Page 31 of House of Gilded Nightmares

That’s when I see the inky blots moving across the sky. I think for a moment I’m still dreaming, but when a cool mountain breeze crosses my cheek, I realize I’m very much awake. Which means the wings beating overhead are not in my dreams.

I gasp, and next to me, Zyren springs to his feet, his sword in his hand in a matter of moments. He follows my gaze to the sky, and a low growl rises from his throat.

“Get behind me.”

They come then, the nightmares, diving from the sky with shrieks of wild fury. There must be two dozen of them, and they look like every horrifying thing I ever dreamed of in the thick of night. Horns and tails and blazing eyes, wings like bats or dragons. How did they find me? The idea that I can be tracked by these creatures makes my mouth go dry.

As the first one dives for me, Zyren’s sword arcs and a pulse of purple light rockets off of him. The air crackles as his power envelopes us and I taste it on my tongue. Great shadows roil out around us, and from those shadows come the same ravens he summoned in Yiltsa. It’s as if the night has opened up, and a deeper dark emerged from it. They launch soundlessly skyward toward the onslaught of nightmares.

With a wicked cry, the first creature meets Zyren’s blade and falls headless to the side of the mountain. Another comes, and then another, met with either sword or magic. Soon the ground around us is covered with black blood and piles of ash. Zyren spins, his ravens a pillar of darkness around us. He hasn’t even broken a sweat.

But that’s when I see a second wave of monsters heading our way, blotting out the light from the moon above.

They come for us in a single, inky surge of horror, as if they are one massive beast instead of a hundred. Zyren moves quicker than anything I’ve ever seen, a blur of shadow and magic, darting back and forth. His ravens rage around us, diving and shrieking and stabbing with beaks and talons. The night roars in my ears, ash and storm and heat, alive and hungry.

This time, there are simply too many of them.

And then that part of me who lives in my dreams, the woman within who is fearless and fierce, lifts the black dagger above her head.

“Stop!” I shout into the sky, my voice booming across the darkness and the stars. The blade in my hand flashes gold. “I am your queen!”

My words ring out and the nightmares pull up from their assault.

“You have not yet taken your throne,” one of the nightmares calls in a voice of glass shards and flame. “You cannot command us.”

Magic radiates off of me as my anger pulses. “Can I not?”

Some instinctual thing screams within me, some primal beast that will not be silenced. The part of me that relishes the warm blood of my enemy, the part of me that never felt at home in Eldare. My otherness, my wild soul.

Golden light shoots outward from my outstretched hands, and all those in the path of my magic dissolve into ash. Even the ones on the edges of my light are singed and move quickly out of the way. The rest scatter like insects, flying away as fast as their wings will carry them. I hear a voice call from far away, the voice of many speaking collectively.

“There are more of us,” the voice hisses. “Take care when you sleep.”

And they spin and fly across the moon before vanishing behind a far-off bank of clouds.

Zyren turns to me, face more serious than I’ve ever seen it. “How did you do that?”

“I-I don’t know.” Now that the danger has passed, my body starts to shake.

“You shouldn’t be able to command them yet. Not until you are crowned.” Zyren sheaths his sword, his eyes burning into mine.

“Well clearly my magic has other ideas.”

“You are very young in fae years.” Zyren eyes me as if I’m a different person. “Magic as strong as yours…it usually takes centuries to develop.”

“But I don’t know how I’m summoning it.” I raise my hand before me and try to call it back, but nothing happens. Not so much as a spark. “Only that when I’m angry, something changes inside me.”

“Remember that feeling, then. This won’t be the last battle.” Zyren looks off into the sky. “Now that they know how strong you are, they’ll be even more desperate to keep you from reaching Selaye. They do not wish to have a queen.”

It’s still too dark to travel, so we wait until the first light of dawn to mount back up and continue our journey. But we do not sleep. The idea of closing my eyes again is terrifying. If the nightmares can find me awake, they can most certainly find me in my dreams, and next time I might not be able to fend them off.

Despite my worries, the day passes uneventfully, and our journey takes us even higher into the mountains. The peaks seem to grow in the distance, dwarfing the mountains we traveled through at the beginning of our voyage. The air grows colder, and snow becomes visible in the distance, draping the peaks like sparkling diamond dust. When we stop to make camp, I’m exhausted, and I don’t know how I’m going to make it through the night without sleeping.

“I’ll stay up and watch over you,” Zyren says as if reading my thoughts. Or possibly just my drooping eyelids.

I settle myself down into a patch of evergreen needles beneath a grove of trees. My gaze roves over his face. “Why didn’t I see you in my dreams when I was younger? I don’t think you first appeared until I was sixteen.”

“Sixteen, yes,” he responds quietly. “That’s when the guardian bond ritual is performed.”

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