18. Idris

Chapter 18

Idris

Q uite possibly, this was the worst idea in the history of bad ideas. But I'd seen that look on Vale’s face right before she jumped off a dragon and went headlong into battle. There was no changing her mind and a part of me fucking loved that about her.

I wondered when the exact moment was I'd fallen for Vale. Was it her steadfast defiance as she protected my closest friends in the caverns? Was it her unwavering dedication to her sister? Was it her sacrifice? Or was it just the kind heart that she tried so hard to hide?

Was it her vulnerability—that soft underbelly she kept protected at all costs? Compounded with her laugh, with her smile, with her determination, I'd been a goner from that very first day.

But seeing her now in the face of potentially losing Xavier, I knew she would sacrifice anything to keep him breathing. I just had to make sure she didn't sacrifice everything.

“If we're doing this, really doing this, you're getting a crash course in dream walking.”

“I already know the first two rules,” she said, narrowing her eyes. “What more is there?”

I fought off the urge to strangle her. “I don't have time to go into all the details, but just to reiterate rule one: If you get hurt in here, you get hurt out there.” I pulled her hand up to show her the shallow cuts on her palm. “Like this.”

The muscle in her jaw ticked. “I know. I got it.”

“Rule two: Nothing, and I do mean nothing, is as it seems here. You and I are stable walking together, what comes when we get into an entire mountain filled with Lumentium? Who knows? Everything could go sideways on us.”

“Except, I have lived my entire life with Lumentium around me. I should be fine.”

While she had a very good point, and while she would likely be fine, I knew I wouldn't be. But there was no way I was leaving her alone for this.

“Rule three: Time works differently here. What can seem like hours is mere seconds in some ways, in others, seconds can be hours in the waking world. It all depends on you and where you are. There is no consistent time structure here, so the best course of action is to get in and get out while you still remember you're dreaming.”

That brought her up short. Twisting her fingers together, she firmed her jaw and gave me a hesitant nod. “Okay, I think I’ve got it. Anything else I need to know?”

There were a hundred other rules, but we didn’t have the time. Already I felt the drain and we hadn’t even gotten anywhere yet.

“Rule four: You are in control. This is your domain. This is your dream. You have the power here. But use it wisely. The farther you are from your body in the Dreaming, the more power it takes from you. The last time you were too far from your body, you stopped breathing. This means we don't have very much time. You used a lot of power to keep Xavier alive, you don't have much to spare.”

Worry etched itself into the lines of her face before she locked it down. “Neither do you.”

“Exactly, which is why we are going to get in and get out and pray to every god and goddess we know of that we don't get caught.”

“Caught? Who the fuck is going to catch us in a dream?”

My laugh was mirthless as I realized just how little she knew of this world, even though she was made from it.

“The guild claims they don't use magic—that magic-users are a blight on this world, and yet, that entire mountain is powered by the dead. And grave magic isn’t always as predictable. I have no idea what protections they have in place. Why do you think they don't care when you die? You're just another power source for them.”

Vale shoved at my chest, the fire in her eyes one millimeter away from violence. “Are you kidding me? You wait until now to tell me that?”

We didn’t have time for her rage—not with our lives on the line. “What good would telling you do? You were already upset that your parents had been taken from you. Me telling you that they likely power every bit of magic in that mountain probably wouldn't go over very well.”

Gritting her teeth, Vale shot me a glare. “So how do we do this? How do I get us from here to there?”

“How did you get from the darkness to the church?” I asked, knowing she already had the answer.

“How did you know I was in the darkness?” she asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

“It’s where you last saw your sister.” I chose not to tell her that the likelihood of that small blonde being her baby sister was slim to none, but the point had been made. “You naturally would go back to the one place that brought you some small measure of comfort. Finding Nyrah has always been your goal—what has driven you this whole time. If you were going to be anywhere, you were going to be there.”

“I don't like that you know that much about me, if I'm being honest. I wish I knew more about you—how you grew up, the life you've had, the things you've seen. It has to be better than how I grew up.”

I wouldn’t disagree with her on that point, but with the good, always came the bad. “I have seen many things on this continent. The one place I've never been, is where we're going, so we are relying on your memories of it. So, you think you can do that?”

She swallowed nervously before giving me a shaky nod. “I think so.”

“That’s my brave one,” I murmured, pulling her into my arms as I pressed a kiss to her temple. “To get from here to there is the same way you left the darkness. Close your eyes and envision exactly where you want to be. What does the inside of the mountain look like? Are there tunnels? Torches?”

Her face paled slightly as she closed her eyes, hanging on to me as if her life depended on it. “It's dark under the mountain, always dark except during midday when the sun shines directly overhead of the crevasse. Only then do we really get any light. There are stone staircases everywhere, but hardly any of them have any railing, and most of them are open to the chasm below.”

As she spoke, the church and the dark forest melted away, and we slid through space and time, her magic pressing in on my skin as she took us to the one place I'd never been. Direveil hadn't existed two hundred years ago. The mountain range, yes, but the guild’s dark mountain appeared overnight, rising from the earth, akin to the finger of a god reaching for the sky.

Moments later, we were plunged into darkness, the faint flickering of torches barely lighting the narrow passageway beneath our feet. I couldn't help but stare at the skeletal innards of the guild’s home.

Of my brother's home.

I didn't know what I thought I would see when I got here, but this wasn't it.

Crumbling pathways led to treacherous stairs, the cracked stone one errant move away from disintegrating altogether. In the vast darkness that I suspected Vale couldn't see through, was a wide chasm that seemed to never end, drilling all the way to the center of the earth.

She trembled in my arms as her hand blindly reached for the rough wall.

This explained why she was afraid of heights. Why she clung so tightly to railings and hated every single staircase she saw. This place was terrifying on its own, even without the threat of execution just for being a Luxa.

Death seemed to be on every path, around every corner, breathing down her neck.

And mine. I’d told her how Lumentium affected me, but I’d downplayed it. Even in the Dreaming, the poisonous mineral seemed to cut into me on all sides. My breaths felt like I’d swallowed razors.

Choking down the pain, I clutched her to me, holding her tight.

“I won’t let you fall, Vale. I promise. You are in control.”

She peeled her gaze from the edge of the chasm, her wide fearful eyes glowing with her power. Even here, surrounded by poison, she was the definition of strength. Only someone boldly facing their fears could walk into the lion’s den like this.

“I’m in control. This is my domain. This is my dream. I have the power here,” she whispered to herself as she straightened her spine. “This way.”

Taking my hand, she led me up a wider staircase carved into the side of a disintegrating stalactite, two hundred years of water eroding the limestone into almost nothing. Luckily, the trip was short, and it guided us to a wide stone corridor lit by fading torches. Off the sides of the passage were darkened caves, the echoes of snores emerged from their depths as if the occupants had long since stumbled into slumber.

At the very end of the corridor, we turned left, following the maze of paths to a tucked-away hole in the wall. It was deserted, luckily, but the detritus of what remained littered the floor. In the corner lay a pile of rags disguised as a sleeping palette, and I realized just how little she'd had before coming to the castle.

Before she became mine.

Before she agreed to be my Queen.

“It's not much, but this was home.”

There were no chairs, no tables, barely a cushion underneath disintegrating blankets, and even those were thin as paper.

“All four of you lived here?” I asked, astounded anyone could live like this, let alone a family. I ducked to fit under the ceiling, the space little more than a hovel.

She shook her head as she moved to the farthest corner, her fingers trailing the rock as if she were searching for something. “No. When my parents were alive, we had a bigger sleeping chamber, but when they passed, we were moved.”

If I knew my brother—and I knew his depravity well enough—he put them in this hole as punishment for their parents’ perceived crimes.

“I used to sleep in a hammock up off the ground, and it was almost nice. It wasn't anything like the castle, but we made do with what we had. We used to have a kitchen back when the guild would grow crops. My mother did what she could, and it wasn't so bad before they died.”

She dipped her hand into a nearly invisible hole in the wall and drew from it a thick parcel wrapped in fabric. With shaking hands, she unwrapped it and breathed a sigh of relief. The leather binding looked ancient—at least five hundred years old—and when she gently opened it, she lovingly ran her finger down a list of names.

“This is it,” she whispered, closing the book before re-wrapping it in the fabric.

Blinking away tears, she wiped her nose, the back of her hand coming away red.

We were officially out of time.

“Well, look what we have here. My long, lost Luxa and the brother I didn’t get a chance to kill all wrapped up in a little bow. I didn’t know it was my birthday.”

A chill raced down my spine. I hadn’t seen Arden in two centuries, and yet, I would know his voice anywhere. Spinning on my heel, I faced my brother down, trying to put myself in front of Vale.

“I’m going to enjoy burning you alive, little Luxa. And this time you can’t wriggle free.”

Arden was a vastly different man from the one he’d been centuries ago. Dark sigils marked his cheeks, his flesh tattooed with binding magic. His eyes glowed with the gold of his dragon, the animal slithering beneath his skin, caged with all the Lumentium so close. But worse, the youth and light he’d had as a boy was long gone.

All that was left was madness.

I had no idea how he knew we were here, but this exact scenario was what I’d been afraid of. Direveil was powered by the dead, and we were treading a thin line in the Dreaming.

Somehow, he’d known we’d come here. Maybe that had been his plan all along. Why he’d taunted her with her sovereign name at the ball, all the attacks.

He’d wanted her here.

“That’s a lot of words for ‘I suck at my job,’” Vale taunted, her body unfortunately out of my reach. “How many times have you tried and failed to kill me? Aren’t we at four now? Or is it five?”

Arden’s jaw clenched as his pupils elongated to the slits of his dragon. “You’re like a cockroach, you filthy little witch. And I’ll crush you like one. Him, I need alive. You, not so much.”

Her laugh echoed around us, as light bloomed under her skin. “You couldn’t kill me when you had the knife in your hand, you weak, spineless sack of shit. And as smart as you think you are, you’re forgetting a very important fact.”

Arden didn’t wait for her to continue, he lunged into the room, only to get thrown backward by a wall of magic.

Golden light poured from every inch of her skin. “I’m the Luxa. This is my domain. I have the power here, not you.”

Rage washed over Arden as orange scales radiated from his skin. His body grew, crumbling the stone around him. As his claws erupted from his fingertips, his bones snapped and cracked. Mid-shift and growing by the second, he blocked our only exit.

We had no way out of here.

Eyes wide, Vale lunged for me. Her body collided with mine, knocking us off our feet.

The world slammed back into focus as our consciousness knocked us both into our bodies at the same time. Sucking in a huge breath, I held her tight to me as I tried to get my bearings. We were still in that chair at Xavier’s bedside, only night had fallen, and a quiet darkness surrounded us as low mage lights lit the still space.

Heart thundering in my chest, I cupped her cheeks, pressing a kiss to her trembling lips.

“You saved me, my brave one. You saved us both.”

Someone yanked Vale from my arms, stealing her away, and I nearly lost my mind before I realized it was Kian.

“Gods, woman, what did you do?” he growled, his anger failing to disguise his fear. I couldn’t blame him. Losing her would end us all—curse or no. “Don’t we have enough to worry about without you trying to hurt yourself?” He clutched her to his chest, squeezing her tight. “Please. I can’t?—”

“I’m fine,” she said, her voice muffled by Kian’s jacket. She wriggled from his hold, her eyes shining bright with a familiar bundle still in her arms, the tattered cloth protecting precious cargo.

A smile bloomed over her face, the first time I’d seen it since Xavier had gotten hurt.

“I got it.”