Page 17 of When Storms Ruin

A hot tear streamed down my face, and I wiped it away quickly. This was a tear of happiness. A tear of thankfulness. I couldn’t imagine what I had ever done to deserve a friend as steadfast as Tess.

“Have I ever told you that you’re the best?” I asked quietly, a small smile on my face.

“All the time, babe. And don’t you forget it.” Tess laughed as she fell back against the pillows. “Now get some rest before we have to deal with all of this.” She waved her hand in the air vigorously to mimic ‘all of this’ and I let out a soft laugh.

“Thank you, Tess.”

I gave her shoulder a squeeze before closing my eyes. Sleep took me quickly, but it wasn’t the empty, hollow sleep I had hoped for. I had felt this sensation once before, and immediately recognized it.

I was dream walking.

Iwas pulled into a familiar scene that made my blood turn cold. I was on my hands and knees on the checkered marble tile of Donika’s throne room. I froze, unsure if anyone could see me or not. Hadn’t Tyr been able to sense me in the dream when I had taken the grimoire from the laboratory? Was that because he, too, was a dream walker?

Donika sat on her throne with her enormous black wolves at her side. Her face was devoid of all emotion, her endless black eyes fixed on the people before her. I stood slowly, not wanting to draw any attention. No one in the room had noticed my presence yet. Was it possible they didn’t know I was here?

A group of people knelt before her, huddled together. Their eyes were wild with fear, their clothes stained with blood and dirt. I recognized one of them as a Nightshade guard who had been posted outside our cell for weeks in the Stormvault. The other faces were strangers to me, but they didn’t appear to be soldiers.

They were dressed as civilians.

Donika stood, slowly descending the stairs of the dais. Her black stilettos clacking against the tile floor were the only deafening sound reverberating through the silence. Nightshade soldiers lined the walls of the room, one stationed at each window. I watched in silence as Donika approached the Nightshade guard I recognized, using her shadows to turn his chin up to face her.

“Do you deny the charges that have been brought against you today?” she seethed, her shadows leaving a black trail against the man’s skin.

He shrunk back, as if her shadows stung him. Burned him. As they had to us. He tried to cast his eyes downward, afraid to meet her cold glare. Another Nightshade soldier stepped forwards with a long, black whip in his hands. He lashed out quickly, once. The Nightshade soldier screamed, and I stepped forwards, my arm outstretched, before I caught myself.

No eyes moved in my direction.

They couldn’t see me here.

I might be dreaming, but the scene before me was all too real. Somehow, I knew that this was unfolding in real time back in The Stone Palace.

“Did you help those spineless little worms escape the castle?” Donika hissed, her shadows wrapping around the Nightshade’s face tightly enough that he couldn’t breathe, his hands clutching at his throat until the skin there began to purple.

“What was that?” Donika laughed, tossing back her blue and white hair.

The man struggled harder, trying in earnest to answer her through the suffocating shadows that encased him. Donikaretracted her shadows all at once and the man fell to his hands and knees, gasping for air.

“I swear to you, My Queen. I had nothing to do with their escape,” the man spat, unable to catch his breath.

“Donika, I tire of this questioning.” A voice sounded from the doorway and my head turned to see Zion standing there in his black leathers, a broadsword at his hip.

“If you won’t answer my question, I have no further use for you,” Donika spoke with a cold threat.

“As I said, my grace. I have answered you. I had nothing to do with the Stormshade’s escape.” The guard's jaw quivered as his eyes met Donika’s, knowing what he would find there.

There would be no mercy for him.

“Pity,” Donika sneered as her shadows encased the man once more.

This time, they did not let up. Her shadows encircled the Nightshade guard until all I could see was darkness, the shadows traveling up his nose, down his throat. In only a few moments, the Nightshade guard fell in a heap to the floor before Donika as she turned away, towards the larger group of Shades gathered in the throne room. Blood trickled from the guard’s eyes and nose onto the floor, his gaze empty.

Lifeless.

“And what of you lot?” she asked as she moved forwards. “I’ve heard murmurings of a resistance, and you have all been accused of partaking in such treason. Are you so unhappy in Istmere that you would support the rise of Stormshades? That you would betray your crown?” she asked.

The men and women before her remained huddled together, holding onto one another, their faces downcast. I didn’t recognize any of them. My gaze shot back to Zion, who wore an unrecognizable grin.

What was he playing at? Was he simply playing his part for Donika? He had orchestrated our escape. How could he sit by and watch Donika torture and murder innocents?

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