Page 110 of Cruel Abandon (Fallen Royals 5)

The then Mrs. Buckley was ruthless in her endeavor to keep her darling daughter safe.

And not just physically.

Once it became apparent that Sky’s mind had blocked out the event and surrounding weeks, her mother made it clear that it was in everyone’s best interest to keep it that way.

Erased.

I still remember the day she approached me. I was just returning from a run before school and she met me at the end of my driveway, well away from the houses. Our driveways started together then twisted away from each other. Our homes had almost fifty yards between them.

“Mrs. Buckley,” I greeted her, slowing to a walk. “You’re out early.”

“Sky’s nightmares have stopped,” she said. “Her memory of what happened is gone.”

I remember nodding slowly, although I didn’t know why she was saying this to me. “Mom told me.”

She sighed. “Liam, I need you to stay away from Skylar.”

“What? Why?”

She stepped closer. “Do you know who she cries out for when she wakes up? It isn’t me or her father. It’s you. She sees you as the hero of her story, and I’m afraid that if she keeps seeing you that way, she’ll begin to see the rest of the picture.”

I flinched. “She should know.”

“She should have a chance to be happy,” she replied. “I’m sorry, Liam. I just need to protect my baby.”

In the end, I did as she’d asked: I stayed away. I held myself back, traded barbs with her. Did whatever I had to do to make sure she didn’t want to be around me.

And I’m now regretting all of it.

“Are we almost there?” Sky asks, twisting halfway toward me. “The sun feels nice.”

“We should be there soon,” I say. “Are you hungry?”

She shakes her head. “No. But I was dreaming…”

I straighten a little. “Of what?”

To my delight, her cheeks pinken. “Nothing.”

“Tell me,” I prod. “I won’t laugh.”

“No, I’m sure you won’t,” she mutters.

It’s got me intrigued, but my mind goes the dirty route. Was she having a sex dream? We came close last night before I ruined it. And then she climbed into bed with me in the middle of the night, wordlessly lying down beside me. Who would’ve thought she was sleepwalking and not making a conscious decision?

If she says sex dream, I’m pulling this car over and making that dream a reality.

I almost groan out loud. She’s a virgin—she thinks she’s a virgin, anyway. Who am I to say if she is or isn’t? I don’t know anything. But that just means it has to be special, or at least… not in the car on the side of the road.

“I was running through the woods,” she says.

I freeze.

“And then you came out of nowhere and tackled me. You, ah, kissed me. And then I woke up.”

Things click into place, then. Like the edge of a puzzle now complete, and all that’s left is to fill in the center. She used to have nightmares, but now she dreams of kissing me. I used to have nightmares, too. Nightmares where I’d find her bloody and bruised, left for dead on the side of the road. Now, my dreams have her face transposed over Amber Huck’s on the news.

I shove that thought away.