Page 21 of The Right to Bear Claws
"I've always faced things alone."
"You don't have to anymore."
The words were a promise and a plea rolled into one. Kaia felt her carefully constructed walls cracking under the weight of his sincerity, the genuine caring in his voice that suggested he meant every word.
"I care about you," she whispered, the admission torn from somewhere deep in her chest. "More than I should, considering we've known each other barely two weeks."
Elias's expression softened with something that looked like relief. "I care about you too. More than I probably have any right to."
"We're both idiots."
"Probably." His mouth curved in that rare, genuine smile that transformed his entire face. "But at least we're idiots together."
He reached up as if to touch her face, then seemed to catch himself, his hand falling back to his side. The aborted gesture made her pulse skip with awareness of what might have been.
"This doesn't solve anything," she said softly.
"No," he agreed, his voice gentle. "But it gives us something worth fighting for."
That night, the dreams came darker and more harsh with whispers that knew her name.
Kaia found herself standing in a twisted version of Hollow Oak's town square, where the Halloween decorations had morphed into something sinister. The carved pumpkins leaked black ichor instead of candlelight, and the cheerful orange garlands writhed like living things in a wind that carried the scent of decay.
"Getting attached, are we?" The familiar hollow voice echoed from everywhere and nowhere. "How disappointingly predictable."
"Stay away from them," Kaia said, surprised by the steel in her own voice. "Whatever you want from me, leave them out of it."
"But they're the key to your cooperation." The shadow entity materialized from the darkness between buildings, its form more solid than in previous encounters. "You've grown powerful, little dreamwalker. Strong enough to serve my purposes. But you've also grown... sentimental."
"I've grown smart enough to recognize a predator when I see one."
"Have you? Then you'll recognize the truth in what I'm about to show you."
The dreamscape shifted, showing her flashes of possible futures. Elias trapped in nightmare versions of his own memories, his bear form twisted into something monstrous. Miriam's kind eyes turned vacant and empty. The entire town of Hollow Oak consumed by darkness that fed on their fears until nothing remained but shadows and screaming.
"This is what happens if you continue to resist me," the entity said conversationally. "Your power will continue to grow, and my influence will spread through your connections. Everyone you touch, everyone you care about, becomes a potential vessel for my hunger."
"You're lying."
"Am I? Look closer, little dreamwalker. See what your love is costing them."
The visions intensified, showing her Elias writhing in the grip of nightmares that felt more real than waking. His silver eyes turned black with terror as creatures made of shadow and hunger tore at his consciousness, feeding on his protective instincts and turning them into weapons against himself.
"Stop it," Kaia gasped, trying to close her eyes against the images.
"I will, when you accept what you are. When you stop pretending you can have a normal life and embrace your purpose as my anchor." The entity moved closer, its presence making the air thick and hard to breathe. "Halloween night, little dreamwalker. Choose to serve willingly, or watch everything you love be consumed by the darkness you've brought among them."
Kaia woke screaming, her hands clutching at the anchor stone around her throat as the last echoes of hollow laughterfaded from her consciousness. The pendant pulsed warm against her skin, grounding her in the physical world, but she could still feel the creature's presence lingering on the brim of her awareness.
Only ten days until Halloween. Eight days to figure out how to protect everyone she cared about from the monster that lived in her dreams.
Ten days to decide whether her growing feelings were worth the risk of destroying everything she'd found in Hollow Oak.
11
ELIAS
"Those wind chimes are beautiful work," Miriam said, settling into the chair across from Elias in the inn's common room. "Haven't heard Kaia's room go quiet at night since you hung them up."
