Page 14 of Queen of Stars and Shadows

Another scream pours out as teeth rip into the flesh of my leg, my shoulder, my chest…

“Sarielle!”

Owyn shakes me violently, but I’m already snapping upright. I punch outward and he ducks. Zara and Asher on are their feet and around the fire in an instant. I wrap my arms around myself, my fingers fluttering over my skin, confirming that I’m still whole. They come away wet with blood from my neck, and another deep scrape on my arm.

“Are you okay?” Zara asks sharply. “What happened?”

“Nightmares,” I gasp.

“They can injure you in your sleep?” Asher asks incredulously.

“I have more powerful dreams than others.” My shaking begins to slow, and my heart slows as well. The first hint of dawn lightens the horizon, and I focus on that light, drawing in deep,calming breaths for several moments. Then I point toward the horses. “Let’s get mounted up.”

Owyn shakes his head. “Don’t you think you need a minute?”

“No,” I say. In that last moment of my dream, as the nightmares had begun to tear my flesh, I’d shifted all the mist of the dreamscape so I could see. “Because I know where the nightmares are now.”

Chapter Eight

Sarielle

From our hidingplace in the tree line at the top of the hill, we look down on the castle ruins in the valley below. I can see winged shadows moving in and out between the crumbled stone walls and piles of collapsed rubble. The sun is setting over it all, a single amber beam illuminating the remaining tower which stands haphazardly in the middle, large chunks of it missing.

It was the tower that helped me identify this place, a location known by everyone in Eldare, the site of an ancient battle where two warring houses annihilated each other, leaving almost no survivors. In the ancient tongue, this valley is known asTorlochnarron, place of endings. I pray to any goddess that will hear me that this isn’tourplace of ending.

All I can see in my head, whenever I blink, are those blood-soaked strands of golden hair.

“This place isn’t far from the royal palace,” Zara says from where she’s crouched at my left shoulder. “It’s surprising no one has noticed the nightmares coming and going.”

“The king and queen hold their court, the Court of Oaks, in a city occupied by only the royal families of Eldare,” I say. “They don’t allow the commoners to live there. I highly doubt any of them would notice. It’s still a dozen or so miles from here.”

“You’ve been there?” Asher asks.

I shake my head. “I was never allowed to travel. None of the priestesses were. We all lived behind the gates of the Amethyst Palace.”

“We know a bit about never being able to travel beyond your walls,” Zara says with a wry smile.

I nod. Of course—the City of Night, where Zara and Asher came from, had been cut off from the rest of Aureon for two hundred years by a magical wasteland, rumored to have been infested with terrible monsters.

“So, what’s our plan?” Owyn asks.

Three sets of eyes land on me. I am queen of the things we hunt, so it falls to me, not that my title means much in this circumstance. The nightmares would sooner kill me than submit to my rule.

“The nightmares are connected mentally, so once we attack one, the rest will know. We eliminate all of them, except one. I need one to show me where the other rifts are. Or at least the one it came in through. Then we search for any survivors.”

Asher eyes me, his head cocked to the side. “It doesn’t bother you to kill them? Being your subjects?”

I meet his gaze unflinchingly. “Not all nightmares are evil. Just as with fae, or any other race, there is a spectrum of good and bad. But these nightmares have killed people, and they’rebeyond redemption. Let’s hope there are survivors, but if not, at least we can prevent further citizens of Eldare from being dragged from their beds at night.”

Zara nods. “That’s a cause I’ll fight for. Let’s go.”

We move from the cover of the trees, making our way down into the valley along a boulder-strewn deer trail. It provides somewhat decent coverage, though if any of the nightmares look this way, they’ll likely see us amidst the rocks. When we make it to the valley floor without incident, just as the last of the sun falls from the sky, I let out a sigh of relief.

Asher leads the way as we jog across the valley floor toward the ruins. Low fingers of fog creep across the ground, snaking through the ruins ahead. Everything is eerily quiet, as if the place is abandoned. Perhaps the nightmares are sleeping. Resting before they rise in the dead of night to claim more prey.

When we pass through the first ring of stone walls, stepping through a gaping hole created by a collapse, the air turns icy cold and mist spirals up around us. I can almost taste the magic here, dark magic woven by the nightmares. And deep inside of me, that part that is nightmare shivers as if answering a call. It’s such an unsettling feeling that my steps falter, and it’s that slight pause that saves my life.

The nightmare that’d been hiding on the other side of the wall falls directly in front of me, its wing scraping my cheek. I duck as it lunges for me, and then I pull my dagger and cut upward, slicing through its abdomen as it darts forward once again. It lets out a loud, sharp cry as it dies, and the night explodes around us.

---