As I fell closer, descending into the unknown, I could discern semblances of shapes. Barely. They were…like me. Specters, clawing and crawling around the space. Taking up every inch except the very center.
Chains, clanking and grinding against each other, quickened as one, three, seven of them turned up to watch me fall. No, they were…returning. Returning to what felt like home. The shades reached up, their extended hands formed into ghostly talons just like mine. I flailed, not ready for death. Not ready to be lost here in this dark, subterranean prison.
I shouted, clawing fruitlessly at the air until…
“Reyva. Reyva, come back.” Concerned green eyes searched mine as Iawoke from the nightmare. Relief intermixed with the forest hues as he sighed, “There you are.”
I’m not alone. I’m not alone. I’m not alone.
“No. You’re not alone. I’m here.” Rhazien wrapped me into his protective embrace and gently stroked my hair.
I hadn’t realized I’d said anything out loud.
The smell of sweat and sex stained the sheets and our skin. A heavy exhale left me as I took in the muted colors of my room. It was dark, but not the deep nothingness that had overcome me in my sleep.
No living darkness in sight, just the last of the prior evening’s embers and their dying red glow. And him.
I shuddered before nuzzling myself deeper into the nest of soft sheets and his muscled arms.
“I should stoke the fire,” he suggested as he ran his fingers through my loose hair.
“No. Stay.” I squeezed him tighter. “That feels nice.”
“How about this?” I melted further into him as his fingers expanded and contracted across my scalp. If I were a cat, I would be purring.
“Mmmm.” He chuckled.
The moment felt so wholesome and normal, not at all like I’d just given myself to an immortal royal. I shoved the thought deep, deep down. No. Right now, we were just a normal couple. A normal naked couple.
“You’re going to put me back to sleep,” I grumbled against his bare chest.
“Would that be so terrible?” he asked in a gravelly whisper and planted a kiss in my hair.
Yes,I thought—considering for a moment to keep my fear to myself—but instead, softly admitted, “I don’t want to go back to that dream.”
He planted a kiss on my temple and held me tighter, as if to apologize for the night terror.
“It was the shade,” I explained. “But, not just one. Many. Dozens beneath the Hive.”
Rhazien tipped his head down to me. “What else was in your dream?”
“A tomb. With a single stone casket.”
The pillow sank as Rhazien relaxed again. “Curious.”
“What is?”
“There’s no way you could know but…” He pulled me tighter and I nuzzled into his side. “You’re describing the den. A place deep within the mountain where the shades are contained.”
My hand roamed over Rhazien’s broad chest, drawing lazy circles over the bare mounds and dips. “How did it get out?”
“Hm?”
“From the den. How did it get to the Moon Garden?”
“Ah,” he said, capturing my hand. “That was the urgent business Dommik mentioned. A wardweaver—they’re descendants of the Original sister, Aveen—was attacked. We’re lucky only one escaped.”
Rhazien radiated warmth, but I shivered as I thought of the devastation dozens of malicious shades would inflict on the Hive.
