22
The blood in my veins ran cold as my eyes locked on Donika’s, a sinister smile curving across her lips. Corian snickered at her side, but my eyes held Donika’s gaze.
She had found me.
How had she found me?
I opened my mouth to scream, to call for Nik, Puck, or Tess, but nothing came out. The sound of Nik’s voice screaming my name sounded further and further away until I couldn’t hear it at all anymore. Wherever they were, they couldn’t see or hear me.
It must be some type of spell Donika concocted to single me out. A small wave of relief washed over me at the thought of them being safe, that it was only me she would take prisoner this time. That Tess was safe.
I wet my lips against the cold chill that suddenly hung in the air. Only moments ago it had been a balmy, warm spring night. I set my shoulders and glared at Donika from under my eyelashes.
She would not see me afraid.
My fingers twitched to the Stormslayer dagger strapped to my thigh, but I made no move for it. I was outnumbered with Corian here, and I wasn’t sure I was ready to face Donika in a duel.
“What’s wrong, little Stormshade?” She laughed, throwing her head back. “Cat got your tongue?”
“How did you find me?” My lips thinned as I watched something swirl in the amber crystal of her staff.
Magic.
It was holding some type of magic, I realized. But what?
She had no way of knowing I couldn’t use my storm magic, that it had turned on me. In her eyes, I was still a threat, and I would act like it.
“You came here all alone?” I asked, my brow raised. “Not so wise for the queen of this realm.”
I pulled on enough magic for thunder to crack loudly overhead. If I hadn’t been watching her, I might have missed the way her brow flinched, just a little.
“I see no reason to be afraid for my safety. You are alone, and only a little Stormshade, after all.”
“There is nothing little about my magic, Donika. It has been weeks since you have seen me last.”
I clenched by jaw so tight I could feel the pain radiate into my temples. I pushed a lock of auburn hair over my shoulder with ease.
I would not let her see me shaken.
“How easily you forget your time in the Stormvault. Maybe you need a reminder.”
She flicked her staff and Corian moved to dismount, his white horse whinnying a hot exhale into the cold night air.
“Do not come any closer,” I warned, my arm outstretched between us.
A smile lifted the corner of Corian’s mouth, but he stayed by his horse as a streak of lightning crossed the sky, striking the ground a few yards away. If I wasn’t careful, I would lose a hold of this magic. I needed to use only enough to let them see I could wield it.
Only enough to let me escape.
But where would I go? I couldn’t lead them to the townhouse where Nik, Puck, and Tess were. I would never make it back to the safe house before they captured me. I swallowed hard, racking my brain for a way out of this.
“I saw you.” Corian’s words were soft as he took a step forwards, then another.
“I said don’t come any closer.”
I tried to put as much steel into my voice as I could, but I couldn’t risk channeling any more storm magic.
“I saw you, spying on us.” His lip lifted into a sneer.
“What are you talking about?” I asked, shaking my head back and forth, my hand still outstretched between us.
“Dream walker,” he spat, as if the word were a curse.
Donika’s expression did not change. She simply moved the reins of her horse to her other hand, her grip on the staff tightening.
“If you saw me, that means you, yourself, are a dream walker. Do you deny this?”
“I do not deny it. The mother thought fit to curse me. I am a dream walker, but I am also the right hand of the queen now that Zion has betrayed our cause. How much did you see, little Stormshade?” His mouth twisted into a grimace as he spoke.
How could he hate dream walkers this much when he was one himself?
I only shook my head in response. I had seen Donika’s Noctani, but Zion had confirmed as much. They were no longer a secret to protect. Neither were the Araneoch, who she had sent to attack us on the training field. We might not have made it out of that alive if it hadn’t been for Tyr coming to warn us and kill one of them himself.
“No matter, I will know what you saw soon enough.”
How could that be possible? Was there something…more to his dream walking abilities?
“I think you’d better leave.” My voice was cutting despite the shake I could feel in my outstretched hand.
“I think not, Diana. You will come with us, back to The Stone Palace, by choice or by force. But you will return with us,” Donika replied.
She appeared utterly bored by the entire exchange, and my heart hammered away in my chest. Was there something I could do to break the spell that hid me from my friends? Did it have to do with the magic in Donika’s staff?
I dipped into the magic in my core, channeling it out of my arms and through my fingertips to taste the magic in the amber crystal.
My magic immediately reared back, recoiling. It recognized this magic as something dark. Something awful. I pushed once more, urging my magic to reach out, but whatever spell was held inside the amber crystal, it wasn’t the spell that had hidden me here.
That meant this was Corian’s doing. I lifted my palm towards him, and without giving him time to react, I let loose a burst of amethyst magic as I had with Warrick earlier. Just as Warrick had, Corian whirled back. His horse whinnied, its eyes wild. It stomped its hooves against the ground, preparing to run off.
As Corian flew back, I could see a black surge around him, as if it were a ripple in time.
What was that?
As he tried to get up, I unleashed another blast of magic, knocking him to his knees. Again, I saw that darkness ripple around his figure.
My voice came out barely above a whisper. “This is a dream.”
My eyes lit up with the recognition of what that ripple truly was.
It was my magic fighting his. He had created this space for us, and us alone. That meant I could break free of it.
“You witch,” he spat, trying to regain his footing one last time.
Donika’s gaze darted between us, as if she finally realized that I knew. She urged her horse forwards, her staff outstretched towards me. Before her staff could strike me, I created a bubble of protection around myself, as Isaac had taught me.
A magical shield.
The magic rippled with purple light around me, and I could once again hear the faint sound of Nik’s voice screaming my name. I pushed more and more magic into the veil of protection, and the thick, black fog began to dissipate. The image of Donika and Corian undulated before me as she beat against my magic shield with her staff.
“Diana! Diana, can you hear me? I need you to hear me, Diana!”
Before she could break through my hold and shatter my magic, I took a deep breath and pushed one last surge of storm magic into the protection veil.
I was exhausted, and I slipped to my knees as the image of Donika and Corian faded entirely. I blinked furiously to refocus my vision.
Before me was Nik, roughly gripping my shoulders and shaking me, his voice loud in my ear. He called my name, over and over. The dense fog was gone, replaced by the streets of Prins as they had been only a few moments ago. The balmy spring night was back, and I could see Tess and Puck out of the corner of my eye.
Donika and Corian were gone.
It had been a dream. But…how? I hadn’t been sleeping…I had been awake. Did Corian have the ability to pull me into a dream while I was still waking? If so, he was far more powerful than I had originally given him credit for.
“Nik.” My voice came out as a whisper, and I gripped his leather jacket in my fingers tightly.
“Diana. Mother above, you can hear me.” He pulled me tight, so tight I couldn’t breathe, but I buried my face in his shoulder, regardless.
I gripped his jacket, pulling him closer until there was no space left between us. The feeling of his arms around me grounded me back to this reality. I recognized a tickling sensation in the back of my mind, as if someone was trying to break through my consciousness. I had no idea dream walking could be linked to the magic of the mind, but I now recognized the sensation of Corian trying to pull me back into the dream. I squeezed my eyes closed and shut him out entirely.
“Are you ok?” Tess’ voice was panicked as she kneeled before us, her hand on my back. “We were all walking and you just…stopped. You were blinking, but not responding. As if you couldn’t hear us.”
Nik released me only enough for me to respond to Tess, his grip still tight around my shoulders.
“I was pulled into a dream by Corian.”
“Who the hell is Corian?” Nik asked, his voice ragged.
“I saw him in the dream, the one where I saw the Noctani. He had seen me there…he is a dream walker, too. He pulled me into a dream against my will…and he and Donika were both there.”
“Donika was there?” Tess glanced at Nik, but he didn’t take his eyes off me.
I nodded. “She had a giant black staff covered in serpents, and some type of dark magic spell trapped in an amber crystal set in the bezel. I don’t know what the spell was. She said she had found me, and that by choice or by force I was going back to Akra with her.”
“Well, that sounds like quite the dilemma. I never was one for multiple choice.” Puck crossed his arms over his chest as he watched us.
Nik pulled me to my feet and Tess caught me, holding me upright.
“Do you think she actually knows where we are? Or did she only mean that she had found me in the dream?” I asked.
Nik shook his head. “None of us know that much about dream walking. Despite now knowing of three dream walkers, it isn’t that common.”
“We can’t stay here tonight,” Tess protested, gesturing towards the townhouse before us.
“Where else would we go?” I asked. “It’s almost midnight, and the last thing I want to do is lead anyone back to the safe house. It’s not as if we have another place on hand. Isaac told us to stay put.”
“Actually—” Puck started, but his words were cut off by a sharp glare from Nik. “What? Tess is right, we can’t stay here. He’s our last option. I wouldn’t suggest it if it weren’t a last resort.”
“I don’t trust him with this,” Nik replied, inclining his head in my direction.
“What other choice do we have? He is an old witch, and incredibly strong. If Donika or Corian found us there, he’s our best bet at keeping everyone safe.” Puck tensed as he spoke.
Who were they talking about?
“Do you forget that he was right hand to The Dark King, Osiris?” Nik asked, his eyes narrowing.
“My father?” My voice sounded small between them as Nik’s gaze cut to mine.
“Yes, your father. He might have been slaughtered by Donika, but he was no saint himself. He, too, had a vendetta against Stormshades.” Nik ran a hand through his hair as he paled.
“If you can think of a better option, Kolya, I’m all ears.”
“Does anyone want to fill us in?” Tess asked, crossing her arms over her chest and facing Puck. “What are you two talking about?”
“Alastir.” Puck’s tone was clipped as his gaze traveled from Nik to Tess.
“The owner of the charm shop?” I asked, my head throbbing.
“Yes. There is a reason we didn’t let you meet him that day. I don’t think I trust him with the knowledge that you are a Stormshade, and that we are running from Donika.”
“But he hates Donika,” Puck pointed out. “We have been trying to get him to join the forces of the resistance for years. Maybe this is our chance.”
“And if he turns her in?” Nik asked, his jaw set. “Leads Donika straight to us?”
“She is his daughter, Nik. I think it’s a chance we have to take. Unless you want to go to bed up there and wake up in the Stormvault.” Puck gestured towards the townhouse behind us. “Or lead Donika and Corian directly to our numbers in the safe house, thus extinguishing any chance we have of winning this war.”
“You know I don’t want either of those things,” Nik ground out.
“Well, if you know of another place for us to stay tonight, I’m all ears. I, for one, do not plan to find out if Donika knows our actual location or only our dream location. Alastir is a risk worth taking, if you ask me.”
“He has a point about Osiris. If he was so loyal to him, there’s no way he would lay a hand on his only daughter,” I replied, giving Nik a reassuring half-smile.
Or at least, I didn’t think so.
Nik glanced between all of us, weighing our options before he finally spoke. “Just for tonight.”
“Obviously,” Puck huffed as he turned on his heel and started down the cobblestone street in the other direction. “The old man probably has at least one hundred cats. And you know how I feel about cats.”
“Hey, I love cats,” I replied, following behind with a frown.
“It’s nothing personal, love. They scare me, that’s all.”
“Are you scared of Saanvi, then?” My brow raised at Puck in the darkness.
“Quite,” he admitted with a lopsided grin.
That had us laughing, at least. We headed down the main street towards Alastir’s charm shop, and luckily the gas lanterns were lit in this part of Dragon’s Hollow. The streets narrowed as we rose over the crest of the hill leading towards the shop, and we all stopped out front. The door was shuttered for the night, a ‘closed’ sign prominently hanging in the window. From what I could tell, there were no lights on inside.
Nik raised his hand to knock, but the door swung open before his fist connected with the wood of the door.
“Alastir,” Nik’s voice was relieved, as if he half expected him not to be here. Or to answer.
“Kolya. I should have expected it would be the two of you troublemakers waking me in the middle of the night.” His eyes traveled over our group and stopped when they landed on me.
Alastir was older, likely in his late seventies, with a scruff of grey hair on his face and a permanent slouch. He held a cane in his hand that didn’t do a very good job of keeping him upright. This was the powerful witch they were speaking of? He appeared awfully…frail.
His brows lowered as if he could guess my thoughts, and his gaze snapped back to Nik. “You dare bring her here?”
I swallowed hard, stuffing my hands into my pockets. Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to come here after all.
“We have nowhere else to go,” Nik explained quietly. “You know who she is?”
“Of course I know who she is. I am no fool. Now, inside with the lot of you, quickly.” Alastir glanced back and forth down the street before stepping aside and letting us pass through the open doorway.
His shop was exactly as I had pictured it, littered with potions and charms placed on rickety wooden shelves. The back wall was filled with bookshelves that almost swallowed the little door set into it that likely led up to the living quarters above the shop. The floor was carpeted with a dark blue tapestry, and the wooden floors beneath creaked as Alastir led us towards the back of the shop.
“Upstairs, quickly.”
He ushered us up the narrow staircase, one after the other, before shutting the door and sealing it with a spell. The door glowed an indigo hue before we heard a pop, and Alastir followed us upwards.
His living quarters were quaint but comfortable. There was a small kitchen and a wooden stove that roared with a crackling fire. There were two comfortable-looking couches, and two bedrooms off the main room. To my dismay, there wasn’t a cat in sight.
Alastir lifted a hand and the shades on all the windows rolled closed with a snap. He moved to the small kitchen and poured himself a mug of steaming hot coffee from the pot on the stove.
Had he been…expecting us? He rubbed the sleep from his eyes and turned towards us, his cane in one hand, the mug in the other. “I have spelled these walls so nothing can be heard from outside them.”
Alastir moved to the living room and fell into a chair by the fireplace. “Now…would one of you like to explain why you brought the heir to the throne, the daughter of my dear friend Osiris, to my house in the middle of the night?”