Somehow, I’d forget reality when I was there. They were the most vivid dreams I have ever experienced in my life. They were visceral.
I felt the heat of her body pressed against mine, the way it fit so perfectly. Smelled the wild flowers of her hair. Tasted the salt of her skin. Heard the breathy way she moaned my name, as if it belonged to her lips alone.
It was so real. Too real. And every morning, when I opened my eyes to find her gone, the loss hollowed me out a little more. It only fueled my desperation to get her back. To keep her from slipping through my fingers like sand.
In my dreams she began asking me to claim her. To mark her. Did she even really know what that meant, the gravity of such a thing? But in that realm, I was all too eager to both please and possesses.
“Where do you want it?” My teeth skimming her flesh, teasing, promising.
Goosebumps chased my touch as she trembled beneath me, her fingers twisting into my hair. “Anywhere.” A breathless plea. “Everywhere.”
So I marked her. My teeth sank into her skin as I laid claim to her.
That dream nearly destroyed me.
I woke into the nightmare of an empty, cold bed. Into the reality that she was gone, in danger, while I remained trapped in the safety of her home. Never had I felt more powerless. More useless.
The dreams that followed that one were worse. So much worse.
I could no longer touch her. No longer feel her, speak to her. But I could see her and the shadow that haunted her. The Sidhe King.
An invisible force held me back, as if I were locked behind an impenetrable wall. I was there, but I was nothing. Unable to act. Unable to save her.
I watched as she ran from him. As he caught her. Fire exploded through my veins, burning through the barrier that bound me. But still, I could not reach her.
She screamed.And my flames receded—just enough for me to see.
See him pinning her to the ground. See him climbing over her body like a beast.
Rage unlike anything I had ever known consumed me, too vast, too limitless to name. I roared for him to stop. Ordered him to let her go. I threw myself at the barrier over and over again.
But they didn’t see me. Didn’t hear me.
But I heard everything.
Heard the way she begged him to release her. Heard the laughter that rumbled from his chest, dark and delighted at her struggle, at her fear.
His movements were slow, deliberate, savoring the moment. He leaned towards her, closing the space between them.
She twisted, trying to turn her face away, and when she struck out, her hand meant to slap him, he caught it.
Her wrist snapped like a dry, hollow twig.
The scream that ripped from her shredded me. Tore me open, filleted me to the bone.
Tears streaked down her face as he caught her scream with his mouth.
And I lost my mind.
Lost it so completely that it ripped me from the dream.
I woke gasping—drenched in sweat, my room scorching hot.
The sheets beneath me had charred to ash.
18
ARIANA
