As I tried to make sense of it, a woman’s figure materialized above me as she stood on a gray cloud far above. Her green eyes gleamed with hatred, and her untamed, curly red hair danced around her like flames. Her lips contorted in a sickening smile as she orchestrated the nightmare playing out around me.
I strained to recognize her, but I couldn’t. There was no way I knew her.
The nauseating blend of sulfur and bloodfilled the air, a mixture of my mother’s and Dex's scents. It clawed at my nostrils and stirred memories of the cellar. My heart thundered in my chest, the pounding of it echoing through my bones as I struggled against the nightmare.
Sharp, scorching shadow tendrils held me down as more lashed into my flesh, searing pain etching into me so deep my back bowed in agony. The flesh of my thigh, stomach, and back was both burned and cut off my body. They were Mother’s favorite place to hurt me, but…it wasn’t my mother controlling the shadows.
A familiar face stood above me with a sneer on his face. White blond hair coated in my blood fell into his gray eyes, and my heart squeezed with betrayal—even knowing this wasn’t real.
Dex.
Tears welled in my eyes as the realization crashed over me.
I was pinned there, trapped under a blitz of shadow tendrils just like I had been my entire life.
My garbled screams were lost in the howling winds of his shadow magic, and my power stayed dormant withinthe nightmare.
“Gravesend!”Dreadful's shouts cut through as sharp as shattered glass. She was screaming, hurling insults and curses at me that blended with my torment. My throat was raw and searing from my attempts at screaming, the taste of coppery fear heavy on my tongue.
“Wake up,” Nebula hissed, tearing through the nightmare with the black sludge of his soul.
I woke up, eyes flying open as my heart hammered against my ribcage. My sweat-soaked sheets clung to my skin like they were the tendrils that held me down. I struggled to escape their grasp, but the residual terror of the dream still clawed at me.
“What the actual fuck, Gravesend?” Dreadful shrieked, clutching her covers as she sat on her bed, the epitome of a princess getting her beauty sleep interrupted.
Every time I shut my eyes, I saw Dex in my mother’s place, shadow magic slicing into me relentlessly.
With trembling hands, I ignored Dreadful and scooped up Nebula, putting him in my bag before fleeing the room. The cool air of the hallway did little to soothe the burning in my lungs as I stumbled into the common area.
Skel's presence startled me as I noticed him, slouched in a chair next to the window. He was the only person there, probably because everyoneelse was still sleeping. I didn’t even know what time it was, but the moon was still high in the sky.
I shivered, wrapping my arms around myself, and realized I was in a black silk nightgown that hit my upper thigh. Thank Fates, I slept with the wrapping on my thigh. I wasn’t thinking when I left, I just knew I had to leave that room.
Skel hadn’t noticed my arrival; instead, he looked trapped in a nightmare of his own. Thin wisps of smoke curled from the pipe between his lips, but his eyes were clouded with fear.
“No, don’t! I don’t want to die,” he whimpered, the pipe moving with each word. “Don’t kill me…”
Something overtook me at the desperation in his tone, and I found myself standing over him, my voice a scratchy whisper of concern and pain. “Skel?”
“What?” He blinked, the fear in his gaze fading as anger replaced it. “What the fuck, princess? Don’t fucking do that! Why would you come over here? I don’t wantyounear me!” A snarl of anger screwed up his lips as his words stung like ice against my already fragile emotions.
I flinched but stood my ground, my instincts wrestling with themselves. Part of me wanted to tuck tail and run, but a stronger part wanted to comfort him. He’d been so scared. Of what? Death?
“I...I just wanted to help," I managed to say, my throat raw and aching from my attempts at my screams over the nightmare. “You looked scared.”
Skel's red-rimmed green gaze bore into me, his anger shifting to something else. “I looked scared? What the fuck is wrong with you?”
I opened my mouth to speak, but I couldn’t; the nightmare still haunted me. And my throathurt.
He saw the tears fill my eyes that I couldn't hold back, and his features softened in a way I’d never seen them do before. “Woah, Pandora…do you, maybe, need to talk?”
Tears streaked my cheeks as I nodded. “Yes, but not with you.”
“Don’t be like that.” In a swift movement, Skel reached out, fingers curling around my wrist, and he tugged me down on top of him. “You need to talk? We’re going to talk like this, princess,” he murmured, the nickname a mocking reminder of my nobility status.
I straddled him—in my nightgown—in the common area where anyone could walk in.
Panic went haywire in my heart, but I didn’t move. It was more like Icouldn’t.Some force held me there, in his arms, and heat streaked down my spine.
