Figment of Dreams - The Skylar Rains Series I

I woke up feeling nauseous and weak. I had no clue where I was or even who I was—that’s how groggy I felt. I was in a wide canopy bed under crisp white sheets, and the sounds of cheerfully chirping birds drifted toward me.

The room was circular, with all white and light wooden panels. In front of me were giant floor-to-ceiling glass terrace doors with white linen curtains blowing in a soft breeze. Behind them, I could see a lush park surrounded by thousands of colorful flowers and large trees.

I groaned and stirred as I tried to sit up in this strange bed, but my body felt unnaturally heavy. I struggled to recall the last thing I remembered, suddenly fearful I had ended up in another tequila-induced coma—the only substance on Earth that could make me feel this way.

My head was also pounding up a storm.

"Do you need anything, miss?" a sweet female voice drifted toward me from my left side. It had a slight accent I couldn’t place. I glanced sideways toward the voice and screamed.

There stood a woman with green skin and a black-and-white apron. She had strange-looking elf ears too.

I scooted to the other side of the bed, miscalculated, and dropped to the hard wooden floor with a bone-crunching slap.

I moaned as I felt my elbow jutting down at a weird angle. The fall, however, seemed to slap some recollection into me. I hadn’t touched tequila at all last night; I’d been injected with something. Whatever Kai and Jax had drugged me with was still clouding my movements.

Apparently, it was also making me see things.

I saw green people now. With elf ears.

I heard a commotion from the other side of the room, showing just how large this room actually was. There were actual sides to a room that sounded far away to one’s ears.

“Is she awake?”

“Where is she?” It was both Kai and Jax speaking simultaneously.

The two traitors had joined forces. They must have been having some really nice "Lux is canceled" parties on my account.

Footsteps hurried over to where I was lying on the floor, hunched over in pain because of my elbow. The pain was the only thing keeping me focused right now.

“Babe, are you okay?” Kai crouched down and tried to touch my arm. I winced at the contact and his proximity.

“Ouch, asshole! Don’t touch me!” I quickly slid back and held my arm close to my body, only to slam my head against the side table behind me.

Freaking drugs.

Jax had enough of this entire display, his ears turning bright red—always the first sign of trouble with him.

He grabbed me, not too gently, I might add. I tried to struggle, shrieking like a banshee, but between the drugs, my aching elbow, and now my throbbing head, I couldn’t do much. Cursing them both out like there was no tomorrow? That I could do. And, boy, could I curse like a sailor on a good day, but this was a great day for my French.

Jax was walking away from the bedroom toward the room next door, me dangling beside his arm like dead weight. I wasn’t budging one bit. If he wanted me to go somewhere, he would have to work for it. Unfortunately for me, his Rainer strength was impressive, so my resistance didn’t mean much.

The green woman was still following us and talking in a hushed voice to Kai. It sounded like they were speaking in Mons again. I really regretted not taking that extra Mons class at school now.

Not that I could hear what they were saying anyway, because Jax was breathing so loudly from being angry that it drowned everything else out.

What was he angry for anyway? He was the one who kidnapped me!

He dragged me into a gigantic bathroom unlike any I’d ever seen. It was all white marble with pink seams, white wood, and pink and purple flowers everywhere. Every countertop had a beautiful orchid on it, filling the room.

In the middle of the bath chamber was an enormous square hot tub, carved into the marble floor and bubbling away with lotus flowers drifting on top of the steaming water. Behind it was a waterfall that emitted a rosy, scented mist.

A freaking waterfall?

On both sides of the hot tub were walk-in showers, apparently for a crazy shower party with twenty people or something. This place was unreal.

What kind of palace was I in?

There was another marble door that I assumed led to a golden toilet.

Jax walked us straight into the hot tub, clothes and all. I was wearing a little white sleep camisole and panties—which someone had dressed me in, by the way—but he was fully dressed in dark jeans and a dark Henley, with his shoes still on.

What a crime to walk into a bath like this dressed like that.

Or dressed at all!

Somebody call the hot tub police.

He plunked me in without much ado. “This has healing properties,” he said, like it was just a normal thing to say.

It better have healing properties, because I was about to kill him dead, drugged or not.

I came up very elegantly, looking like a drowned rat, spluttering out the strange bathwater that tasted like mint. But my headache and all the other aches were slowly fading.

I cursed some more as I stared up at Jax, who was still halfway in my tub, fully clothed, and Kai and the green lady were standing right next to him, eyeing me with some form of pity in their eyes.

“Bathe, Freckles, and Avital over here will find you some clothes to wear. We’ll be right outside.” Jax turned and strutted out of the tub like he wasn’t soaking wet, as if he were on a runway somewhere cool and jazzy. Kai just gave me a sad look and turned to leave as well. The green lady stayed.

“Uh… can somebody please tell me what’s going on here? Where am I?” I asked breathlessly.

Avital just smiled at me and held out a fluffy white towel. “The sirs will explain everything as soon as you’re done here, my lady…”

The sirs? Am I trapped in some Jane Austen novel?

Nobody would tell me anything, and I was who knows where, still tripping on drugs, in the best tub I had ever seen in my life. I might as well enjoy this bout of madness as long as it lasted. So I did what any other drugged-out, hurt, kidnapped girl would do.

I went under again and searched for the soap.