He pulls her closer until her chest is touching his. Cold radiates from his body. Every instinct tells her to pull away, to run, to do everything in her power to wake up from this nightmare.
But instead, she leans in. The pull of his power is stronger than her fear. Or perhaps her fear of her current fate is stronger than her fear of him.
“Why me?” she asks. “I was rejected. Surely there are scholars at Cygnus who could help you better than I ever could.”
“None of them are like you. It was your voice that woke me. That must mean something. You’re the witch with no way in. I’m the devil with no way out. We are each other’s only chance,Starling.”
She gasps at hearing the name her mother used to call her. Her eyes well. “What did you call me?” It’s been so long since anyone called her that. She’d forgotten how special it once made her feel.
He comes down to her ear. “Starling,” he whispers, sharp teeth grazing her skin. A shiver runs up her spine. His voice echoes, nearly luring her into a trance.
Stepping back, she stares down the devil before her—she’s read dozens of stories about them and how they play games with their words. People say humans constantly fall prey to their tricks. “So you’ll get me into Cygnus, and my debt will be paid once I learn to change the stars that have caged you here,” she says, mostly to herself, testing the sentence for traps.
“Exactly. That’s fair, isn’t it? I’ll save you. You’ll save me.” His breath is cold against her lips. “We’ll both walk away with exactly what we want.”
“And this isn’t a trick?”
“I don’t do tricks. I simply want my life back.”
She sees desperation welling in his eyes. “All right.” Her voice is unsteady. “I accept. Where do I sign?”
His laugh is sharp and sudden. “You sign with your soul.” In an instant, his mouth is at her throat and his teeth are in her neck. His power pours into her and changes her blood into something thicker, warmer. If she sliced herself open now, she’s sure that nothing but stars would spill out. Her body becomes white-hot. She closes her eyes and screams out in pain, but the feeling changes to something stronger—pleasure. It builds and builds as his bite tightens on her throat. She moans deeply, drunkenly, begging for more. What’s coming over her? Why is his touch turning her into an animal? She knows that some part of her, the rational part, would be appalled at her own behavior. But she can’t stop.
“I want more. Give me more,” she growls. She claws at hisback and tears the fine satin fabric of his black shirt. She wants his teeth on every part of her.
He laughs against her pulse before pulling back. Claudia’s blood drips down his chin and stains his teeth.
“You love the feeling of power, don’t you? Fulfill the bargain and you can have it all.”
She’s hardly listening to him. All she can think about is getting his teeth back on her body, and more of his power in her blood. She lunges for him, but in an instant, he’s gone.
“Dorian?” Her voice echoes so she can hear every ounce of desperation in it. The darkness purrs, and Claudia falls as the nightmare fades to nothing.
She wakes up screaming his name, and her whole body is shaking. She is back in her room, her snake on her chest, her heart in her throat. Her window is still open, and snow carpets her wood floor. She can feel pieces of her soul missing, wind whistling through her where careful bites were taken out of her essence. Blotches of blanched skin appear everywhere Dorian touched her as if he stained her with frostbite. A sense of shame wells up in her, knowing she begged for something that left her bloody and bruised.
But when she gets a hint of his power burning in her veins, it drives her right back to that heady, delirious need. His words echo in her mind:Fulfill the bargain and you can have it all.
She can’t help but wonder if she shouldn’t let herself feel it again. It’s a drug that makes her sick and wild and hungry for nothing else. A few drops unleashed a wave of otherworldly euphoria, but now, she’s left with a gnawing fear that nothing else will ever bring her such intense joy. She has this nagging guilt that she can’t pin down, can’t perfectly place or understand, but it’s like she’s jumped from a great height, and only now, halfway down the fall, has she realized that a leap of faith could so easily end in a fatal crash.
Was he even real? Was he, after all, too good to be true? Hadher wine-soaked, terrified mind conjured him, only to have that dream destroyed by waking up? She has to know. She has to check. Holding her breath, she reaches up and touches her neck, where she feels two wet wounds the size of fangs.
It was all just as true as she’d hoped.
And just as real as she’d feared.
ESCAPE
The existence of other realms is reality’s concession to the scholar’s curiosity. The mind, heart, and soul of an academic all demand their own dominion. Desires create Doorways, and those who dream of escape will always find somewhere to run.
The Book of Cygnus: Doorways 4:1–3
Since receiving her rejection letter, Claudia has kept it open on her bedside table. She doesn’t know why she didn’t throw it away immediately. Perhaps she enjoys using it as fodder for rage. As a reminder to never fail again. Claudia does well under pressure, and even better when in pain.
But this morning, it’s not a rejection letter.
Somehow, it’s rewritten itself.
Dear Claudia Jolicoeur,
