Chapter 22 Nightingale

My head was pounding when I woke up, my vision was slightly blurred, but I could just make out a few shapes as my eyes came into focus, when I could see everything clearly I didn't fully recognise where I was, this wasn't my room, not everything was in the right place, and the sun was coming through the wrong window, what happened last night is very clear apart from when Kook was walking me back to my room, after that it's just a complete blank.

"Oh my head." I said sitting up, as I sat up I realised that I was still in my dress from last night. "What happened?"

"Are you feeling alright babe?" I heard Kook say to my right, I wasn't expecting him to be here.

"Where I am? This looks a bit unfamiliar." I asked him.

"Erm...well, when I was walking you back to your room, you sort of fainted half way there, I tried carrying you there, but I couldn't carry you all that way, so I brought you here to my room." Kook explained.

"I'm in your room? And I've just spent the whole night sleeping in your nest?"

"Yeah."

"But if I was sleeping here, where did you sleep?"

"In my nest."

"You mean...with me?"

"Yeah, I know, I'm as freaked out as you are, but there was no other option."

Oh my God, I've not only spent the entire night sleeping in Kook's nest, but I've been sleeping in the same nest as him. Very timidly and cautiously I got up and out of Kook's nest, I could almost not look at him, I picked up my high heels that were just to my left, smoothed my hair and dress down slightly, before finally speaking.

"Well...I err...I better get going to my room and get changed."

"Okay, let me just make sure that the corridors are clear."

Kook slowly opened his bedroom door and looked both left and right making sure that there wasn;t anyone on the corridors, there wasn't so Kook quickly finished getting himself dressed and walked me to my room, checking that there wasn't anyone behind the corners or down the corridors as we walked, it felt like we were secret agents on a mission.

We were half way to my room when Kook stopped and looked around the corner, he shot back round and stood with him back flat against the wall, he pulled me towards him so I did the same.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"Shh." Kook replied sharply, placing one of his fingers on my lips silencing me.

Obeying, I was silent, after three seconds of silence two soldiers walked past, they stopped as they were level with us, I held my breath until they walked away in the opposite direction, Kook then grabbed my hand and pulled me quickly around the corner, we still had a maze of corridors to go down until we safely got to my room.

We were nearing the corridor which my room was at, but we were faced with a deeper problem, there was another soldier stood not that far from us, luckily his back was facing us so we had a bit more time to hide, Kook looked to his right and there was a narrow dark corridor either side of us, one would probably be wide enough for both of us, it was a tight squeeze but we both made it, Kook squeezed past me to see whether the soldier was gone he wasn't so we still had to wait.

"Is he gone?" I asked.

"No."

I sighed and rested my body against the wall, I looked to my left and there was nothing but darkness, I looked to my right an Kook was still watching the soldier, I sighed again and looked to my left again, this time I held my gaze, after three seconds i felt something touch my shoulder.

"Kook, let go of my shoulder." I whispered.

"I'm not touching your soldier." Kook replied.

"Well what is?"

Kook looked over at me and stopped stone still.

"Don't move." he whispered.

"Why?"

Very slowly, I lowered my head and looked at my shoulder, sat on my shoulder was the largest spider that I have ever seen, it was just perched on my shoulder doing nothing, this wasn't good for me as I had Arachnophobia, I opened my mouth to scream but Kook jumped forward and placed his hand over my mouth to stop me.

"Stay still." he said.

He reached for the spider and gently took it off my shoulder, I was still shaking and sweating from the experience, when the spider had been removed from my shoulder, Kook placed it on the wall further down the corridor.

"Are you alright?" Kook asked. "You look very pale."

I looked at my hands and they were almost white with fear.

"I can't stand spiders." I replied.

"That little thing was nothing, I've seen spiders that are way bigger than that one."

I shuddered at the thought, just thinking about spiders made me feel cold, Kook squeezed past me again and checked on the soldier, this time he was gone so we were safe to carry on walking.

It was another five minutes until we finally got to my room, we walked in and I could finally sit down, Kook went to wait outside so that I could get changed, it was good to finally get out of this dress and into my everyday dress.

When I opened my bedroom door to leave, Kook was still there.

"I kinda preferred you in that ballroom gown." he said.

I smiled, walked over to him and gave him a quick gentle kiss, we then walked all the way back to the king's quarters where everyone was waiting.

"There you two are, we were wondering what was keeping you." said Skabb.

"I was on my way here when I thought that I might as well walk down here with Nightingale, so I went to wait for her." Kook lied.

We had another two minutes to wait before we could enter the room, so I was talking to Ballista, Faetal and Shaiden about the ball last night.

"What did you guys think about the ball last night?" I asked.

"I really enjoyed myself." Faetal replied. "What happened to you though? You suddenly disappeared after 11 o'clock."

"Oh, I wasn't feeling that good so Kook walked me to my room...well...he was going to, but apparently I fainted half way there, and he couldn't carry me all the way to my room so he took me to his room, and I spent the rest of the night sleeping in his nest."

"But where did he sleep?"

"In the nest with me."

"What?"

"There was nowhere else for him to sleep, he had no other option."

"Did you?" Ballista asked.

"Did we what?"

"You know, you were sleeping in the same nest together, you must have done."

"What, no. No we wouldn't do that, I was unconscious all night."

"How do you know that you didn't when you were unconscious?"

"Don't be disgusting, Kook would never do that."

I was relieved when we could finish the conversation and enter the room, why would they think that me and Kook would do that, we can't do that anyway until we get married...that is, if we even decide to get married, now after what had happened last night, and what the girls said, I'm probably never going to look at Kook the same way ever again, we were both extremely quiet on lookout duty that morning, we didn't even give each other much eye contact, I guess that Kook is still slightly embarrassed from what happened last night, especially when I told him about the little conversation that went on between me and the girls.