Eyes closed. Even breaths. Steady heartbeat. Calm mind.
Zirene repeated those words, chanting them like a mantra, ignoring the abnormal ringing in his head, his body feeling as if it was on fire.
He was the second prince of the Aldawi Empire—one of the strongest Aldawi ever in existence. He had the pedigree and strength to fight this.
And the Fates and the Stars bound her to him to challenge him. She was meant to keep him grounded and not spiral out of control, only to get lost in the void. Blackness surrounded him as the darkness of his mind became one with its shadow—the shadow cast from his Nova.
Selena's life-essence was a bright golden sphere, drawing him in like an asteroid attracted to a planet’s gravitational pull.
A burning flame. A shooting star.
So bright, he was afraid to look away for fear if he turned his gaze, she would be gone.
There was always a great need to reach out and wrap himself around her—to protect her from all who wanted to take his light, his Nova, away.
She was his first. No one would take her away from him.
Not now. Not ever.
Selena’s golden sphere flickered, its intensity dimming each time.
Zirene studied their shared void. By bonding with her nestmates, she created doors in it without knowing. Their once exclusive chamber now had closed paths to all nestmates, colored by her mental threads to them—Xylo’s teal, Odelm’s pale green, V’dim’s turquoise, and Z’fir’s emerald.
Zirene’s anger flared when he saw a crack. A thin cyan thread had somehow made its way inside and was attacking her from within his own chamber.
Someone was trying to take his light away from him.
Zirene reached for Selena, sending his mental threads out to her—to enclose his most prized possession from the universe. He expanded his presence, filling the chamber, severing the thin cyan thread and destroying it.
Blackness became light.
Selena laid before him, naked and bound to a medical bed, her dark blue-green eyes boring into him, dimmed of life.
Zirene solidified and waved his hand, unlocking the binds that tied her.
“Who did this to you?” he demanded, reaching for her.
“You did,” she replied, her voice a harsh whisper.
He stilled. “What?”
“You were in it all along, weren’t you?” She looked away and searched around, confused. “Where did the others go? They were just here.”
Zirene studied the dreamscape room. It was just a space with a beam of light coming from above, shining down on Selena sitting on the medical table. The presence he once felt wasn’t there anywhere.
“There isn’t anyone, Selena.”
“Don’t give me that! They all were here, telling me how much they can’t wait to harvest me.” She glared at him, tears falling down her face. “Just stop the act and end this now. I know when I have been beaten.”
He dropped his arm. Her words chilled him.
“Who, Selena? Who said this?” he growled. He wanted to kill whoever had put these doubts in her mind.
“My nestmates.”
“Those males wouldn’t harm a thing about you, and you would be a fool to think that,” Zirene growled. “This is the dreamscape. You fell asleep in the Dreamdome,” he explained, scanning the room once more. “And someone wanted you to think that.”
“Why? Why would someone do this to me?” she begged, her voice cracking. “I have done nothing!”
Zirene hissed and grabbed Selena, pulling her to him.
She cried out and thrashed in his arms, clawing at him as she gripped his fur to pull herself free, refusing to be held.
In a single breath, Zirene willed the world away and replaced it with the secluded beach they always shared. Gone was the medical table, and the darkness of the room became the sunset in Destima’s horizon.
“Selena, open your eyes. It is me,” he pleaded. “This is our world. You are safe now.” Zirene placed her on the white-sanded beach. She opened her eyes, taking in the scenery and jerked away.
She chuckled, mockingly, as she dried her tears. “I don’t know who you are anymore, not after what you did.”
“What do you mean?” Selena shook her head as she turned. Zirene grabbed her arm, refusing to let her walk away from him. “What do you mean?” he repeated.
“First, you said someone was interfering with my dreamscape and made me believe my nestmates were here with me, bragging about their nefarious plans. There have never been others in here, other than the time I accidentally trapped my princes in here. So why now? Somehow they are gone, and you are here. So, either I can believe you are the very person messing with me or somehow, it is really you. If it really is you, then you are more of a sick and twisted frax than I thought,” she spat, pulling away.
“Selena, you are my Nova—”
“Don’t use that title with me. It means nothing, and you know it,” she hissed, her eyes shooting lasers through him.
“It is the truth!”
“Keep telling yourself that, Prince Zirene,” she snarled. “If I mattered, you wouldn’t have treated me the way you have. How do I know if you are real? That this isn’t some twisted game of yours?” Selena threw her arms in the air and walked away.
Her words burned worse than the sensation he felt earlier, as Zirene watched her travel farther away.
How could he rule the most powerful territory in the CEG, yet couldn’t make things right with the one person meant for him? Was he doomed to forever be held at arm’s length from her? To never be able to work in harmony with her?
He growled and shadowstepped behind her, wrapping his arms around her. She gasped and tripped, startled, sending them both to the sandy beach. Zirene caught himself, holding his body off Selena, caging her beneath him. Their chests heaved as they struggled to catch their breaths.
“Selena…” Zirene murmured,
