31. Scarlett

CHAPTER 31

SCARLETT

"Cain!" I cry as I spot him finally appear in the blood red sky.

I've been stuck in this place for hours. It made no sense why I couldn't find him. It seemed like every time I closed my eyes my figment was there, waiting for me.

I should have known something was wrong.

My heart races and I lift onto my toes as if I can reach him if I just try hard enough.

The first time I met him in the real word, he caught me when I lifted in a dance.

Now, I wish I could catch him.

He's not alone. Two others fall with him as they plummet through the clouds. Dark shadows streak above them as they twist and writhe, making me wonder if they are in pain.

The world cracks with Cain's roar and the rivers of blood surge as if ready to gobble them up.

My chest tightens as they strike the surface of a river swollen with blood. The impact shatters the world as if everything had fractured into glass. Very real shards splinter out in all directions and one of them drives right into me.

My reality splits into multiple possibilities. The shard engulfs me for a moment, showing me what my life could have been like, had things been different.

In an alternate world, I'm still lying in my bed. Edward's mother never came to have me humiliated and I wasn't found wanting.

My dream beasts aren't lost in this world. They aren't plummeting from the sky.

They're with me, revealing the truth to me in a much more pleasant way.

I watch from inside my own body like a spectator as this reality's emotions play out. Only a glimmer of broken glass informs me it's simply a projection of what could have been.

" Get off me!" I scream, not because it doesn't feel good what the one with an unnaturally long tongue is doing, but because this was supposed to be a dream.

"Not a chance, Sigil."

Why do they always call me that?

I move to push the one between my legs away, but I realize I can't. My muscles don't comply.

Red eyes glow at my right. Eyes that belong to a face crafted by a master sculptor, but his fangs dripping with my blood suggest he's anything but a benevolent being. "You're far too delicious to release now. Plus, you invited us into your mind. You told us to play."

Yes, but that had been when this was all a fanciful dream full of orgasms and forbidden desires.

I open my mouth to say as much, but the creature on my right groans at the sight. "Yes, open that mouth wide, our Sigil. We're starved for more of your screams."

The shard that had broken from this place finally dissipates and leaves me wavering and dizzy. My vision blinks in and out of reflective realities, the one I had just experienced fading away like the dream it is.

They were real, I realize with certainty.

This reality might have played out differently, but the figments in my dreams aren't figments at all.

They're dream monsters.

Panic seizes my chest as I watch the river sheen over without a single fracture.

"Cain! Saber! Cage!" I cry all their names now, knowing that there's only reason the connection I felt with them could have been so powerful.

They're my mates.

Or at least, they were supposed to be. We didn't get to finish what was started.

I drive my hands into the river of blood and ignore the shards that drag up my fingers, protesting the disturbance that ripples out from where I had broken through. My extremities go numb as I ignore the pain that jolts up to my elbows.

It feels right to insert my hands into the place where my mates fell. I don't know how it can help them, but it doesn't matter. I simply need them to know I'm here.

"Come back to me," I urge them. I don't think they can hear me, but I utter that prayer in my mind with such fervor that if Cain really is the god he pretends to be, he won't be able to ignore it.

I would have stayed there until I froze over, but light spills into my nightmare and drags me out by the ankles. I scream as I realize that I really am being yanked around as my eyes fling open. One of the Rinhold's manservants pulls me into the light as Duchess Rinhold scowls down at me.

"You're a lucky whore," she tells me as she peers down her perfect nose. Her eyes narrow as I try to fathom what about any of this could be lucky. "I've managed to arrange an old style marriage to take place. Tonight. No one will challenge the validity of the union if they see it with their own eyes."

I stare at her as another servant pops open a vial and pours the contents onto me. The grime of the dungeon seems to evaporate as new layers of fancy silks snake over my cleansed skin. "See it?" I echo, not sure if I understand what she means by that. Wouldn't any marriage ceremony be an affair with Elite guests in attendance? I didn't imagine that the Earl would have a wedding with only private members invited. The Rinholds prefer to flaunt their wealth and festive occasions are a wonderful place to do that.

Although, it doesn't really matter. "I won't agree to the union. If you choose to invite other families, you're only going to humiliate yourselves. The courtship is over. The deal is off."

I get a choice in this. A courtship is a mutual affair.

Or, it's supposed to be.

"The contract is already dissolved," she says, nodding to my body.

I look down and realize what she means.

The mark I had cherished above my navel is now gone.

Panic seizes my lungs.

I don't know if that indicates my mates are dead or lost. I did just witness them crash into a river in my dreams and that river sealed over.

No, I decide. They can't be lost.

One of the servants crowding the small cell offer Duchess Rinhold a tray of vials and she selects a number of them, acting as if the matter is closed.

The courtship might be over, but now the Rinholds are in control.

"You still want me to marry your son?" I ask, bewildered.

"You will marry my son," she clarifies. "The courtship was your chance to do this the easy way. You could have been one of us. Now, you'll be what we need you to be, and nothing more than that."

What could the Rinholds possibly need from me?

One of the servants produces a knife and my eyes go wide.

"Do it," the Duchess barks when he hesitates.

The male kneels and positions the blade above my navel. "Apologies, my Lady. Please, don't move," he says. I bite my lip as he carves a neat line.

Then he goes to my back and I panic.

They're trying to recreate my marks to make it look as if the courtship is still active. "Stop it!" I screech as I use my nails, clawing and catching someone's arm. I'm rewarded with a grunt of pain before a shin comes down on my wrist, making me cry out.

A slash rakes over my spine, making spots glitter over my vision.

Then another.

Then more until I think I might pass out. I pant through the pain as the weight is finally lifted from my wrist.

After the servant uses the vials on me, I realize one is to removes the bruises and to clean the blood of the fresh wounds, making them heal just enough not to look so fresh. Another is to tighten a simple corset around my chest and wind decorations through my hair with pins and chains, and the third doesn't seem to do anything. Maybe it's some sort of perfume I can't smell. A pheromone one, perhaps. Those are popular at weddings. Although, I don't know what for, given that I have no intention of going through with it.

"You will behave ," the Duchess declares with finality. "You will do as you're told and you'll submit. That is your role now. You will only speak when you're spoken to, and in the old style format of matrimony, your verbal agreement isn't required."

I open my mouth to tell her to fuck off.

But when my lips part, no sound comes out.

The third vial wasn't a perfume.

It was a silencing potion.

I'm dragged out of my cell, unable to make a single sound as I fight with every ounce of strength in my body.

I'm going to be forced to marry Edward, I realize with horror as they take me down the halls and hot, angry tears stream down my face.

I have a feeling if the Rinholds win, my mates will be lost to me forever.

Fuck if I'm going to let that happen.

I won't marry him.

I have three dream monsters trying to break through the surface. And when they do… they're going to kill all of you.