Surprise coursed through Airess. She hadn’t realized Morana had stayed behind and defended her, despite their falling out.
Arhzel scoffed at his sister. “And I will be herKing. I can do with her as I’d like. Now, get out of my way, Mor.” Arzhel barreled past Morana, through Taryn and Airess’ dreamforms, and exited the room.
A blanket of shame fell over her as she met Taryn’s gaze for the first time after entering the room. He wore a pained expression as silence fell between them. Airess wished she could leave, wished she could run away.
Why? Why show him this memory? Why make her relive it?
As Taryn opened his mouth to speak, a gaping hole beneath Airess opened up. It sucked her in and her surroundings faded away. She fell through the stars, relieved she was leaving Taryn behind. She didn’t want to talk about what he had just seen.
Finally, Airess materialized in an unfamiliar hallway, the walls adorned with intricate crown molding and painted portraits. The floor beneath her was made of dark emerald tiling, expanding as far as she could tell in either direction of the hall.
It was when a servant walked by that she realized she was in a castle, one she had never visited before in the dreamworld. Thunder rumbled beyond the walls. The building groaned as if it was withstanding a great wind.
“So then what would you have me do?!” a frantic feminine voice bellowed beyond a door in the distance. Airess felt that familiar pulling sensation and let it guide her down the hallway to a grand arched doorway.
She walked through the doors.
Airess walked into what seemed to be an office, a room intricately decorated with dark ornate rugs and armchairs. Bookshelves made for walls on either side of her and a large oak desk dominated the space before it.
A massive window expanding from the floor to ceiling gave Airess the view of the nasty storm clouds brewing around them. That is when she realized all she saw were endless clouds, as if the castle was perched in the sky.
Pacing before the window was a young Fae woman with long, wild curls the color of caramel that cascaded to her waist.
She wore sheer fabric that wrapped around her body–and her pregnant belly. An odd fashion, Airess thought, yet beautifully unique. The woman’s eyes were a striking green as she turned to face the Fae male leaning against the wall with his face in his hands.
Finally, the male looked up, his black lashes matching his cropped hair. Worry wrinkled between his brows as he looked at the female. “There’s only one other option, Rinya.”
“No,” Rinya said firmly and set a hand on her swollen belly. “Leaving is not an option. The babe will need their father.”
The male shook his head. “And if the babe truly is a boy? What then? You know he will be killed the moment he leaves your womb.”
Rinya looked away and retreated to the windowsill. “Tevye is vast. We can hide as long as we need to–”
“No, Rinya! Do you hear yourself? Yourbrotherjust declared any male baby born this season to be slain! He will have guards waiting the moment you give birth. You have to cross.”
“I will grow old, Tann.”
“When the babe is grown, you can come back,” Tann said as he took Rinya’s hand in his. “There’s still a chance for us all.”
“No one has ever returned after crossing the wall. We know so little about the Old World. Who knows if our immortality will ever return?”
“It’s a price I’m willing to pay if it meant you both lived.”
Airess inched closer to the couple as Rinya squeezed Tann’s hand, only a foot away as she watched them. Airess looked out the window, the gears in her brain finally flowing at the mention of the word Tevye. The same lands that belonged to the bedtime stories her mother read to her in Airess’ childhood.
Airess watched the angry storm clouds, realization dawning on her that somehow, someway, she had dreamwalked into the very fairy tales her mother had told her about.
As Rinya opened her mouth to reply, a gaping hole began to manifest in the floor, warping the furniture around it and sucking Airess in.
“No!” she shouted into the void as she fell into the blackness, desperately wishing she could have stayed.
When Airess woke up in the dead of night, she couldn’t help the nagging feeling that the universe was trying to tell her something. Who were those people? What were her dreams trying to tell her?
And if her mother knew Tevye was real, why did she lie about it?
Chapter 18
After Death created her Godling, the other four Gods had to follow in suit. It was the only way to create balance within the world.
