“Same time tomorrow, then?” Blaise asks before straightening and turning towards the exit.
“Actually, there’s one more thing I wanted to talk to you about. A favor,” I say sheepishly.
“Anything for you, Aimee.”
I wring my hands together nervously, my palms suddenly clammy, before gathering the courage to speak.
“How dangerous do you think it is now to conduct an extraction operation in the Fae lands?” I ask with precaution.
“Very. But if there’s one vampire that can do it, that would be me,” he says smugly. “Who do you want me to kidnap?”
“Not kidnap, Blaise!” I splutter. “Extract.”
“You say tomayto, I hear tomahto, kitty cat. Who?” Blaise says without an ounce of care.
“You remember my friend Sariah, the one I told you about before?”
“The mind always in the gutter, pixie Fae?” Blaise wiggles his eyebrows mischievously. “Color me intrigued, kitty.”
“It’s not safe in Ryawarath anymore, Blaise. She was my closest friend before all of this.” A heavy sigh breaks free from the confines of my soul. “I wish she were here beside me. Safe. As safe as any of us can be during these turbulent times.”
“Consider it done.” Blaise nods solemnly.
“But don’t be brutish about it, Blaise. Not like you were with me,” I add as an afterthought.
“I would never!” He clutches his chest in mock indignation. “Leave the kidnapping to me, cariad. You’ll have your friend here in no time.”
“Cariad?” I frown at the unfamiliar nickname. “What does that mean?”
A shadow of a flush pinkens Blaise’s cheeks for a hot second. “Nothing. Just a silly moniker I would have called you in an alternate timeline.”
He swiftly takes his leave, almost as if he’s running away, before I can probe further.
What alternate timeline?
“Come find me, my child. Bring him with you.”
I wake up with a gasp, rattled by the eerie voice that keeps invading my dreams lately. It’s not really a nightmare, but I always wake up in sensory overload, my brain trying hard to piece together a puzzle I have no recollection of.
A nagging feeling that there’s something paramount locked up in my mind, trying to dig its way out, keeps shattering any attempt at peaceful slumber.
These dreams, they started after I got my shadows. At first, it was just a whisper in the dead of night, like a secret waiting to be unraveled. But each day, they grow more urgent—a vehement plea, almost commanding.
Where have I heard that voice before?
Why can’t I remember?
Sometimes, flashes of images that make no sense assault my consciousness. A tip of a silvered fang peeking out from a lush mouth. Otherworldly argent eyes, glowing from within. A sharp, curled fingernail looming above my head, reaching to touch me.
As much as I try to cling to any smidgen of information, it all vanishes into a nebulous fog. The words are all that remain.
Come find me.
Come find me.
I groan as a dull ache forms between my eyebrows. There’s no way I’m falling back asleep now. Might as well drag myself out of the warm comfort of my plush bed and go back to training.
Blaise is right.
