I ripped the hat off Grump’s head, and he sagged in the chair, gasping.
“Are you okay?”
He panted, dragging a hand across his sweat-soaked face. “I’ll live.” His eyes found mine, still glazed with pain but sharp with something else. Determination. “Who killed your mother?”
The question cut through me. I looked down at the hat in my hands.
“I don’t know. It was a dream, but I think it was more than a dream. It was… it was a memory.” My voice came out small. Hollow. “She locked me in a chest to hide me. I only heard voices.”
The memory surged up—darkness, the smell of cedar, my own muffled breathing. And beyond the wood, screaming. Flames. A man’s cold voice.
“But then I climbed out of the chest. I wanted to be near her.” I swallowed hard. “She uttered a spell, and a bubble formed around me. I floated away.”
Tears blurred my eyes. “But I could see her. Fire exploded around her and she screamed.”
A sound came from Grump—low, broken, barely human. I couldn’t look at him. Couldn’t bear to see his face.
Strong arms wrapped around me. Darius. I could feel him protecting me, shielding me from my past.
But some things can’t be erased no matter how hard we try.
Chapter Twenty
Darius
Alice clung to me, and I held on tight to her. Her whole body trembled against mine, small and fragile in a way she’d never let herself be before.
No one should have to endure such a nightmare. When she'd first told me about the dream, I'd assumed it was just that—a dream. Fragments of memory, maybe. Twisted by time and trauma. Not literal. Not true. But based on Grump's revelations, they were only too real.
Every horrific detail.
King Cormac was ruthless. A half-breed child—part witch, part Unseelie—would have been a threat to his throne. Of course he’d sent someone to destroy her. To destroy them both.
I thought about what Alice said. The man’s voice. Cold. Commanding.
A face formed in my mind. A face I had buried deep, locked away where it couldn’t touch me.
Someone I should never have forgotten.
My blood ran cold.
Grump dragged his fingers through his hair. “I don’t know anyone in the Elder Dimension that has the power to wield fire.”
“Corina wasn’t murdered in the Elder Dimension,” I said. “And since you destroyed the portal, none of Cormac’s men could get through.”
Alice sniffed and pulled away from me. Her red-rimmed eyes searched my face. “But it was in our world.”
“I know.” Her tear-filled face fueled an anger I didn’t even know I had. “I should have realized when you first told me about your nightmare. But I had forgotten him.”
Alice went still. “Him? You know who killed my mother?”
The name sat like poison on my tongue.
“I think I do. Faas. He’s a Dark Demon. He was one of King Ryder’s key commanders when Ryder and Cormac were trying to conquer Alice’s world.”
“You mean like Ari?” Grump asked.
“Yes, but he’s not a shape shifter like Ari. His power is fire. He can throw fireballs.”
