“Hush, dear child,” Melusina crooned into my ear. “I will make this painless.”
“No,” I shrieked.
This had to be a dream, but when did I fall asleep? And how? Tendrils snaked beneath my armor and wrapped around my bare skin, making a slow, torturous descent up my limbs and toward my torso.
“Don’t do this,” I whispered, knowing my words would be futile.
Laughter filled my ears, along with the sound of heavy footsteps and heaving breaths. Darkness closed around my senses, warm and thick and smelling of rot. It wrapped around me like a cocoon of barbs that pressed into my leather armor, daring me to move and rip my skin to ribbons. I thrashed my arms, my legs, my neck but the thorny tendrils held me in place.
The vines squeezed tighter, forcing the air from my lungs and reminding me of Melusina’s snake tail. I couldn’t even twitch a hand toward my sword belt.
“Neara,” a whispered voice poured into my left ear. “You’re a child. A failure.”
A shiver ran down my spine. “What do you want?”
“Everything,” it screamed into my right.
I clenched my teeth. “You won’t have it.”
My answer was another harsh, mocking laugh—the cackling of a crow.
“He doesn’t love you,” the voice whispered.
Anger flared through my veins, and I clenched my teeth. “I suppose he loves you?”
There was no answer when Drayce’s actions were clearer than any declaration. Drayce sided with me and drove her out of the palace. What did she expect after killing his father, tearing him away from his home, and surrounding him with enemies? Did she think that the years she forced herself on him lessened his hate?
Thorny vines wrapped around my shoulder, and something slithered around my ear. Was this how she inhabited the bodies of her children, or did she eat them whole?
“Stop these stupid tricks,” I snarled. “If it’s my body you want, then fight me for it.”
“Too late,” she hissed. “You’re mine!”
A scream tore from my lips. It was loud and shrill and shook my bones. Somewhere in the back of my mind, Melusina screamed for me to stop, but I couldn’t. She squeezed tighter, tighter, with those terrible limbs, until my ribs were dust and my lungs empty bags of sorrow.
My spirit poured through the branches and into a well of black.
Light shone through my eyelids. I tilted up my head and stared into what appeared to be the sun within a blue sky. A cool breeze filled my nostrils with seawater, and the vines fell away.
When I blinked the glare out of my gaze, I was leaning against the mast of a wooden merchant ship, devoid of crew or passengers or even seagulls. A calico sail billowed noisily overhead. A saltwater spray filled my nostrils, and a sea breeze combed through my hair. The sun hung over the ship’s swan’s neck within a cerulean-blue sky.
I reared back and tried to shake away the vision but couldn’t rid myself of the expanse of sea. This had to be another of the Fear Dorcha’s dreamscapes.
“Neara?” Father asked from behind, his voice clear and strong despite the wind.
I spun around to meet his blue eyes, marveled at his young features, and inhaled his ink-and-parchment scent. He was strong and handsome and vigorous—exactly how I had last seen him, with hair the same shade of orange as mine.
“Where are we?” I asked.
Father smiled, making fine lines appear on the outer corners of his eyes. He cupped the back of my head with his large, warm hand. “Are you sleepwalking again?” He swept an arm across the deck. “We just boarded the ship to Caledonia.”
My brows drew together. The last thing I remembered was being chased into those vines by a pair of glowing eyes and then nearly strangled. “But this is—”
“You saved us.” Father’s voice was thick with emotion. He reached down and clasped my hands, gratitude glistening in his eyes. “Thanks to you, we can start new lives in a land without faeries.”
A fog filled my mind, and voices whispered that Father was right. I had fallen out of the rift and left Bresail with him. Everything that happened since then—the sleeping curse, the royal carriage, the mating—it had all been a long dream. I lost myself in Father’s eyes, his vibrant clear-seeing gaze. This was what we’d been working toward for years, and now we were free.
Wind and whispers whirled between my ears, clearing away my thoughts. I was safe. Happy. Complete. It had always been Father and me, and we escaped the faeries with Father in the prime of health.
The scent of leather filled my nostrils, along with the sensation of silken hair caressing my skin. I placed a hand on my cheek and blinked. I was missing something, someone, a piece of my heart and soul.
“What about Drayce?” my voice broke.
“You didn’t kill him after all.” Father’s eyes softened. “He’s probably sitting on his Otherworld throne, making the Court of Shadows pay for what they did to his father.”
A tug on my heart said he wasn’t.
Another tug said he was desperate to reach me.
I blinked again, and the fog lifted from my mind. Either one of the thorns around the Summer Court Palace had pricked me and made me fall asleep or the poison had reached me another way. The sharp scent of rotting meat stung my nose, but I evened my expression and forced a smile.
Father placed a hand on my shoulder. “Why don’t you sit and rest your feet?”
I turned around and stared into the Sea of Atlas. There was no sign behind us of the fog that surrounded the island and no sign of land straight ahead, and I doubted that this ship would do anything but continue rocking. Melusina had probably told the Fear Dorcha that I valued Father above everyone, and this was why I was dreaming about leaving Bresail with him.
Father gestured at a bench with cushions of deep-green velvet. “Over there.”
My
