Chapter 16
‘The Gods are punishing us for what you have done.
Now, the world will never be the same.’
— Unsent correspondence from Tinyrah Kazimyr (Post-Division)
Taryn
It was overwhelmingly obvious that Airess knew something Taryn didn’t, by the way she was looking at him, her mouth hung open and speechless.
Noticing the alarmed expression Airess wore, Taryn immediately looked around the woods, doused in the morning sun, alert to find the source of her reaction, but found nothing amiss.
Her shock contorted to accusation, her brow furrowing as she pointed a finger at him. “You can dreamwalk?”
The recollection of the recurring dream he had awoken from slammed into his mind, recalling the words she had said to him in his dream. But it was just that, a dream.
He gave her a skeptical look. “I can do what?”
Airess rushed to her feet and began pacing.
“It’s not possible. Not once have I ever met another dream walker–well, save for that one recent time – but my own mother told me I would probably never meet one.
And then you show up in my life with some Magickal aura and a plethora of power, and through all of that, you can dreamwalk, too? ”
Taryn stood with his arms folded, amused at how easily worked up she was getting.
Even in the early hours of the morning, Airess looked effortlessly beautiful.
Her ivory hair fell down her back in loose waves, tousled by their travels.
The maroon dress she had stolen from the market fit her body like a glove.
The fabric corset accentuated her curves, invoking a need deep inside Taryn that he tried his best to stifle.
“Calm down, Haeleth. I can barely understand you, and we need to get moving. We can’t stay in one place for too long.”
She nodded reluctantly as they cleaned up their campsite and mounted their horses. They galloped away, their horses’ hooves thrumming against the ground as they sped forward.
At last, a lake came into view, nestled in the valley of Mount Yannish.
Taryn swung a leg over and dismounted his horse, walking over to Airess and offering a hand to help her down, like the gentleman he was.
Her hand was warm, slender, and light as a feather, slipping perfectly into his.
The warmth of her touch seeped into his palm. She possessed the grace of a queen.
He gazed out to the lake, “We should bathe here. It could be a while until we get the chance again.” Once Airess dismounted, she shrugged off her cloak and turned to him.
“Don’t change the subject.”
“What subject?”
Airess crossed her arms, looking at him with curiosity.
“Are you avoiding it because you don’t want me to know, or do you truly have no idea what you are?”
Taryn’s jaw tensed at the words being repeated to him a second time in the past four days, making him instantly skeptical of her. Could he trust her?
Did she even know what she truly was?
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
He turned away from her, grabbing his waterskin attached to the saddle, and headed to the lakeshore.
“My Gods, you have no idea,” Airess whispered in shock from behind, trailing close behind him.
He whipped around, peering down at her. “What are you talking about?” His tone came out more biting than he intended.
She strode to him slowly, letting him digest her words. “We were both there in that field of flowers, you know, with that wall beyond that cliff? I was there. ”
Taryn furrowed his brows and took a step back. How was that possible? Did she get in his head? Was she a witch? The gentle lapping of water from the river filled the silence between them.
“How did you know that?”
“Because I’m a dreamwalker, Taryn–and so are you.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
Airess passed him and sat on the rocky shore, motioning for him to sit. “You’re going to want to sit down for this,” she said wearily. He hesitated for a moment before sitting down next to her, both of them facing the watery expanse.
“If my mother never told me about my abilities, I wouldn’t have known either.”
Airess’s voice cracked at the end of her sentence, clutching her necklace she wore close to her heart. This was the first time she had ever mentioned anything personal, and Taryn knew to stay quiet.
She squeezed her eyes shut. “I never knew what I was capable of. Not in the beginning, at least. My dreams were like anyone else’s.
You dream of something and wake up and remember it, as if you were recalling a distant memory.
But as I got older, things became different.
My dreams began to change. It started with flashes of images and voices at first.
“But things started to change around my tenth birthday. Every night when I fell asleep, I would fall into this–this black hole. I would end up in different landscapes, places I had never seen before. Sometimes I would be alone, wandering into my dreams aimlessly. Other times I would appear in towns, homes, cities I can’t even begin to describe, crowded with people and beings all around me.
But I couldn’t speak to them, they couldn’t see me, almost as if I were–”
“A ghost,” Taryn finished for her and thought about how he had observed his own body in his recent dreams, appearing so translucent that he swore he could have been a ghost himself. His stomach twisted as he felt a certain truth in her words.
Airess nodded in agreement. “Exactly. I became aware that my body was… different. It looked like me, but it wasn’t me.
I wore clothing that didn’t belong to me in those dreams. I had no skin, but a ghostly projection of myself.
One night I woke up so scared. I thought I had died.
” Airess chuckled, fiddling with her fingers.
“I ran to my mother and told her what happened. She told me what it was that I was doing. She called it dreamwalking. It’s a form of astral travel.
Our souls leave our bodies at night and travel the universe.
From what my mother told me it's a rare trait. Not just anyone can do this. You are actually the first person I have ever met who has this ability.”
Taryn stared at his boots, taking it all in. He had no reason to doubt her words now, everything she had said was entirely too identical to his own experiences. He didn’t know what it meant for him, though.
“And you’ve been dreamwalking your whole life?” he asked her, still getting used to the terminology she used.
Airess turned to face him now, her gilded irises boring into him as she spoke softly. “Ever since I was ten, yes.”
“Maybe there’s been some mistake, then. This only started–”
Shit, when did it start? He has had some pretty weird dreams recently. Airess mentioned voices, seeing flashes of images. Taryn realized when it began for him. “It started the night I saved you after the caravan explosion. I found myself in this dreamworld you speak of…”
Taryn trailed off, not wanting to sound absolutely ludicrous.
“You can speak plainly to me. I’m not one to judge,” Airess lightly encouraged, nudging his side lightly with her elbow. Her voice was laced with a soft tone of acceptance. Taryn felt the icy fortress encasing his heart soften ever so slightly.
Has anyone besides his grandmother ever spoken to him with such a welcoming energy? Being a Fae in Elven lands, it was a rarity. Taryn averted his gaze to the watery expanse.
“I was on the cliffside. The same dream you appeared in, only it wasn’t you standing there, but another female – or woman – I couldn’t see her ears to tell what she was. One moment she was there, another moment she had disappeared.”
“What did she look like?”
“It was hard to tell. I only saw her back, but she had red hair and wore purple robes.”
“Red hair,” Airess repeated, the words sounding more like a question. With the sun peaking overhead, Taryn remembered himself, and how they were both on a time crunch to make it out of this country.
“You can bathe first,” Taryn said as he stood and turned to leave, giving her privacy. “I have a lot of questions to ask you about this dreamwalking you speak of, but if we want to travel in a timely manner, we need to leave soon.”
Airess nodded as he turned and stalked into the woods. He walked far enough to be out of sight, but close enough that he was in earshot in case anything came near. He reached his hand out to the saddle –
Taryn stifled a groan as he fell to his knees.
The Oathmark flared, searing the skin on his arm.
The Oathmark’s Magick began to infiltrate his body and mind.
He ripped his tunic by the collar to view the mark, its black glow intensifying with the pain.
Darkness closed in, Taryn no longer able to hear and see his surroundings as he collapsed entirely.
BOOM!
He heard men screaming around him as he fell to the ground.
Taryn’s heart pounded in his chest as he watched a Runean soldier get cut down by a Lucien soldier, his head decapitated.
The gore splattered onto Taryn as he lay in the mud after being blasted backwards by Shadow Magick.
The soldier ripped his sword out of the body, a sound Taryn might not ever forget.
His eyes widened as the Lucien soldier transfixed his gaze on Taryn next, stalking towards him with his blade. He remembered to move, to act. Taryn gripped his bow, trembling fingers fumbling to grasp onto the arrow now that his fingers were soaked in blood.
“No!” Taryn screamed as the Lucien’s soldier brought the sword down –
Taryn was suddenly thrust back into reality, the pain from the Oathmark receding.
The glow faded, leaving the tattooed ink back to its original red.
Panic set in, rooting deep in his stomach and creeping up until his throat tightened.
He loathed that Eryx could bring him directly back into his most traumatic memories, even from afar.
Taryn didn’t realize he had fallen flat on the ground, but he heaved as he regained his focus, pulling his tunic upright on his shoulders.
He wiped the sweat that beaded on his brow as he stood up.
Shit. Eryx had called on his Oathmark sooner than expected.
Of course, he knew it would happen eventually.
He prayed to the Gods he wouldn’t have an episode in front of Airess.
How could he explain such a thing? It’s not like he could tell her what he saw–Eryx forcing Taryn into his deepest traumatic memories when he intended to inflict pain.
Eryx knew Taryn could handle the physical pain, so he often resorted to mental torture as well.
Taryn didn’t have a plan to rid himself of the mark beyond meeting with the infamous healers in Rune. For now, he would have to conceal his pain. He didn’t want Airess to know he was bound by the Oathmark. What would she think of him if she knew?
Why did he care?
Taryn brushed that thought aside as he gathered himself, turning as soft footsteps padded towards him, Airess’s scent prominent before he saw her.
His breath hitched as he took her in. The blood and dirt she was caked in had been washed away, leaving her glowing beneath the morning light.
Her ivory hair had been braided into a crown, save for a few tendrils that framed her freckled face.
She wore a dark maroon cotton dress with white stitching.
She held the top half of her dress up, her cheeks warmed a soft shade of pink.
“I can’t reach to fix the back of this dress. Do you mind lacing up this corset? Unless you don’t know how, of course –
“I know how to lace a corset, Haeleth,” Taryn cut in, his voice low as he moved toward her.
Need bloomed within him at the sight of her–a completely inappropriate feeling he tried his best to block out.
He barely knew her, Taryn couldn’t be thinking thoughts like this.
He swallowed at the sight of her bare back on display.
He grabbed the strings and began to lace them gracefully, his fingers brushing against her delicate skin felt like electricity shooting up his arms.
Get a hold of yourself, Tar.
Taryn laced slower than he needed to, fighting every urge crawling up his spine, He tied the knot gently at the small of her back.
“Is this too tight?” he asked, his voice hoarse with desire that he tried his best to mask.
What was wrong with him, losing control like this?
Never had a female made him so weak. He was holding onto any strength he could muster to not lose control, to hide the desire in his eyes.
He couldn’t do this, not with her. Taryn didn’t even know if he could trust her.
They were just… unlikely allies working together towards a similar goal.
That was all. He reminded himself of these facts and neutralized his expression.
She took a deep breath in to test how much room she had in the bodice. “No, it’s perfect.”
She turned to face him. The air was thick with a certain tension as she tilted her head up to him, her golden gaze heated.
Now that her dress was intact, her breasts were on full display from the tightened corset.
Taryn clenched his jaw, a flicker of heat surging beneath his skin.
He forced himself to look away with what little control he had left.
“Thank you,” she said lightly, as if she too felt the thick energy coursing in the air around them.
“Of course,” he said as he turned away abruptly, careful to ignore the sweet scent of her arousal as he descended to take a bath of his own.