A very masculine, muscled arm.
Slowly, and swallowing back my terror at what was going on, I turned my head to the face of a man I knew and at the same time had no idea who he was. I assumed it was a dream, had to be a dream, but then his arm tightened around me again, and I did the only sane thing I could think of.
I screamed.
His eyes shot open, and he was on his feet in a shot, crouching down as if ready to attack. And growling.
Not human growling, animal-like growling.
I slapped my hand over my mouth, and his confused gaze shifted to me. He was sitting up in a pile of furs and his cheeks reddened as he straightened and rubbed the back of his neck.
“Good morning,” he said formally and bowed his head. “I trust you are feeling better?”
Hand still planted over my mouth, not trusting what I would say, I glanced around the tent. I was in a tent? I strained to remember what happened last night. I’d been at the asylum. I’d been dreaming about running through the woods… about finding a wolf…
And then another thought struck me so hard I forgot to breathe and was gasping for air as my hand fell to my side.
The guy, appearing to be twenty, maybe, started toward me worriedly.
I threw my hands up, and he stopped short, backing off. I waited for the voices to come, waited to see the visions that tormented me on a daily basis, but there was nothing. Nothing, but my own thoughts. Crystal clear and vivid. I glanced at him, a smile of disbelief spreading across my lips as for the first time I could remember, I was just me. Me, alone inside my head.
“Can you—can you tell me what’s going on here?” I asked, voice trembling.
His brow furrowed as he crossed his arms. “What do you remember?”
“I don’t—I was in bed, and I snuck out, and then I was in the woods…” I trailed off as bits and pieces came back to me. I’d been running, no not just running. I’d been chasing something. “A wolf, I was chasing down a wolf, but that can’t be right. Can it?”
He shrugged, not giving anything away.
I scowled at him. “To be fair, you should be giving me answers.”
His brow quirked, and he growled, sounding annoyed. “Is that right?”
Whoever he was, he was used to being in charge, I saw that plainly in the way he held himself. Broad shoulders and all, but those hazel eyes, they were amused. “Yes, seeing as how I’m the one waking up in the tent of a strange guy.”
I meant to keep ranting at him, but stopped myself short. Panicking, I should have been panicking, but instead, I felt strangely safe.
“If you tell me your name, I’ll tell you what happened last night, at least from my end,” he said in that deep, growling voice I was finding I liked quite a bit. “I’ll even start by telling you who I am.” He bowed his head again. “I am King Tristan of the shifters, alpha wolf, and ruler of this realm of Torolf.”
I blinked several times, started to laugh, until he glowered at me and I coughed to try and cover it up. “That’s it, I’ve lost it. I’ve completely gone insane. That’s great, just great.” I looked around, guessing they’d thrown me in the padded room again to calm down. Who knew what trouble I’d gotten myself into last night?
“Insane?”
“Yep,” I said, climbing to my feet. “I’m trapped inside my own head. They said this would happen, told me over and over not to give into the visions, and what do I do? I give in and now look at me.” I planted my hands on my hips and stared him down. “What?”
“You think none of this is real?”
“No, no I don’t,” I snapped. “You’re just another vision or whatever. A voice inside my head. None of this real. I’m going to step out of that tent and find myself right back in my room, with Dr. Tim and Beth waiting to yell at me for acting out again.”
He looked extremely confused, but what did I care? He wasn’t real. I marched to the tent and threw it back… to find more men and women gathered around fires as the sun rose in the distance, turning the sky shades of orange and pink.
I sputtered, even as my toes dug into the grass beneath my feet. I shut my eyes. It was fake, it had to be fake. But when I opened my eyes again, they were all still there.
A hand gently grabbed my arm and I jumped with a yelp.
“I hate to tell you,” the guy who called himself a king said as he stepped out beside me, “this is real. All of it, including me.”
I attempted to form words, but nothing came out except a squeak that I swallowed back.
“Your name? And this is me asking nicely.”
If this was real, then I was in a hell of a lot more trouble than I ever thought possible. And how was I suddenly feeling so sane? “Sabella,” I mumbled then cleared my throat. “Sabella, that’s… that’s my name.”
“Why don’t you sit down and catch your breath?” he suggested. “You appear quite pale.”
“Of course, I do. Where the hell am I?” I yelled, drawing the curious gaze of nearly everyone around us. I clasped my hands to my head, willing myself to leave this place and be back in my safe room, tucked away from the world. But nothing changed.
And the voices, they stayed away. As did the visions. I didn’t understand what was going on and it scared me more than I wanted to admit. And at the same time, I wasn’t scared. The guy stared at me, I couldn’t see his face, but I felt that stare at my back, questioning, wondering if I was… what, a threat? I started laughing, unable to stop myself.
He walked around to face me.
I shrugged. “What else am I supposed to do when I wake up in a weird place?” I sputtered through my laughter. “And honestly, I could be screaming right now.”
“I see,” he growled. “Would you like to sit down by the fire?”
“Sure, why the hell not?”
I glanced around the clearing we were in, but all I saw were trees stretching out behind us. I’d get lost if I set foot in there. Finding the asylum on my own was a bad idea. And what if the voices came back? And the visions? I shuddered to think of how bad it’d been lately and losing this clarity would be the end of me. I sat where Tristan, no wait, King Tristan, motioned, holding my hands out to the small fire.
A man dressed in what looked like leather armor, a sword at his hip, smiled at me, then with a puff of breath filled with fire, sparked the flames before me even higher.
My jaw dropped as I watched the flickering orange and yellow fire.
“What the hell are you,” I gasped/
He grinned wider. “Dragon,” he replied as he straightened.
As if that explained everything.
“You’re sure this is all real and not in my head?” I asked when Tristan sat down on a log beside me.
“I am quite certain,” he stated. “Now then, last night. What happened?”
“Nope, you said you’d tell me first, so your turn, buddy boy.”
He mouthed the words and his brow furrowed. “You’re going to be a handful, aren’t you,” he whispered before he cleared his throat. “Last night, we were here in our camp when—when something alerted us to a presence in the woods. We went to investigate and we found you, huddled in a ball, freezing cold, and babbling nonsense to the night. As if you were plagued by demons. You would not wake, so we brought you back here and warmed you by the fire to stop you from freezing to death.”
“And my waking up in your tent was what, accident?” I asked, feeling my face grow hot and not from the fire.
I’d lived in an asylum all my life, and Tristan was the first hot guy I’d ever spoken to, let alone woken up with. In a pile of furs. As if that was perfectly normal.
“You grabbed my hand in your sleep and would not let go,” he said lightly. “I would’ve been content curled up by the fire, but you seemed… troubled.”
My weird, chipper mood crumbled, and I glared into the fire. I was troubled. Always troubled. How did I tell him that? I was the loony from the loony bin that escaped. How had I even gotten out? I’d never
done that before, never felt the need to leave the place that kept me alive and safe from the outside world. Now here I was, out in the wild with strange people who found me wrapped in the throes of one of my fits. That was just great. Exactly how I wanted strangers to see me. The crazy girl. I sniffed hard and wiped at the sudden tears burning in my eyes, furious they were even there. I hadn’t cried about my condition in years, and I wasn’t about to have a full-blown breakdown right now.
“Sabella? Who are you?” Tristan asked.
It was meant to sound polite but came across as a demand. Yep, he was definitely royalty. It suited his attitude more and more.
“Sabella?” he repeated.
“I’m no one,” I muttered bitterly. “No one at all, alright?”
“I highly doubt that. Where did you come from?”
I chewed on my cheek before I mumbled, “An asylum from northern Maine.”
“Asylum?” he repeated sharply.
“Yeah, alright? You found the psycho in the woods, congratulations. Now just take me back, and I’ll get out of your way.” I pushed to my feet and marched to the trees, not sure which way the asylum was and not caring. I wasn’t wanted, I could tell that well enough.
Muttering under my breath about obnoxious a-holes, I picked a random direction and was barely a few steps into the trees before a warm hand dragged me back.
“What do you want?” I snapped, lashing out at Tristan, but his grip only tensed.
“You are not wandering around in the woods alone,” he argued. “Not after how we found you last night, and not—not when we aren’t sure if you’re a friend or foe.”
I yanked on my arm again, but his hand was like iron. “Friend or foe? What is this place, huh?”
“You’re from the human realm. Therefore you know nothing of our world,” he said, as if any of that made sense. “However, you could be lying to try and cover your tracks. You could be working for the darkness, and I cannot allow you to simply wander about my realm alone. You could be here to cause harm to my pack.”
How was any of this real? I shook my head furiously, sending my hair flying in all directions. “You know I don’t understand a damned word that just came out of your mouth.”
His hazel eyes took on a strange, golden glow as a growl rumbled in his chest. The insane notion that he was a wolf passed through my head, but that just made me burst out laughing again. It wasn’t possible, and neither was my wandering away from the asylum and into a realm where there were kings and people breathed fire.
“I will have my answers,” he warned.
“And I’ve told you what I know. I’m a crazy person, alright? As in I’m on drugs and locked in padded rooms type of crazy.”
His eyes glowed even brighter. “You seem quite sane at the moment.”
“Yeah, I know, I’m having an off day.”
“You’re being ridiculous.”
“I’m being ridiculous? Says the man who claims he’s a king.”
His growl was fiercer than before, and several of the people in the camp stalked closer, not looking very happy with my words. “Be careful of what you say.”
“Or what?” I challenged. I should’ve backed off, but no matter how real this felt, I refused to believe it was. It couldn’t be, not when my mind was clear, and we were in some place called Torolf. “You can’t control me, and you can’t stop me from leaving.”
I turned to try and go again when he lifted me off my feet and slung me over his shoulder like I was a sack of potatoes.
“Put me down.”
“Not until you promise you will stop trying to run off. It’s too dangerous out there for you.”
“Says you.” I wiggled, but it did nothing to free me. I gave up and went completely limp over his shoulder. “Just put me down already.”
“You swear you will not run off again?”
I crossed my fingers behind his back as I replied. “Not yet, anyway.” I held my breath, waiting to see if he’d buy it, and hid my smile when he went to put me back on my feet. The second I was free of his reach, I ducked under his arm and bolted.
There was a time in the asylum, when I’d been younger, that I hadn’t been so open to help. I’d learned how to dodge orderlies and nurses quiet efficiently, until the voices and visions grew worse and I realized how important the nurses and orderlies’ help was for me.
The trees were a yard away when a blur of fur shot into my vision, and I ran smack into the side of a giant beast. My hands buried in the fur, amazed at how soft it was, and how big.
This wolf… it was the one I’d seen in my dreams.
I stepped back, panicking, as that massive head turned toward me, narrowed eyes focused on my face, lip lifted in a snarl.
“Tristan?” It wasn’t possible, but the second I said his name, those hazel eyes glowed with the same golden color in answer. “No… no, this can’t… you’re a…”
I shook my head, the voices creeping back in again.
I shook my head harder, violently, but I knew what was coming.
The wolf whined as if worried, but I couldn’t see him anymore.
I staggered back into someone else. I was spun around, and the second those two hands clamped down on my shoulders, I was thrown into that hell I never wanted to see again.
I cringed, trying to break free, but the vision dragged me down deeper and deeper.
My entire body convulsed with the force of the images, and I collapsed, mouth open in a silent scream, begging for it to end.
7
Tristan
What did you do?” I snarled the second I shifted back.
Forrest still had his hands on Sabella’s shoulders, falling with her to the ground.
She shook, worse than last night as he stared at her in confused panic.
“Nothing! I swear it.”
Her head flew back, as if trying to break free and I wrapped my arm around her middle to try and make the shaking stop. The moment my skin touched hers, her mouth clamped shut hard, and her eyes opened wide, but as I looked more closely, I knew she wasn’t really awake. They were glazed over, foggy almost and the realization of what Sabella was crashed over me less than a second before the words tumbled out of her mouth, ringing with the same intensity I heard last night.
“He grows stronger with each passing day. He uses them, uses their power. You must find them, find them and stop him before it’s too late.”
“Where are they?” I demanded, no longer feeling nearly as sympathetic to her. “Where?”
“In a cell in a castle, in the midst of a maze with no center and no end,” she replied in the same tone. “I know not where. You will find what you seek if you look to the night sky, King Forrest. You cannot be blind to the signs. You cannot… cannot falter…” A shiver rushed through her, and she sagged against me, breathing hard, and said nothing else.
“Damn it,” Forrest growled. “It’s Kate and Craig, it has to be.”
I nodded, but all I could do was stare at Sabella. She wasn’t just some crazy human who wandered into our world. She was a seer. My arm tightened around her, wondering if I should chain her hands and keep her in a tent with an armed guard.
I hated seers, all my kind did, but until we found Craig and Kate, she was our only connection to them.
That did not mean. However, that I trusted her in any regard of the word.
Suddenly, she thrashed, screaming, as if in pain. “Stop it! Make them stop.” She wailed it over and over again, lashing out as if trying to fend off an attack.
Forrest and I did our best to grab hold of her limbs before she hurt herself, or us.
“Sabella,” I said sternly. “You have to come back to us now. You are safe.” That was a lie, partially. She was safe from whatever she saw, but not safe from me. “Sabella, find your way back. Open your eyes.”
When words didn’t work, I cupped her face in my hand, and instantly she stilled.
I caught Forrest staring at me curiously.
; Whatever he was thinking was wrong, I gave him a sharp look, daring him to say anything about it. He kept his mouth shut, and I called for Hank and Danielle, one of my more serious guards, to pick her up and carry her to her own tent.
“And keep an eye on her at all times,” I ordered. “I will not have a seer wandering the river lands.”
A chorus of wary growls traveled around the camp. She would be safe from harm as long as I said she was not to be touched.
A seer.
Of all types of beings to find in the woods, we found a seer. This was perfect. We hadn’t seen one in these parts for centuries and then she turns up? It was too much of a coincidence to not be a coincidence. She was here for a reason, and until I knew more about her, she would remain under lock and key. Her story about being a crazy human could be a cover.
Boris’ face remained carefully blank, but I sensed the same suspicion in him.
“You think she’s a threat?” he asked as he reached my side.
“I don’t know what to think, not yet, but she’s a seer, and that’s bad enough.”
“I understand your need for caution, but times have changed, and we have not seen a seer in many years,” he said slowly. “Perhaps, she is here for a reason.”
I stared at him curiously. “Yes, to aid the enemy and harm my people.”
Forrest had been watching my two guards carry Sabella away, but once she was out of sight, he joined us. “She knows where they are, but I didn’t understand half of what she said. Did you?”
“In a cell in a castle with a maze with no center and no end. And something about the stars that seemed to be directed at you,” I muttered. “We need her to tell us a bit more coherently.”
“I don’t think that’s how visions work for them,” Boris pointed out until I glared at him.
Asylum (Dragon Reign Book 6) Page 4
