Page 13 of Hidden Kingdoms

I tried to run but my feet wouldn’t move an inch. I was stuck. Doomed to watch as they tore their way towards me. More insistent came that tug on my heart, as though it was trying to tell me something, to force me to move.

I couldn’t.

Dark smoke curled around me, making every breath I took burn. My chest heaved with the effort of dragging in enough oxygen, eyes streaming, and lips blistering as beads of sweat dripped from my skin.

You couldn’t die in real life if you died in your dreams, right?

But this felt too real. I could feel the skin of my lips burning, taste the smoke coating my tongue.

No, I was going to wake up any second, preferably before I burnt alive.

The sky high above changed; beyond the smoke that obscured the endless blue, a darkness crept over the clearing. A viscous, black stain on the sky. Undulating as it sucked at thesmoke that rose from the flames. Stealing the very air around me as my lungs compressed at the sudden lack of oxygen, each breath more desperate than the one before. It rolled lazily through the sky, heading straight for me like the fire had. As though I had been its target all along, and terror like I had never felt speared through me in a brutal punch.

Whatever this was, I would take being burned alive any day of the week.

It twisted and turned, writhing its smoke-filled body until it was directly in front of me. Pain exploded through my head, magik fading from my hands in response to its closeness as I stayed trapped in place.

Wake up!

Pulsing before me, thin tendrils of smoke shot out trailing over my body, and I screamed at the white-hot agony that followed its touch. Every fibre of my being desperate to move away. A ripple that looked sickeningly like excitement ran through the inky stain floating above me as it retreated from its explorations. As fast as it had arrived, it began to fold in on itself, disappearing into a black hole of its own creation.

In its absence the crash of the fire was almost deafening, reminding me I was still about to be burnt alive. Piercing pain shot through my skull making thought almost impossible. There was no way out of this, no way I could make myself wake up.

If I could, I would have woken already.

Instead, I could only watch as the flames consumed the last few inches and clawed up my shins. My agony was a silent scream, no sound leaving my lips as the fire burned into me. The crackle of flames was the only thing I had to distract me from the charred mess of my legs as I silently begged myself to wake up. The pain more than I could handle?—

7

CHAPTER SEVEN

ELODIE

Gasping as I sucked in lungfuls of air that didn’t burn and choke me, I was aware of the crash in the near distance that had pulled me from the nightmare. Sweat cooled on my skin and my soft blankets were tangled around my legs. I blinked into the darkness, the familiar smell of my sheets making me certain I was in my own bed, in my own room.

I wasn’t dreaming anymore.

From the gloom enveloping me and hushed silence of the night, I was one hundred percent sure there were no fires here ready to burn me alive. Taking deep, steadying breaths, I worked to calm my mind and body. The need to revisit these old grounding techniques was frustrating—it had been years since my body had reacted like this.

My skin still felt raw, as if the flames had left my dream and truly found me, but the dull throb in my chest was the only physical reminder of my nightmare. Now I was awake I could see it for what it was—a nightmare. A fucking awful one, but that’s all it had been.

The pull in my chest persisted as I stretched my hand out, searching for the warm comfort of Titan but finding nothing butmy empty bed. My fingers stilled as I realised he wasn’t there. He never left my bed at night.

Goosebumps prickled my skin as I sat up, eyes searching, straining in the dark while I fought the urge to pull the covers over me. Despite knowing my nerves were still fragile, I waited, willing my eyes to adjust faster.

A soft scuff came from the corner by the window, and I shot backwards into the headboard, groping blindly for the lamp on the bedside table. The clatter of my bracelets was loud in the gloom as I found the switch, the soft glow illuminating two large figures dressed head to toe in black, frozen in place.

“Fuck,” a deep male voice whispered.

“Yep. Fuck,” repeated a second.

The lamp light didn’t reach far, their dark clothing made it hard to see more than their hulking figures. Black masks covered their faces, with only their eyes and lips peeking from the fabric. While one was slightly leaner than the other, they were both well over six foot.

This had to be another dream. There should be no way in hell that anyone could get into my house. Especially two huge men dressed in black who looked like they definitely did not have the best intentions.

Were those weapons strapped to them?

I was into role-play as much as the next girl, but not when they were literally breaking into my house in the middle of the night with gods-damned swords on their fucking backs.

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