I can see the thin silver etching of a handprint right in the center, so delicate that it would be impossible to see from a distance. I stare at the handprint, not comprehending for a moment, then glance down at my own hand. "There's no way. No way." 

          Slowly, I lift my hand and place it on the wall, inside the silver handprint. It fits perfectly. "This is crazy, this is crazy, what am I doing, I should not be doing this, this is crazy..." I mutter as a creaking noise echoes through the hall and a beam of white light splits the handprint straight down the middle. What is now revealed to me as a door swings inward, revealing a vast dark space. 

         "I'm supposed to go in, aren't I," I sigh, peering into the space, wondering if I can see anything. I can't. 

       I take a deep breath and step through the doorway. As soon as I do, light flares up, torches along the walls lighting up as though programmed to. They're fancy torches, the handles carved to look like grinning skulls, the flames making it seem like they have fiery hair. The room is one big square, with four black walls lined with the skull-shaped torches. 

         There's a large four-poster bed in the center of the room, the sheets also black. There are heavy curtains around it, black velvet with skull designs in silver. The posts at the corners of the bed are topped with decorative silver skulls as well. 

       "Emo much?" I mutter to myself as I walk carefully around the room, taking everything in. In one corner is a skeletal silver vanity table with a small drawer and a round mirror. I freeze in place and stare at it, the realization setting in that I've been here before. Not in real life, in my dreams. This is Nikolaius' chambers. 

           "Oh," I gasp, seeing everything in a new light. This is where he lived, where he slept, where he was allowed to be alone and be himself.

            My attention is drawn to a portrait on the wall, a painting of a young woman, seeming to be in her mid twenties, with long dark hair falling almost to her waist and deep brown skin marked only by a white crescent moon at the corner of her left eye. I've never actually met her, but I know who she is instantly. Nyx. Nikolaius' wife and the queen of the Mirror Realm.

            Looking at the portrait, something stirs inside of me, a strange feeling like affection, but edged with something sharp and dangerous. A remnant of Nikolaius' emotions creeping through into me. I shove it away and try to focus on my breathing, trying not to let him get to me. 

         "It's too late,"  murmers a soft voice in my head, a smooth baritone that chills me to the bone. 

      "No," I gasp, squeezing my eyes shut. "Get out, get out, get out!"

      "You are in no place to make demands of me,"  the voice, Nikolaius' voice, continues. "I am a king, and you are nothing but a vessel. Look."

       I open my eyes and look around wildly, wondering what he could possibly mean. My gaze zeroes in on my hand, resting on the wall. Spreading out from the spot where my fingers touch the stone is a dark fuzzy substance, like mold or decay. Chance's story about Nikolaius comes back to me in a rush. He could kill with a touch. 

       With a strangled cry, I yank my hand off of the wall, leaving behind a rotten handprint, and stumble out of the room. As soon as I'm in the hall I start running, pelting down the corridor without looking back, hoping beyond hope that I can leave the monster behind me.