by S. L. Watson
“We’ll fix it, I promise, but right now, you need to get Molly to see the real you so she’ll wake up. Take this.” I shoved the dream stone into his hand.
Darion closed his fingers over it. “Do you think it’ll work?”
“Yes. I think only you can cross the barrier of his magic with the stone. Freya referred to it as the ‘toll.’ You drew the stone. The magic was meant for this moment, but you need to work fast. I’m going to get his attention, and as soon as he comes for me, let go of my hand and go to Molly.”
Worry was etched upon his brow. “You’re not a dream walker. If I let you go, you—”
“I trust you, Darion. Wake Molly up, and then come back for me.”
“Okay,” he agreed with a torn expression as he glanced at me, then back at Molly. “But if this works, and she wakes up, you won’t be in Molly’s dream anymore; you’ll be stuck in between …”
Molly and her captor faded farther and farther away. If we didn’t act now, we might not get another chance. “Just follow my lead.”
“Hey! You! You want Oria’s ring?” The dancing halted, and the forms shimmered and materialized in front of us.
“Where is it?” the voice that wasn’t Darion’s snarled at me.
I cocked an eyebrow. “It’s here.” I tapped my pocket and released Darion’s hand. Then I turned and ran, pumping my arms. The shadows that had appeared as just empty figments only moments ago re-formed with menacing hisses. Their forms solidified as they knocked into me, shoving me sideways and blocking my path. My fists flew out in front of me, but it was useless, as the shadows vanished as quickly as they materialized. I ground my feet into the surface and propelled myself forward. I swiped at the sweat dripping toward my eyes and quickly glanced back to see that my plan had worked.
Thank God.
Darion had Molly, and the shape-shifter chased behind me. With renewed hope, I ignored the pain locking up my leg muscles and ran faster. A hand clawed my shoulder from behind, tripping me up. My head whipped sideways for an instant, and I caught a glimpse of silver engraved with an E as the fingers raked across my skin.
“Ahh!” I screamed as my shoulder burned with fire. I gagged, trying to force air into my lungs, and pressed on harder and faster. My feet went out from under me, and I stumbled forward.
“No!” My gut coiled with fear.
I expected him to be on me any second, but when my body spun, everything from Molly’s dream had disintegrated, along with my pursuer.
I wasn’t sure how much time had passed, but my legs burned like I’d been running for miles, and my shoulder throbbed. I twisted my head around to check the wound, but my surroundings were too dark. I ran my fingers over the area instead and winced at the torn flesh. Then panic set in when I realized that my body floated in infinite black nothingness.
Did this mean Molly was awake, and I was somewhere in between, like Darion had warned?
I forced the panic aside and focused on calming my heart rate. Darion would come back for me.
As time went on, plumes of color exploded in the black, and I was suddenly swimming in sparkling swirls of magenta and clouds of violet, yellow, and gold. Sparks of light sprang to life all around, millions of twinkles everywhere. Some of the pulses of light made formations in the sky. I spun, realizing that constellations surrounded me.
Where am I?
My body floated toward a cluster of pulsing blue-white and red stars that formed into a round shape, the size of a head with two long antennae, or were they supposed to be horns on a head? It was hard to tell. But with a rush of alarm, I realized I floated straight toward a bright, burning light. I was going to collide with the stars. I pumped my arms, trying to get my body to float in the opposite direction, but I kept spinning the wrong way, like it was reeling me in.
I screamed into the darkness as the body of stars appeared to move together in a menacing way. A bow took shape, and long stretches of stars making arms pulled the string back on the bow and aimed it at me. I flailed and cried out for Darion to find me.
“Everly!”
“I’m here! Help me!”
Darion materialized and snatched me in his arms.
Bright florescent lights burned my eyes. I squinted, trying to make out the face hovering over mine. Heart-shaped like mine, but instead of raven hair, this one was framed by blond and a single strip of pink. Wide brown eyes the color of an aged oak roamed over my face.
I sprang up, only to fall back with a dizzy head.
Molly’s cool fingers pressed against my cheeks and forehead. “She’s burning up.” Concern strained her usual sassy tone. “I’ll get a cold washcloth.”
“Wait,” I moaned, forcing my eyes open although my head spun and opening my eyes only made it worse, but I wanted to see Molly’s face and make sure she was really okay.
“You’re awake.” My lips turned up into a smile. Then my eyelids drifted closed.
Darion knelt beside me and handed me a plastic cup filled with water. “I’m sorry, Ev. I came right back for you, but you’d vanished. It took me several tries to follow your energy trail. Are you okay?”
A year ago, I never would have imagined seeing Darion so worried for me, or hearing the shaken edge to his voice over my well-being. I pushed myself up and leaned against the wall and clenched my teeth. My hand flew to my shoulder, now covered with a bandage, drawing Darion’s attention to it.
“I’m sorry you were hurt. Whoever did this is stronger than me. I should’ve been able to protect you in there, but I couldn’t.” The guilt in his voice caused an ache in my chest.
I shifted to find a position that didn’t hurt as much. “All that matters is you found me, and we saved Molly.”
Darion cast his eyes down.
“What?” I asked. “What’s wrong?”
Molly came back with the cold cloth. I tried shooing it away, but she maneuvered around me and drooped it over my head, folding the edge back at my forehead so I could see. I couldn’t deny that the cool temperature felt nice and helped steady my dizzy head.
“What am I missing?” I glanced between the two faces hovering over me.
Molly sat next to me and shared a worried look with Darion. Then she pointed to her forehead. “The man who attacked me gave me a message. He said I have his mark.”
The bloodied mark I’d seen in her dream was no longer visible, but I knew its ugliness lay beneath her skin. The slight hum of its magic leached into Molly’s aura.
Molly continued in an eerie calm. “And unless you give him what he wants, he’ll put me back to sleep.” She paused, and then finished. “For good.”
I squeezed the pillow that lay at my side and forced back the scream that welled at the back of my throat. I threw my arms around Molly and held her tight.
“I’m so sorry, Molly. You must hate me for what’s happened to you and for not telling you the truth about what I am.”
Molly shook her head. “I could never hate you, Ev. You’re my best friend. And I understand why you were scared to tell me that you’re an alien.”
We both laughed, and the mood eased slightly.
Molly sat up. “Jokes aside …” She adjusted the cloth on my head. “I get it. I can’t say I’d have done it any differently. But I do hope you can figure out how to get this creepy invisible carving out of my head.”
Darion still knelt beside me, and Molly reached out her arms and brought our heads together so they all three touched. “Thank you both for getting me out of that nightmare. I don’t know who that guy was, but he was real scary. I didn’t buy his act for one second, and he didn’t like that I resisted him. I think he wanted to kill me, and it was hard for him not to, and I don’t want to go back there with him.” Her body shuddered at the memory.
Darion sat up and lifted Molly in his arms. “I won’t let him get anywhere near you again.”
What Darion didn’t say, but what I suspected—and he most likely did too—was that the shifter didn’t need to be near Mol
ly to activate the mark. There was something different about this magic and the way the rune had been absorbed beneath her skin, but there was no reason to frighten Molly further if this was the case. She’d been through enough.
“You’re awake!” a voice exclaimed from the door. “She’s awake,” the nurse announced again, this time to someone in the hall.
Two nurses came barreling in, followed by a skinny man with copper skin and an East Indian accent. He pulled a penlight from the front pocket of his crisp white doctor’s jacket.
“You gave us quite the scare, young lady. Do you mind if we check you over?” He patted the hospital bed.
The nurses ushered Molly onto the bed, wrapping her arm to test her blood pressure, and popping a disposable thermometer under her tongue, while the doctor flashed his light in her pupils. He checked her temperature and read the blood pressure reading. “Everything appears normal, but we’ll need to run some blood work and schedule another brain scan now that you’re awake.”
Molly shrugged. “I’m fine. I feel great. Good as new and ready to go home.”
The doctor wrinkled his brow. “I know you’re eager to be in the comfort of your own home, but we still don’t know the cause of your coma, and we need to be sure everything checks out before we can release you.”
Molly huffed but went off with the nurses like a good patient to get her blood drawn.
The room fell silent once the doctor and nurses took Molly away. I was attempting to stand to go use the bathroom when Darion shot up to help me. “Darion, I’m fine, I promise.” I shooed away his help.
“Now you sound like Molly, and we both know she’s not out of the woods yet.” He slammed his fist into the hospital mattress.
“I’m sorry. We’ll find a way to remove the mark for good, but at least she’s awake now. And there’s something I need to tell you, about when I was trapped inside wherever I was.” I leaned against Molly’s hospital bed for support.
Darion bent forward in his chair. “What is it?”
“Your impersonator had a ring on. When he clawed my back, I turned just enough to see it before he disappeared. It was the same ring from the photo Lucas brought.”
Silence hung between us as the implication of this news took root.
“It’s him.”
“Yeah,” I agreed. “It has to be. But if he’s after Oria’s ring, why would he have killed our father? I didn’t even know about the ring then.”
Darion breathed hard. “Argh!” he growled as he jumped up and kicked back the chair he’d sat in. “I’m going to kill him!”
“We need to find out who and what we’re dealing with.” My legs wobbled as I took a step forward.
Darion sprang forward and caught my arms.
“It was just a dizzy spell, but I’m fine now. See?” I steadied myself as I took a step toward the bathroom. “All better.” I hurried into the bathroom and closed the door before Darion saw the strain on my face. He had enough to worry about. He didn’t need to add me to the list.
Several splashes of cold water on my face calmed the headache brewing at my temples, but the helpless feeling of floating in infinite blackness lingered. And the fear of nearly colliding with stars still clung to my skin. I shuddered to think what would have happened if I’d died while stuck in nothingness. Would my body have died too, or would my mind have stayed asleep indefinitely?
Thank goodness Darion found me in time.
I patted my face dry with a clean towel and looked up into the mirror above the sink. My breath caught when a pair of sapphire eyes that weren’t my own stared over my head. I spun around, heart pounding, but no one stood behind me.
Ouch!
My elbow had whacked the metal towel rack. I rubbed at my tingling funny bone and checked the mirror again. This time only my pale reflection stared back. I studied my own sapphire eyes and wondered why the shifter’s eyes matched the color of mine and my mom’s instead of Darion’s when he intended to impersonate Darion. It didn’t make sense, but then, none of this did.
“Everything okay in there?” Darion’s voice called from the other side of the door. “I heard a noise.”
“If you call losing my mind being okay.” I hung up the hand towel and opened the door. “I thought I saw your impersonator standing behind me, and I whacked my elbow. Being trapped in a black hole really messed with my head.”
“Huh,” Darion looked me over. “He can dream walk, Ev. Maybe being trapped in there with him created some kind of psychic connection. We don’t know what he’s capable of, but he was able to reject me from Molly’s mind when I tried entering alone, and that’s never happened. Something is different about this shifter. He has magic most shifters don’t have.”
An icy flush came over me. We need to take this creeper down before he attacks again.
“You sure you’re okay?” Darion wrinkled his nose. “You look a little clammy.”
“Thanks, brother.” I faked agitation. The truth was I felt like I’d been turned inside out, but I needed Darion off my back so I could get out of here. “I just need some air. I have to go.” I glanced around for my purse.
“Um, no. You’re not going anywhere alone in your state.” Darion challenged me with a hard stare.
My hand flew to my hip. “Damn it, Darion. Don’t pull a Jasper on me. You’re becoming as overprotective as he is, and I’m capable of taking care of myself.”
“Where are you going?” he demanded.
There was no point in hiding my intention. “I’m going to Felix’s.”
“Oria?” He tilted his head, and I nodded.
Darion lifted a black-booted foot onto the chair he’d picked up from the floor. “I’d feel better if you called Jasper, but I know you’re too stubborn. Promise you’ll call me as soon as you get there.”
I rolled my eyes. “I promise.”
“You haven’t put the ring on since you saved me.” Darion bent over his propped leg and smoothed a scuff from his leather boot. “Oria helped you because you agreed to return to—” He paused and checked the door and lowered his voice. “You agreed to go back to Aenoas-Vita and rule, but you haven’t lived up to your part. She might be pissed and not so willing to help again.”
I fumbled in my purse for my keys. Darion could be right, but I had to try. “The shifter wants her ring,” I mumbled while digging my hand deeper into the depths of my forever-disorganized bag. “She had dealings with them when she was alive, so she has to have some idea why they would come after it. She’ll want to protect the ring. It’s our link to …”
“What?” Darion asked.
“Maybe that’s it. Maybe the shifter wants access to the magic in the ring.”
Darion froze. “The ring holds a piece of life force from every Ever ruler that ever lived, and with it, their knowledge. If they’ve found a way …” He broke off.
“But it only works for the chosen member of the Ever bloodline,” I reminded him. “And we’re the last. What good would it do them?”
A quiet moment passed before Darion said, “I don’t know. Maybe they figured out a way to extract and use the auras inside. But I agree, we can’t let them have it, not at the risk of endangering the lives of everyone on Aenoas-Vita. We have to find another way to save Molly without handing over the ring.”
My finger brushed a key loop, and I snagged it, pulling my keys from my purse. “I’m glad you agree. And maybe Oria can help figure out why a shifter is wearing a royal Vitarian signet ring with an E. Tell Molly we’ll talk later, and I’ll call you when I’ve gotten to the cabin.”
Darion looked like he was about to argue again about me going alone, but just then, a nurse came in to change Molly’s bedding.
“Talk later, brother.” I darted out of the room while I had the chance.
5
The drive up to Felix’s cabin was bumpy. I took the turns slowly in my hybrid, which definitely was not designed for bouncing over potholes the size of manholes. I cringed when I hit one that
made my car’s shocks squeal in protest.
Felix had the right idea by leaving the road unmaintained. Most people would have turned around already if they didn’t have a reason to ignore the dangerous driving conditions. But the cabin at the top of the mountain was my destination, so I continued on my crawl uphill, keeping as far from the cliffside as possible. I hadn’t been back here since rehiding the ring in the same place where Felix had kept it safely for many years. I figured the hiding place had worked so far, so why not keep using it? We’d had new wards placed around the area, and this time we made sure to ward against portals, after Siobhan’s clever attack.
I finally pulled up near the cabin. The new ward was designed to recognize specific energy fields, so I could move straight through it without reciting any spell. I parked and took in the view of snowy mountaintops just visible through the clearing Felix had cut directly in front of the cabin entrance. Brisk air tickled my nose as I breathed in clean scents of fresh pine and wood, and walked around to the back of the cabin to the chicken coop.
My long ponytail whipped in the breeze. I caught it and swept my thick hair over to one side as I paused and glanced into the forest. My eyes lingered on the path that led to an active portal used to travel between planets. Arden had taken that path only hours ago to return to Aenoas-Vita.
The aluminum roof rattled atop the vacant chicken coop, bringing my attention back to the task at hand. I waved the cobwebs aside as I stepped into the dimly lit coop and removed the empty hay nests from atop a long wooden bench. I lifted the bench top and dug my hands straight through the chicken feed toward the bottom and felt for the two boxes, one small and square, and the other long and rectangular. I grasped the boxes and pulled them up and out of the feed. I closed the bench top and sat down, remembering the first time I’d been offered the items within. I hadn’t wanted to accept Oria’s ring or the duties that came with it, but circumstances had made me surrender to the fate that Oria had prophesied. I planned to follow through with my end of our deal when I was ready. I just hoped Oria was still willing to help me.