Page 45 of Queen of Stars and Shadows

“But most of the nightmares are horrors, murderous and deadly. You really think they’ll obey you?”

I shrug. “I don’t need all of them to obey me. Just enough to stop Avonia and put things back to where they should be.”

Zyren’s storm-colored eyes flicker. “I don’t have faith in the nightmares. But I have faith in you. And I would follow you to the ends of the earth if you asked me.”

I lean in and brush my lips over his. “Thank you.”

“But it’s going to take us weeks to get all the way to the Court of Nightmares from here,” Zyren says with a frown. “By then, Avonia and the demon will have destroyed everything.”

I smile. “We’re not going to be traveling by foot.”

Chapter Twenty-Five

Zyren

Ilook over atSarielle, standing on the mountain peak, framed by the night sky, cloudless and glittering with stars. She’s still streaked in dark blood, and she looks so fierce, so sure of herself, that no one could ever doubt she’s a queen.

But then, as I watch, she sits down cross-legged in the snow, belying her regal appearance of just moments before. She closes her eyes.

“What are you doing?”

“Shh. I need to concentrate.”

I do as she instructs and a moment later, a small swirl of shadows move up and around her. My inner nightmare stirs, answering to the call of her magic. It’s my nightmare that has remembered her this whole time, even when I did not. And thatmakes me wonder if my darkness is the deepest, truest part of me. I’d always been afraid I would lose myself to that part of me, that my darkness would take over, but if it’s that part of me that’s bonded with Sarielle so strongly, it can’t be bad.

After a couple of minutes, Sarielle opens her eyes and climbs to her feet. I shoot her a questioning look.

“Now we wait,” she says, and doesn’t offer more.

We wait, listening to the wind across the mountains, for nearly an hour. Just when I am beginning to lose faith, there comes a great gust of wind from the south. I turn, and suddenly a huge, winged beast surges into view on the far side of the mountain peak. Flapping its ginormous wings, it circles the peak once and then lands, wings flared out behind it, with such force that the whole mountain shakes.

“Astherius,” Sarielle says with a smile. “Thank you for coming.”

The enormous nightmare narrows its eyes at me but bows low to the ground before Sarielle. I’m not often speechless, but I’m so surprised that it takes me a moment to find my words.

“How—what—?”

“I called Astherius, and she came. She will escort us to the Court of Nightmares.”

“Just like that?”

Sarielle reaches out and squeezes my fingers. “I feel more…myselfthan I ever have before. In balance. And with that, I realized my bond with Astherius, my ability to communicate with her, had grown even stronger. Well, and I did also promise her the best roost in the cliffs over Selaye.”

“Nightmares have never lived in Selaye,” I say slowly.

Astherius narrows her eyes even further, issuing a low hiss.

Sarielle shoots both of us stern looks. “Seems strange for the Court of Nightmares to lack nightmares, don’t you think?”

I contemplate her words for several long moments. “I suppose it does. If my queen commands it, then so shall it be.” I offer my own small bow to Sarielle, and the nightmare’s evil glare lessens in intensity. A little.

“Come on,” Sarielle says. “We don’t have time to waste.”

She approaches the nightmare, who, to my shock, lowers herself down so we can climb up her foreleg. Sarielle settles herself into the spot right at the base of her neck, and I sit behind her.

“We’ve done this before?”

Sarielle nods. “We have. Right before we went through the rift into Eldare.”

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