Chapter 8

EIGHT

Cassia

"Wake up!"

The words jerk me out of my dream so quickly that I'm left gasping for breath. My eyes open, and I stare at a cloudless sky in confusion. My blankets are warm. The ground is hard, and the day is bright. It's so different from where I was just moments before that it feels surreal.

There's a nudge against my arm. "Eat, and get ready to go."

I roll to my side, my stomach turning from the moment, and watch Lady Nova shuffle around, packing her things and stirring the pot of food that hangs over the fire. It's jolting going from my dream to this. Almost like even this isn't real.

I can't move. My body trembles, and all I can see with every blink of my eye is Sulien, beaten, bloodied, and ready to give up.

Tears sting my eyes. I lift a shaky hand and wipe my cheeks, where I feel the evidence of tracks of tears having run down my face. I must have been crying in my sleep, which is no surprise. Every time I blink my eyes, I see him again, and my entire chest aches.

It felt so real. Just like all the terrible nightmares I've been having lately.

Sulien was hurt. He was freezing. Left alone in the dark. It's like all the other dreams, each involving a different prince, and a slightly different terrible situation.

Part of me thinks that my mind came up with the worst thing imaginable because of my guilt. The princes were gone because of me. They were possibly in a dangerous situation because of me. Of course I feel guilty. Of course that could cause nightmares.

Yet another part of me doesn't believe that. No, this dream, like the others, was too real. It was… something else. A warning. An omen. I'm not sure which, but I'm unsettled. As much as I've loved my sex dreams with the princes, I hate these dreams just as much.

"You can't lay there all day," Lady Nova says, and our gazes meet. There's intensity in her eyes for a moment, before the look falters and shifts to one of concern.

I don't want her to be concerned about me. I don't want to have to explain the way I'm feeling, all because of a dream. She'll think I'm the weak woman she fears I am. Yet, it feels wrong to keep this inside. If my grandmother and father were here, I wouldn't hesitate to tell them, and they'd say something in turn that would make this all feel okay.

But I'm not here with them. With my family. I'm with a strange woman. On a strange quest. To get back four men who make me feel confused and vulnerable in a way that scares me.

"Are you sore from yesterday?" she asks .

And the days before that... Maybe I am. But does it matter? Does any of it really matter?

Of course not.

I crawl out of my blankets, put on my boots, and sit by the fire. The air is warm, just as the air is always warm in the Summer Court, yet I'm cold. The chill from my dream, from that dark underground place, hangs over me, unwilling to let me go even in the daylight. Nova hands me some stew, which I take without a word, then she sits down next to me.

"You're oddly quiet today. Even more so than the other mornings. Are you okay?" She stares at me with genuine concern. I've been holding these dreams in for a while now, of course she'd notice something wasn't right.

"It doesn't matter," I say, and my throat is scratchy, more evidence I'd spent the night crying.

Lady Nova sighs. "If it's impacting what we're doing, it does."

"I'm fine."

"You're not."

Does she think I'll really admit a weakness to her? She's insane. "I can handle it."

"You're as stubborn as an old horse," she mutters, spooning food into her mouth.

"Being stubborn can be good."

"Not if it gets us all killed," she says with a glare.

I snort. "You don't seem to be in any danger."

She glares. "Are you forgetting the wolves that tried to kill us?"

Damn it. "But otherwise, uh, everything is okay."

"Now, sure, but you've been distracted. Fuck, Lady Cassia, you look like a woman haunted by ghosts. "

Her words make something inside me tremble. "Maybe I am."

She sighs again. "What's going on? And don't give me any shit. I'm no genius, but even I can see something's going on, something that's affecting our mission." She hesitates, then presses on when I don't speak. "You know what a soldier does with an old horse that won't move? We kill the damn thing, because it'll just slow us down. Stop being an old horse, or I'm going to press on without you."

Leave me behind? She wouldn't dare.

"At least I'm not a stubborn mule with a temper," I mutter.

"Keep stalling. Real queenly of you."

I hesitate. "You'll think it's dumb."

She lifts a brow. "Or, I'll help."

I glare, then decide the hell with it. "I keep dreaming about the princes." I let my eyes meet Lady Nova's again, but I find the amusement gone from her face, so I press on. "Only, they're strange dreams. And they feel… so real. More real than you and I, even. Sometimes it feels like I can't tell what's real and a dream anymore."

"Okay, that's okay. Tell me more," she says, and her voice gives nothing away.

I hesitate. Most of these dreams have been terrifying, and other times embarrassing and private, but the way Lady Nova looks at me with a mix of concern and something like desperation compels me to speak. At least about the scary dreams. So I take a deep breath and push down the anxiety bubbling up at the idea of saying these things out loud for the first time.

"Last night," I began, my voice shaking, "I walked through dark underground passages filled with dead bodies. There, in the cold and darkness, lay Sulien, beaten and bloody. Broken in a way I never imagined. Mumbling strange things."

"Did he tell you anything?" she asks, seemingly unbothered by the prince's pain or the fact that all of this was just a dream.

Did he say anything?

My thoughts were lost in him, in the pain he was in, but I remember now that he did speak. "He talked about iron demons and a barrier falling." I set my stew down and wrap my arms around my shoulders. "He spoke of the Keeper of Death. He said she wanted war."

"The Keeper of Death, are you sure?" she asks, her tone serious.

I take a minute to think, then answer, "Yes, I'm sure."

She's silent after that, so I keep going. Talking and talking without taking a breath.

As I finish recounting my dream, I look up from where I'd been staring at the ground and meet Nova's eyes. Her stew, bowl and all, lies on the ground–dropped and unnoticed. Her face, frozen in astonishment, sends a shiver through my body.

"What?" I ask, growing even more anxious. I anticipated she might laugh at me at the worst and reassure me at the best. I hoped she might tell me that it was just a dream, and that I'd feel better when I saw them again.

Her reaction doesn't reassure me at all.

It was just a dream, right?

Her face is shadowed with concern, but she flashes a reassuring smile that's as fictitious as my dream to go off and live a normal happy life. "No–nothing, let's just finish packing. We should get going." She stands and kicks dirt at the fire to put it out, not even using her magic.

And she loves to use her magic.

"What's wrong?" I ask, studying her in confusion.

She keeps packing up. "Nothing. Just pack."

Except, she's shaking. Her hands struggle to shove things in her packs.

"Come on, you're scaring me."

Her head lifts, and her green eyes meet mine, panic in her features. "You sure you want to know?"

I nod, straightening my spine. "I need to know."

She continues packing as she talks. "It sounds like you're dream sharing. Not dreaming."

"Dream sharing?" I ask, frowning. I've never heard of such a thing.

"Powerful fae can slip into each other's dreams. Usually, they have to try to do it. But mates… they're so deeply connected that they can do it by accident."

Now, I'm shaking. "I don't understand what you're saying."

She finishes packing one bag, then dumps out the remainder of the stew. "What I'm saying is that everything you saw in your dream last night was true. Everything in the dreams you've had about the princes since becoming their mate has been true and real."

"That's impossible."

She's moving faster. "Trust me, it isn't."

"I'm not powerful enough." She said I had to be powerful, right? I barely have powers at all.

Lady Nova starts to pack my stuff. "Eat," she commands, then continues, "I don't completely understand it myself, but what you were describing is the House of Death. I'm assuming you've never been there, right?"

"Right." This is insane .

"So, think about it." She grabs my bowl and hurries to the river near us to scrub out the dishes, while I just sit in shock.

This isn't possible. If dream sharing requires a powerful fae, that alone should be enough to tell me that's not what I'm doing. And yet, her explanation resonates with me. These strange dreams have felt so real, realer than anything I've ever felt before. Not because we're mates. Not because I'm some powerful fae. But maybe, just maybe, because the princes have been reaching out for me, and they're powerful enough on their own to make that happen.

Or what the tree spirit said about me is true.

More realizations hit me. All those dreams I had while I was kidnapped…the bear, the lake, Sulien's bed…were real? We shared them? That means our intimate moments, our shared stories, even seeing Prince Zane's home and learning how Prince Forrest got his scar, was real.

The feeling that I know them… that's real too. As strange as it is. I've gotten to know them in an unusual way, but at least I've gotten to know them.

Then a chill rolls down my spine. Prince Sulien. The dream last night. That can't be real too, can it? That would also mean that seeing Prince Forrest, Prince Cobar, and Prince Zane hurt and lost in those dark tunnels was real too.

Are they actually suffering like that?

Lady Nova comes back from the river, rushing along, and I finally understand why she might be in a hurry. Is that what she concluded? Faster than me?

I bolt off the log I'm sitting on. "Is it possible that Prince Sulien really is in trouble? Could he be hurt?" I ask with panic in my voice .

She gives me a pained look as she packs the rest of our belongings and begins to load them on our horses. "It's very possible, but this is bigger than the prince being in trouble."

Princes. I hadn't told her the other dreams. Of the princes being tortured. Of Prince Zane's ribs being broken. Of the illusions of bears they've sent chasing after Prince Forrest. Of Prince Cobar, blackened and blue, blood coloring his golden hair.

Tears sting my eyes. But she doesn't know all of that. "How? How could this be worse?"

Her eyes lock onto mine. "Do you know anything about fae favors?"

"I know they're dangerous," I answer honestly.

She nods. "But favors between houses and courts are not, not typically that way. Usually, they're just a way for us to play with one another. Humiliate one another, if you will. Sulien's father once asked for a favor from the House of War. They had him wear nothing but the female armor from a fae of the woods, essentially golden leaves on his dick and nipples, and battle with the head of our house." She was smiling, but her smile vanishes. "That's how it always is. Nothing but stupid fun. I imagined the princes expected the same from the House of Death, but they had other plans."

"To hurt them?" I ask, my voice cracking.

"To break them," she responds, and I flinch at her words. "To break them so that they can't keep the barrier around our kingdom in place. And the moment it falters, the iron demons will overtake our lands."

This doesn't make sense. "Why would any fae want that?"

"If there's a war with the iron demons, there would be a lot of fresh dead. They're stronger and can help the House of Death become more powerful. That, teamed with the princes' enslavement to her, will mean that our kingdom will be in ruins. And if I were to guess, the Keeper of Death intends to use her dead to take over… and help her steal the throne. That seems to be what she's laying the groundwork for anyway."

The barrier and the war. That's what he was talking about. All of it is beginning to make sense.

Lady Nova's words sink in, and a knot forms in my stomach. As much as I didn't like history, I remember many of the lessons. Especially the ones involving the days before the barrier, when the iron demons killed fae and humans alike. It's true that in those days the humans held more power, or thought they did, than the fae, but when our numbers decreased, so did our power.

This time, I'm not sure humanity can survive the iron demons. The fae aren't the warriors they once were, outside of the House of War, and the humans are broken-down servants rather than fighters themselves.

If this Keeper of Death succeeds, this very well could mean the end of us all. It'll certainly be the end of anyone like my father and grandmother…. The thought makes me sick.

"She won't really go through with it. No one can be this crazy."

Lady Nova gives a harsh laugh. "If anyone doesn't mind death, it's the Keeper of Death."

She must be demented. Sick in the head. That's the only explanation.

Then something occurs to me. Something that makes my head feel light. "Why doesn't she kill the princes? That would be the easiest route to take to gain the throne, right?"

Lady Nova shakes her head, looking grim. "The princes' parents are still alive. If the princes die, the kings will simply have to step in and take over the responsibility of protecting the kingdom once more. And they have enough power to keep the iron demons out, so she wouldn't get the war she desires. She has to break the princes down so the barrier falls, then she gets the war she wants." Lady Nova puts the last of our things on her horse and mounts it. "We need to go."

She's right. We need to go. We need to stop a war, save the men I think I love, and fix the things I broke with my thoughtlessness. They put the fate of the entire realm on the line to save me, and now I have to do the same. I have to save them.

All I can hear is the sound of my heart beating. It thunders hard in my chest. The reality of the situation settles into my bones, and I take a steading breath. The Keeper of Death wants a war? She's going to get one, just not the one she expects.

I hurry over and swing myself onto my horse. My heart pounds, and with every beat, I find myself surer of my path, and mission, to battle the Keeper of Death for my princes' lives and my kingdom's survival.

Settled into my saddle, my mind flashes back to my dream of Sulien and the shape he was in. Then images of the other men come, and I fight the nausea that rises inside of me. Time is of the essence.