Don’t leave me!
He walked away and not once did he look back. Her blurred vision stayed on his retreating form, her cries echoing around her.
His wings caught the fading light as he stepped out of their bedroom into the hallway, and the door began to creak close. Once it shut, it would be the end of them.
Wild desperation took over, and Dyna scrambled to her feet. She ran after him, begging and weeping, reaching for him. But the room stretched and stretched, and everything tilted.
Cassiel!
She tore open the door and skidded to a halt. The threshold ended at the edge of a cliff. It stood hundreds of feet high, with only blackness at the bottom. Something rammed hard into her back and shoved her out.
There was no one left to catch her. No hope. No safety. Nothing but a void as she plummeted through the dark.
Her body slammed into the ground with a sickening crack.
Dyna jolted up in bed. Frantic screams tore from her throat as she clawed at her head, checking for breaks in her skull and the blood that wasn’t there. The sensation of every bone and organ in her body bursting had followed her to consciousness.
And she felt those hands.
Firm and ruthless against her back. Thrusting her into the darkness. Over and over again.
Someone grabbed her, and she shrieked, swinging at them.
“Dyna! Dyna, it’s all right!”
“No!” she wailed.
“You’re all right. I’ve got you.” Lucenna wrapped her arms around her tightly and rocked her as she sobbed. “Shhh … it was a dream. Only a dream.”
Dyna shook her head, her eyes brimming with tears. It wasn’t. It wasn’t merely a dream. Because it kept plaguing her every night for the past week.
It always ended the same.
With her falling to her death.
Dyna sucked several gasping breaths, shaking violently, sweat slicking her clammy skin. No matter how hard she tried to wake herself, she couldn’t suppress experiencing the fall.
Not even the crystal could stave off her nightmares.
It glowed softly in the open drawer of their shared nightstand, completely useless.
Zev and Rawn stood outside of Lucenna’s bedroom door, their faces grim and exhausted. None of them could have a good night’s rest because of her. She couldn’t bring herself to tell them what her nightmares were about.
But they knew.
Growling, her cousin stormed away. Glass shattered in the other room. “Damn him!” The walls rattled with another crash. “Damn him!” Zev’s enraged shout broke at the end. “Damn him…”
Dyna curled on the bed, shutting her wet eyes. She wasn’t the only one ... left behind.
“I am sorry, my lady,” Rawn said softly, then he went to calm Zev. But any attempts to pacify the situation were drowned out by another bang.
Lucenna cursed under her breath and quickly stepped out. “Stop it! This isn’t helping her!”
“What would help her?” Zev shouted.
“Oi,” Klyde joined in. “Keep your voices down. Do you mind not destroying the manor—” A crack of splitting wood cut him off.
“Tell me what would help her, Lucenna? He haunts her every hour of every damn day, and I can’t protect her from it! How is she supposed to forget this?”
