In the Wake of the Wicked (Veridian Empire #1)

40. Leo

40

Leo

“ I t’s been over two days , Rissa. Shouldn’t someone check on her?”

My sister gave me an exasperated look. “You know what Lark said a couple hours ago. Only one of the challengers has even woken up—the Shifter, I think. You have to give her time. Lark mentioned it wouldn’t be unusual for this trial to take days, with the way they designed it.”

My stomach roiled. When Lark had told us what this trial entailed, I’d been shocked she had agreed to such a thing, much less developed it. Although I knew she was simply following Gayl’s instructions.

At the dinner three nights previous, all the challengers had ingested a potion with their final toast that induced a dream-like state for them to complete the second trial. A dreamscape, Lark had called it. Even she seemed hesitant to tell us of what they would each be experiencing, as if she felt ashamed at what she had subjected them to. Or, what Gayl made her subject them to.

In their dreamscape, the challengers would be faced with the same initial scenario, but how each progressed depended entirely on the challenger. The premise was the same: the magicless kingdom of Mysthelm to our south had invaded Veridia City, placing the central sector and the palace under their control.

“It might take a while for the challengers to discover their inciting incident—the situation that drives them to the crux of the trial,” Lark had explained to Rissa, Horace, and myself. “They’ve been put under great duress, whatever that looks like to each of them, and are facing a crucial decision of character. The emp— we want to test where their heart lies. Once they work through the demands of the dreamscape and decipher reality from fantasy, they’ll wake up.”

“And…if they don’t wake up?” Rissa had asked.

Lark hadn’t answered.

For nearly three days, Rose had been trapped inside her own mind. The Fates only knew what she was enduring.

I had volunteered to patrol the forest surrounding the palace tonight. My sister hadn’t asked questions when I convinced her to accompany me for the second night in a row, although I knew she suspected the reason behind my insistence.

I wanted to be nearby in case Rose woke up. Or, didn’t wake up. The idea of her in this unknown dreamscape, alone and confused and scared, had nagged me incessantly over the last two days. Especially knowing the terrors she’d been through in her life and how weighed down her mind already was.

“Leo, she’s going to be fine,” my sister said softly next to me. “She can’t be hurt. It’s only a dream.”

“They may not be able to harm her physically, but there are far worse ways to cause pain, Rissa. We both know that.”

If this dreamscape was by and large a product of her own subconscious, I feared it was more of a nightmare than a dream. I couldn’t stop thinking of how I’d found her in the hallway over a week ago, signs of a panic attack evident on her features. That girl held everything inside; what would happen when there was nowhere else to go besides the inner workings of her mind? When the demons that haunted her were brought into the light ?

“I can’t believe Lark would agree to this,” I muttered as we made our rounds of the palace perimeter.

“You know she doesn’t always have a choice. If Gayl proposes an idea for the tournament, she has to go with it.”

“Yes, but why would he push for this? Something so…”

“Intrusive? Twisted? Wicked?” my sister offered.

I let out a humorless laugh. “Always such a way with words, sister.”

She nudged my arm with her elbow. “When was the last time you smiled? You’ve been an anxious wreck lately.”

The north palace entrance was in view, with the large gardens and their regal archways leading to the front doors. There was barely enough light from the setting sun to illuminate the path, but I could still make out smatterings of guests and members of court on nightly strolls beneath the dusk sky.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I mumbled, pushing a branch to the side.

Rissa snorted. “Emperor’s tits, Leo, you never were a good liar.”

Suddenly, the palace doors burst open, and a figure stumbled across the grounds. My muscles coiled tightly as a pit formed in my stomach. Something about that figure looked so familiar.

It raced toward the forest, a courtyard’s distance away from where Rissa and I patrolled. Long, raven hair whipped in the breeze.

Without thinking, I moved. My sister hissed at me, but I ignored her, my feet carrying me along the treeline, scarcely managing to stay within the shadows.

She grew closer. I could tell the moment she noticed me; her neck turned and she froze, like a deer caught in the sights of a predator. And then, she was running.

To me.

“Leo!” she gasped, her face sallow, eyes wild, before she slammed into me.

I instantly brought a hand to cup the nape of her neck, my other holding her steady at her back. Her breaths were uneven and shaking against me, her nose nuzzling into my shoulder as I gripped her tighter.

“I’ve got you. You’re safe now,” I murmured into her hair. Her choked sobs wrapped around my heart the way my fingers wrapped around the strands of her dark locks.

I caught my sister out of the corner of my eye within the shadows of the trees, her knowing gaze searing into the two of us as she gestured for us to get out of sight.

“Rose, we need to get into the forest,” I whispered. She nodded, her hair brushing my neck, and let me lead her further into the treeline. I stopped once we were safely out of view and guided her back against a thick tree trunk. Her body still trembled, like there was some terror she couldn’t shake.

She finally met my eyes, a mere shadow of the vibrant green they normally were, and swallowed. “How do I know this is real?” she asked, so quiet I had to strain to hear her.

Anger flared in me at this cursed trial and what it had done to make her ask such a question. To not be able to discern reality from the nightmares. But I shoved the rage aside and carefully grabbed one of her hands, placing it on my chest, above my racing heart. I took her other one and rested it atop her own.

“Close your eyes,” I said, and she obeyed. “Take a deep breath. Focus on what’s right in front of you. Can you feel this?”

My chest pounded against her palm, my pulse racing from a combination of her touch and my own worries. Slowly, her hand ceased its shivering as she took several deep, steadying breaths. Finally, she nodded.

“This is real, Rose.” I moved her hand from my chest to my cheek, twining her fingers between mine. “Whatever happened, whatever you saw, it’s gone. It’s over.”

She didn’t respond but kept her eyes closed, her thumb warily tracing a path across my cheek, then my jaw, then the bridge of my nose and down to my lips. My eyes fluttered shut, a chill sweeping over my shoulders while heat built low in my stomach as her fingers explored my skin. I stepped closer into her, and she opened her eyes. I could have fallen to my knees in relief at her clear gaze, dispelled of the terror that had taken her captive.

There she is .

Her fingers still skimmed my mouth, as if in a trance. My lips parted on an exhale and my tongue involuntarily flicked against the rough pad of her thumb. She sucked in an almost imperceptible breath and pressed harder into my bottom lip.

Rissa cleared her throat behind me. My control snapped back into place, and I closed my fingers around Rose’s wrist. Lowering her hand, I stepped away to give her space.

But it didn’t matter how much space I put between us.

The damage was done—I couldn’t get her out of my head, and I realized I no longer wanted to.