21
The moment Erebus and I gave ourselves to each other, I should have felt invincible.
It was a binding not just of bodies but of power—a merging of love and adoration so profound that for the briefest instant, I thought nothing could reach us.
But the world was cruel.
It began as a whisper at the edge of my mind, a hiss so faint I first dismissed it as nothing.
But then it became a sharp, cold pull that squeezed my chest like a vise with teeth.
I gasped, clutching at the bed beneath me.
Erebus stirred beside me, his warmth grounding me for only a second before I felt myself being torn away into the dream again.
“Esmer?” Erebus’s voice was distant, muffled as though he spoke from another time.
I tried to hold on, tried to summon my magic, but it sputtered uselessly in the face of whatever force had claimed me. The shadows around me, once my allies, now seemed unknown, unresponsive. My vision blurred as the inn twisted and dissolved, plunging me into darkness.
When I landed, the impact jarred through my body like lightning.
I staggered to my feet, struggling to understand what I was seeing.
Where am I?
The dreamscape was unrecognizable. A nightmare.
The uneven ground was filled with piles of ash, bones, and rotting things.
It was difficult to stand, let alone walk.
I could tell I was inside a broken, hollowed-out chamber, but it was impossible to say what it had once been.
Above, a fractured purple sky pulsed with dark, jagged seams, as if there were demons on the other side trying to break free.
I’d never seen anything so hideous in my life.
BOOM!
I backpedaled as part of the floor dropped away—right where I’d been standing.
The hole revealed nothing, only a pitch-black void.
I shuddered, nearly stepping on a bone pile in my urgency to escape.
It felt as if I was being watched. Shadows pooled weakly at my feet as I searched for some clue, some sign of where I was or who had dragged me here.
And then I saw the willow tree, its charred form reduced to almost nothing.
I was back at Evernight’s Dream Temple.
Right in Raelion’s twisted heart.
A figure emerged from the darkness. I stiffened immediately, magic slowly stirring to life as my instincts screamed at me to run.
“Mithras.” His name left my lips as a curse, venom dripping from my teeth.
Mithras, Noctis’s holy Light Bringer and Raelion’s unholy host, stepped closer, his once-bright form tarnished by decay.
His golden hair was long and ratty, his armor tattered and dull.
Even his eyes—once so piercing and bright—now held a weary flatness.
Yet his presence still commanded attention: his movements deliberate, his gaze fixed squarely on me.
“You’re alive,” Mithras said, his voice far rougher than I remembered. “I can’t believe it.”
“And you’re decayed,” I shot back, crossing my arms. “Get out of my head.”
Mithras exhaled slowly, his expression pained. “Esmer, I—”
“Don’t,” I snapped, cutting him off. “You don’t get to approach me like we’re allies. What you did to our kingdom is unforgivable. How could you?”
“I made mistakes—”
“‘Mistakes’?” I choked out a bitter laugh.
“A mistake is a misstep in battle. A mistake is speaking out of turn. A mistake is forgetting a name or losing a game.” I drew my sword from my palm, stalking forward.
My shadows were weak, but I could still be strong.
“But what you did? That wasn’t a mistake.
That was a choice. You’re not a fool who stumbled into darkness. You ran to it. You’re a monster.”
“You don’t understand,” he grated out. “If you’d just listened to what I wanted, then—”
“I don’t care what you wanted, Mithras.” I took another step forward, my anger flaring hotter. “Whatever you’re doing here, I don’t trust it. I don’t trust you. Never mind what you’re doing in Noctis.”
“You didn’t trust me before, either,” he bit out, jaw tightening. “And look at where that got you. Look at what it caused.”
The words struck hard, unleashing a flood of dark memories: the fall of the seven Dream Weavers, Raelion’s attack, Erebus and I barely escaping with our lives. Had I listened to this traitor, would things have been different?
I raised my sword, jutting it between us, but Mithras was unperturbed. He met me in the middle of the chamber, positioning his chest mere inches from the tip of my blade. He was unarmed, I noted. And his light magic was nowhere to be seen.
“What felt like a blink to you was five years to me. Five years of silence. Five years of believing you were dead. And yet, I can feel you now—sense your living heart. I can sense Erebus’s, too.
” Overhead, the sky cracked like the shell of an egg.
The jagged seams splintered, multiplying.
“I ordered the tomb to be cleared, opened. I sent provisions your way. But no matter what we tried, we could not enter the innermost chamber. Your shadows fought us with everything they had.”
Light briefly flickered in his palm, but he squeezed it shut, extinguishing it.
“I tried to give you everything you’d need to safely awaken. Gold. Food. Horses.”
The admission should have moved me, but it didn’t. Instead, it merely stoked my anger.
I shook my head, furious. “That was five years ago. Your horses are now bones upon the forest floor. They didn’t deserve to die like that.”
“It was all I could manage. It was my final glimpse of clarity before Raelion overtook me again.”
“Is that what this is, then? A reunion? A chance for you to absolve yourself of your sins?”
“I came to warn you,” he snapped. “Raelion isn’t finished. He’s preparing something that could unravel what’s left of this world. The Revel of Dawn at Istralla—”
Before he could finish, a ripple of dark, reddish energy surged through the air. Mithras stumbled, clutching at his chest.
I took a step back, wary. “Mithras?”
His form convulsed, bloody shadows coiling around him like living things. His faint golden aura dimmed, consumed by the darkness seeping into him. When he looked at me again, his eyes were no longer his own.
They were black pits streaked with crimson, burning with malevolent intent.
“You think you can escape me, little shadow?”
The voice that poured from Mithras’s lips was not his own. It was Raelion’s.
I begged my shadow magic to rise to the surface, but it wouldn’t come. I cursed, gripping my blade tight as I dropped into a defensive stance.
“Raelion,” I spat.
“Still so angry. But anger won’t save you.” He laughed, low and guttural, as though my defiance amused him. “It hasn’t saved the Weavers from my chains.”
I struck hard with my blade, but he shoved it aside as if it were a tree branch.
“You’re still strong,” Raelion mused, tilting Mithras’s head as though examining me. “Stronger than I expected. But strength alone won’t protect you from me, either.”
He stepped closer; I fought the urge to retreat.
“You were made for this,” he continued, his voice insidious. “Born to wield the Corruption others fear. You and Erebus think of yourselves as the queen and king of shadow, but you are nothing without me. Join me, Esmer. Embrace your destiny.”
“Never,” I snarled. “You are a disease upon our kingdom. A weed we will soon uproot.”
Raelion’s expression darkened, his smile twisting into something more sinister. “What righteous disobedience. It will make breaking you all the sweeter.”
Chains of shimmering light erupted from him.
They lashed out like serpents, ensnaring my arms and legs with thousands of fanged barbs.
Wherever they coiled, wherever they cut, dark, smoking blood oozed from my skin.
The gashes burned. Maker, they burned. My bones were on fire, boiling under my clothes.
I thrashed wildly, desperate to break free, but the chains held firm, their grip unrelenting.
They tightened further with cruel precision, wringing a scream from my throat.
“You’ll see,” Raelion purred, his voice a repulsive caress. “You’ll see the truth soon enough.”
Raelion’s power, a hideous mix of his own poisonous darkness and Mithras’s light, crawled over my body.
When the chains reached my neck, they seared my skin with the chill of frostbite and the blister of fire.
A paradox of pain. I screamed again, writhing against the tendrils as they slid toward my mouth.
Deep within me, my shadows snarled.
The shadow magic I had wielded for so long now finally roared to life, a torrent of raw energy that obliterated Raelion’s tendrils all at once. He staggered back, his form flickering as the dreamscape began to collapse around us.
“This is not over,” he warned, even as his body dissolved into smoke. “I will find you again, Esmer. And when I do, you will writhe at my feet and beg me to be your god.”
The ground crumbled beneath me and I fell, spiraling into darkness.
“Wake up and bear my mark,” Raelion thundered. “Wake up and declare your new allegiance for all to see.”