Chapter 29
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Snow was falling. It hardly ever snowed here. Given the fact it was autumn… Lia wasn’t in Seattle anymore. She didn’t bother clicking her heels three times.
Not as a hush fell over the world, like every living thing had burrowed deep and gone to sleep. The muddied ground muffled her steps as a path wound into the forest. Dark silhouettes of pine trees pierced through the heavy fog. They towered over her, giant spears to the dying sky.
Each breath clouded the air. Lia shivered, still in the soft cotton shorts and shirt she had gone to sleep in. Her last memory was tucking into bed, thankful for a weekend ahead without alarm clocks.
But she was more than ready to wake up now.
The cold pierced her skin like tiny knives.
The Order had told her dreams would still happen, that she might have an additional awareness of them; a lucid sort of dreaming.
Hugging herself, she continued through this unknown world.
Her heartbeat was a drum, too loud in the eerie quiet.
Chills increased the further she went. Her ears and nose stung.
It unsettled her, the reality of the cold, the way her socks soaked with mud and snow, clinging to her toes. Why wasn’t she waking up?
Maybe if Lia closed her eyes and focused, like when she summoned a portal, she could get herself awake. She glanced around, the darkness thickening in the wooded depths. Her skin prickled, a ringing in her ears as she strained to listen past the silence of falling snow.
All was still.
Stopping, Lia screwed her eyes shut. Okay, think of her bed: queen-sized, sage green sheets tucked in at the footboard. Her bookshelf, now arranged neatly by hardcovers and paperbacks and descending in size. The desk—
A twig snapped, like a bone breaking.
Heart palpitating, muscles tensing, Lia spun to face the sound.
Nothing moved. Not even her, as she scanned every trunk and bush. Her throat bobbed. She closed her eyes again, so hard dots danced over the darkness. Her desk had become a little more chaotic, homework waiting—
Branches shuddered, like teeth chattering.
Aurelia. Her name was a hoarse whisper.
Lia opened her eyes, but this time, she held herself frozen. A hare caught under a wolf’s hungry stare. Such wolves were not asleep here. Not anymore.
Lia knew then that this was not a dream she could easily wake from—if she could wake at all. And she didn’t need to pat herself down to know her pen hadn’t made the trek.
Aurelia.
A second call made her spin once more. Yet the owner was nowhere to be found in the misty snowfall.
Aurelia.
Lia realized with sickening clarity that the voice called from inside her mind. Any recollection of her bedroom vanished. She stepped forward, peering around the trees.
And then the humming began. A young girl’s voice carried on the wind. The lilting melody chilled Lia to the bone.
“Hello?” Lia called.
The humming continued, louder this time. Searching for the voice, Lia’s focus flew to the trees. In the midst of skeletal branches and pine boughs, a pair of icy blue eyes cracked open.
From the shadows they glowed, meeting Lia’s stare with a preternatural calm.
The owner hugged the tree, limbs wrapped around the trunk like an ape’s.
After a moment, the creature began to slink down.
It was too dark to fully make out, tendrils of fog and larger snowflakes blurring the creature. But one thing was evident.
It was no little girl.
Its eyes never left her. Its song never stopped. It morphed into words, that girlish voice, sweet and melodic. Sinister words.
Stench of gentleness,
Rot of love.
Peaceful destruction.
Kind degeneration.
A tail unfurled, gripping branches like an extra limb as it reached the ground. A single pawed foot stretched down to the freezing mud. Long, horn-like claws jutted from its back legs. It paused, watching Lia before the other leg lowered. The feathered tail flicked, eyes fixated.
Aurelia, came that dark timbre, reverberating in her mind.
Lia couldn’t even flinch against it. Numb. Fear consumed her.
Finally releasing the tree, the creature took several steps toward her before dropping to all fours.
Lia always knew nightmares were fears given claws and teeth.
Doubts snarling in the dark of her mind.
But nothing could have prepared her for the horror that inched closer.
That froze her body more than the plummeting temperature with each step it took.
That made her aware of each loud pulse of her heart, hammering against her rib cage as if desperate to flee.
It sang again.
Drawing the weak into its grip,
Joy is all’s graveyard.
Hope decays the soul,
Strength sapped until it is gone.
Lia noted its limbs were hairless, but the body was covered in white feathers. Its head rotated unnaturally the opposite way as it framed her in its vision. Such a head might have looked like a wolf but tilted like an owl, those glowing eyes sunken and ringed.
Like a barred owl, she realized. The very same that had haunted her since the day her papa died. Even the snow seemed to pause, flakes hovering for a breath to see who dared move first. Lia didn’t look away.
Aurelia, the voice growled in her mind. The girl who knows not who or what she is.
The creature loomed over her. Twin tongues shot out to taste her scent—her fear.
Tears of blood
And rivers of sorrow
Wash away the sins of faithfulness,
Cleanse the land of mercy’s lies.
Glowing eyes regarded her. Lia trembled.
Do you like it? the dark voice asked inside her. It is a pretty voice. I just had to keep it.
Lia didn’t bother replying. She ran. Whipping around, she slipped in the icy muck. Dodging trees, branches struck as she tried to navigate through the growing dark. The snow provided some light, the whiteness of it casting the world in a ghostly blue tone.
Feathers rustled behind her.
Come on, think. Wake up! Portal to her bedroom: bed, bookshelf, desk, Fiore—
She stumbled, flinging herself behind a tree and pressing against it in an effort to disappear. Straining to listen, Lia couldn’t make out much past the blood roaring in her ears. Nostrils flared, she forced measured breaths to calm herself.
What would Kayce do? Aurelia? With no weapon, she highly doubted much.
So make one, prompted a thought that sounded like Kayce.
Lia scoured the ground—a broken branch. The bark dug splinters into her hands as she snatched it. Not like she could feel it, cold numbing to the elbows.
She inched around the tree. Nothing but snow fell. She looked back, but again, nothing. No monstrous creature that she couldn’t believe someone created. Suddenly, snow fell heavily as if dusted off from above. Lia’s heart sank. She raised her head.
Why do you run? Blue eyes bore down on her in an impossibly upturned face. You and I can have much fun together.
Its tail gripped a branch. Nimbly, the creature climbed down. Its head tilted back and around to gaze into her eyes.
I want to hear you sing—perhaps your voice sounds better than what I already have.
Lia spun off the tree, her branch upraised. “I promise, I don’t even sound good in the shower.” Her voice wavered as she inched back.
Her hopes were decadent, the despair delicious. Its voice slithered in her head like a serpent. It smelled so sweet—like your own.
The creature dropped to the ground.
Lia’s whole body clenched, waiting for it to strike, to snatch her up—like those vicious doubts that had circled back from her training. Part of her hoped it would just do it already, to save her from the madness of anticipation.
But I also smell smoke, flames—the ember inside you. Circling her, the beast cocked its head. It would seem you are the one Father is so intrigued by. How pleased he will be—
“Your father?” Lia was unnerved that it may have read her mind, never allowing it to leave her sight. “He’ll have to be disappointed. Common expectation for parenthood.”
She didn’t think—she couldn’t anymore, muscles wound too tight, heart pumping so hard and fast that her bones practically vibrated.
Lia lunged, jagged splinters swinging toward the creature’s lupine head.
The creature twitched to avoid the strike, but the stick caught part of its head, splinters digging into its eye.
Tarry blood spurted forth, and it screeched in a voice that tore the very air apart. A discordant harmony between male and female, ear-splitting highs and thundering lows. It would chill the blood of any hardened warrior. Even Terranth would have found himself hard pressed to remain calm.
The male voice raged in Lia’s head, hissing in anger and pain. You will pay dearly for that, daughter of flame!
Lia regained her footing and pulled back to swing again. But not fast enough.
Lashing out just as quickly, the creature’s claws carved deep into Lia’s waist. Skin split, creating gullies. Blood seeped from the wound as the monster hissed and lashed out once more.
Lia screamed, voice catching on a sob. The pain snatched her breath. Why couldn’t she wake up? Lia nearly sobbed the thought aloud, stumbling back.
Your soul is ours, young Flameheart!
“No!” Lia cried, despite her hip burning, pain searing, heart bursting—
She bolted upright, damp shirt clinging to her skin. Scrambling, she beat against the mattress, the sheets tangled around her legs.
Home. She was home, in bed—awake.
Lia laughed out a shaky breath, a sound delirious with relief. She collapsed against the pillow, shivering despite the warmth.
No splinters in her hands. No painful gash in her hip.
Just a dream. A frighteningly real one. She needed to have a serious sit-down with the Order about some sleeping medication.
Perhaps even therapy. Lia would prefer the latter, considering the rollercoaster that had been her life this past month.
Maybe she could pay Smithy another visit.
As Lia shifted, a twinge pulled on her side. Clenching her teeth, she lifted her shirt. Through the dim light filtering through the window, Lia could make out four ridges of puckered pink.
Lia whimpered and traced them, the stinging nearly engulfing her side. Seeking comfort, she reached for Fiore—only to find the bed empty.
The prissy thing always slept with her.
The shadows in her room seemed to pulse. Her muscles froze as she analyzed each one. The sense of foreboding only writhed deeper inside her gut. The hairs on her arm stood on end. Lia held her breath.
Until the humming came.