Chapter 34

The Dream Walker

My heart ground to a stop. The bonds that tied me inside flesh cracked and unfurled. The organs stopped working. The blood ceased to flow.

The blood witch line ended. Hel, the blood goddess, was dead.

My form became dust and drifted into the world.

I could have stayed.

I could have repossessed that body.

But I didn't. I left. I left to save her for when she returned.

Time is a strange thing when you're a Dream Walker. I exist in the realm of sleep. In the land of dreams. That is where I am strongest. And that is where I will protect her most.

So, to dreams, I went.

A second. A day. A week. A month.

I have no concept.

I find all who pose a threat to my Pixie. To my brothers.

The soldiers who seek her out fall into an endless sleep. They sleep soundly, but inside, they scream, and they cry.

The surviving witches who sided with Neve, too.

An endless sleep.

A curse upon the land. A curse upon anyone who speaks her name, whispers it in secret meetings or plots her capture.

The curse of the endless sleep takes them.

Their bodies never move again. They starve to death.

Sleeping skeletons wrapped in a skin suit is what you will become if you ever think about the stolen earth witch taken by the witch hunters.

Ashe Nectan's name becomes a fearsome whisper in the wind. A ghost story. A tale mothers read their children before bed.

Be good, or the witch of blood and earth will come for you.

Soon, no one speaks her name aloud again.

And Pixie is safe.

She is finally… finally safe.