Phaedra drew in her breath. “Are you real?”
The ethereal animal pivoted away and trotted deeper into the milky mist. She followed, hurrying to catch up as the fog thickened and the tall hedges turned one way, then another.
Breathless, Phaedra rounded a corner—and there she was.
No longer the white doe, but a woman illuminated in a soft glow.
She was tall and graceful, with luminous, gentle golden eyes ringed in thick lashes and a face so beautiful it almost hurt to look at her. The long dark hair Phaedra remembered was now snowy white shot with silver.
“Mother?”
She smiled. “Oh, Phaedra.”
A choked cry caught in Phaedra’s throat. “It really is you?”
When she took a step forward, her mother took a step back, giving a sorrowful shake of her head. The thin outline of light that surrounded her trembled with her movements. “You cannot touch me, dear heart. I can only maintain this form from a distance, and only for a little while.”
Phaedra swallowed past the knot of emotion in her throat. So many emotions. Shock, amazement. Regret that she couldn’t walk up to her mother and embrace her, if only for a moment.
“It was you. The white doe in my dreams all those nights—in Micah’s dreams too, leading both of us into those barren woods.” Phaedra stared at her, feeling a niggling confusion begin to seep into her heart. “It was you in the Dreamscape?”
Sindarah nodded soberly. “It was the only way. I had to reach you somehow. I had to take the chance.”
“What do you mean? Take what chance?”
It took her mother a moment to say the words. “Interfering with destiny.”
Now it was Phaedra who drew back. Her voice came out hoarse, hesitant. “What are you saying? What did you do?”
Yet even as she asked the questions, a cold understanding settled over her.
“Phaedra,” her mother said, her careful tone only making the dread worse. “The two crystals used to destroy our realm must be found . . . before their power can be unleashed again. Nothing is more important than that, do you understand?”
She shook her head. “What does that have to do with me?”
“Your father and I know where the crystals are located, but we cannot retrieve them. They’ve been kept somewhere no one from our realm can go. Only the Order can do that. Only their human who is no longer human.”
“You mean Jenna. Only she can access the Ancients’ ship because of her changed DNA.”
“Yes.” Sindarah tilted her head, remorse in her tender gaze. “What Jenna would not know is the location of the ship, nor had we any way to make it known to her. So, we had to wait. We had to hope that one day, the tide would turn and we could nudge fate in our direction.”
“What does that mean? Nudged fate, how?”
“The warrior, Micah. When I felt his presence near the barren forest several weeks ago, I knew he was the one who could help. I could feel his honor, his courage. I couldn’t reach out to him or guide him while he was awake . . . so I led him into the Dreamscape instead.”
Phaedra closed her eyes as the realization sank in. “And then you led me there, too. Why?”
“Because only you would feel the crystals’ nearness. You were the bridge to connect their location with the key required to retrieve them.”
“You used me,” Phaedra whispered. “You used both of us.”
Her mother made a broken sound. “Would that there had been another way, we would have chosen it. But all our hopes rested in you, my dearest heart.”
“So, the Dreamscape . . . it wasn’t real at all?”
Sindarah’s silence was answer enough.
Phaedra lowered her head into her hands and blew out a heartsick sigh. “We believed it. We believed all of it was true. The Dreamscape. The soul bond. Our connection to each other. None of it was real at all?”
