3. Chapter 3

The dreaded wooden door appeared in front of me. I had seen it hundreds of times in my dreams, but tonight it appeared different. The detailed wood carvings on the door held a large crest I had never seen before. I examined it, trying to see if the symbols sparked a memory for me. My dreams could end abruptly, and I didn't want to waste my time. I reached for the handle, but his voice stopped me.

"Are you sure you want to open that?"

I turned into the darkness of the hallway and met his intoxicating golden eyes watching me thoughtfully. His voice was everything I expected it to be. Smooth with a tinge of cold indifference. He hadn't spoken in years and now he cared to chime in?

"Do you know what's behind that door?" I asked him confused. He had been here since the beginning; didn't he want to know the answer to the screams behind the door?

"No," he sighed, "but neither do you. It"s likely a trick."

"It's just a dream."

His hand held my wrist firmly in place so I couldn't open the door. My eyes traced the lines of the black tattoos on his hand as he kept me from moving.

"Dreams hold answers and memories for us. That is not always a good thing."

"But sometimes it is." I pulled my wrist away and shoved the door open. I half expected it to not budge, as usual.

My eyes took in the stone fireplace roaring with life. There was a tall man with dark hair and a woman with blonde hair. With their backs turned toward me, they didn't notice me as I moved closer. Both of them wore expensive light blue and gold clothing.

"I can force Thea to do it." The man"s voice was confident.

"Then tell her whatever you need to. Just get this done with," the woman said in a sharp whisper. The man and woman turned towards the door as it creaked open. I shuffled backward when I saw them, but my feet tangled in the rug below me, and I fell backward when I took in their missing faces. No eyes, no mouth, no nose, no…anything. It was as if my mind didn't want to know who they were, so it blocked their identity from me. It was horrifying.

"Thea! Save us!" They started yelling, but this time their voices got louder and louder, more haunting as it went. I covered my ears as they slowly crept towards me, but it didn't drown out their pleas. Why did they want my help when they were obviously planning something for me a moment ago?

I want to wake up. I want to wake up.

The mysterious man who waited in the shadows of my dreams wrapped his hand around mine, and he yanked me from the room and into the hallway while slamming the door shut. Both of us stumbled back onto the floor, but his hard body cushioned my fall. He let out a loud puff of air when I landed on him. I rolled off of him to the hard wooden floor next to him. We lay sprawled out, not saying anything.

What in the hell was that? That is what I waited all these years for?

"I told you some things are better left unknown," he gruffed.

"Then why do I always have this same dream? And who are you anyway? You're always lurking about." I gave him a sidelong glance to see if anything about him was showing, but it wasn't. His oversized hood obscured everything.

"A friend."

I scoffed in his general direction. I wasn't friends with dream stalkers. He chuckled softly as he stood up. The sound settled over me and I found myself smiling back at him despite myself.

"It's time to wake up, Little Viper."

Before I told him not to call me that ridiculous nickname I was sitting up quickly in my own bed.

My mind tried to put together the pieces of what I had seen. Was this just a dream or was it a memory? The couple in the room were going to have me do something, but what was it?

I needed to try to stay in the dream longer, even if it scared me. They couldn't actually hurt me.

My mind shifted to the man who was always lurking. I had never seen his face, but he called himself a friend. I didn't know what his intentions were, but I was not about to consider him a friend or anything of the sort.

As I stood up, I realized how quiet the house was. I couldn't hear Sybil moving about in the kitchen or anyone outside the house. I was never the first one up, and Sybil did not know the meaning of being quiet while I was still sleeping. Taking a hesitant step forward, I reached my door and cracked it open, knowing that something wasn"t right.

I didn't hear anything as I opened the door and headed to Sybil's room.

It was empty.

My heart pounded in my chest as I entered the shared living space. It was trashed like someone had ransacked it. Sybil's dried herbs were scattered over the floor. The broken vials crunched under my boots as I stepped forward to assess the damage. All the food I had gathered was thrown on the floor and ruined. Our furniture lay in broken heaps. This would have awoken me. Why hadn"t I heard anything?

I looked for any sign of Sybil, but she wasn't there. Dread filled me as I slipped on my cloak and grabbed my dagger and bow. When I stepped out of the house, no one walked the path. There wasn't a fae anywhere in sight. Exile was dead silent, too silent, which had my stomach churning with uneasiness. I hurried up the dirt path and into the town center where the stage was. My heavy breathing was all that was heard. Something was very wrong.

My chest tightened as I ran through Exile, not once seeing any sign of life. My legs were heavy as I got to the living quarters where Kai and Kaz lived. It was empty, too. How had hundreds of fae disappeared without a trace?

"Little Viper." His voice startled me, and I aimed my bow at him. The golden-eyed man stood in the shadows where I couldn"t make out anything about his face. He held up his hands up to show me he wasn't a threat.

"How are you here?" I demanded.

"This is still a dream," he explained, but his tone was curious. "But something is odd about it. You brought me here with you instead of waking up." His golden eyes darted around nervously at the worn-down building.

"I've never had a dream like this. Where is everyone?"

"Where are we? I've never seen a town like this before."

Realization hit me in that moment that he may in fact be a real man. I had always thought that dream stalkers were made up, something to scare children into behaving well. Apparently, they were a real thing, and maybe this one had found my dreams and never left them.

"I didn't invite you to come with me."

"Well, I'm here so you must have. I can't just join anyone's dreams, Little Viper."

Screaming from outside pulled my attention away from the man. I knew instinctively that it was Sybil. I hurried out of the building to find her. She was standing on the narrow path when I finally found her. Her back was turned toward me as she watched the town burn to the ground. King's Guards were throwing torches at every structure.

Except these guardsmen weren't in Crimson Kingdom colors. They were dressed in all black. All of the guards were facing away from me so I couldn't tell if they were familiar.

"Sybil!" I ran towards her, but my feet slid across the dirt under my feet when I stopped quickly. When she turned to me, she had a wound that was too deep on her chest for her to be up walking around or breathing. The blood had dripped all the way from her wound down her purple dress. It had bled so much there was a puddle on the ground below her.

Time slowed down as I watched her blood drip slowly. The noise filled the silence around us, echoing in my mind.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

"Sybil…" I paused. Her eyes were vacant like she wasn't really here anymore. The vibrant blue had been replaced by a cloudy white. "What's going on?"

"The end is almost near, Thea, and there is nothing you or anyone can do to stop it." Her face contorted into a freakish smile before vanishing into nothing after her message was delivered.

"Little Viper!" His voice boomed so loudly behind me that I didn't have time to wonder where she disappeared to. Before I could respond to him, though, a guardsman stabbed me through my heart with a hissing growl of disgust.

The stabbing jolted me awake. Sweat covered me and soaked my bed. What in the hell was wrong with me? My dreams had never been anything but the wooden door and getting it open.

I stilled my breathing and waited for Sybil to clank around in the kitchen. There was nothing but silence. Fearing the worst, I jumped out of bed and I raced to find her. My legs were moving me quickly through my door and into the shared living space.

"Good morning," Sybil said in greeting as she sat quietly by the fresh loaf bread, she must have made this morning. "You slept longer than normal." Her white eyebrow lifted in suspicion when she noticed how sweaty I was. The tightness in my chest disappeared when I met her vibrant blue eyes, and not the milky white ones from my nightmare.

"I guess I was tired." I waited for her face to contort into the hideous smile from my nightmare, but Sybil's face remained its normal appearance.

Was I still dreaming? My eyes glanced at the darkened hallway behind me, but I didn't see the man anywhere.

"What's wrong? You look like you've seen a monster." Her worried eyes followed mine into the hallway where nothing stood. The man wasn't here which meant this was real.

This wasn"t a dream.

"Do you know much about dream stalkers?" I asked. Her eyes shifted to mine quickly and intently. Sybil's whole demeanor shifted, and I couldn't quite place where her anxiety arose from.

"Dream stalkers can't join our dream while we"re locked in this prison, so if you have one, I would be cautious." Her typical friendly tone was gone and replaced with irritation.

"Well, we aren't supposed to leave the boundary either, but I can. He says he's a friend." She scoffed and stood. Sybil had never been anything less than civil or content. She was clearly upset.

"Why would you invite a dream stalker into your dream? It's completely reckless, Thea, especially given where we live and who we are."

"That's the thing, though. I didn't invite him into any of my dreams. He just kind of appeared one night. Normally my dream repeats, but last night something changed, and when it did, he followed me into the next dream, regardless of whether I asked him to or not."

"Then that is not a dream stalker," she said. I didn't know how to process this news. Was this man a serious threat to me or a figment of my imagination?

"What is it?" Fear coiled in my stomach.

She shrugged and turned away from me, effectively ending the conversation.

Sybil was lying to me. What was she hiding from me and who the hell was the guy in my dream if not a dream stalker?

"Tell me what you know, Sybil," I demanded with irritation that she wasn't being forthcoming with information.

"I don"t know anything, Thea. The man is probably just a figment of your imagination because you"re lonely."

I didn't push the subject any further. If she wanted to withhold information from me then I would not share information with her. This was exactly why I didn't trust others.

"The twins will be by in a little bit to eat some food," Sybil said with her back towards me. She was tense, but I wasn't sure what had upset her so much. Her voice held an icy edge to it that was not something I had experienced from her before unless it was her disapproving of my violence and anger.

"I'll be out." My response was curt.

I had no desire to be around Kaz after what he said to me last night, and Sybil's odd behavior made me want to disappear for the whole day.

"Fine," she snipped loudly enough that I would hear from my room.

Grabbing some bread, my weapons, and my cloak to help shield my skin from the scorching sun. I headed toward the creek. Sybil had never treated me like this. Everyone was so on edge around me.

My thoughts disappeared when I realized the creek was hardly flowing anymore. We had running water in this a few days ago. How can everything suddenly be dying around us when we have been here for seven years without it happening? What was the cause for the loss of our resources?

Maybe the end was coming, I admitted to myself. Fishing was pointless now with the little flow of water, so I turned to head back to the house. It was too hot to be out here doing nothing. I would just stay in my room, away from Kaz and Sybil.

At some point, I knew I needed to make amends with Kaz and Sybil, but I also didn't think this was my fault. We all had imperfections and tempers often were elevated due to stress, but Kaz was out of line and Sybil's behavior was odd.

When I rounded the corner to head into the house and froze at the front door being kicked in.

What the hell?

I grabbed my viper-handled dagger and snuck in. Kaz and Kai weren't there, but Sybil's soft cries made me hurry.

When I rounded the hallway, a man was holding her down with his foot over her throat. His shoulders were so broad he was turned completely to the side to fit. He pointed something at her.

A weapon.

Before the thought had even fully formed, I threw my dagger into his back. The man turned towards me. I recognized him from town meetings. His eyes froze me in place. They were completely white, void of any color, just like Sybil's had been in my dream.

He charged at me, knocking us both into the wooden table I had made Sybil. All of her herbs and medicines fell to the floor when the table broke under our weight. The glass vials crushed under our boots as the man and I struggled for the upper hand.

His hand struck out and slapped me so hard that I fell to the floor on my back. Pain radiated from where he had struck me. Something sharp dug into my arm and I cried out in agony. He reached down, twisting my long dark braid around his hand to yank me up before I could notice what had stabbed me.

I kicked him hard in the knee and he crumpled to the ground, wailing with discomfort. His white eyes tracked my movements as I went for a weapon.

The man swiped at me with his knife, barely missing me. Circling him as he kneeled on the ground, I ripped my dagger from his back, causing another eruption of strangled cries to release from him. His silver hair was damp with sweat as my fingers twisted it back far enough that I was able to rest my dagger on his throat. His pained sobs only called to the darkness that lived deep in my chest. I wanted to make more pain fall from his lips.

There was something uncontrollable about my darkness and if it wanted revenge, it would take it without consequence. Sybil's footsteps stopped me from slicing his throat.

Sybil stood frozen as she gaped at me. Her neck was marred and red from this asshole. The itch of my magic wanting to come forward sat under my skin. Darkness sank itself into my mind. It craved his life for what he had wanted to do. It craved pain and hurt. It would make me feel better to have him lying dead on the floor.

Why did he attack us? Food? No, it had to be something else. Something was wrong with his eyes. Darkness took away any ability to form questions about his motives.

"Look away, Sybil," I ground out. I didn't want her to watch this. Sybil let out a small, distressed sound before looking away. I noticed Kaz and Kai standing in the entryway of our home. How long had they been watching?

"How?" the man rasped. "You shouldn't be this strong still." I realized he was right. I still had considerable fae strength and speed here, when others had lost it completely. He'd lose it if he knew that I had the ability to cross the boundary, too.

Ignoring him, I asked, "Why did you come here?"

"I was sent." He groaned as I pressed my dagger into his flesh, producing a drop of blood.

"By who?"

"Just kill me because if you don't, they will when I don't return with you," he snapped.

"With pleasure." I slid my dagger through his neck with little effort. His gargled reply ended as soon as his corpse hit the floor. My darkness retreated back into the depths of my chest when I watched his blood pool below him.

As the darkness lifted, I realized that my rage had cost me answers. Answers that only that fae had, but now I would never know because I was too consumed with vengeance. When I peered up, Sybil stood frozen in fear with Kaz and Kai. I was covered in mine and the man's blood, but that wasn't why they stared at me in shock.

"You're on fire," Kai sputtered. I furrowed my brows in confusion, but when I glanced down, my hand was engulfed in flames. I smothered it with a quick movement, as my mind raced for understanding.

Magic didn't work here.

"It's never worked here," I said softly, shock beginning to set in.

"The rage must have set it off," Kaz suggested.

Inspecting my hand, I flicked my fingers but only a small spark emitted. What was going on these past few days? Something was happening to me, and it didn't appear like it was a good change. This wasn"t the first time I had been consumed with rage, but my magic had never ignited. It didn't make sense.

My foot crunched the broken vials as I stepped forward. "All of your medicine is gone." Frowning, I shoved the broken glass with my foot.

Sybil shook her head and frowned as she began to pick up the pieces, but her eyes followed me closely. Her hands trembled as she picked up shards of glass. Kaz and Kai's dark eyes found mine in a questioning look.

They were scared of me.

I frowned at their behavior. "I won't hurt you."

"We've never seen you like that before. You enjoyed killing him." Kaz spoke accusatively at my actions.

"Would you have preferred if Sybil died? If you didn't want me to kill the man, then you could've stepped in." Grabbing the man's hand, I dragged him out to the street to join today's other dead fae. I just needed to get away from their watchful eyes because, honestly, I liked knowing that this man was dead.

Something inside of me was fucked up.

My eyes looked over the details of his face. His eyes had changed back to his normal brown color. I shook away the thoughts of why I didn't mind killing others. What was I like in my past to make me feel nothing for taking a life?

The King was probably right to lock me away because killing had never made me feel bad.

When I returned to the doorway of our home, I paused at the sound of harsh whispering. Worry gripped my heart when I realized it was me they were whispering about.

"Thea is going to put us all in jeopardy if she can't control her rage. Someone will notice her magic, and everything will fall apart," one of the twins whispered.

"She's unpredictable and that is a problem. Did you catch sight of how fast and strong she still is?" the other twin whispered. "She's got to know there is something different about her by now. There is no way to explain her abilities. She will become more reckless and jeopardize the safety here."

I froze with uncertainty. Should they be scared of me? The fighting and killing had always been second nature to me, almost like I had been trained to do so. I wouldn't hurt them, but I agreed with them that I was jeopardizing their safety. Part of me was betrayed that they didn't trust me at all, but could I blame them? My own guards were up, too. Nothing was ever genuine or real to me if it came from someone else. Other's actions always had an ulterior motive, and I didn't understand why I thought like that all of the time.

Sybil had told me time and time again that I would end up alone or dead if I didn't learn to let others in. She told me my impulsivity and need for vengeance kept me stuck in my own lonely prison and would cause issues for me.

Everyone here should want revenge for what we had been through, but I seemed to be the only one who wanted it. Keeping my distance and questioning others" intentions had served me well enough to still be alive. And sometimes impulsive and vengeful actions were necessary. If I thought too much about why I did things in that moment, I would already be dead.

"Her behaviors are just like last time. It's getting close, but we need to just act normal. We aren't allowed to speak of it. So, let it run its course just like we do every time, and hopefully, this will be the time it works." Sybil sighed in a defeated tone.

They spoke about me as if something was wrong with me. If they knew something about me, then why would they keep it a secret? Doubt crept into my mind. Sybil's behavior had been so odd recently and her stories were changing. Were they really my friends?

I walked in, not bothering to look at any of them as I rushed to my room. The door couldn't lock, but I wished it could because I couldn't tell if I was surrounded by friends or enemies.

Tonight, I would cross the boundary and steal more medicine to replace what had been lost today. Then, I would move out so I could be on my own. There was enough stress here that I didn't need to worry in my own home if I was safe.