29. Cain

CHAPTER 29

CAIN

Four-and-twenty hours later…

My world is nothing but red hues and the sensation of suffocating. I can't breathe. I feel like I hardly even exist.

It's not unpleasant, once I got used to it.

And after a few days submerged in the blood rivers of the Dream Realm, my beast is worn down. My body has returned to a human shape, even within this place, and I trail my fingers through the liquid.

I'm sorry, Scarlett, I think as I lazily drift in an endless river. The current has carried me downward to places no soul should ever go.

But it's peaceful here, somehow. It feels like death, if death were an undertow of rushing sounds and a beat that echoes through my entire body.

It's like a mother's womb.

This is a place of rebirth, perhaps. If there is such a thing as a second chance with a new life, I doubt there's one in store for me. That leaves me in purgatory. After all the death I have caused, all the suffering, it's fitting to be trapped in a place with no future, no past, and no hope.

This is where I belong.

"Cain," a distant voice calls, making me glance upward where I know the surface must be.

That's where the voice had come from.

My first instinct is to move toward the sound, but even if Scarlett has finally chosen to reach out to me, it still isn't safe for her.

I'm grateful now for the two monsters who found her in the Dream Realm on Monsters Night. Perhaps they'll be enough to take care of her.

Scarlett is something special. She has unique needs, both in the real world and the one of dreams. Her soul draws everything around it in, and now that part of her has unlocked, she can't be expected to take on that burden alone.

She's like a well, one with no end, and it could drive her to the bottom just like the blood rivers in the Dream Realm. She could suffocate and be lost forever without mates to keep her afloat, to keep the tides low and help her manage her incredible gift.

She would have been the answer to my beast. A power like that could satisfy him for the first time in my very long life.

Thousands of years. That's how long I've starved and existed in a state of constant pain. Scarlett doesn't know what an answer to a prayer she really is for a so-called God such as myself.

I don't deserve the hope she offers. But the creatures who came through that portal on Monsters Night, perhaps they don't have the same dark history I do. Perhaps, I was nothing more than a medium to bring them together. Happiness is not in the cards for a beast like me.

"Cain, please. Don't leave me here…"

My fingers clench into fists as I try to resist her call. Why aren't her new mates going to her?

Maybe they can't find her again, not without my help. They're from another world, which means they might still be in Monster City.

Helia should guide them. There aren't any other dream creatures like me, so it wouldn't be such a stretch for her to know where they might belong. But if she's been as unavailable for them as she has been for me, they might be stuck.

Helpless.

Like being trapped in Purgatory.

Growling, I start to swim. The current has pushed me down, but Scarlett keeps praying to me, calling for me, and giving me a lifeline that draws me skyward.

I'm coming, my star, I say in my mind. I know the inevitable choice I must make.

Leaving her is not an option.

I can only hope my beast has been subdued enough to keep me in control while I seek her out. Scarlett needs me, and I'm powerless to ignore her plea.

When I break the blood barrier of the rivers, I rise into the real world and take my first breath of air in days. My lungs seize as I cough up the Dream Realm's lifeblood. I crash through broken glass, and I realize I've come through a glass window—one belonging to Helia's personal room.

It's not where I would intentionally choose a meeting, but she doesn't seem to mind. Her oversized bed is made, spanning behind her while she sits in a wide chair with raised armrests, one that is facing the now broken window.

It's almost as if she knew I was coming.

She's in her human form, wearing a tight-fitting dress as she crosses her legs. A smirk plays on the edge of her wicked mouth as she patiently watches me cough up blood onto her clean floor.

"Well, hello, Cain. Isn't this a nice surprise?" she says.

I have a feeling it's not a surprise at all.

A growl rumbles in my throat, but it's only an echo of my beast that lies within. He doesn't have the energy to come out, so for that, I'm grateful that my hypothesis was correct.

It means that Scarlett and my people are safe, for now. And if I had come into Helia's tower out of control, she would have dealt with the problem herself. In that situation, I would have become a threat.

And therefore, her enemy.

Now, though, I am her friend. One she has neglected.

"Where have you been?" I ask, my voice a low, dangerous threat of a whisper. It feels as if knives have scored my insides and every word creates a fresh dagger to slice through salted wounds. But I don't flinch; I don't show her what kind of discomfort I'm in.

This is what I deserve, after all. Once I'm done here, I'll be going back to the undercurrent of the Dream Realm.

For Scarlett's sake.

I can't pick up her prayer on the wind now that I've left the ethereal plane, but that makes sense if my beast is weak. There must be a reason I've surfaced here, though, in Helia's tower rather than closer to home.

Helia flicks her tongue and shifts the weight of her hips. She's sitting in a single sofa chair that could easily double as a throne. She has a talent of making everything around her a piece of her royalty, of her power, and to accent her complete and utter control.

Sometimes that's a fa?ade. Sometimes it's real.

Today, I can't tell. I only know there's a new glow about her that certainly wasn't there before.

"I've been… busy," she says as she drags a long, manicured nail over her lower lip. I don't take her flirtatious behavior too seriously. Helia would flirt with a house plant, given the chance. It's her nature.

Being so evasive, though, is unusual. At least when it comes to our relationship.

"I don't have time for your games," I growl as I turn toward the shattered window.

We're high up, higher than my own tower, given the way that Helia's city has developed. The skyscrapers here are characteristic of what this territory used to be. Once upon a time, it was called New York. Just as my Elite City was once named Chicago.

Those names are as ancient as dust. Only their memory lingers over the newly developed cities that have taken over the ruins. The buildings and towers were made in our image and carry little pieces of ourselves within them.

We've built our cities differently, but we've always ruled alongside one another.

It feels like everything is falling apart.

"I don't either, Cain," she says with a sigh. "So if you've come here for the dreamwalkers, then I suggest you go talk to them and stop wasting your time with me. They are your new mates, after all. It's rude how long you've kept them waiting."

Glancing at her from over my shoulder, I give her a raised brow.

She gives me another one of her characteristic smirks, then bounces to her feet. She pops her hips as she marches to her closet and emerges a few moments later with a tailored suit. One I know will fit me perfectly.

"They aren't my mates," I argue. She doesn't try to correct me. "Did you know they were coming?" I ask as I accept the clothes. I put them on while I wait for her reply.

She shrugs, sending her long, silky hair unfurling over her shoulder as she moves. "I suspected it based on the type of distortion I had been sensing closer to Monsters Night, but I didn't want to get your hopes up in case I was wrong."

"Distortion?" I ask.

"Do you recall the peekaboo portal that kept popping up? Someone from the other dimension had their eye on us, but there was more to it than that. Many of them came through, and a few decided to stay." She grins. I know there's more information, but she isn't going to share it with me right now. "Including your new mates," she continues in complete disregard of my protest about them being mates . "I had an Emissary ready to locate them once the portals opened. They accepted my invitation and have been staying here."

"Hmm," I say as I decide if it's worth it to argue with her or not. While I highly doubt these two monsters are also my mates, Helia likely can sense their connection to Scarlett. Explaining that to her would require explaining my connection to Scarlett and therefore risk her understanding that I'm going to have to leave this world. Permanently. I don't need anyone trying to convince me to stay when it's not the right thing to do. "Anything else I should know?"

Her smirk turns into a full-on grin, which is usually a horrible sign of misfortune on its way. "They aren't the only interesting monsters who traveled here from that dimension."

Any monsters worthy of Helia's attention are typically powerful, but I can't shake the feeling that she's hiding something. There's a refreshed energy about her.

No, that's not just rejuvenated energy. She has new energy.

"What aren't you telling me?" I ask her with a raised brow.

Her eyes glitter with delight. "Guess."

I blow out a breath. "Helia."

She rakes her fingers through her hair as she gives me a softer smile, one I haven't seen on her in a very long time.

One that comes from a place of happiness.

"Bernard didn't tell you?" she asks, but she knows he couldn't tell me whatever it is she chose to share with my Raven instead of me.

That's not his fault, though. I've been in the Dream Realm for days.

She finally chooses to end my torment and spits it out. "I found my mates, Cain. At least, I found two of them." She tilts her head to the doorway. "They're both enjoying the spa level. I sensed you'd be invading my space tonight." She eyes the broken glass on the floor with distaste. "They're human. I didn't want your brutish beast to break them."

I go silent. I take no offense to her concerns about my beast around fragile humans, but I can't ignore the impossibility of this coincidence.

What are the odds that the Monster City Queen and the Elite City King both find mates after centuries of failure?

"I wouldn't dream of allowing even a hair to be harmed on your mates' heads. I offer you my congratulations."

She hums in reply. "Congratulations to you as well."

That might be a little preemptive of her. As powerful as Helia is, I doubt she understands the depths of my predicament.

"Don't you find it unusual? Both of us finding mates, I mean? There could be foul play."

She shrugs. "Perhaps. Who do you suggest would be interfering with fate?"

"Have you met any Gods recently?" I ask. I mean it in jest, but she doesn't laugh.

"I'm about to meet with one," she replies, surprising me. "But he seems as lost here as the rest of us were. If there is a deity meddling, I don't think it's him." She tilts her head as if she's pleased with herself. "He's… interesting, though. I think you'll like him." Her eyes glitter with delight as I try to keep a straight face, but it's as if the Monster City Queen can read my mind. After how many centuries we've known each other, she practically can. "Would you like to stay and discuss the circumstances of a budding new alliance? I promise it'll be interesting."

"I'm sure it will be," I say as I adjust my cuff links. "But I trust you to handle monster affairs."

I don't mention that I doubt I'll be remaining in this plane for very long. Helia might know me well enough, but I've never given up my city.

Not even when I lost control and my beast destroyed everyone and everything in Vulcan Village. That place is now a pit, nothing more than crumbled ruins at the edge of my city.

I remind myself of those ruins. Of what little memories I can pull up full of shredded dreams and splattered blood.

Because that can never happen again.

I'll find these dreamwalkers. I'll help them get to Scarlett, and then I will leave.

For good.

My city will run on its own for a time even without me. Bernard would let Helia know when a replacement needed to be found, once he was satisfied I wasn't returning.

I'll slip away like a lost nightmare, never to return again.

Taking Helia's hand, I brush her knuckles with my lips. She remains perfectly statuesque with inhuman stillness as she watches me.

"Farewell, Queen Helia," I say.

If she knows the permanence of my goodbye, she doesn't comment on it. She smiles, showing a glint of white teeth. "Farewell, Cain."

Descending the tower, the elevator doors open only to reveal the God that Helia had mentioned.

There's no question about what he is.

He matches my height at over six feet tall, boasts broad shoulders, and everything about him screams Alpha.

His aura is what gives him away as something divine. A shadow of wings span from his back. A distinctly foreign power glimmers around him like gold specks that I suspect other creatures can't see. His impact on the Dream Realm is noticeable, only because this is a creature with nearly infinite power. Even his dreams are capable of changing the world around him, and that is a terrifying gift indeed.

"Who are you?" he demands. It doesn't surprise me in the least that a God would notice there's something different about me as well.

But I suspect he can't tell what I am. The answer to that question isn't a simple one. I don't have a species designation other than the one the Elites have given me, as I've never met anyone else like myself. He might be a God, but he's in a dimension entirely different from his own.

"Cain," I easily reply.

" What are you?" he adds, his words holding an accent similar to my own.

I smile, intrigued by this Alpha. "Are you always so demanding of those you just met?"

"Only potential threats," he counters.

Oh. I definitely like him. "I'll take that as a compliment."

"You shouldn't," he informs me with warning. "I don't like threats."

"Ah, well, then you and Helia are going to get on famously," I drawl. "I almost wish I would have stayed for the meeting now."

"Helia?" he repeats.

"The Monster City Queen," I explain, catching the elevator door before it can close. "She's ready for you, by the way."

He cocks a brow at me. "Are you here to escort me up?"

I laugh as I try to picture that. I respect Helia's power, but I'm not her lackey. "I'm not in the habit of escorting anyone anywhere, Orcus. But unless you want an Emissary to come find you, I recommend heading up to see Helia. The Emissaries around here are all about punctuality and rules." Which is precisely why I know Helia entrusted an Emissary with the task of locating my potential mates while I was tied up.

I let my arm fall then, and I start down the hallway. I can feel Orcus watching, and I brace myself for him to bark more orders at me.

Fortunately, he doesn't.

Because I wouldn't have stopped even if he had asked me to. Now that I'm closer to the dreamwalkers Helia had told me about, I can sense them.

I can feel them.

They're so much more than compatible mates. By playing with Scarlett, they have begun a link not only with her but also with me .

Perhaps that's what Helia had sensed about me and had made her so confident.

Okay, Helia. You think I have not one mate but three?

We shall see…