Sweet Dreams

by Bolryder, Terry

  “Lorien did say he had been here,” I say.

  “He did? And he still came for you? That’s truly a dream mate,” Josh says. “Because this place is dangerous as hell.”

  “It is?”

  “Not right here around the castle. But yes, as you let your dreams die and locked your heart. You didn’t guard against the monsters that ate away at your dream realm. And those monsters have grown very large.”

  As we continue to walk over the barren, burned landscape, the trees and the castle fade into the distance behind us, and up ahead, I see only black, cracked ground with bits of red fire peeking through.

  And beyond that, something is moving.

  “Oh God,” I say, putting a hand to my mouth. “What is that?”

  He looks at the monster. “Damn. Huge-ass scarlath.” He cocks his head. “What on earth creates one of those?”

  I raise my eyes all the way up the creature, taking it in. It’s like a twisted dragon. Ugly, shining dark-brown body with horribly twisted limbs and blazing red eyes. It’s crawling over the landscape, burning everything it can see.

  Then it pins one eye on us, and I feel a shiver down to my toenails.

  And I know exactly what creates one of those.

  I can see the face of my stepdad in my mind and then every man after him that I hated.

  But really, I can see myself. My own self-hatred. For not being better. For not protecting myself. For ruining things for my mother and others.

  For not being good enough to not be hurt.

  Anger rages inside me, the anger that has always been there. At myself. Surely, if others aren’t hurt, then it’s my fault I was.

  Which is probably what led others to keep hurting me and my anger to only grow.

  “See the truth, queen,” Josh calls out from behind me. “The scarlath is born from lies.”

  I take in a deep breath, but my memory is so clouded. It feels like more than I can take, facing all of this.

  Why was I so stupid as to believe I was loved? If only I hadn’t thought my stepdad loved me—

  The scarlath is growing now, his head rising to the sky. His eyes are burning.

  “Wrong way!” Josh yells. “You’re going to get us killed in here!”

  I close my eyes and try to think, and all that comes to me is Lorien.

  His face so gentle and happy to see me. His arms stretched wide every time he appeared.

  In the alley.

  In that dream on the beach where he made me come from only a kiss.

  When he rescued me from being raped at gunpoint.

  When he moved in and picked up all the trash.

  All this time, Lorien has been fighting for me.

  That last time, even with his whip.

  I need to fight for him. I need to fight for us, but how?

  “Even amongst hate, there can be love,” Josh says quietly.

  Josh is right. My love and hate are intertwined and multifaceted, but I have always loved fiercely, even when I hated myself.

  I love the women I fight for, every one of their stories. And yes, perhaps I took too much joy in hurting the men that hurt them, but I truly did want a safer world.

  That love burns within me.

  I do love my friends and most of humanity because, deep down, when I allow myself forgiveness, I do know that most of us are trying our best.

  Like many imperfect people, I would die for those I love.

  That love burns within me.

  And I do love Lorien. From the moment I met him, I didn’t want to believe he was real because he was just so wonderful, and I didn’t feel like I could ever deserve him.

  But when I told him that, my deepest, most horrifying secret, he only held me and loved me and showed me his own secret wounds.

  I have to help him. I have to find him. I have to save him because I want to hold him in my arms for the rest of my life.

  I want him to only smile, and after everything I’ve seen, I have to believe him when he says he loves me.

  And I have to love myself.

  Complicated, violent, damaged but resilient, strong, and passionate me.

  As I try to see myself the way Lorien does, all I can feel is how good he is.

  And as I do, heat rushes through me, feeling like it will burn me alive. It’s such a foreign sensation, all this power, all this love.

  And I realize there is something in my hand, something cool to the touch but extending in long, glowing tendrils of yellow heat.

  I hear a low whistle and look back to see Josh. “Holy shit, pardon my French. Yeah, you’re going to do fine at the auction.”

  “I really do love people,” I say. “I really do want the best for those I love. I really do have the capacity to care about almost anyone, but right now, Lorien needs me. So I’m glad that I’ve always had this fierce love.”

  Josh just chuckles, taking a step back. “Go get ‘em, princess.”

  I lift my hand, concentrating on Lorien’s face as I flick it back down, hearing the whip crack at all ends.

  The scarlath stiffens, watching me. I walk toward it, cracking the whip again, and it tries to take a step back.

  I throw my arm back and then forward, and with all the strength in me, I strike the scarlath, wrapping it in glowing yellow tendrils of light.

  And when I snap my whip back, the scarlath disappears in black smoke, suddenly nowhere.

  “Great,” Josh says, coming up from behind me. “You’re a natural. Now let’s hurry up and cross the void because that’s nowhere near the last thing we’ll face on the way to get your prince.”

  I crack my whip with a grin. I’m more than ready.

  25

  Lorien

  “You can’t do this!” I yell, banging on the crystal that’s holding me, half-naked, on display for everyone I don’t want.

  I’m floating in the air thirty feet above the courtyard of sparkling pastel rainbow granite beneath.

  The place where all the queens who wish to claim me for their harems will duel.

  Because now no one believes I have a dream mate.

  “Come on, Lorien!” Lena, a pink-haired warrior in shimmering pink armor, calls up to me, a glimmer of lust in her eye. “It won’t be so bad.”

  Carna, a queen with sky-blue hair steps forward, catcalling with a whistle. “You’ve been alone a thousand years! Time to let a real queen do the job.”

  I guess I’m the job, I think with a shudder.

  I knew I was pushing it, staying single so long as such a desired warrior. My kingdom let me rule even, and no one disrespected me for the fact that I wasn’t claimed.

  Part of that is because I fiercely claimed to have a dream mate and wouldn’t let anyone talk me down.

  But when they called me back and held me at trial for the violent things I did in the human realm, they decided I could no longer be allowed to go without female control.

  I sink down in the crystal, ashamed of my nakedness, which I would only want to show to my dream mate. I’m naked from the waist up, oiled and polished to perfection, and I have only a long, shimmering blue loincloth that drapes to the ground with small, tight shorts underneath.

  I feel utterly exposed, and I hate it.

  But what hurts most is that Tess let me go.

  And now I’ll never see her again.

  A queen from a kingdom I’ve never heard of steps forward, already pulling out her whip, which cracks in the air. It’s long and blue like her dark-purple hair that shimmers with black in it.

  Damn, that’s a powerful whip.

  “I will take good care of this warrior,” she says, armor gleaming as she moves directly under the crystal, trying to get a good look at me.

  I slam my fists against the crystal, giving her my best death glare.

  “He has spirit. I like it.” Her whip cracks again. “I will tame him.”

  “I heard he killed in the human world. Imagine that,” Nera, a light-purple-haired queen steps forward, pulling o
ut her whip. “He’ll need training. I can do it.”

  “We should be gentle with him,” Lena says, pulling out her whip. “After all, he traveled to other worlds, desperate to find his dream mate. He truly isn’t right in the head.”

  I slam my fists on the crystal again, but with my dream link on, my magic is once again limited.

  Damn, I never realized how controlling queens in other kingdoms were, how many freedoms I was allowed in my realm that other warriors didn’t get.

  It makes me angry that I could see the flaws in the human world so well but not the flaws in my own. I lean back and kick against the crystal, trying to break it once again.

  “Yes, he has spirit,” Carna says, her pink eyes gleaming as she steps forward, pulling out a long handle with a short length of whip at the end. “I’m sure he’ll be passionate in bed.”

  My face goes white, and I swallow tightly. I’ll die before I betray my dream mate.

  But how? With my dream link on, having been labeled a murderer, I have no control.

  If only Reve and Jerrek were here, but they’ve been staying with their dream mates to watch over them, and honestly, for their sakes, I’m glad they weren’t retrieved.

  “We should never have let you go to that world,” Artena, my sister, steps forward out of the crowd. Her hair is dark blue with hints of purple and pink and teal, just like mine. I love her, but at this moment, she has betrayed me. “I thought you were fit to rule, Lorien. And I never wanted to force your choice of soul bond, but you give us no choice.”

  “That’s right!” Lena says, her eyes heated with lust more than righteous anger. “He’s a murderer. Someone will have to take him in hand.”

  Every cell in my body crawls at the thought of her touching me.

  I don’t care what they do or who wins me. The second I’m out of here, I’m pulling out my whip.

  “I didn’t murder!” I say. “I told you I tried to apply reflexive punishment, but the cowards chose to die rather than receive what they were about to dish out!”

  The men in the alley… I should have known that night would haunt me.

  But either way, Tess just doesn’t trust me. She doesn’t love me like I love her, and it has been hopeless from the start, I suppose.

  Still, I will love her with every breath in my body until I die.

  “Don’t be dramatic, Lorien,” Carna says. “You still killed them. You’re a warrior. It’s common for warriors to get caught up in rage and lose control.”

  Lena nods next to her. “Testosterone is a dangerous drug. Truly, it is good that we have long since been in control. The human world is proof of what happens when males are left to run amuck.”

  “The human world is the dark realm!” I shout. “And you’ve been banishing fae there so much that my dream mate was born there! You must let me go back to her now!”

  She isn’t safe alone in that world.

  “Lorien.” My sister’s voice is stern as she steps forward. “You know we have been fair with you. More than fair. But stop with this ridiculousness. We let you explore many worlds and badlands, trying to find this so-called dream mate. But now you say she’s in the dark realm? You have gone too far, and it is clear she doesn’t exist.” Sadness fills my sister’s eyes just for a moment before she straightens. “We are being lenient with you, not evicting you for murder.”

  “Evict me!” I shout. “I’m a big bad murderer!”

  “No,” Lena says, licking her lips as she comes forward. “That would be a terrible waste of training.”

  “We’ve been waiting for you to choose for hundreds of years!” Carna says. “It’s time to decide it on our own.”

  “He’s the highest scorer ever at the warrior training academy,” Nera says, purple hair gleaming as she walks forward, her whip shining ominously. “He deserves a powerful queen. And I have room in my harem. He goes to me!”

  Her whip cracks, and the other queens consider for a moment.

  “I’m sorry,” Artena says, looking up at me. “I promise, brother. I will see you are happy.” She eyes Nera. “I will not see anyone mistreat you, no matter what.”

  I bang on the crystal again, not caring. “Give me back to my dream mate! I need to go home.”

  “This is your home!” Artena says, clearly frustrated now. “Lorien, there are rules for a reason. They protect everyone, ensure order and control.”

  I hang my head, seeing the flaws of my world, the things I should have seen coming, only when it’s far too late.

  I believe that Artena won’t let anything happen to me. But I’m strong, and I could take any of them. And I hate that I’m not allowed to fight for myself.

  Perhaps this is why I always felt so angry in Tess’s world. Because I could see how women were treated there… and I could feel the echoes of their rage… in myself.

  Though the queens here aren’t raping and murdering, they have control of my life and final say on everything.

  And all because I was born a prince instead of a queen.

  Humiliated, I sink to my knees on the floor of the crystal, ignoring the catcalls below as the queens crack their whips, deciding who will fight first.

  I tilt my head against the crystal, banging it lightly.

  If I can never see Tess again, who cares what happens to me anymore?

  26

  Tess

  By the time we reach the edge of the badlands and green grass finally appears, with beautiful rainbow clouds across the sky, Josh and I are covered in ash and dust from all of our fights.

  Most of it was me doing things with his direction, but still, I couldn’t have done it alone.

  “We’re close enough that I can now get you to where you need to be in the dream fae realm,” he says, panting.

  I look back at him with gratitude, but he’s simply using his hand to draw something in front of him. And as I look closer, it’s a rainbow whirlpool that grows quickly until it’s large enough for someone to step through.

  “I wouldn’t return to that world for anything,” Josh says solemnly. “But go save your warrior and tell him I’m sorry for messing things up.” He grins. “I did mean well.”

  I nod. “Anything I should know before I go through?”

  “Just that it probably won’t be easy, as the best queens from all realms will probably assemble for Lorien.” He sighs. “But if you love him, you will win. Best of luck, queen.”

  “I will see you again soon, once I’m triumphant,” I say.

  But Josh just blinks and is gone. So I step into the rushing portal of rainbow smoke that lies ahead.

  It’s like walking through a tunnel, though I can’t see with all the swirling rainbow lights and blinding smoke. I keep my hands on the smooth, cool sides of the portal and continue moving until I stumble and fall forward and end up sliding on my butt toward a hole through which gleams pure white light.

  Then I tumble out of the rainbow smoke onto something hard and unforgiving and find myself on my hands and my knees, panting in shock.

  I close my eyes, take a deep breath to steady myself, and then open them, gasping as I see the most beautiful stone I’ve ever seen beneath me.

  It’s like granite, but it sparkles with every color of the rainbow in soft pastels that I don’t want to look away from.

  But as the whooshing air of the portal fades, I realize there’s a lot of talking, maybe yelling, and as I push to my feet, I see why.

  There are lots of figures standing in a wide courtyard made of the same material beneath my feet.

  They’re all tall and wearing armor that shines like Lorien’s. Some of them even have whips out, and some are more terrifying than Lorien’s.

  Long hair in every color of the rainbow. Some more saturated, some more pastel. Beautiful, flawless faces in all skin tones gleaming in the sun.

  And they all have… boobs?

  “What is this?” One of them, with dark-purple hair and matching armor, who looks to be almost six feet, walks over to me
, armor clanking as she does. “It’s so filthy.”

  I cringe, looking down at my dirt-covered clothing. “Ah, yeah.” I brush off my knees and remind myself that I care for nothing but Lorien. That’s why I’m here. I throw my hair back in tangles over my shoulder. “So what?”

  I look around to see dozens of women staring at me and a crowd beyond that.

  “Tess!” a familiar voice calls, and I whip around, trying to find it. “Tess, get out of here!”

  That panicked, beloved voice could only be Lorien, but where is he?

  My gaze lands on a woman with hair like Lorien’s, and I notice her gaze flicking upward, above us.

  I slowly turn and feel rage light me up like an overdecorated Christmas tree.

  “Who the hell did that do my dream mate?” I yell, stepping back a bit so I can truly see Lorien’s predicament.

  He’s in a large, transparent crystal-shaped cage, and he’s barely dressed, the silky blue loincloth and tiny shorts covering only the barest essentials. The rest of his perfect muscular body is on display.

  Maybe Josh was right about the dream fae world.

  Lorien’s hands are pressed to the glass, and he looks panicked for me. “Don’t any of you dare hurt her! When I get out of here, I’ll kill anyone who tries!”

  “So unruly,” the purple-haired woman says, staring up at him with a grin. “Just imagine that much passion in bed.”

  Wrong thing to say.

  In an instant, my whip is in my hand, and its glowing tendrils are flying out toward her. She doesn’t even have time to move before my whip locks onto her neck, hands, and ankles, and she only has a split second to look shocked before I heave my whip back over my shoulder, sending her flying behind me as my whip disengages.

  I turn to look passively as she soars through the air and lands in the crowd somewhere fifty feet back.

  I glance up at Lorien, who is staring in shock, looking from me to my whip. Then I look at the crowd where some of the women are taking a step back toward the others. Away from Lorien.