Page 10 of The Right to Bear Claws
The figure moved again, and something cold settled in Elias's stomach. There was something wrong with her posture, hermovements. Too fluid, too purposeful for someone who should be safely asleep in her bed.
"Shit," he breathed, already moving before his conscious mind had fully processed the threat.
Kaia was sleepwalking.
But not just sleepwalking. As Elias sprinted across the street, he could see the faint silver glow emanating from her skin, pulsing in rhythm with her heartbeat. Her bare feet moved with impossible grace across the inn's front porch, and her violet eyes stared straight ahead without seeing the physical world around her.
She was walking toward the lake. Toward the same water where he'd first found her.
"Kaia." He kept his voice low and calm, falling into step beside her without making physical contact. "Kaia, you need to wake up."
She didn't respond, didn't even acknowledge his presence. Up close, he could see the intricate silver markings that decorated her wrists like living tattoos, pulsing brighter with each step she took toward Moonmirror Lake. The air around her shimmered with otherworldly energy, and her scent carried new undertones of night-blooming flowers and distant thunder.
The realization hit him. Dreamwalker.
He'd heard of them, of course. Humans born with the ability to navigate the realm between sleeping and waking, to walk through dreams as easily as others walked through doorways. But true dreamwalkers were incredibly rare, their gifts often driving them to madness or worse. Most never lived past their twentieth birthday.
And now one was walking straight toward the lake that had nearly claimed her life less than twenty-four hours ago.
"Kaia, please." Elias matched her pace, every instinct screaming at him to grab her, to physically prevent herfrom reaching the water. But he'd heard enough stories about dreamwalkers to know that violent intervention could trap her consciousness in the dream realm permanently. "You're not dreaming anymore. You're in Hollow Oak. You're safe."
Still no response. They were fifty yards from the lake now, close enough that he could see moonlight reflecting off the still surface. Whatever was calling to her had grown stronger, the silver markings on her wrists pulsing so brightly they cast their own shadows on the ground.
Thirty yards. Twenty.
Desperation overrode caution. Elias reached out and gently touched her shoulder, pouring every ounce of warmth and protection he could muster into the contact. "Kaia."
The effect was immediate and violent.
She jerked like she'd been struck by lightning, a scream tearing from her throat as her knees buckled. Elias caught her before she could hit the ground, gathering her against his chest as her entire body convulsed with terror. The silver markings on her wrists flared once more, then faded to nothing, leaving only pale skin that felt ice-cold under his fingers.
"No, no, no," she gasped, clutching at his shirt with desperate fingers. "He's coming. He knows where I am now. He's coming and I can't stop him."
"Who's coming?" Elias stroked her hair with one hand while scanning the darkness around them for threats. "Kaia, who's after you?"
But she was beyond rational conversation, caught in the grip of whatever terror had driven her from sleep. Her violet eyes were wide and unfocused, seeing horrors that existed beyond the physical world. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she pressed closer to his warmth, seeking anchor in the solid reality of his presence.
"The shadows have eyes," she whispered. "And they're hungry. So hungry."
Around them, the night seemed to hold its breath. Even the lake had gone unnaturally still, its surface reflecting the moon like a mirror that refused to be disturbed. But in that perfect reflection, Elias caught a glimpse of something that made his bear roar with protective fury.
Eyes. Watching from the depths.
And they were fixed on the woman in his arms with the patience of something that had waited a very long time to claim what it considered rightfully its own.
6
KAIA
The shame was almost worse than the terror.
Kaia sat curled in the overstuffed chair in her room, wrapped in one of Miriam's quilts while Elias moved quietly around the space, checking window locks and adjusting the protective charms Miriam had placed around the room. He hadn't said a word about finding her barefoot by the lake, hadn't asked why she'd been sleepwalking or what had made her scream like the world was ending.
He'd just carried her back to the inn, settled her in the chair, and started making her safe.
"I'm sorry," she whispered, clutching the quilt tighter around her shoulders. "You probably think I'm completely insane."
Elias paused in his inspection of the window wards, silver eyes finding hers across the softly lit room. "I think you're dealing with something most people couldn't handle. And I think you're braver than you give yourself credit for."
