19. Apryle

Chapter 19

Apryle

A s soon as I open my eyes, I know I'm dreamwalking. It's been a while since I last fell into someone else's subconsciousness, but there are telltale signs that hint I'm in someone else's dream.

The first is that everything seems hazy and the colors are colder than they would be in real life. There's also the smell. A hint of rotten eggs, a sulfuric burn in the back of my nose.

I glance around the trees that surround me, thick foliage turning brown, suggesting it's fall, but there are no landmarks to tell me where I am.

As I walk across the leaf-strewn forest floor, I listen, attempting to pick out anything useful. A sound pricks my ears. My wolf side may be weak, but my senses are still sharp, so I strain to hear where it's coming from and start in that direction.

Picking my way over fallen branches, I reach the edge of the tree line, which opens out onto a field. My eyes are drawn upward to the huge snow-topped mountainous peaks that overlook the shimmering dark water of an enormous lake. Nothing about this landscape is familiar, particularly the A-shaped frames of the buildings gathered around an impressive- looking structure in the center. The smell of fire burning tickles my nose, as well as other smells I can't pinpoint.

None of it is pleasant.

This is not our time…

That thought floats across my mind just as two young children run out of one of the small buildings. They are dressed in dark woolen clothes, their hair braided, and there's dirt smeared across their faces.

They run past me, as if they don't see me, and I follow in the same direction.

I barely take ten steps before a scream has my entire body freezing. Movement through the buildings has me picking up my pace as more people dressed the same way as the children start to appear. Some carry axes and swords, while others are unarmed. The clothes are not modern.

As I follow the crowd around the edge of the huge building, there's a platform ahead.

Where the hell am I, and whose dream is this?

People chatter around me, the inflection in their tone excited, but whatever they're saying isn't English.

The crowd bubbles together, eventually coming to a stop, and I peer through the throng of bodies to see a man dressed in heavy furs climb the steps onto the platform.

He has flaming red hair and a huge wild beard. I don't need him to say a word to know this man is dangerous. The way he holds himself with so much confidence and arrogance tells me everything I need to know.

My gaze bounces around, trying to understand what is about to happen, and I hold my breath as the tension rockets into the stratosphere.

The jeers start from the far side of the crowd. I roll onto my tiptoes and glimpse a figure being dragged by two hulking men. My heart leaps into my throat at first as her head bobs to her chest, her long hair trailing to curtain her face. She's so slight it would be easy to mistake her for a child but for the swell of her belly pressing against her clothes—an unmistakable baby bump.

I watch as they drag her onto the platform and tie her to a post I hadn't noticed before. Her dress is torn down the back to reveal the bony nodules of her spine, and an unpleasant feeling spreads through my stomach.

The crowd becomes loud and excited as the man raises his hands, calling for silence. His words are rough and harsh, but I can't understand anything he's saying.

My gaze moves to the woman, who is gripping the pole she's tied to. She doesn't move, but I feel it. Her power. She's like me, but… different. She's not tau. I don't sense wolf in her, just witch.

Her stomach looks bigger the way she's positioned, and I don't understand. Why doesn't she use her magic to save herself from whatever is about to happen? But she doesn't move, not even when the man is handed a savage whip. There are barbs on the end of each strand, and he cracks it against her bare back.

The crowd roars, but bile collects in the back of my throat. Blood pours down her sides as welts open on her skin.

This is barbaric.

I try to shove through the crowd as the whip is raised again, and when it hits her this time, she arches away from it, letting out a cry of anguish.

Use your magic…

The crowd closes in around me, stopping my path to the platform. I try to elbow my way through, screaming for this to stop, but there is no route past the hulking bodies that surround me. I try to reach my magic, but this isn't reality. It's a dream.

She screams as the barbs tear through her skin again, and there is so much blood I can't see any skin beneath the wet redness.

Her baby…

I cover my mouth, bile coating the back of my throat.

Do something !

And then I feel it. The surge of power. I've felt magic so many times and from tau with very different strength, but this is like nothing I have ever felt before.

All magic has a certain… feel to it—a smell, a presence—but what she wields is so different from anything I have ever come across that it feels foreign.

She seems to draw it out of the earth itself, and I can feel it running through my body, infusing every cell. My chest throbs as my magic recognizes hers and tries to respond.

The woman tosses her head back and screams into the sky as a rush of power explodes out of her.

It hits the crowd like a wave, knocking everyone down.

I alone remain on my feet, watching as the ropes around her wrists disintegrate, a ring of fire spreading around the hemp as it burns away from her skin.

She pushes to her feet the moment she's free, straightening her body as if she has been stuck in an unnatural position for too long. Her hand splays over her stomach, her head lowered as the men on the platform get back up.

A huge armed man attacks her, but she flings her hand out, and he flies back, as if by an invisible wrecking ball.

All I can hear over the fearful screams are my labored breaths.

Her hand still on her stomach, she turns to face the red-haired man. Pain and disappointment shine in her eyes as she says something to him in that language again.

Her hand flashes out, and he's driven to his knees. He tries to get up, but she doesn't allow him to as she holds her hand out. A dagger from his belt flies into her outstretched palm, and the smell of magic in the air is thick, clogging my throat as I watch, paralyzed.

Her chin lifts as she peers down at him, her mouth pulling into a sneer. The blade presses against his throat, a trickle of red working down from beneath it.

I suck in a breath, and her eyes snap toward me.

For the first time in my life, I feel gut-deep, blood-curdling fear.

Her head tilts to the side, her dark eyes locked on me like missiles, and every instinct in my body is firing up. She pulls the blade from his neck, stepping toward me, the movement menacing.

You have to run.

This warning comes from my wolf. I step back, almost tripping over someone behind me, but I don't tear my eyes away from her.

Wake up…

Apryle, wake the hell up!

I repeat this over and over, pinching at my arms to pull myself out of the dream, but I can't escape.

The woman spits something angry at me, but I don't know what she's saying.

I backtrack further, pinching my skin harder, but I'm stuck in this dream.

"Fucking back off, bitch," I grind out, trying again to reach for my magic and finding nothing there. "This isn't real," I mutter under my breath. "It's just a dream."

Her magic lashes out suddenly and faster than I thought possible.

It hits me like a thunderclap, pain exploding through my skull. I scream as I'm driven to my knees, my hands fisting over my temples. The pain is blinding, whiteness blanketing my vision as I emit a shriek so carnal, it makes the hairs on my arms stand up. I cover my head, trying to block her magic, but it is no use.

Wave after wave of bone-crunching pain pulses through my skull as I feel something dark and insidious slide inside my mind.

I'm going to die. This bitch is going to kill me.

"Apryle!" Hands grab at me, shaking me violently, but I can't move or breathe. "Baby, listen to my voice!"

I latch on to it, the familiar baritone sound reverberating through my mind.

It's home. It's safety. And I try to follow it.

"Apryle, come back to me, please."

The woman is nearly in front of me, and my screams are still piercing the air.

"APRYLE!"

My consciousness slams back into my body, and my eyes fly open as I jackknife upright. Arms wrap around me, pulling me into a hard chest. A scream bubbles out of my throat as I flail.

"Sweetheart, it's me! You're okay."

Kye.

His scent fills my nose, his awareness is in my mind, the mating bond thrumming between us. I sag into his hold, sobbing as he holds me tight.

"Shit… I've got you," he tells me over and over until my tremors stop.

My heart rate is rocketing beneath my ribs, but I'm out of the dream and safe.

"She was so powerful. I couldn't… I tried to… She was in my head." I'm aware that I'm not making sense to him, but my thoughts are jumbled.

"Who was?"

"I dreamwalked." I pull back a little, but he keeps a tight hold on me, as if he's scared to let go.

Judging from how the covers on his side of the bed have been tossed aside, he came to me quickly, and there's relief knowing he had my back, even somewhere he couldn't follow.

I rake my fingers through my hair, pushing it off my face, and as I do, I feel something wet on the side of my face. Pressing my fingers close to my ear, they come away covered in crimson wetness.

I'm bleeding.

That shouldn't be possible. Things that happen in dreams don't carry over into the real world.

And yet I have seen what Savannah can do. She brought someone to her while asleep.

Kye grabs one of his tees from the floor and presses it against my ear.

"What happened?"

I try to swallow my terror as I raise my eyes to his. "I saw her."

"Saw who?"

My tongue darts out to wet my suddenly dry mouth. I have no idea how I know this information, but the moment I speak it, I know I am right. "Revna. I was in her dream—her memory—and I saw her being tortured. She shouldn't have been able to…" I close my eyes. "She looked right at me, Kye. She hit me with magic, and I felt pain in every inch of my body."

"What the hell does that mean?"

"I don't know. She shouldn't have been able to do any of that, but she knew I was there, and now she knows I exist."