by Noree Cosper
“No,” I pound my fists into his chest. “This isn’t real. Everyone I loved has betrayed me. You won’t get my love from this dream.”
I awoke to find Nimue leaning over me with a scowl marring her perfect features. She inhaled, closing her eyes, and her expression became more serene and pleasant as she exhaled.
Her smile held a brittle edge to it. “I see we are going to need several sessions.”
I rolled onto my side away from her, curling into a ball. Nimue didn’t understand that all the love had withered in me, leaving an aching hole behind. The door screeched open and slammed closed.
She returned a few hours later with more sleep dust and more dreams. The same process continued for days. Nimue would try to entice me to give her love or adoration through some sort of trickery. Each time she would grow more frustrated. I awoke the latest time to a sting as her nails raked my cheek.
“I will break you, one way or another.” She stomped to the door, yanked it open, and exited with a slam that resounded through the tiny cell.
I was left alone for several days, which was both a relief and a dread. The room didn’t provide much in the way of distraction so my thoughts tended to drift and always found their way back to Colin and the coldness in his voice with those last words to me.
I pushed his image from my mind and tried to focus on other things. Had Dylan managed to escape with Gwen? How could I escape this place?
I had no voice, no magic, and no hope. I didn’t have Morphy anymore. How long would it take before the Sandman came looking for me? Would there be anything left when he did?
I clenched my teeth and drew a deep breath. Yes, I’d make sure there was. I didn’t have a way to physically escape, but I would fight for my will, because it was the only thing I had left.
Nimue returned shortly after I had made the resolve. She’d stood in the doorway with a smug smile on her crimson lips. She’d dressed in a gown the same color as her lips that had a scoop neck revealing a large amount of her cleavage.
“I’m off for a visit with the Prince of Dreams,” she said. “But I’ve brought you company.”
She stepped to the side and Vaughan, the steward of Bedlam, stepped inside the room. A buzzing flooded my ears and things began to snap in place. Someone high up had to been able to sneak Dreamless into the city. If not the Mara, then Vaughan was the most logical choice. His dark eyes seemed to undulate as they focused on me.
“Poor Vaughan had to flee Bedlam from the Mara thanks to you. I lost a good spy there.” Nimue sighed. “Still, I’m not one to not reward loyalty. You’ll be Vaughan’s plaything from now one. Since you won’t love me…your fear can be put to use.”
Vaughan’s smile spread from ear to ear, creating slits in his cheeks, and a row of pointed teeth peeked out from under his lips. “The best thing about my banishment is that I have no duties here to distract our time together.”
I sat up, pressing my back against the wall. I may not have been inclined towards love, but plenty of fear rested in my heart. He’d have no problem manipulating it.
29
I run through the snow as well as my little legs will allow, dodging past the trees. Home lies just beyond this forest.
Something is wrong. The smell of smoke permeates the air. I break through the tree line and let out a wail. My house is covered in flames. My mom’s charred body lays out in the front, melting the snow around her.
A small black dragon flutters above her. Its shape morphs into a tall Fae with long white hair. The Sandman, my father. He stares at me with undulating black eyes and his smile reveals pointed teeth. Something isn’t right. The Sandman’s eyes are gold, not black.
“Your mother was not enough to sate my appetite,” he says. “Come, daughter, let us see if your dreams can fill me.”
The sound of my own screams jerked me awake. I stared up at the ceiling, panting.
“So, you’re the daughter of the Sandman.” Vaughan’s voice seemed to flow across my skin, leaving a chill in its wake. “Interesting. I had started to doubt he was still alive.”
I swallowed the lump in my throat and glared at him.
“It makes more sense how you are able to pull yourself from my grasp.” He moved closer to the bed. “Now that I’m aware, the next nightmare won’t be as easy to break from.”
I wasn’t sure how much time had passed since Nimue had left him with me. My waking moments were becoming shorter as he repeatedly pulled me under a sea of fear and dread. I had to stay aware in my dream and look for the slightest bit of incongruity to try to break free, which was both simple and hard at the same time. The nightmares were always a twisted version of my memory.
Vaughan leaned over me with a chilling smile. “Let’s go again, shall we?”
I pressed my neck back in the pillow as far as it would go as he reached for my face. The blackness pooled over me, dragging me under.
I walk through the blood covered halls of the Pleasure Palace. The carpet squelches the liquid out, splattering my boots with red, every step I take. Bodies line the halls and the faces of dead witches stare up at me accusingly.
I brought this death to their doorstep.
The tang of copper fills my nostrils and sends my stomach churning so badly its rumble echoes in the air. I gulp and stagger down the hall towards the open door of Colin’s room. Feminine legs lay outside of the door with the rest of the body inside. I peek around the edge. On the floor, one of the triplets stares up at the ceiling with a deep gash in her throat.
I pull my arms to my chest and dig my fingernails into my arms as I close my eyes again. I don’t want to see anymore. I need to wake up. I open my eyes to find myself still at the door. My feet move through the entrance even though my mind is screaming to run the other way. A cry escapes my lips as the bed comes into view.
Colin is propped up with his back leaning against the headboard and his hands resting on his stomach. Blood drips from the thousands of cuts across his chest and arms. I rush to him with a sob and my hands press on his chest and his neck. This can’t be real.
Dylan’s laugh echoes from behind me. “I see you found my gift.”
I slowly turn. He stands in the doorway. His hands are stained red from the elbows down and his shirt is dripping rust. His undulating black eyes glitter in the flickering candlelight. A coldness settles in the pit of my stomach at those eyes.
“I’d never let anyone else have you.” His voice changes to Nimue’s “You can love only me.”
“Don’t listen to him,” Colin’s voice whispers in my ear.
I stiffen and grit my teeth, but keep my gaze on Dylan. I can’t deal with seeing that mangled thing speak.
Dylan frowns and turns his head in an odd direction. “Stop that.”
A feather light touch of warm fingers brush my cheek. “Aneira, look at me.”
“Don’t.” Nimue’s voice has grown deeper and masculine. Not Dylan’s, but familiar.
I turn my head. Colin is sitting beside me, whole and clean, his eyes brimming with life and something else. With a gasp, I take his hand and press it to my cheek.
“This isn’t real, Aneira,” he says. “You need to wake up.”
My bottom lip trembles. “I tried. I can’t”
“I’ll help you then.”
His lips descend on mine. His warmth flows through my veins.
“No,” Dylan roars.
He shifts into something huge and black. The smell of rotting wood fills the room. The thing flies at us.
Colin takes my hand, threading his fingers through mine. “We can do this together. Imagine light, happiness, love.”
I stare at Colin’s face, not having to imagine anything. A burst of white light erupts from our hands and blasts the creature. With a gargled scream, it dissipates into motes of darkness.
“Good.” Colin smiles down at me. “Now, where were we?”
He kisses me again.
I woke with Colin’s lips still on mine. He pulled away a
t my gasp with a wry grin on his face.
“Figures, you’d choose to wake up when things were finally getting good.”
30
Reality crashed around me. This wasn’t dream Colin. This was the Colin who joined with Nimue. I shoved him away from me and sat up with a gasp. I backed into the corner of my bed and sent him a death glare.
“You’re still upset about earlier?” He sat back on the edge of the bed. “I get it, but you have to understand it was all just a trick. One of us needed to get on Nimue’s good side so we could get some sort of lay of her palace.”
My brow wrinkle up as my fingers twisted the bottom edge of my shirt. This could be some sort of new trick Nimue was playing.
“She didn’t trust me, of course, especially when she failed at enchanting me. I’ve been escorted by her Dreamless for the past two weeks. They follow me everywhere.”
Two weeks? Was that how long I’d been in this hellhole? It seemed more like centuries.
“I’ve only just been able to shake them with some help. I came after you as soon as I could.” He stared down at where Vaughan lay on the floor unconscious. “I didn’t expect him to be here. So, he was a plant, huh?”
I licked my parched lips as I looked at Vaughan. He was sprawled with one arm bent at an odd angle under him. Blackish red blood trickled from his nose. Relief shot through my chest, lightening the heaviness that had settled there since my imprisonment.
Colin tilted his head at me. “Why aren’t you saying anything? You’d usually be running your mouth at me by now.”
It figured it would take him until now to notice that. With a quick jerk of my hand, I pointed at the choker around my neck. Here was the test. Nimue wouldn’t risk letting me speak just for one of her games.
He moved his hand closer and stopped. “Mind if I look?”
I nodded.
His fingers ran over the band. “There seems to be a lot of rune work on this collar. Looks like witchcraft. She must have had one of the Dreamless make it. I need to see the back.”
I turned around and pulled my hair over my shoulder. His fingernail moved in an upward slashing motion followed by a diagonal across the back of the choker. It fluttered into my lap. I let out a deep breath, feeling as though a vise had been released from around my neck. I drew a wheezing breath and rubbed my throat.
“There. Better?” he asked.
“Yes.” My voice came out in a hoarse croak as I faced him once again.
“So, you want to yell at me now?”
“Don’t think I can.”
“Then how about we get out of here and meet up with some friends before any Dreamless happen to walk in?”
I nodded to Vaughan. “What about him?”
“Hmm, let’s take him with us. We can stash him somewhere.”
I crossed my arms. “And how are we supposed to get past any Dreamless in the hall?”
He stood and strode to the wall across the bed, taking out a charcoal pencil from his pocket, and drew an R with all angular strokes. I remembered the rune from my mother’s teaching. It was Raidho, the rune of travel. He rested his hand on it and concentrated. A spiral of orange energy formed and grew to encompass half the wall.
“Like this,” he said.
I stood up and grabbed the choker as Colin came back over and picked up Vaughan and slung him over his shoulder. I walked towards the portal, giving the room a final glance over. There wasn’t anything I would miss from the place, and Nimue had taken all of my stuff. The room left a bitter tasted in my mouth and I itched just to get out.
Colin grabbed my hand. “Wait.”
I started, glancing up at him.
“I want to say I’m sorry.”
I scuffed my foot on the ground and wouldn’t meet his imploring gaze. “I’d really thought you’d gone to her.”
“If there had been a better way.” He let out a sigh. “Can you forgive me?”
A lump rose in my throat. The sting of the betrayal still churned around in my chest. I took a deep breath and tried to consider it with a logical mind, something even I knew I wasn’t great at. Nimue had us captured and was crazy enough to put both of us through what she did to me. Colin really had done what he could, given our circumstances. When he’d been able to, he’d come back for me.
I exhaled, letting the hurt go, and met his gaze. “Yes, I forgive you.”
His smile lit up his face. “Your eyes are really something, by the way. They swirl in this rainbow pattern. And your ears are pointed now, like mine.”
My hand went to the top of my ear. I hadn’t thought on what had changed about my appearance after she took my amulet. I hadn’t had a mirror to see.
“Let’s just go,” I said.
We stepped through portal into another cell, except there was only a leather lounge chair in this one. Rhydian lay in it, in a half-reclining position with his wrists strapped to the armrests. A silver circlet with glass jewels filled with shimmering purple energy sat on his forehead.
I glanced at Colin with wide eyes. “You cast a portal to here?”
“It’s fine,” he said. “This place has too much magic running through it for Nimue to notice a little bit more.”
“We’re here to rescue your dad then,” I said.
“Yeah, she has him hooked up to this dream she’s trying to brainwash him with. She brought me into his dream a few times to try and convince him. It hasn’t worked.” He stared down at his dad with a gentle smirk. “He’s really stubborn.”
“She still let you in his dreams, even though she couldn’t make you love her?”
“I still pretended to be on her side,” he said. “It’s been really hard.”
I gave Colin’s fingers a gentle squeeze and drop my hand to my side. He exhales. The wrinkles puckered up on Rhydian’s forehead and a grimace formed on his mouth. He was still fighting whatever Nimue was doing to him.
“What about the others?” I asked.
Colin let out a sigh. “Captured, but other than that I don’t know. She wouldn’t tell me. I saw Leri once. She’s Dreamless now.”
I gritted my teeth as my stomach bubbled. “She’s probably keeping some sort of tabs on your dad’s state. If we do free him now, she’s going to know. We need to get to her power source first.”
“Problem is, I don’t know where it’s located. But Dad might. He’s known her for longer than any of us. Besides, I don’t thing destroying her source would help him.” He ran a jerky hand through his hair and stared at me with pleading eyes. “This might be my only chance. Whatever we do after she’s going to know.”
I bit my lip and nodded. “What do we have to do?”
“Take my hand and touch the circlet on one of the jewels. I’ll guide us into his dreams.”
He took my hand as I offered it. My fingers splayed over a red jewel. I closed my eyes and inhaled, counting to ten. A floating sensation filled my head.
I open my eyes to find us standing inside a small pub, near the door. Jasmine-scented smoke fills the room, casting a haze over the dim purplish lighting. Several tables are spaced out in the center, but the room is empty apart from us and an obscure trio in the opposite corner.
Colin nods to them. “It always starts out like this.”
I step forward and feel a resistance, like I am walking underwater.
“Yeah,” Colin says. “You don’t belong here so the dream resists you. You have to exert your will on it.”
“And how do I do that?”
“Focus. Make yourself a part of the dream.”
I close my eyes and imagine I am one of the patrons walking through this pub, relaxing after a long day. I open my eyes and take a step forward. No resistance meets me this time.
“Nice disguise.” Colin lifts a lock of my hair and holds it in front of me. “Definitely not you.”
My hair is a lavender with a wave to it. Definitely different than my usual white. In making myself part of the dream, I’d become a different person. I touche
d my ears and felt the pointed tips. That made sense. A Fae would best fit in a club like this.
I pull away the lock. “Can we get this over with now?”
He takes my hand and tugs me forward until we are within hearing distance of the trio. As we draw closer, Rhydian, Nimue, and a witch come into focus. Rhydian stands with his back to me next to a female witch with her arms crossed. Nimue stand across from them over a table. She leans forward, resting her palms on a table with her nails clacking against its surface. She casts a narrowed glance with a devious smile at the witch.
“Rhydian,” Nimue says with a laugh. “Enough playing with your witch. Come home with me.”
“You’re on about this again?” Rhydian’s annoyed voice travels to my ears. “Go back to your hundreds of adoring Fae. I hear you even have the Prince eating out of the palm of your hand.”
Her bottom lip pushes out in a pout. “But they’re not you. What we had is special.”
“It’s over now, Nimue,” Rhydian says. “I have Dafina. She’s all I need.”
“You can’t be serious.” This time Nimue’s laugh has an edge. “What happens when she turns old and gray, when she withers and dies like her kind always does?”
Dafina, the witch, seemed to stiffen.
“Why isn’t she saying anything?” I whisper to Colin.
He shakes his head and leans close, so that his mouth rests near my ear. “I think it’s one of the problems that Nimue hasn’t managed to work out yet. Probably why he keeps rejecting the dream.”
Nimue’s eyes land on us and she points at Colin. “Look, Rhydian, this is the son I will give you. She can give you nothing.”
I snort. So, that’s how Nimue added Colin to this mess. She’s using lies to convince Rhydian that Colin belongs to her and not Dafina. Colin’s jaw tightens and his fists clench. Rhydian turns our direction and his eyes widen. Dafina also turns our direction, but her face remains hidden in shadow.
“No…” Rhydian’s brows knit together as if he’s trying to hold onto an elusive thought. “That’s not right.”
