Page 28 of Ruled By Fate

He looked down at the couch. “In some cultures, it might be considered rude to move into a beautiful young woman’s bedroom without even telling her my full name.”

She grinned and bit her lip. “Well, we can’t have that, can we?”

He shook his head. “Politeness is the flower of humanity.”

She hesitated a moment, wanting to prolong their conversation, but was at a loss for words. In the end, she settled on a classic. “Goodnight, Cameron.”

“Goodnight, Brianna.”

Three minutes later, she was fast asleep.

? ? ?

A young man sat on a stone windowsill, one leg dangling outside, the other drawn up with his arm resting on it. His head leaned back against the wall, his face turned away, so all that could be seen was shaggy blonde hair. He was holding an apple, black as coal.

He seemed… bored.

Behind him, the sky was a necrotic blue-black, cracked in places, with an immense sea of magma roiling behind, leaking through. Dark, sharp-looking mountains jutted into the sky like spearheads. At their base, the hills had been burned bare.

Something came through a door and scuttled past. It had too many legs. Brie tried to scream, but she couldn’t move or talk. The blonde-haired man perked up. “What is it?”

To her horror, the creature spoke. “It’s the pendant. They found it.”

The man turned his head slightly, but he was half-cloaked by a shadow, and she couldn’t make him out. “Is that right?” His lips curved up for a moment, and he took a bite of the apple.

It started bleeding.

Suddenly a high scream filled the air as if the world itself was tearing apart at the seams.

Again and again, it sounded, twisting and compounding, growing and echoing through Brie’s mind, before she finally woke up and realized what was happening.

The screams were coming from her.

? ? ?

“Brianna? Brianna!”

Cameron was shaking her, his face struck with panic.

Her screaming stopped, and she found herself panting for breath, her hair wild around her.

“Are you alright?”

Her eyes flew around in disorientation, coming to settle on the bed.

“I’m sorry. I just…” She kept her eyes fixed on the comforter, trying to convince that reeling part of her brain that it wasn’t real. “I had a nightmare.”

Or a night terror? Has a dream ever felt so real?

His face went rigid, but he kept his voice calm. “Can you tell me what it was about?”

Her heart pounded in her chest as she stared at him in surprise. Did people usually discuss such things? The last time she could remember sharing the weight of a nightmare had been with her mother, and she’d been about six years old. But maybe things were different where he came from, and this certainly felt different. Had she ever in her life awoken with a scream?

“There was a man. And some weird spider, but it was huge, and it could talk.” A host of shivers ran down her arms, and she was vaguely aware that she probably wasn’t making any sense. “He had this apple, but it was bleeding. And the sky… the sky was dead.”

Cameron visibly stiffened as she looked at him with huge, wild eyes.

Oh my God. This is real.

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