Queen of Stars and Shadows (Dark Fae Guardian #3)

Sarielle

Chapter Five

Sarielle

A half dozen men and women stand in the center of the meadow, some astride horses, others on foot. They have weapons in hand, fighting off more than twice as many winged nightmares. Several human bodies already litter the ground, crimson pools of blood surrounding them.

I pull up my horse, wheeling her around in a circle. As we move, I raise my hands and call on my magic. My heart skips a beat as my power responds sluggishly, a weak jolt of golden light moving across the melee to zap one of the nightmares. What is wrong with my power? This can’t still be an aftereffect of the magical bonds.

But I don’t have time to contemplate it further. Panic spikes through my veins as the nightmare I’d hit turns its head and pins its gaze on me. It leaves the man it had trapped on the ground, which gives me a slight pang of satisfaction, but in the next moment it’s flying at me, rage burning in its bright green eyes. I become aware of my surroundings in acute detail as time slows. Asher and Zara are in the midst of the battle, magic flashing around them. Owyn is off to my right, skirting the perimeter of the chaos, taking shots of his own, drawing the attention of the nightmares away from the people in the center of the meadow.

No one sees me, alone on the perimeter, my magic failing me as a furious nightmare bears down on me.

There is no one to save me but me.

I dive off the back of my horse, rolling as I hit the ground. My hands go to the dagger in my boot, saying a silent prayer of thanks to Uitan. As I untuck from my roll, I feel the wind from the nightmare rushing up behind me. I twist, rolling onto my back. The thing is right above me, teeth and claws and death looming in my face. The heat from its breath hits me, a hiss of triumph rising from its throat.

My inner nightmare rushes to the surface and I drive my dagger into the thing’s heart, pushing it in until I feel hot, black blood flow out over the hilt and onto my fingers. That dark part of me relishes the blood of my enemy, and a feeling of triumph spikes through my veins.

“My Queen!” the nightmare rasps as its eyes widen, and then the life fades from them.

As it collapses onto me, I shove hard, rolling its body to the side. Shaking, I climb to my feet and lift my dagger, prepared to charge into the fray. But Zara, Asher, and Owyn have made quick work of most of the nightmares, and the few remaining let out harsh cries and fly off into the sky, abandoning their dead. I feel a snarl from my inner nightmare as she watches them go, but then she retreats deeper within me.

Owyn runs toward me. “Are you okay?” He slides to a stop, his blue eyes searching mine in concern.

I nod, trying to stop the tremor of adrenaline racing through my veins. “I-I’m fine,” I stammer. “It… my magic…” Which is only part of the problem, but I’m not going to share the rest.

His eyebrows scrunch. “What about your magic?”

“It was… I couldn’t summon it. It barely responded.” My chest feels like there are iron bands strapped around it, crushing my lungs. Everything else is falling apart, and now this? It seems nothing could possibly get worse, but clearly I’d underestimated the cruelty of fate.

Owyn reaches out and rests a hand on my shoulder, giving me a squeeze. There’s an odd look in his eyes as he looks at me, and I drop my gaze. He lets his hand slide down, too. “I wonder…”

“What?”

“You used a great deal of power to widen the rift so we could come through into Eldare. Your magic is wound into the rift, and that might have a draining effect on your powers.”

A frown tugs at my lips. “Well, what in the dark goddess am I supposed to do? I can’t possibly rescue my friend and win back my realm from Avonia without my magic working properly.”

“We’ll figure something out, Sarielle. I promise.” He takes a step closer to me. “I didn’t wait twenty-two years for you only to have us fail now.”

Movement behind him catches my eye and I see Asher embracing a tall man with gray hair. It must be Uitan’s husband. I move toward them, trying to ignore the fallen men and women around us. At least there are bodies of the enemy now, too. I can’t help but feel responsible—these creatures had come from my realm. And if I was strong enough, they would have no choice but to obey me, whether they wanted to or not.

“These are our companions, Sarielle and Owyn,” Zara says, making introductions.

Harken introduces us to the others in his party. They tell us how they were attacked from the sky while tracking the missing people. As they share their tale, and I put the pieces together in my mind, it all suddenly makes sense to me. I feel sick to my stomach as the realization hits, but I keep my mouth closed, not wanting to alarm these strangers any more than they already are.

“I don’t know what to do,” Harken says, sorrow laced into his features. “We need to take the fallen back to our village, but that leaves only a couple of us able to track those monsters and find those who have been taken.”

“We’ll find your missing villagers,” I say. “Take care of your people. Tend to the wounded and honor your dead. I’m so sorry this happened.”

Harken sags in visible relief. “We’re grateful for your help.”

Owyn and Zara help heal the wounded with their magic and then we say our farewells, leaving the small group to tend to their fallen comrades. We mount back up and head north once again, the same way the nightmares had flown.

Few words are exchanged between us, a silent understanding hanging in the air, resting in the space between the horses’ hoofbeats, and the sparkling dust in our wake. We now know what has been taking the villagers. And no doubt what took Lilette and the others. We ride hard, pushing the horses to their limit the rest of the day, not stopping for food or rest until nightfall.

When we finally make camp for the night, I stare into the crackling fire that Owyn conjured with his magic.

“Those things were from your realm, weren’t they?” Zara asks, sitting down across from me. “Nightmares, like the big one by the rift.”

I nod. “Yes. But they clearly didn’t come to Eldare the same way.”

“So, then how?” Asher asks in a low growl. He’s standing behind Zara, the flames from the fire casting harsh shadows on his pale skin.

Owyn and I exchange a glance. “Avonia—this must be her doing,” I answer.

“As we told you, she used the darkest of magic to break the spell that Sarielle and Zyren renewed when they wed, a spell that had been in place for two thousand years. She created the rift we came through. There must be other rifts we didn’t know about.”

Zara’s countenance is darker than the shadows around her. “So, there could be monsters flooding into Eldare from multiple holes between worlds?”

I nod. “What’s even more frightening is whether Avonia is aware of these other rifts or not.”

Silence falls for several somber moments, the pop of the wood in the fire the only sound.

“If there’s a rift she can travel through, she won’t need your magic to merge the realms,” Owyn says. “She can simply invade this one.”

In the chaos of everything that’d been going on, and all the challenges stacked before me, I’d been avoiding thinking about Avonia’s ultimate plan—to use me and my magic to merge Valaron with the rest of Aureon once more, so she could invade not just her realm, but all of them. A shiver of dread moves over me.

“We can’t let that happen.” A pulse of power moves off Asher, shivering the flames of the fire.

“I will do everything I can to prevent it,” I say.

“But how do we find the rifts?” Zara asks. “And is it possible there are some beyond Eldare? In other realms of Aureon?”

My gaze passes around the fire. “Once we catch up to the ones from earlier, we can not only free those who were taken, but I can force one of the nightmares to show me where it came into Eldare. They may not want a ruler, but they must obey me.”

As the words come out of my mouth, I suppress a shiver of doubt. Astherius had bonded with me because of my magic. But without my magic, how can I earn the obedience of the others?

“I’m not sure I can track the nightmares,” Asher says with a frown. “Since they’re flying, it’s near impossible to pick up a scent.”

“I can find them. I can sense them when we get close, and tonight in my dreams, I’ll try again to find Lilette.”

“It sounds like we have a plan, then,” Zara says. “At least, as good a one as we can hope for right now.”

We eat a meager meal from the bread and cheese Uitan packed for us, and we hobble the horses and spread out their saddle pads as makeshift beds. Zara and Asher sleep on one side of the fire, and Owyn and I sleep on the other. I’m exhausted, which bodes well for me falling into dreams quickly.

But before I can fall asleep, Owyn nudges me. “What is it?” I sit up and turn to him, meeting his eyes in the moonlight.

Owyn stares at me for several long moments. “It’s possible the nightmares didn’t leave any survivors. Are you prepared for that?”

“No,” I say. “And I’m not going to be. With everything else falling apart around me, the one thing I can hope for is that my best friend is still alive. I have to have something to hope for, Owyn. Otherwise, what’s the point of any of this?”

He reaches out and squeezes my shoulder. “Alright. Then I will hold that hope with you.”

I offer him a trembling smile, and then I turn over and let sleep take me.

The first thing I see in the dream is a giant tree, some sort of oak with massive, sprawling branches.

Beneath the tree are two figures. They’re sitting on the ground, wrapped in a tight embrace. In the shadowy landscape of my dreams, I can’t quite make out enough detail, so I move closer.

I see then that it’s a man and a woman. The woman is straddling the man’s lap, and he’s kissing the side of her neck. His pale hand moves the ebony cascade of her hair to one side. When he bites her, I recoil. I expect her to scream, but the sound that rises from her is one of ecstasy, not agony. She leans her head to the side, rolling her hips against him as he sucks at her skin…

With flaming cheeks, I realize I’ve stumbled into a vision of Zara and Asher. I turn and quickly run in the opposite direction, moving silently through my dreamscape.

It takes me a couple minutes to come to full awareness, to take control of my dream and focus my thoughts. Lilette . I need to find Lilette.

But my heart betrays me because it’s not Lilette I see as I wander through the swirling mists and shadowy valleys. I know instantly when I see the silhouette of the figure far in the distance. It’s Zyren.

I approach softly and swiftly, moving in that way one can only move in dreams, weightless and timeless. When I’m a dozen feet away, I slow and wait for him to sense me, as I know he will. After all, he’s been traversing dreams for centuries longer than I have. He may have forgotten me, but he hasn’t forgotten this .

He turns, slowly, and his eyes narrow when he sees me. But he doesn’t walk away as he did the night before. He stands and he watches me, a flicker of curiosity in his eyes. Or maybe even the slightest flicker of recognition.

“You visited my dreams every night for years,” I say softly. “Even if you don’t remember, I’m not giving up on us.”

No reply, but again, he stays.

“I love you, Zyren,” I say, taking a tentative step forward. “And you love me. We told each other for the first time just two nights ago.” Another step.

“Then why can’t I remember?” he asks, his deep voice vibrating the shadows, sending a shiver up my spine. “Do you know what happened to my memories?”

I try to hide my flinch, but his keen eyes catch the movement.

“You do know.”

“I have a strong suspicion,” I whisper. “Our families—Otreyas and Lyonian—there’s a curse…”

He’s the one who takes a step forward this time. “Go on.”

I close the remaining distance between us, so that only a few inches separate us. I can feel the warmth of his breath and the radiance of his power wash over me. My eyes close a moment as I relish his closeness. I crave his touch so badly it makes my chest hurt.

My eyes open again. “We both possess nightmare blood.” I pause, gauging his reaction before continuing. He doesn’t look surprised. “It doesn’t flow in the veins of all of us, it skips generations at a time. And for some reason, if our lines join, and fall in love, and both carry nightmare blood…”

My words falter, I can’t finish. I drop my gaze, my hair falling in a cascade around my cheeks, hiding my shame. I’d kept this secret from him for too long. It had been hard enough when I’d told him the first time, after we made love in the Court of Memory. He’d scoffed, brushed it off, said the curse was only a fable.

But it wasn’t.

And now, telling him a second time, feels like torture.

Zyren reaches out and slowly runs one finger along the line of my jaw, lifting my gaze back to his. His skin against mine carries the electric pulse of magic, the tension of a coming storm, the whole sky taut with it. I meet his eyes, and there’s a storm there, too. Not just the metallic-gray color of them, but I can tell he feels the hum between us. He may not remember, but his body does.

“You can tell me,” he murmurs in his voice of midnight and liquid steel.

“You’re cursed because you love me,” I whisper, feeling my heart fracture all over again.

His eyes widen slightly, and his lips move to respond, but I don’t get a chance to hear what he has to say.

Because, in that moment, I’m yanked backward out of my dreamscape. The shadows surrounding me disappear as if swatted away by a giant hand, and instead, I find myself blinking in bright sunlight.