Page 304 of Sweet Nightmare

Maybe I should’ve told her I was coming.

My palms are actually sweating.

A famous actress sitting beside me leans closer.

“Is she really as beautiful in person as everyone says?”

My eyes drift back to the runway entrance.

“No.”

The actress blinks. “No?”

“They’re underselling her.”

She laughs. “I’ll take that as a yes.”

It’s the truth.

No photograph, magazine cover, or carefully edited video could ever capture the true beauty of Artemis Volpe.

And I’m not talking about her face. I’m talking about the beauty underneath her skin.

Fuck, I’m so in love with that woman.

Then the lights go out. The venue falls into darkness, broken only by silver beams sweeping across the runway. The massive screens flicker to life, revealing frozen ice.

The final bra.

The Fantasy Butterfly.

My girl.

The music begins and then she appears.

My lungs forget how to fucking work.

Fuck…

Artemis steps onto the runway, and the entire world disappears for me.

All I see is her.

Her white-blonde hair falls down her back like liquid silk, threaded with silver strands that shimmer beneath the lights. Her white lingerie is covered in thousands of tiny crystals, each one catching the light until she looks like she’s made out of moonlight.

And then there are her wings. Massive crystalline wings stretch from her back, translucent and breathtaking, made to resemble frozen glass.

And then I see it.

The tiara.

My gift.

Diamonds shaped like melting icicles, catching the light exactly as I’d imagined.

Perfect.

She looks like a queen.