Shadows move in the dream, wrapping around the humans and lifting them from the ground. The remaining guards are strangled by the darkness, falling to the floor with heavy thuds just as Amadeus’s hands plunge into the chests of the two shackled humans. He drops their hearts to the ground, and the shadows release the corpses.
It all happened within the blink of an eye. Young Maven struggles to cover her shock, trying to compose her face despite the moisture gathering in her eyes.
The Entity leans to whisper to her, and I can barely make out the words. “You are weak. If you had obeyed, they would all yet be alive.”
“I don’t kill innocents,” she says, voice breaking.
“There is no such thing as a true innocent. Every being has a dark side—and you must becomeonlyyour dark side. Then, you will be my telum.”
He straightens, moving to the doors. “You failed this test. Dagon will take you to the dungeons for your punishment.”
When the doors close behind him, I feel a change in the dream. It’s Maven’s memory now as her face crumbles. She drops to her knees beside the two dead humans, biting back a sob as she scrambles to grab one of their hearts. My throat tightens as I watch her whisper dark words, some ritual as she tries to return the hearts to their owners.
Again and again, she tries.
They remain dead. Her sobs wrack my body with aching sorrow.
I need to take this dream away so it will stop hurting her, but when I try to reach out with my own subconscious, a shock of alarm and fury rocks this dream space. Pain cripples me, bringing me to my knees as the true owner of this dream—the Entity himself—realizes his mind is not alone tonight.
All at once, I’m removed. I stumble out of Limbo, catching myself against the wall of the dark cottage as I try to catch my breath. The slumbering scene before me is as serene as I left it, except now Maven rouses, her eyes seeking me in the dark.
She cannot see as well as I do, but I move closer to brush my fingers against her cheek.
“I’m here, love.”
Her voice is hoarse. “What just happened?”
“We lost your dream to that bastard again.”
She’s disoriented as she gently disengages from Crane. He’s out cold, sleeping extremely soundly as he has ever since his curse was broken. I suppose he must catch up for all the sleep he lost as a paranoid madman, though it is a shame I don’t see his eye twitch nearly as often.
I grasp Maven’s hands in the dark to steady her as she leaves the bed.
“Gods,” she breathes, shuddering slightly. “I need to get rid of this awful energy.”
I nod. “Shall we, then?”
We leave the cottage, but we only make it a few steps before I realize she’s only in an oversized black T-shirt and the deliciously scandalous pair of dark red panties that came with the lingerie I gifted her for Starfall Eve.
She looks edible. Though she may not be cold in this temperate Sanctuary, my attention drops to her bare feet.
“I’ll get your boots,” I offer.
“Don’t bother. The grass is nice.”
Maven takes a deep breath, tucking her hair out of her face and taking in the midnight blue sky. Tiny streaks of the aurora borealis have begun to wind their way through the heavens, creating an ethereal scene as we walk away from the guest cottage out into a seemingly endless, surprisingly well-maintained field of grass.
My keeper is quiet for a long time as she walks off her restlessness, but the silence is companionable. Finally, when the cottage is nearly out of sight, she stops and turns to study me curiously.
“Food is optional for you, but is it possible for you to sleep?” she asks.
“Only after I take my muse.” I tip my head. “When shall we schedule the ceremony, by the way?”
“Ceremony?”
“When an incubus takes a muse, they can only do so through a ceremony in one of Syntyche’s temples.”
After all, the goddess of reaping is also the goddess of fate, dreams, and time itself.
