“I can’t breathe!”
I pull her into a hug. “Slow. Breathe. I’m here.” Chelsea slowly inhales a ragged breath. “There. That’s better. You’re safe.”
She’s not safe.
“Eryx.” She curls her hands into my sides. “Our magic.”
“Shh. We’ll worry about it in the morning.”
Chelsea pulls back and looks at me. Moonlight slices over her face, and she shakes her head. “What happened?”
“She pulled you into a nightmare.”
We can’t keep her safe.
Shut up, Nightmare.
“It’s all right now.”
I kiss her. Chelsea’s rigid, but after a few moments she exhales into me. I pull her back down onto the bed and wrap my arms around her, holding her tight.
She whimpers a little, but I smooth her hair and tell her everything’s going to be all right.
It isn’t,Nightmare whispers.Nothing will be the same now.
As we lie in the darkness, I feel our combined power, but the connection is brittle. The power feels like an angry red scar carved into my stomach.
Right below the claw marks that are now fully healed.
The magic is charged, but in the wrong way, like it’s ready to backfire at any moment.
I’m afraid of what’s to come.
I go very still. As long as I’ve known Nightmare, it’s never been afraid. Worried? Maybe. Bloodthirsty? That’s an understatement. In love? Absolutely.
But afraid?
Not until now.
And that terrifies me.
Which means there's something it's not telling me.
The next morning Chelsea moves slowly—getting dressed, eating breakfast.
She says very little. It feels like my heart has been ripped out and handed back to me, useless.
But wait—there’s one thing I know. Helena has taken me by surprise twice. It won’t happen a third. It’s time to take her down—together or not at all.
“We need to eat the nightmares,” I say after lunch.
Her eyes widen in fear, and the urge to rip everything apart makes my fingers flex—for her, to save her.
“We need to try,” I coax gently.
The truth is, our power has feltwrongall day. All fucking day, but neither of us has said anything to the other. Like we’re both scared to.
And Nightmare hasn’t been itself, either. It’s gone quiet. Not resting—watching.
