15. The Stranger
Chapter Fifteen
The Stranger
H er nightmare shatters around me in painful fractures as I step into it. “You’re back.”
Summer stays in the chair, blood running down her cheek, choosing to remain in the nightmare.
I struggle not to roll my eyes. She still insists on this misery, on this torture.
She is choosing this, a sort of self--punishment and repentance for some perceived evil.
I wave my hand, and the bonds keeping her to the chair vanish, but she doesn’t move.
A shiver of foreboding runs down my spine. Something is different.
Reaching out, I brush her cheek lightly with my fingers, healing her. The force of her power hits me in the chest without warning. My body slams into the wall of her dream, and I force my fingers to grip the edges of it, keeping me from being thrown completely out.
Welcome home, little fae. Knew you were in there.
The dream rewinds, threads of a tapestry of trauma coalescing around her. Aqua enters suddenly, stabbing her in the stomach. I snarl and slam my shoulder into the intruder. Glaring down at Summer, I demand, “Fight.”
Maybe she’s not just doing this to torture herself. I have a sinking suspicion that she’s doing this to provoke me.
Fine.
I grab the dagger buried in her stomach and yank it out, keeping my eyes locked with hers. Her whimper of pain will get her no sympathy from me. Not anymore .
“Fight,” I demand again, steel lacing my voice. I put my hand on her wound when it suddenly gushes blood. “Fight.”
She flashes her teeth at me, stained red with her blood. “Don’t touch me.”
I press my hand harder against her wound.
Her eyes ignite, and she shoves weakly at me.
“Pathetic.”
Her ragged breaths make her body shake, and the power humming inside her, desperate for release, explodes.
“Leave me alone!”
When she throws me this time, I don’t have a prayer of clinging to her dream. Instead, I am hurled back into my own body with decisive finality.
Well, it’s a start, but only that. Reaching for her dream, I step back into it.
“Again.”
She appears stunned, blood dripping from her nose. I doubt she’s ever exerted her will in dreams before. It’s a different sort of power than using a rune. Dreamwalking is instinctual in a way. She can use her raw strength here, free from consequences.
I roughly wipe the blood from her face. “Again.”
She shoves me again, stronger this time. “Stop fucking touching me.” Hissing, I grab her jaw, my fingers digging in, forcing her to keep her focus. “Get away from me.”
My fingers bruise her jaw. “Make. Me.”
“I fucking hate you.”
“Prove it.” She snaps her forehead into mine, surprising me enough to release her. She slips out of the chair, but I grab her arm, yanking her back. “Fight me.”
“Fuck. You.”
My hand moves to her hair, fisting it, yanking her head back. “You want to hate me, but you can’t.”
She squirms in my hold, but only ends up pressed against me, rubbing her body against my avatar as she struggles.
“I fucking hate you,” she snarls. “Release me.”
I tighten my grip, hovering my lips over hers. “Fight, or I’ll take what I want.”
You’re already mine. You’re just taking your time .
“Back away.” She bares her teeth and then punches me in the stomach, a surprise hit that makes me release her. “Leave me alone!”
“Get strong enough,” I hiss, straightening, “to force me.”
She punches me again, a little more sure, a little stronger. I fall back a step to reward her, not from the actual force. “More.”
She uses the space between us to summon a knife into her hand. So, she is going to stab me? That’s a change of pace. She keeps her eyes on me and flips the knife in her hand, stabbing herself in a blur of movement.
“Fool!” I admonish, closing the distance between us and yanking the dagger out of her again.
“Leave,” she commands, her eyes glimmering with something close to hate, but not. “Or I’ll do it again.”
I slip my hand into her hair and fist it. She wants to play like that? Fine.
“Try it and I’ll kiss you.”
Her breath catches. “You wouldn’t dare.”
I chuckle darkly. “You have no idea what I dare.”
There is nothing I wouldn’t do when it comes to her. No line I wouldn’t cross, no person I wouldn’t kill, no realm I wouldn’t destroy.
I lean in. “You want to order me? Make it so I have no choice but to obey .”
Then I’ll make you obey me in all the ways you like. I’ll make you beg.
A tremor runs through her body. “I hate you.”
“If you did, you would have used these weeks to learn to keep me out, but you didn’t,” I say, smirking cruelly.
“Because I didn’t think of you once,” she snarls.
I laugh. “Liar. Gather your power, learn how to use it, or this will be every night.”