Fern’s cry of terror had my body going rigid, but that wasn’t enough to wake me. My visions were like a wolf and once they had me in their teeth, they did not let go until they were done with me.
“No…! No!”
Her eyes were wide, her face perfectly pale, those lips of hers pulled back in an ugly scream. My hands moved restively, raking along the sheets, and still the dream went on. Helpless, I just stared as I watched Auren rise up abruptly, too concerned with something else that was going on to realise what she was doing to her rider.
Hold on, I thought furiously.Hold on!
My vision shifted me in closer, enough that I could hear the frantic rasp of her breath, see how white her knuckles were, trying to retain her grip on the saddle horn, but not so I could do what was needed. To cover her hands in mine, treasuringhow small they felt as I gripped them tight, lending her my strength when hers failed.
“No…! No, no, no, no, no…”
My mouth moved to say the same words, right as I heard Fern gasp them out. Her terror was a perfect reflection of mine. “Hold on…” I murmured, thrashing on the bed. “Hold on.”
But of course, she couldn’t.
There was an inevitability about all of this. Since I was old enough to remember my dreams, I’d watched people I loved die. Over and over in increasingly baroque ways, I was forced to observe every single death as hopelessly as I did now. One of Fern’s fingers spasmed, pulling free, and that started the rest. She didn’t pant out any words now, just an animal scream of desperation.
Right as she lost the fight.
My view shifted abruptly. I was much further away now, feeling Argent shift beneath me. Just a tiny little figure, no bigger than a doll, her limbs flailed through the air, trying to grab onto something when there was nothing to save her.
Except me.
Argent—!
I know.
My dragon was huge, powerful, and his wings sliced through the air as he zeroed in on Fern, but as was always the case in my dreams, he was not powerful enough. Dragons zipped in and out of our path, maddened by something, and Argent’s roar replicated my own, forcing them to flinch back.
But we weren’t close enough.
One last look of terror, that’s what I caught, right as her body hit the water, the dark sea swallowing her seconds later.
Dain!
Argent’s voice, the culmination of my vision, had me jerking up off the bed and then moving. Not to protect the woman that owned my heart. Instead, my knees dropped to the ground the moment I reached the lavatory. The stink of bleach and othermen’s piss greeted me, right as my guts lurched, expelling a gut full of water, salt stinging my throat.
That was a true dream, my dragon said as I retched and retched. There was nothing else to throw up, and yet my body couldn’t seem to stop.You must get word to your woman and warn her.
The same feeling of helpless horror I felt in my dreams rose up, a wave intent on drowning me.
Tell her dragon, I shot back, right as I rose to my feet, still shaking. Splashing water on my face was an automatic thing, but it just had the memory of my vision rushing back. A towel was snatched from the railing and I dried my face with it, wanting the rough scratch of the fabric to ward off seeing the moment when the sea claimed Fern.
I tried.There were few times I’d heard my dragon sound chastened, and this was one of them.She was furious that I woke her and then even angrier when I told her what you saw. There is no way Auren will let Fern slip from the saddle.
Except that wasn’t the way life worked. No one meant to die a horrible death and yet it happened over and over and over. I stared into the mirror then, my scowl greeting me. My face was pale, too pale, almost greenish in cast. For just a moment, it wasn’t Fern drowning, I saw, but the persistent flicker of flames.
I would not revisit those memories today.
Pulling on my armour, brushing and tying back my hair, I left the room right as the other cadets started to wake up.
Where is she?I asked my dragon as I ran down the stairs.
Making for the meals room, he replied, and that had my eyes closing.
Gods, this would be hard enough to do without a damn audience. For a moment my feet slowed, not wanting to take another step, but of course, my mind would never allow that. It showed me plainly what would happen if I did not act.
And sometimes, even if I did.
