Page 10 of Our Dark Winter Wish

But his eyes are open and swirling with a pale grey.

He’s dream walking.

Archie runs in, his eyes wide as he looks at Cole.

‘I killed you,’ he growls. ‘You’re fucking dead!’

Cole continues his torture as though no one is here but us.

Cut. Cut. Cut.

No matter how hard they try to get a hold of him, the only one who seems able to feel him is me. And the more he cuts, the harder it is for my mind to stay here. To remain mine and not Neve’s.

‘Six,’ Cole breathes, slowly slicing me again.

The bedroom starts to bleed. From the ceiling. The walls. From the fucking floorboards. Blood, thick and hot, quickly begins to cover us all, falling like heavy rain from above and pooling all around us. It lands on my face, burning my eyes.

‘Seven,’ Cole laughs, his blade trailing across my cheek.

Dorian looks at Shaw sitting in his chair, still as stone except for the heavy pants that make his shoulders rise and fall.

From the blood, we hear a female begin to laugh. Her giggle is a dark and seductive promise of pain and revenge. The blood swirls and morphs upwards. Into the form of a woman.

Neve. My mother.

Cole places the blade between my legs.

No. Not again. I can’t go through this again!

‘Eight.’

‘WAKE HIM!’ Dorian yells. ‘NOW!’

Archie runs to Shaw and delivers a firm punch to his face, sending him crashing to the floor. He lands face down and in inches of hot blood.

Cole and his blade fade into nothing, and the form of the blood queen and the inches of blood disappear.

It remains on our skin, hot and putrid, proof that it was real.

My voice becomes my own, as does my body, and I release the scream I had in my chest from the moment I saw Cole.

I throw myself into Dorian’s waiting arms, shaking and gasping for air.

‘You’re safe,’ Dorian promises me, holding me close as I try to get myself to calm the fuck down. I cling to his black robes and almost disappear in his Shadow Master form. ‘It’s over, Poppet.’

Slowly, Shaw pushes himself up to his knees. His head remains low as the blood drips from his clothes and hair. We all watch him as he refuses to meet our gaze.

‘I’m sorry,’ he whispers, his head still low and a tremble in his words. ‘I am so fucking sorry.’

‘It’s not your fault, mate,’ Archie tries. As soon as his hand rests on Shaw’s shoulder, he shrugs him off, stands, and storms out without looking at a single one of us.

This isn’t the first time he’s fallen asleep and lost control of his nightmares. It happened once before, and I woke to much the same as I just did.

Cole, Neve, and blood.

So much blood.

Shaw’s powers are his once more. But his soul, whatever he has of one, is just as broken as mine. And when a dream walker's nightmares come to life, they can be unbearably realistic.

---