Chapter 23
Twenty-Three
Aesira
Salt and decay filled Aesira’s nose and when she opened her eyes a beam of light washed over her.
“Stone?” She glanced to either side of her, but she was alone atop a hill, the warmth of the sun and soft breeze running over her bare arms. Her hand flew to her side where she found her sword missing. As was her armor, she realized.
The gauzy fabric of her dress floated behind her in the breeze as she pulled herself to her feet. “Stone? Birdie?” Another gust of wind drew the scent of decay closer. She covered her mouth with the back of her hand.
Tall flowers swayed in the wind, their petals tickling her arms and fingertips. She knew this meadow. Knew the sounds of the breeze playing between the thin leaves on the sparse trees.
Novaria.
Her pulse hammered in her chest, her mind fuzzy and memories diluted.
She couldn’t be home, could she?
She remembered the ridge.
The Lunaris moths and Stone’s lips on hers.
The unexpected warmth of Stone’s jacket on her and chimes.
Then she was here. How was she here? A sharp pain erupted behind her eyes then a trickle of warmth ran down to her lips. She wiped the blood from her nose.
Blood.
The boy.
The Strix.
“Aesira,” a voice called, one she knew she recognized but couldn’t quite place. She scanned the meadow, keeping her feet planted in the cold dirt. “Aesira,” the same voice called. “It’s time to come home, Aesira.”
Home.
No. She couldn’t be home, when the last place she stood was the ridge.
“We live in a land of monsters.” Stone’s voice washed over her.
“This is a dream.” A breeze lifted the ends of her hair and a bright, purple moth drifted past. “This is a dream,” she said louder now. Convincing herself and anyone–anything–else that might be lurking.
A few loose leaves rustled up from the ground. Then a distant drip, drip, drip.
The sound filled her with memories of her childhood. Of Kamari and Eldrin. A life that was now so far away.
Drip, drip, drip.
Blood, from the Strix. From the boy.
Drip, drip, drip.
Piscis Spring. The sound was Piscis Spring.
Drip, drip, drip.
The voice, the voice was–
“Come home, Aesira.”
Eldrin.
Another jolt of pain burst behind her eyes, white and blinding. All of the memories she’d suppressed, all of the moments of her childhood she hid away crashed through her like a hammer through glass, the jagged edges cutting and slicing and letting out all the things she did not want to remember.
Her brother and the Strix and the way he fell down, down, down.
She snapped her eyes open and watched the water ripple over a few large rocks in the spring. She needed to move. Find a way out. Find the others.
Her dress dragged behind her as she climbed down the hill, grounding herself in the grit of the rocks and sound of the water lapping the shore. It splashed against her bare feet, cool and bitter. She stared out at the horizon.
A flurry of blue pulled her attention as another Lunaris moth fluttered by.
“Only a dream,” she said again.
There wouldn’t be moths here. I wouldn’t hear Eldrin’s voice. This is only a dream.
“Now how do I wake up?” She took a tentative step into the water and the bright sunlight grayed out, flashes of teeth and blood coming from every angle.
She tumbled backwards, out of the water, and the sun returned, the faint sound of birdsong, the meadow, untouched.
Breathing heavily, Aesira stood and dusted off her dress.
“Aesira.” The same voice from before called to her. She closed her eyes, teeth biting into her tongue. Only a dream.
“Aesira.” The voice nipped at her ears and another memory sprang forth. The crawlers from the desert. This was similar and all she had to do to break from their spell was keep control of her mind.
Only she hadn’t done it alone.
Stone had been there. He’d woken her up. Saved her.
She squared her shoulders and lifted her chin. There was no one here to save her. Her mind was the weakest weapon in her arsenal but right now it was all she had. Ghost-like fingers ran up her arms, sending a chill down her spine. “Aesira, come.”
She scurried from the phantom touch, toward the water, digging her toes into the rocks, the sharp points pressing under her toenails.
It’s only a dream.
One foot submerged and the sun flickered.
Flashes of gray and wings and death spewed across the sky.
Aesira bit her tongue harder, this time to stop a scream.
A push came from her back and the whispering voices were like leeches in her ears, teeth taking hold of her heart, her head.
“Come home.” Another foot hit the water and then there was no sun left.
Darkness stretched across the sky, blacking out the meadow and silencing the birds.
Water lodged in her throat as she was pushed under, eyes bulging and arms and legs pumping as she flailed for a way out.
Swim, a distant voice in the back of her mind called.
Fight.
She willed herself to calm, smoothing her arms and legs around her. She knew how to swim. She’d done it a few times in the spring when they were children. Before she was sent to the Order. She just needed to remember.
Her legs stretched behind her, her arms in front and she propelled forward.
Shadows darted beside her, inky and fluid like the water.
She focused in front of her, her lungs on fire, when a tug pulled on her leg.
She flipped to her back, a dark shadow wrapped around her leg, then the other, tying her down.
Kicking, she fought until her muscles burned and head grew dizzy.
The shadows wrapped tighter, squeezing and pulling her down.
This is only a dream.
A dream.
Aesira’s training kicked in and she decided to test her theory. If this really was a dream, perhaps she couldn’t die.
Her body went slack, preserving her energy, as the dark shadows ran up her legs, around her middle, over her neck, into her mouth.
They wrapped her completely, her body encased in darkness.
Only when her back hit the ground beneath, did she wriggle her fingers, loosening a sharp rock embedded in the bottom of the spring.
The shadows held her tight, moving around her body like a serpent. But her lungs, while frantic, worked.
Just a dream.
She angled the small rock between her knuckles, sharp edge pointed out, and when the shadows slithered across her body again, she punched as deeply as she could into one of them.
A wretched, gurgled screech burst in her ear, but she did it again and again, jabbing any shadow she could reach.
She nicked her own leg in the process, hints of blood floating in the water around her.
But she didn’t stop. The shadows screeched, still squeezing her body, but with every slice of the rock, their grip loosened more and more.
“Aesira, don’t fight.”
She ignored the familiar voice, fighting the shadows wrapped around her legs until she was free of them. The one in her mouth shriveled away, leaving her exposed, nothing to keep her lungs from filling with water. Fire engulfed her lungs as she shot toward the hazy surface.
Almost there.
She was almost there.
An achy gasp leeched from her throat as she emerged from the water.
Lungs heaving, she tore at her chest, pulling off dark tendrils of the shadowy figures that still clung to her like vines.
The gauzy dress from the dream was gone, she was back in her black armor, boots tied to her feet.
The sun began to rise, bleeding into the sky, turning it a dusty pink.
She was on the ridge.
Relief and exhaustion crashed into her when a noise came from her right.
Bee.
Aesira stood on unsteady legs and ran to her. She was still asleep, whimpering, her brows bunched tightly together. “Bee,” Aesira said, grabbing hold of her shoulders. “Bee it’s just a dream, wake up.” She shook her again, harder this time until her eyelids fluttered open.
“What happened,” Bee said through a sob. “Where are we?”
“On the ridge.” Aesira helped her sit, pulling a few loose twigs and leaves from her hair.
“You’re safe now, the sun’s up.” She looked past Bee’s shoulders, finding solace in the warmth of the sun, but her face hardened when in the distance she could hear the faint sound of chimes. “Where’s Birdie? Stone?”
“I don’t know.” Bee rubbed her temples. “The last thing I remember was the beautiful music and then–” Bee pressed her fingers to her temples.
“I thought we were back in the Outpost. Bird was there too but it was different.” She shook her head and stood.
“We have to find them. I could feel those things draining me. Like they were reaching into my soul." She took Aesira’s hand. “I’m not sure I would have woken up if you didn’t help me,” she said. “I owe you.”
“Let’s find the other two.”
Before it’s too late.
Bee and Aesira split up. Aesira checked the camp first.
Empty.
Then she remembered the edge of the ridge where she nearly fell.
Stone had come to her. Even in the dreamy vision she could remember his warmth around her.
She sprinted toward the cliff. His jacket was discarded a few feet from the edge and then–there–one leg dangled over the cliff, he laid on his back, his eyes closed and face smooth.
Her hands shook as she knelt beside him and pressed her ear to his chest.
Don’t be gone. Not yet.
It was faint, but his heartbeat sent a surge of hope through her, blossoming like a flower in her chest. She pushed his hair back from his forehead and whispered against his ear.
“Wake up, Stone.” She gripped his shoulders and shook. “Wake up!”
He didn’t move.
Was she too late? Had those creatures sunk their teeth into his soul and leeched every drop? She shook him again. “Stone, you have to wake up.” He frowned, his lips twitching. She gripped his face in her palms. “Wake up, Stone. It’s time to wake up.”
Wake up, wake up, wake up.
He didn’t move.
Defeat slumped Aesira’s shoulders so she laid her head on his chest. There was still the faintest movement, but it brought her more dread than hope. Whatever they were putting him through, she couldn’t imagine. If it was even a fraction of what she’d seen in her dream…
“Commander.” Stone’s hand cupped the back of her head.
“You’re okay?” She sat up. Her hands went to his face, searching for any marks that may have been left on him.
He sat up and she pulled her hands away. “I’m okay. Dreamweavers,” he said. “Fuck, I should have seen that coming.” He sat up and ran a hand across the back of his neck.
She handed him his jacket which he reluctantly took. “This is the west, remember. The land of monsters. In fact,” she said, helping Stone to his feet. “It was your reminder that got me out of my dream. Trust nothing, right?”
“Trust nothing," he repeated. "I suppose here there are dreams and there are nightmares and somehow we are living through both.”
“Holy shit,” Bee shouted. “You’re okay?” She and Birdie joined them on the cliff’s edge.
“Barely,” Stone said.
“I know we all need sleep,” Birdie said, a scowl deepening between her brows, “but I’d like to get off this ridge immediately.”