"How have you been sleeping lately?" I ask. "Have you been having strange dreams? Anything out of the ordinary? Anything like what you may have experienced when you freed Drogaem's tomb from the magical binds?"
Her eyes immediately shift down, and her hands fiddle in her lap. I feel as if she's holding back something, fighting with herself. I want her to trust me enough to tell me. I need to know this. I reach across the table and grasp her wrists lightly. "It's all right, Briar. You can tell me. We are to be married, with no secrets, and it should start here."
The last of my sentence comes out harsher than I intend, but my patience is thin and I don't have time for games. I grip her wrist tighter, pulling her forward. The chair slides back from beneath her, scraping on the floor. Her lips quiver and I can smell the fear emanating from her. There's a mist in her eyes and I can sense she is about to break. Whatever it is she is hiding, whatever scares her, I will pull it out of her. It is vital to my plan and it is vital to finding Lux and bringing her to the surface.
My other hand slaps down hard on the table as I lean further toward her. Our noses are almost touching. "Tell me! What are you hiding?"
She shakes her head, pulling back the tears. "Nothing. I swear. Your statement is just fearful. The things I have seen when we landed on that island, I never want to experience those again."
A breath of exhaustion escapes my lungs and I release her, pushing her backward into her chair. I don't know whether to believe her or not. I can smell the fear on her but I don't know if it's for the reason she states or because of my tone and bearing over her. I grit my teeth and point at her, about to heed a warning, but before I can, someone clears their throat loudly in the doorway.
My eyes dart over finding Willem standing there holding a cedar box, the lid locked tightly. His eyes are shifting away from us in an awkward hesitation. I drop my hand and narrow my eyes at him. "What is it?"
Willem walks over and places the box in front of me. "These are the items you requested. Apologies that it took so long as the rarer items were harder to find."
My tension releases and my focus shifts straight back to my plan. "And the rest of it?"
Willem nods, darting his eyes away from me, but it doesn't bother me. He knows his place. "Delivered below, as you requested."
A smirk moves over my lips for just a moment and then I snap it away, darting my eyes back to Briar. It seems her courage has returned, and she does not look away from me. No matter, there are far more important things waiting for me. "I'm done with you. You know what you are to do." I look back up at Willem as I stand picking up the box. "I'm not to be disturbed."
With that, I storm from the room, tired of the pathetic essence of the little mortal. I will break her, and when I do, she will either rise to the occasion or her soul will be trapped, it's completely up to her.
Chapter 9
Kane
Drogaem is pushing me even harder. His confusions and dreams trap me on a level I can barely keep up with. My mind swirls through empty fields, pits of despair and disgust, piles of human bodies laid out across the mortal plane. I see my bride, drenched in blood, standing with soulless eyes. I approach her but as I grow closer the dream shifts, confusing me, throwing me in another direction. As soon as my mind begins to grasp a hold of anything, he pushes me harder. I do not move from where I am and can barely keep up with the manifestation of my body. I flicker in and out as voices echo all around me.
I hear the screams of women and children, the fearful cries of my bride, the roar of anger from my brother and Willem. It sounds like a war, but no war that I've ever fought and I try to push through it, finding moments of strength, moments where I get close enough to my bride to reach out and almost touch her. It motivates me but Drogaem is smart and he pushes me back down almost immediately. I cannot stop it and I cannot fight it. My soul is weary and tired, but there is a part of it that continues to try to reach out to Briar, to let her know what is happening.
The darkness around me stays dark, an infinite blackness that never changes. I long for any sort of color, any sort of breeze of air. Where I sit is the worst hell I can imagine. I am void of all senses except for fear. Just earlier, though I have no real sense of time, I felt stronger, growing in power, and for a split second, I was able to break free of the dreams. I could feel Briar close, almost smell that almond and vanilla scent that comforts me anytime she is close. But it doesn't last. A wave of disgust and apprehension slams into me, and I
