She frowns. “But what?”
I close my eyes and sigh. “But once you do this, there’s no turning back.”
She scoffs. “I’ve already gone over this with Nightmare. Just do it, for God’s sake.”
A laugh slips from me and her face brightens. My God, what I would do to keep that look on her face—always.
I could name some things.
Shut up, Nightmare.
“I’m going to release my Nightmare and it’ll find your Nightmare. You’ll be doing most of the work. I’m just here to guide you.”
She nods firmly.
Then I let go. Nightmare roars as it’s released, finding Chelsea’s magic and latching on. When her magic explodes from her, her Nightmare is gold.
Of course it is.
My power pulls hers into the inky cloud, and it searches, looking, finding what needs to be reined in. Beside me, Chelseastares at the images, her eyes flicking right and left like she’s processing faster than I ever could.
And when she finds a nightmare?—
“Wait, that one’s too big!”
She reaches into a long stretch of dark hallway where a creature writhes—all teeth and claws and primal terror.
The kind of nightmare that took me weeks to learn to handle.
Before I can stop her, her golden magic wraps around it like chains. The nightmare screams. Thrashes. Fights.
Chelsea doesn't even flinch. She pulls it into herself, and it dissolves into light. Gone. Consumed.
Holy shit.
I stare at her, open-mouthed, wide-eyed. But she doesn’t flinch. She doesn’t even register that she just did the unfuckingbelievable—taking a whole nightmare and swallowing it, first try.
And she keeps going. Like that’s only the beginning. She devours them, and all I can do is watch her golden light destroy, cut down and sever nightmare after nightmare.
When she’s finally done more than I ever did on my first try, I squeeze her hand.
“Pull back.”
“No,” she insists.
What the fuck have we created, Eryx?
A beautiful fucking monster, Nightmare.
Chelsea takes the terrors in, over and over, only stopping what must be an hour later, when she’s finally sated.
Slowly, quietly, the thrum of her magic drops to a simmer as she pulls her Nightmare magic to her.
The air still buzzes, electric. The walls hum and I’m surprised Stave hasn’t stopped in to make sure we’re all right.
And Chelsea?
She glows.
