“I’m askingyou, Shadow Bringer.”
He sighed. “The Maker designed it, fearful that humankind would forget themselves within the Realm. It’s one technique of many used to determine whether one is awake or simply dreaming. Out of habit, however, dreamers still tend to breathe. Or to feel the ghost of their heartbeat.”
“Strange,” I murmured.
In the Realm, blood spilled. Pain bloomed. Emotions burned with rage and chilled with fear and loneliness. The Dream Realm could look and feel real even during its most unbelievable moments. But noheartbeat? The Realm was a strange place, and this was perhaps its most unnatural quality of all.
The Bringer stopped, and I collided into his back. “What are you—”
“Get down,” he commanded, yanking me to the grass.
We had arrived at the pond. The cottage, its walls decaying and covered in filth, was no longer dark or silent; its windows glowed with light, and conversation drifted from between its cracks. Inside, the boy could be seen talking with two adults—his parents, perhaps, since they shared his dark, finely crafted features—as he offered bundles of food with a hopeful smile.
“I thought we couldn’t be seen,” I observed, shifting so I wasn’t eating the leaves of the undergrowth the Bringer had thrown us into.
“It depends on the dream,” he said simply, peering intently at the cottage and everything else beyond it. Mist passed around us like a shroud, lingering atop our backs and turning the Bringer’s hair into a veil of its likeness.
“Then why are we hiding, exactly?”
The Shadow Bringer looked at me as though I were a fool. “The demon.”
I ripped my attention away from the cottage, eyeing every shadowed corner within the clearing. And there weremanyshadowed corners. Most of which were also draped in mist.
“You’re theShadow Bringer,” I remarked, sounding more nervous than I wanted. Where was the demon hiding? What could he see that I couldn’t? “Subdue it with your wicked might or something.”
“My wicked might?” He reached out as if to grab me by the chin, but stopped, instead fixing me with an exasperated stare. “If I were its lord, then why would I be hiding in a bush? You’re a foolish creature.”
“I’m no more foolish than you,” I shot back. He made a logical point, but his tone irritated me. I wasn’t a foolish creature. I wasn’t something to be ignored or thrown aside. And I had a name. “I’m eighteen. Not a foolish creature—an adult.”
He arched an eyebrow. “Age does not beget maturity.”
“That’s interesting, considering you’ve been alive for centuries and are still a—”
“Time doesn’t exist when you’re a ghost,” he said angrily. “It stopped for me the day I was sentenced to rot in my castle.”
“I see,” I said, biting my tongue against another cruel retort.
“If you wish to prove your worth, Esmer, then call out your sword and give it to me. I have a demon to kill.”
“Use your own sword,” I snapped, bristling. If I gave away my sword, myonlyweapon in the demon-infested Realm, I wasn’t sure I’d get it back. And I really didn’t want to take that risk. “It’s mine.”
“My power is weakening. Not yours, it appears.” He moved closer, his body nearly touching mine. If I leaned forward, we’d be embracing. “Give it to me.”
“I don’t think so.”
His scowl twisted up a bit, revealing the edges of his teeth. From my angle, they looked more akin to fangs. “Am I to strangle the demon with my bare hands?”
“I’d love to see it,” I challenged. “I’m sure you’d fare just fine.”
My palm tingled, thrumming with power and urging me to let out the sword underneath. Gritting my teeth against the discomfort of burning skin, I willed the sword to return to the depths of its original resting place.
But the sword fought back. It sprang to life in my hands, gleaming wickedly, and the Bringer pounced, making to pry it from my fingers.
Except the sword resisted, slamming him hard on the ground with a blast of shadow.
He gaped at me from where he was thrown. “You willed it toattackme,” the Bringer spat, flicking some dirt from his helm.
“I warned you first. It listens to me, not you.” Except I wasn’t surewhythe sword had exploded like that, throwing the Bringer back with monstrous force, but he didn’t need to know that.
