I stared in bewilderment as Phillip awoke and gently reached for me—his hand gliding through my opaque form. He grimaced sadly and sighed.

"I think I preferred the dream. I hate seeing you reduced to this. Leaves you in no better shape than the common ghost."

"I agree. But it's kind of cool to be able to float around unnoticed," I mused. "That's one thing I'll miss when we get me out of here."

I sat on the bed next to him while he furrowed his brow and began to contemplate how we might proceed to rescue me. It seemed too simple that I should just find my body in the tower, have him kiss me, and get away without running into some kind of trouble. Firstly, the tower was quite a while away—I didn't have the energy that my mother had to just move so quickly from one place to the next; secondly, I knew for certain my mother would not let us defeat her quite so easily.

As if to confirm my suspicions, a flash of lighting coursed in the direction where the tower lay. I shivered and, instinctively, Phillip moved to get me a blanket before remembering that he could not keep me warm as he would like to. I grinned, the warmth of his smile melting any fear I had of failing. At least if I did fail I'd found him. I was worried I'd have to speed date in the dreaming world.

"What do you think we should do? Undoubtedly there will be problem getting me there. She's going to expect that I'm coming; it will be impossible for somebody who is in physical form to get into the tower without dying, if not nearly. I have the upper hand, though. I can do more than a human can. But I'm sure that she foresaw any daemon aside from herself trying to get in and help get you free."

I frowned. Phillip was right. If he was going to get me out of that horrible tower he was going to have to get creative—more-so than my mother. I was hopeful that he could be. Perhaps in her haste, my mother would have forgotten some key thing or factor in keeping someone from the tower.

"Maybe not!" I exclaimed.

"What do you mean?"

I lowered my voice in fear that someone might be listening into our conversation. He smiled and waved his hand—a dome of pure magic enshrouded us and he winked. It crackled a light pink and gave the room a sense of safety with its soft glow. I hoped that it couldn't be seen from the outside like this.

"Anything we say now won't be heard by anyone but us."

"Why didn't you do that sooner?"

"I didn't sense any additional presences listening. But I do now. The good thing is that this wall will prevent her from seeing me speak to you. But she knows I'm here. And she is coming to check and see what's going on. Stay down—hold your thought. I've got this under control," Phillip whispered.

Taking a sudden stand, he pulled himself free of the wall to greet my mother, who had opened the door in the room below. Her eerie voice bloomed through the house.

"Phillip, dear," she crooned.

My stomach boiled hot with fury. I wanted to wrench forward from the bubble and take her down.

My mother came sweeping into the room and smiled. Her silvery orbs came alive at the sight of my prince. It was then that realization hit me: Lilith—my mother—liked Phillip. I kept a scream from erupting from my throat. So this was the reason for her treachery?

"Phillip, darling. The brat is gone," she said, delight pulling at her familiar smile. I wanted to rip it straight off her face as she moved throw her arms around him.

He visibly cringed and pulled away from her in a fit of his own rage. His icy eyes became alive with a pale fire and I wanted to cry with support for him. He had been loyal all this time?

"Why do you stray from me so? Now that the brat is gone, I thought for sure you would have come crying to me," my mother pouted.

"You stole my wife from me!" Phillip shouted. "Your own daughter!"

"Shh, they might hear you, love. You know how the people take to creatures like us... I mean, we're practically the last of our kind! Why would you not want to marry me? We could continue the lineage and allow for our kind to overtake the foolish humans. Your mother and father would like that, wouldn't they?" her eyes glinted.

"No. They wanted me to marry your daughter—the child of yourself and the king. We were to bring peace and try to integrate our kind slowly and peaceably. If you control the people with tyranny it will only confirm their suspicions and stories about us. Your own daughter was proof that our kind are misrepresented solely based on the poor parenting of our ancestors. Your daughter wasn't raised by you," Phillip sneered. "She turned out to be a far better woman than you."

Lilith hissed.

"You can't say that for certain. You never met her."

"Who cares? I know that she was better—anyone is better than you. She was to be my wife. She would be the best, regardless."

I clapped a hand to my mouth to keep from jeering at my mother. My love for Phillip was kindling with every jaunt he made at Lilith. The way he stuck to his word and used them so swiftly against her were magnificently chilling.

"We'll see how well this resistance goes in six months when your queen is still asleep and I am the only person worthy of marrying," she smiled. "You won't find her. She hates you—thinks you're going to ruin her life and force her into a position she never wanted. Even if you did find the tower, it's not as though you'd be her 'true love's kiss'. What a ridiculous sentiment."

Lilith waived her hand in a ridiculous attempt at humor. This woman was a psychopath. She had ruined my life to ruin my father's and all for the sake of getting back at humanity by getting married to my ex-fiancé who was really still my fiancé until she would eventually take him. I glowered at my mother, but her eyes passed over me without a second thought. I was doubtful that she hadn't figured out I'd been there. There was no way that this had worked. But still, she said nothing. She strode out the door without another word.

When the door downstairs finally closed, Phillip returned to our force field. He looked positively ill—his cheeks were tinged with a faint green and he seemed queasy as he took a seat by me.

"Talk about being forced into something you don't want," he whispered.

"How long has she been visiting you?"

"Since I was sixteen."

"That's disgusting," I choked. "She's got to be out of her mind!"

"I know. I just hope we can get up in there before six months is up, or else we have a bigger problem to deal with—how to keep me away from her," he sneered.

I thought for a moment before the idea hit me again, furthered by Phillip's meeting with Lilith.

"Phillip! That's it!"

He turned to me curiously.

"She doesn't think I love you! She might be expecting human visitors, but she doesn't expect any daemona at all because she doesn't think I'd ever invite you into the tower!"

"So then this might be easier than we thought!"

I clapped my hands excitedly as we plotted out how we should proceed. With Lilith on the loose, we would have to be careful wherever we went to have a force-field of some kind up; we would definitely have to come up with a good excuse for why Phillip would be heading in the exact direction of the tower.

When we'd finally settled on an idea, we headed down the stairs. We would go the back way to the tower and we would go slowly. He would go alone, rather than in a hunting party so as to not appear suspicious should the force-field falter in anyway. It seemed to easy. It couldn't possibly be foolproof, though. I was sure that some bump in the road would cause the train to come flying up off the tracks. It was only a matter of time.

But, for now, it was the only plan we had.

Phillip proceeded out to his paddock to retrieve his horse: Charger. The fine gray steed greeted Phillip eagerly and snuffed at the air around me curiously. So animals could sense spirits? I shuddered as I remembered any of the times our house cats had stared at blank spaces as though someone were there. I wondered how many people actually had been or if the cats were really crazy as we had always thought. But there would be other times to worry about this. Right now, there were more pressing matters at hand.

Climbing aboard Charger with Phillip, I wrapped my arms around his back and sighed gratefully that I could at least sit on the back of an animal. I still didn't understand why I bothered to grab at Phillip's shoulders, since I wouldn't fall off in this form, but I supposed it was the gesture itself that gave me added comfort.

With a brace of our shoulders, we were off to rescue my body from the tower.