I couldn’t see the faces clearly, but I knew it was us. As his dream progressed the images came into focus. We were running through the forest of First World. No ... that wasn’t right, not running, Brace was chasing me. But I looked like I was gliding above the foliaged ground. My red Walker marks were on display. I laughed freely and occasionally shrieked as his long arms almost captured me. I could tell he wasn’t putting much effort into catching me. His expression was joyful; he was enjoying the chase. And even though I’m pretty competitive, I was just waiting to be caught.
Suddenly the laughter ceased and darkness flooded the sunlit trees. As an observer I couldn’t do anything, but the Abby of the dream spun around, her ... my ... features alight with surprise. Brace was nowhere to be seen. She looked panicked as she pushed through the fog, the trees whipping around in a cruel wind.
“Brace!” she screamed out, falling to her knees.
The wind howled, blowing her red curls everywhere. I silently urged her to get back up, to run from the darkness.
Then he burst through the gloom, glowing, in the same way Josian always did – light surrounding him on all sides – and he was levitating off the ground. I expected dream Abby to run straight to him, but she hesitated. Standing slowly, she actually started to back away.
“Brace?” she questioned, and I suddenly understood.
His eyes were a swirling mass of gold. And the darkness that flooded the forest and was turning my blood to ice poured from his outstretched hands. He moved too fast, capturing her face in both hands. Leaning down, he was about to press his lips to hers, and that was when I noticed the darkness was inside his mouth also; he was going to flood her with darkness. I screamed my own warning. Which I knew was useless. The scene faded out at this point.
Back on the beach I yanked myself free from Brace. Safe to say, I’d been suitably distracted from my grief.
“What the hell was that?” My heart raced. The adrenalin flooding my system didn’t understand that was just a dream.
He gave me a half-smile.
“I don’t know, Red, which is why I haven’t told you about it.” He stared out into space. “That damn dream’s been haunting me for years.” He shook his head. “But one thing was always clear. I had a mate, a beautiful, sarcastic, funny mate. And despite the nature of the dream, I looked forward to it every night.”
“Yeah, but now I have to worry about you doing that freaky gold-eye, evil-smoggy-hands thing.” My words stumbled over each other in my haste.
He laughed. “I promise I’ve never gone freaky gold-eye before. You know most dreams are more metaphoric than literal.”
He might not be worried, but I couldn’t shake my unease.
Around us the winds slowly faded. We were still confined behind a wall of sand, but Talina’s howls no longer filled the air. Instead, it looked as if she was speaking quietly to Raror. She lay next to him, staring down into his face. She held onto him, preventing the lapping water from stealing him away. The lump returned to my throat. Swallowing audibly, I turned back to Brace.
“So why do you call me Abby?” I said.
He’d been staring down, gathering large handfuls of sand, and then letting them flow out through his open fingers. But at my question he raised his head, his velvet eyes pinning me to the spot.
“That’s your name,” he said. His expression lightened.
I snorted under my breath. “You know what I mean. Why don’t you call me Aribella like everyone else from First World?”
It was so hard to read him. He was very good at concealing his emotions, and right now I wasn’t picking up anything important from our bond. He shook his head. He almost seemed sad.
“Aribella doesn’t belong to me. I have always known that. She’s Sammy’s sister and Lucas’ Empress and the First-World girl I was going to destroy for my father. But Abigail, well, she’s been mine since we collided in the forest. Well, much before that actually, but it’s since the forest I’ve known she was mine – you’re mine.” He flashed me a gorgeous grin, all blinding white teeth.
“That’s a pretty good answer,” I said, feeling the warmth of his words spread through me.
Leaning over, I threw my arms around his neck, hugging him tight. I was his, and he was mine, and there was no other he ever needed to worry about. We sat like that until the wind had completely died around us.
“Should we check on Talina?” I said, pulling back. My worry for her had not abated at all.
“Yes, we should deal with this before all the crazy Spurns return from wherever they disappeared,” Josian said as he popped up behind us.
I barely prevented a shriek from escaping. I swore instead.
“I need to invent a collared bell for you Walkers,” I said.
They were too quiet and sneaky. Josian snorted, looking amused.
I jumped up smoothly, marvelling at how flexible and athletic I was becoming.
“I have no idea what to say to her,” I whispered as we closed the distance.
The bright blue moonlights reflected off the calm of the water. There was no evidence a storm had even passed. As usual, the men had no useful advice.
“Talli?” I said, dropping down. I knew instinctively not to touch her.
She didn’t look at me.
“What do you need us to do?”
“I have to bury him, a proper Spurn burial,” she said, her face resting against his neck. She was still rocking back and forth. “I promised him I’d see him home to the fade.”