Page 12 of A Shadow of Betrayal

“How about you let me go, and we all pretend we never met?” I suggest, spitting out the metallic taste of blood from my mouth and hitting the man's shoe, smirking when he hisses in disgust and jumps back from me.

My cheek is throbbing with the sting of this man's slap, and I really wish I could move more than my hands right about now. Unfortunately, he's too far away to slap back; not like that would do me any good. It's not like I can get away from this creep who can apparently do some sort of weird magic. My brain feels like it's going to implode at that thought, so I skate past it, tucking it away for me to dissect at a later time.

“Hard way, it is,” he growls angrily, stepping forward and wrapping a meaty hand around my throat. I try to jerk out of his grip, but my feet are still firmly planted on the sidewalk. So instead, I desperately grasp at Theo’s dad’s fingers when I feel him slowly cut off my air supply.

Oh, holy shit! Is he going to strangle me?

“Remember, you brought this on yourself,” he whispers with a disapproving shake of his head. “Morpheus.”

SEVEN

Meyer

Snow falls around me, the wind howling in my ears as I tremble where I stand, my fingers half frozen as I bring them up to rub at my bare arms. Gasping, I take in the snow-covered forest, the white drifts rising in front of me, almost covering the small pine trees to my left.

“What the hell?” I whisper, turning in a circle as the wind grows in intensity. I feel the hair on my arms rise as a heavy feeling falls on my shoulder, making me shiver, and I shake my head. “Where am I?” Taking a deep breath, I try to calm down and tilt my head in confusion when the scent of fresh winter air and citrus fills my senses.

Frowning, I look down, finding myself wearing a weird dress that cups my breasts perfectly with silver-like armor before flowing out in silky blue fabric that whips against my legs from the harsh winds. My shoulders are completely bare, and my teeth chatter as I curse under my breath. “W-what? Why am I in a dress!?” I practically shriek, grabbing the silky fabric in bunches in order to get it to hold still and not whip against me. My legs are freezing, and it hurts when the material cracks against my skin.

A sound echoes through the air around me, almost like a laugh, and I shake my head, my eyes darting around the empty mountainside I’ve found myself standing on. “I’m going crazy,” I moan, knowing I'm back in one of my much-too-real dreams and hating myself for it. “I’m losing my freaking mind, and I managed to land myself in a blizzard wearing a damn dress!” I hiss under my breath.

“But have you?” A deep male voice whispers over the wind, and I yelp in surprise. “Or are you the only one not blind to the dark?” I swallow hard, my body frozen in fear. Never once have I heard another person in my dreams. It's always me, and only me, running from the black-eyed, soulless monsters.

The laugh sounds again, but this time it's closer, almost like whoever is there is now behind me, and I freeze, the feeling of someone's eyes on me too real to be a dream. My heart sinks, and I can only pray it's not the soulless, black eyes behind me as I slowly turn to see who’s there. As I turn, my slipper-covered foot slips, making me tumble back into the snow, and I gasp as the snow-covered landscape suddenly shifts, then spirals into black.

* * *

Ow!

I moan as I slowly turn my body, my hips and back aching from lying in the same position for too long, then gasp when I feel myself fall through the air. My eyes spring open, and I manage to get my hands underneath my head before it collides with the cold, gray stone I just landed on. Unfortunately, my body doesn't land very well, and I wince when my hip, which was already aching, screams in pain.

Memories start to flood in, the dream I just had, then slowly the events that happened after work, and I look around my foreign surroundings in panic.

“Please be another dream, please be another dream,” I mutter repeatedly, my eyes slamming shut. Unfortunately, I already know that I’m actually awake this time, the odd feeling of the dream world slowly drifting away as I regain consciousness.

Cracking an eye open, I take one glance around and deflate. “Fuuuuck!” I whisper, fear creeping in as I slowly try to push myself up. My muscles ache like I've just completed a very long run, and my head feels like I’m one sneeze away from it bursting. My body is trembling like I’m freezing, which, to be fair, it’s rather cold, but I shouldn't be shaking this bad.

“Ah, good! You’re awake,” a soft, feminine voice says, and I sit up, twisting to look over my shoulder and finding a woman not much older than I am walking down a long hallway. Her dark hair is perfectly coiffed at the back of her head and her makeup is applied to perfection. She strides toward me in a black and red dress; her hands clasped elegantly in front of her.

My neck twinges in pain and I bring a hand up, rubbing at the sore muscles as I quickly dart my eyes around, trying to get my bearings. I’m lying to the side of a massive hallway that has to be at least the length of a football field. A dark blue rug runs the length of it, with several blue leather couches, including the one I just rolled off of, tucked next to enormous, and rather imposing, paintings of ugly old men. They are all standing with a hand on the hilt of a sword strapped to their waist and a far too serious expression on their wrinkled faces.

“Up you go,” the woman says once she gets closer. She extends a gloved, elegant hand down to me, and I slap mine into hers, letting her help me up. She tugs me to my feet with more strength than I thought the pretty woman would have and gives me a not-so-subtle once over, her lips pursing when she looks at my cheek.

Bringing my hand up to my jaw, I trace my fingertips over the sore area and try not to wince. “Where am I?” I ask, looking down the hall for anyone else who might be lingering in the shadows, but it's completely empty. Instead, I spot an arch at one end of the hall and a set of black doors that have to be at least ten or more feet tall, the wood carved in an intricate pattern. I wonder whether I should head toward the doors or leave the other way and turn back to look at the woman in front of me.

“Why am I here?” I ask, my voice raspy and my throat sore.

I remember how Theo’s dad had wrapped his nasty hand around my throat, and I ball my fists at my side, trying to keep my temper in line, but I’m kinda freaking out here. When the woman gives me a pitying look, I keep talking, hoping I can find someone to help me. Luckily, Theo’s dickwad father isn't here, so I'm going to call that a win.

“Uh, is Creed or Theo here?” I ask as I try to wrack my head for Theo's friend's name, not that he could really help me. He was unconscious the whole time I talked to Theo and his dad.

“Creed? As in Credence? How do you know Umbra Regalis?” she asks, arching a perfectly plucked brow at me with curiosity burning in her eyes.

“Uh, well—I don’t. I helped him the other night and…” I trail off, not sure what else to say. She's already looking at me like I’m lying. “Nevermind. Where am I?” I ask again, my hand going back to my sore cheek as I mentally curse Theo’s fuckhead of a dad. The woman smiles softly, calming me a little, and dips her head toward one of the small windows nearby.

“Unfortunately, Credence Regalis is not on the premises, and you are currently in British Columbia.”

“What?!” I screech, letting my hand fall from my cheek as I rush over to a small window down the hall and instantly feel nauseous when I see snow—freaking snow everywhere! “What the crap? That dickwad kidnapped me and took me to Canada?”

---