Chapter 44 Eryx
Eryx
Ijolt awake. Less than a second later Chelsea bolts upright.
“I can’t breathe!”
I pull her into a hug. “Slow. Breathe. I’m here.” Chelsea slowly inhales a ragged breath. “There. That’s better. You’re safe.”
She’s not safe.
“Eryx.” She curls her hands into my sides. “Our magic.”
“Shh. We’ll worry about it in the morning.”
Chelsea pulls back and looks at me. Moonlight slices over her face, and she shakes her head. “What happened?”
“She pulled you into a nightmare.”
We can’t keep her safe.
Shut up, Nightmare.
“It’s all right now.”
I kiss her. Chelsea’s rigid, but after a few moments she exhales into me. I pull her back down onto the bed and wrap my arms around her, holding her tight.
She whimpers a little, but I smooth her hair and tell her everything’s going to be all right.
It isn’t, Nightmare whispers. Nothing will be the same now.
As we lie in the darkness, I feel our combined power, but the connection is brittle. The power feels like an angry red scar carved into my stomach.
Right below the claw marks that are now fully healed.
The magic is charged, but in the wrong way, like it’s ready to backfire at any moment.
I’m afraid of what’s to come.
I go very still. As long as I’ve known Nightmare, it’s never been afraid. Worried? Maybe. Bloodthirsty? That’s an understatement. In love? Absolutely.
But afraid?
Not until now.
And that terrifies me.
Which means there's something it's not telling me.
The next morning Chelsea moves slowly—getting dressed, eating breakfast.
She says very little. It feels like my heart has been ripped out and handed back to me, useless.
But wait—there’s one thing I know. Helena has taken me by surprise twice. It won’t happen a third. It’s time to take her down—together or not at all.
“We need to eat the nightmares,” I say after lunch.
Her eyes widen in fear, and the urge to rip everything apart makes my fingers flex—for her, to save her.
“We need to try,” I coax gently.
The truth is, our power has felt wrong all day. All fucking day, but neither of us has said anything to the other. Like we’re both scared to.
And Nightmare hasn’t been itself, either. It’s gone quiet. Not resting—watching.
Chelsea nods and pads over to me. She’s stayed in her pajamas all day. She hasn’t even put on sparkly slippers.
I take her hand and smile. She drops her eyes and my heart bleeds.
We stand on the map of stars. I reach for the shadows. The dream world opens—
And Chelsea screams.
Then I feel it—pain like a hot iron driven straight into my stomach.
I drop my magic instantly and the pain disappears.
But I’m left sweating, panting, staring in disbelief as Chelsea looks up at me, her eyes wet.
I exhale a shaky breath. Nightmare, what has happened?
A long pause. The bond is fighting back.
Why?
Another pause. Longer this time. Because it’s broken.
Can it be fixed?
Silence
Nightmare.
I feel it hesitate.
Tell me.
A whisper, thin as smoke. No.
For a second, I don’t understand the word.
The word lands like a fist in my throat. No magic. No dream world. No taming nightmares.
My stomach drops.
That’s not an option.
It isn’t, Nightmare agrees quietly. You have a paradox, Eryx. Use your magic and hurt Chelsea. Don’t filter dreams and—
The magic will kill me.
The full weight of it hits me. I can't use my magic without torturing the woman I love. But if I stop using it, the nightmares will build up. Consume me. Kill me.
Either way, I lose her.
Nightmare’s silence says it all.
If I keep using it, it will kill her.
Chelsea still cries. I drop down beside her. “I’m so sorry.”
“It’s not your fault.” She smiles weakly. “We’ll figure it out. Maybe it just needs time. You’ll see. In a few days we’ll be right as rain. Back to where we were—you with wings and me with claws.”
She believes it. Really believes it. And I can't tell her the truth. Can't look into those hopeful eyes and say: It's permanent. It's not getting better. We're broken.
So I just hold her tighter and let her hope.
Because one of us should.
My chest caves in. It won’t get better.
There’s a long moment before Nightmare finally says, No.
She only just walked into this power, claimed herself.
Became our beautiful fucking monster, it reminds me.
A sob rips out of me before I can stop it. Chelsea’s eyes flick up. I kiss her forehead and pull her to me. “I love you,” I tell her like it’s the last time I’ll get to say it.
When she still loves me.
Before that changes.
“I love you back.”
There’s only one thing you can do, Eryx.
Don’t.
You already know.
No.
Unbind from her.
My blood goes cold. That would mean severing the bond. Ripping out what we built together. The magic. The connection. Everything. And I don't even know if I'd survive it.
Unbind or she won’t survive you. She won’t survive us.
I look down at Chelsea in my arms. Her eyes are closed now, exhausted from crying.
She chose this bond. Welcomed it. Said yes to Nightmare.
And now I have to choose: Keep the bond and watch it kill her slowly. Or rip it out and lose her anyway.
There's no good choice.
Only which way to break her heart.