“Aesira.” The voice nipped at her ears and another memory sprang forth. The crawlers from the desert. This was similar and all she had to do to break from their spell was keep control of her mind.
Only she hadn’t done it alone.
Stone had been there. He’d woken her up. Saved her.
She squared her shoulders and lifted her chin. There was no one here to save her. Her mind was the weakest weapon in her arsenal but right now it was all she had. Ghost-like fingers ran up her arms, sending a chill down her spine.“Aesira, come.”
She scurried from the phantom touch, toward the water, digging her toes into the rocks, the sharp points pressing under her toenails.
It’s only a dream.
One foot submerged and the sun flickered. Flashes of gray and wings and death spewed across the sky. Aesira bit her tongue harder, this time to stop a scream. A push came from her back and the whispering voices were like leeches in her ears, teeth taking hold of her heart, her head.“Come home.”Another foot hit the water and then there was no sun left. Darkness stretched across the sky, blacking out the meadow and silencing the birds.
Water lodged in her throat as she was pushed under, eyes bulging and arms and legs pumping as she flailed for a way out.
Swim, a distant voice in the back of her mind called.
Fight.
She willed herself to calm, smoothing her arms and legs around her. She knew how to swim. She’d done it a few times in the spring when they were children. Before she was sent to the Order. She just needed to remember.
Her legs stretched behind her, her arms in front and she propelled forward.
Shadows darted beside her, inky and fluid like the water. She focused in front of her, her lungs on fire, when a tug pulled on her leg. She flipped to her back, a dark shadow wrapped around her leg, then the other, tying her down. Kicking, she fought until her muscles burned and head grew dizzy. The shadows wrapped tighter, squeezing and pulling her down.
This is only a dream.
A dream.
Aesira’s training kicked in and she decided to test her theory. If this really was a dream, perhaps she couldn’t die.
Her body went slack, preserving her energy, as the dark shadows ran up her legs, around her middle, over her neck, into her mouth. They wrapped her completely, her body encased in darkness. Only when her back hit the ground beneath, did she wriggle her fingers, loosening a sharp rock embedded in the bottom of the spring.
The shadows held her tight, moving around her body like a serpent. But her lungs, while frantic,worked.
Just a dream.
She angled the small rock between her knuckles, sharp edge pointed out, and when the shadows slithered across her body again, she punched as deeply as she could into one of them.A wretched, gurgled screech burst in her ear, but she did it again and again, jabbing any shadow she could reach. She nicked her own leg in the process, hints of blood floating in the water around her. But she didn’t stop. The shadows screeched, still squeezing her body, but with every slice of the rock, their grip loosened more and more.
“Aesira, don’t fight.”
She ignored the familiar voice, fighting the shadows wrapped around her legs until she was free of them. The one in her mouth shriveled away, leaving her exposed, nothing to keep her lungs from filling with water. Fire engulfed her lungs as she shot toward the hazy surface.
Almost there.
She was almost there.
An achy gasp leeched from her throat as she emerged from the water. Lungs heaving, she tore at her chest, pulling off dark tendrils of the shadowy figures that still clung to her like vines. The gauzy dress from the dream was gone, she was back in her black armor, boots tied to her feet. The sun began to rise, bleeding into the sky, turning it a dusty pink.
She was on the ridge.
Relief and exhaustion crashed into her when a noise came from her right.
Bee.
Aesira stood on unsteady legs and ran to her. She was still asleep, whimpering, her brows bunched tightly together. “Bee,” Aesira said, grabbing hold of her shoulders. “Bee it’s just a dream, wake up.” She shook her again, harder this time until her eyelids fluttered open.
“What happened,” Bee said through a sob. “Where are we?”
