Chapter 7
Jamie
The dream always started the same way. I was standing in our old cottage, the scent of my mother’s lavender sachets hanging in the air.
Everything was peaceful and so damn normal.
My father was reading by the fire, his glasses perched on his nose.
My mother was humming as she prepared tea in the kitchen.
I knew what was coming. I always knew. But I could never change it.
The first tremor shook the cottage, rattling the windows. My father looked up, confusion crossing his face before understanding dawned. “Mary—” he called to my mother, his voice eerily calm.
The second tremor was stronger, accompanied by a sound like a train.
“James,” my mother said, her eyes wide with fear as she rushed from the kitchen. “Hide. Now.”
I shook my head, seventeen and stupidly brave. “I can help.”
My father was already at the weapons cabinet, pulling out the enchanted blades that were standard issue for all Assembly employees.
He tossed one to my mother, who caught it with ease.
They’d both been trained, though neither had been field agents for years, and neither of them ever belonged to a shield team, not like my uncles had.
“James, listen to your mother. You haven’t manifested yet. You’ll only—“
The cottage wall exploded inward, showering us with debris. Through the gaping hole slithered the first bane, a writhing mass of darkness with too many limbs and eyes that glowed with malevolent intelligence that spanned galaxies.
What followed was horror. Just horror. My parents fought valiantly, their blades slicing through dark matter, but there were too many. I grabbed a dagger, knowing it would do little against the creatures but unable to hide while my parents fought.
The largest bane, a towering monstrosity with claws like serrated knives, lunged for me. My father intercepted it, his blade piercing its center mass. But as it died, its claws raked across his chest, opening him from shoulder to hip.
“Dad!” I screamed, rushing to his side.
My mum was still fighting, becoming desperate as more bane poured through the breach. “James, run!”
I couldn’t. I wouldn’t leave them.
The bane that killed her a second later moved so fast I barely saw it. It was a shadow that seemed to phase through solid wall. One moment she was standing, the next she was on the ground, her eyes staring sightlessly at the ceiling.
Something broke inside me then. A dam burst, and power flooded through my veins—too late, too bloody late.
My Pisces magic manifested a year too early, but seconds too late in a surge of raw energy, my mind reaching out to touch the consciousness of the bane.
I could feel their alien thoughts, their hunger, their mindless desire to consume.
I lashed out with my newfound power, tearing through their mental defenses, forcing them to experience every ounce of my pain and rage. They screamed—a sound no human throat could make—as I ripped their minds apart.
But one remained. The largest, most intelligent of them all. It regarded me with something close to amusement before lunging forward. I raised my hands, channeling everything I had left into a mental assault.
Too slow. Its claws raked down the left side of my face, setting my world on fire with pain.
I fell backward, blood pouring from the wounds that would become my scars.
Fire raked down my arms, my back, my abdomen as it tore at me.
As consciousness faded, I saw the creature standing over me, raising its claws for a final strike.
The dream shifted, as it always did, showing me the aftermath.
Assembly agents arrived too late for my parents but just in time to kill the bane that was about to end my life, the funeral I watched from a wheelchair, too weak to stand and the scars that would never fully heal, a permanent, ugly and monstrous reminder of my complete failure.
Sometimes I wished I’d died with them that night if only so I didn’t have to live with the shame.
“Enough,” I told myself, as I did every night. “Enough now.”
The dream shattered around me, fragments of memory dissolving into mist. I floated in the void between dreams for a moment, Gretchen materializing beside me, her feathers gleaming with that distinctive blue-purple sheen that reminded me of a nebula.
My familiar could always reach my dreams, and had pulled me out of enough of them when I couldn’t do it myself.
She preened her wing feathers, a gesture I’d come to recognize as her way of giving me space to collect myself. “There are ways to avoid dreaming, silly boy.”
“And miss all our quality time together? Never.”
Gretchen’s mental laugh rippled through our connection. “Poor Jam Jam.”
She was the only one who could call me that, and only because I’d never live it down if any of the guys heard. I’d taken sleeping pills before just to keep the dreams at bay, but I didn’t want to overdo it. When I took them I woke up even more exhausted than when I went to sleep.
I felt a tug. It was gentle at first. Someone else’s dream was calling to me.
This wasn’t unusual; my Pisces magic often drew me to dreams filled with intense emotion.
I’d learned to resist most of them, to stay within my own dream unless specifically seeking another’s.
But within seconds the pull grew strong enough that I had to actively resist following it.
“Do you feel that?”
Gretchen cocked her head, her amber eyes gleaming with interest. “Someone’s having a nightmare. A powerful someone.”
I hesitated only briefly before allowing myself to be drawn toward the foreign dream. Gretchen fluttered to my shoulder, her talons gentle against my skin as the new dream materialized around us.
It was a dormitory room I didn’t recognize. The dark stone walls were old, but not as old as Imperium, and the room was utilitarian. The walls were bare except for a single taped up photograph of the Milky Way galaxy.
And there, curled on the floor, was Jupiter Black.
She was sobbing uncontrollably, her face buried in what appeared to be a man’s black t-shirt. Her shoulders shook, and occasionally a raw, guttural scream would tear from her throat, muffled by the fabric clutched in her white-knuckled hands.
“Fuck…” Even for a dream, her pain was overwhelming.
Gretchen’s talons tightened slightly on my shoulder. “This is a memory. The girl hurts.”
She was right. The dream had the clarity of recent trauma, not the hazy quality of a typical nightmare. And this room, it was clearly Dominion. I was witnessing something that had actually happened.
It didn’t take me long to realize that I was literally witnessing the direct aftermath of the Nightfall Shield’s betrayal. Did she relive this every bloody night? The way I relived the death of my parents?
I stood frozen, unsure whether to retreat or make my presence known. This felt invasive, too intimate. But before I could decide, Jupiter’s head snapped up, her bloodshot eyes locking directly onto mine.
“Who’s there?” She scrambled to her feet, hastily wiping at her tear-stained face. “How the fuck did you get in here?”
I stepped forward, hands raised in a placating gesture. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to intrude.”
Recognition dawned in her eyes. “Jamie? What—how are you—“
“Pisces designation,” I explained, tapping my temple. “Dream-walking. It’s sort of my thing.”
“This is a dream?” She looked around the room, shaking her head, and understanding slowly dawned in her eyes. Then she narrowed her gaze at me again. “Get out of my head, James. Now.”
Oh, she was pissed then.
“I would if I could, but you pulled me in. Your emotions are... very intense.”
“So this is my fault?” She crossed her arms.
I sighed, running a hand through my hair. “Look, I’m really not trying to spy on you. Pisces magic is weird. Strong emotions act like a beacon. I was just minding my own business, having my regularly scheduled nightmare, when your dream practically dragged me in.”
Her gaze shifted to Gretchen. “And the bird?”
“Gretchen. My familiar.”
Jupiter’s eyes widened. “You have a familiar bond? Those are incredibly rare.”
“Says the woman who talks to snakes.”
The corner of her mouth twitched, almost forming a smile before she caught herself. “Still doesn’t explain why you’re still in my dream.”
“If it helps, I can change the scenery. I can make it less...” I gestured to the barren, cold room, the tear-soaked shirt.
She looked around, as if seeing the dream with fresh eyes. A flash of pain crossed her face. “Please,” she whispered.
I closed my eyes, concentrating on reshaping the dream.
The dormitory room dissolved, walls falling away, ceiling becoming sky.
The floor beneath our feet transformed into solid rock.
It was a cliffside overlooking the dense forest surrounding Imperium.
Above us, stars glittered in a clear night sky, the moon casting everything in silver light.
When I opened my eyes, Jupiter was standing at the cliff’s edge, looking out over the treetops. The tension had eased from her shoulders. Her long, silky hair blew in the dream wind and it took everything in me not to reach out and touch it.
“Better?” I asked, moving to stand beside her, careful to leave space between us. I didn’t like touching people. Didn’t bloody trust it.
She nodded, wrapping her arms around herself. “How much did you see?”
“Enough,” I admitted. “You don’t have to talk about it.”
“Good, because I don’t want to.”
Gretchen launched herself from my shoulder, wings spreading wide as she soared on dream-currents above the forest. Jupiter watched her fly, a small smile finally breaking through.
“She’s so beautiful.”
“She knows it, too. Vainest familiar in the world.”
‘I heard that,’ Gretchen’s voice echoed in my mind, and I knew Jupiter couldn’t hear her.