Page 12 of House of Gilded Nightmares

A low growl rises from his throat. “I did not. That was entirely your doing.”

“Excuse me?” Shock pulses through my chest for what seems the twentieth time today.

“When I was pulling us from Eldare into Valaron, your magic flared and you threw us off course. Quite a bit off course,” he grumbles.

“My magic?” I ask incredulously.

He narrows his gaze. “I know they have magic in Eldare, so don’t pretend you don’t know what I speak of.”

“I know what magic is,” I snap, “but in Eldare, very few possess it, and we aren’t allowed to use it except within rituals to honor the goddess.”

“Such as the ritual you were about to conduct when I arrived.” His words come out in a furious snarl like an animal.

“Yes.” I wrestle my arm out of his grip, where he’s still steering me down the hill. “I was performing my duty. I was blessed at birth with magic, and then I was Chosen by the goddess to be consort to the High Priest.”

“You have been told a great many lies.” His words are as hard as the sword in his hand.

“And I’m supposed to trust you? The man who took me from my home?” I stop walking and glare at him. “I don’t even know your name.”

The warrior’s eyes widen and he lunges for me. I have half a moment to wonder why my words made him so furious, and then something snatches me from behind and yanks me into the sky.

My breath leaves my body in one big whoosh, and pain shoots through my chest, where two sets of talons dig into my shoulders. I can’t even scream because we’re moving too fast. Up, up, up, all I see are flashes of earth and sky and mountains in the distance as we spiral. Massive beating wings surround me. I look up, and all I can see from my vantage point is a body of dark feathers and rotting flesh.

The winged monster turns for the forest. Wind rushes past us and in just a handful of heartbeats, we’re already above it, then soaring over the foggy rock field where I first arrived, then beyond. I realize with a sickening clarity that I’m going to die here. I’d finally found out where I came from, a question that has haunted me my entire life. I don’t trust the warrior, but in my heart, I know his words about my birthplace are true. Because now, it makes sense why my dreams are so dark and plagued with monsters. This land of nightmares is my home.

And it’s where I will now face my end.

My stomach flips as we plunge from the sky at breakneck speed toward a cluster of boulders and dead trees. Then, just as the creature pulls up and goes to land on one, something collides with us. The impact sends agony lancing through my body, and one of my shoulders breaks loose from the grip of the talons piercing me. I dangle precariously fifty feet above the earth, my other shoulder stretched at an angle that feels like it’s going to snap my bones.

A scream of rage echoes through the sky. I see a rush of black wings, different from the thing that snatched me. The sky spins. And then I am falling.

I barely have time to scream before I’m yanked from the air. Strong arms wrap around me, and I look up into the gray eyes of my guardian. I don’t know where they came from, but he has wings, and we are flying. Shadows surge off him again, as they had in battle. I catch a flash of the monster who grabbed me, impaled on a nearby tree.

We fly back over the forest and out above the rolling grasslands again. Wind whips through my hair, tugs at my clothes. My heart races with fear and exhilaration. My guardian begins to angle us toward the ground. I feel a shudder right before we land as the hum of his magic falters. We hit the ground hard, but he catches me as I stumble forward, using his wings to slow us.

When we come to a standstill, I straighten, turning and staring at him as his wings flare out around us. They’re shaped like the wings of a dragon, but instead of scales, they shift slightly, swirls of shadow like a storm front rolling in. Nearly solid but not quite. A moment later, they disappear entirely, blown away on the wind. I taste the tang of magic in the air around us.

“Y-You can fly,” I stammer, because I can’t form anything else coherent in my mind at this moment.

“Only with magic, and only for very short distances,” the warrior says. “Otherwise, I’d take us across the river before anything else comes after you.”

He turns toward our destination, hand resting lightly on my arm. We begin to walk, but I can’t stop staring at him, my heart still racing.

“I thought I was going to die,” I murmur.

“You’re welcome,” he says with a slight upward twitch of the lips. “And by the way, since you asked…my name is Zyren.”

Chapter Six

As we continue toward the river, I can’t help but steal glances at Zyren. It sounds so strange to even turn the word over in my head. Guardian. Why do I have a guardian who haunts my dreams? Whatever the reason, whoever I am, and whatever my place in this new realm, he doesn’t seem at all enthused with his duty.

I decide that as soon as we cross the river, I’m going to make my escape. It’s obviously foolish to do so before we reach the magical barrier since this place is swarming with monsters. Once across, I’ll find a way to escape Zyren and locate someone who can help me find answers. Zyren seems more captor than savior, and he’s reluctant to provide more than the barest bits of information. I clearly can’t trust him.

But if I stay here and find the answers I seek, if this place is truly my home, it means one vital fact: I will never see Lilette again.

This is not the time, however, for me to let the grief of that realization envelop me. So, I ignore the fractures running through my heart and I focus on the predicament at hand. Crossing the river in one piece and then figuring out how to elude my guardian. His recent spellwork with the wings makes the latter quite a bit more challenging.

It warrants a greater depth of knowledge on the subject.

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