Page 7 of This Vicious Dream

I stop at a nameless inn, allowing the stablehands to take Fox. He snaps at one of them, his teeth coming within inches of the boy’s face.

With a sigh, I step between them, giving Fox a look. “Food and rest for both of us. Be good and don’t kill anyone.”

Both stablehands turn pale. Fox snorts, but finally allows their approach, plodding slowly toward the stable. One of the boys comes close to his backend, and Fox tenses, lifting one leg, his sharp hoof gleaming.

I clear my throat. Fox lowers the leg.

Shaking my head, I pay the innkeeper for a meal, my mood darkening as I force down lukewarm stew, the meat tough and chewy. I make my way up to the best room this town has to offer, taking in the dusty floors and threadbare sheets.

This should not be my life. The certainty buries deep within my gut. I should not be here. I’m—

The missing memories are like an itch in my brain. Like a word on the tip of my tongue that I can never find.

I use the facilities and lay on the bed, cursing the mattress, the sheets, my own useless mind…

“You’re truly choosing to sleephere, and not in the forest?”

I sigh, throwing one arm over my eyes. It doesn’t help. Eamonn has found me. Again.

“I must say, I thought you were better than this. If you knew what I could scent on those sheets…”

I angle my arm, opening one eye. Eamonn sits in his canine form—a favorite of his.

“If the innkeeper thinks I brought a dog up here—”

He lets out a tiny growl and jumps up on the bed, angling his head. “Scratch my ears. I have an itch.”

His damp fur fills the room with an unpleasant odor, and I ignore him, closing my eye once more. I can hear raucous laughter from the tavern below.

Eamonn shoves his furry head beneath my hand. With a sigh, I find the spot behind his ears and give him a scratch.

“I don’t like this place,” he mumbles.

I’ve gotten used to hearing his voice inexplicably float from whatever animal he has shifted into. I found him after the Eprothan war, when I returned to this continent. Or perhaps he found me. For whatever reason, he took an interest in my task, and has been following me ever since.

“Fox needed proper rest.”

He snorts. “That horse will likely outliveyou.”

Despite his disdain for my accommodations, he falls asleep within moments. I toss and turn, forced to admit that perhaps Eamonn was right. Maybe I would have slept better in the forest. I doze until I can no longer ignore the urge to move.

When I shove my feet into my boots, Eamonn is gone. He’ll return at some point. Likely at the most inconvenient time possible.

For now, my heart pounds in my chest. My hands almost…tremble. And a strange feeling overtakes me. A strange knowledge.

I’m close. So close to my destiny. So close torevenge.

Madinia

I’m woken by my thorns screaming a warning.

I reach out with my borrowed power. The power I should never have touched.

The thought is snatched from me, and I shift my focus to the approaching men.

My heart pounds like a drum.

Finally.

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