Page 272 of Mother of Death and Dawn

Reality shifted, blended with the twisted logic of a dream world. I looked down at my hands. They were covered with ash and blood.

{You think you can have a future?}Reshaye’s voice whispered.{You think you deserve one, after you brought nothing but agony to your past?}

I closed my eyes. Centered myself. Focused on my breath. In. Out.

This was not real. This was Ilyzath. I had survived this place before.

I opened my eyes.

I allowed myself to actually look at her, even though I wanted more than anything to avert my gaze. I realized that her features changed slightly every time I looked at them, as if compensating for a million different combinations of the future. The only thing about her that did not change were those green eyes.

I reached through the fire and cradled her face, ignoring the pain. My chest tightened. I loved this child. I loved her so much that the very possibility of her existence terrified me.

Wake up, Max.

“You aren’t real,” I murmured.

The crying stopped. The girl smiled, eerily. “Not yet. But I will be. And then what will you do?”

Protect you. Fight for you. Love you.

But right now, you aren’t real.

I stepped away from her.

She lurched towards me, the strange adult calm on her face replaced with the innocent fear of a child—and even now in this dreamworld, that cry awakened some primal instinct in me.

“Don’t leave,” she wept. “Don’t leave me alone. Don’t leave me.”

“I’m doing this for you,” I said.

Wake up.

The dream shattered.

I opened my eyes.

For several long seconds, everything was silent except for the thrum of my blood pounding. I’d forgotten exactly how fucking creepy Ilyzath’s silence was. Unrelenting. Unnatural.

Then, words parted the silence, not quite a voice, perhaps not even a real sound.

Welcome back, my ashen son.Ilyzath’s whispers surrounded me like mist.You have brought my missing pieces home to me. I sense them within these walls.

The Lejaras. My consciousness was still fuzzy. I couldn’t make my mouth form the word.

Strange, Ilyzath murmured, in groans of stone.I thought you would fail. But of course, you have not shattered inevitability yet.

I cut through the fog of my dream. “Wait,” I started to say, but before I could speak—before I could ask the questions I desperately needed to answer—its voice faded.

It was replaced, moments later, by the sound of approaching footsteps. Relief flooded me. I sat up.

“Tisaanah, I’m—”

—so fucking glad to see you.

The words died in my throat. Standing before me was the Fey king.

CHAPTERONE HUNDRED SIXTEEN

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