Page 6 of Dark Destiny: A New Thread in the Tapestry

Strangely, that certainty calmed him.

It explained the strange room, which he could see only in fragments because he could not turn his head, but even what he could see was unusual. There were bright lights embedded in the white ceiling, and they were hurting his eyes.

He did not know where this place was. He did not know when it was. Was he seeing something that had already happened? Or was this a place that had not yet been built?

Neither answer troubled him much. It was a dream, and dreams went where they liked.

Only one thing about it bothered him.

Why did the princess keep appearing?

She had been in the last dream, and she was in this one. The same incomparable beauty, the same voice that sounded like gentle bells, the same flaming red hair. Of everything he had ever seen, heard, or felt in the dream world, she was the only thing that had followed him from one place to the next.

Everything else changed. She did not.

That had to mean something.

Did he know her?

Not from the story, but from before?

Was there a before, and had she been in it?

He searched for it. He reached back past the voice in the dark, but there was nothing there. No edge, no floor, no beginning. Just the dark, the voice inside it, and her.

She was speaking again, and he stopped trying to understand the meaning and let the beauty of her voice wash over him.

Warmth.

Not the warmth of her hands, though that was there too. Something else, running beneath, spreading from the middle of his chest into his shoulders and down his arms. When she leaned closer, it rose. When she retreated, it faded.

He tested it because he could not do anything else. He turned his eyes toward her, and the warmth came up. He let his gaze drift toward the ceiling, and it dimmed. The ache in his back and the fire in his throat came forward again, sharper without her in front of them.

He looked back at her. The warmth returned.

He did not understand it, and he did not need to. He understood only the principle, which was simple. Everything was better when she was close.

Exhaustion crept back in, dragging him under, and he fought it because he did not want to lose sight of her. The fight used up whatever he had left, and his eyelids grew so heavy that he could not keep them from sliding shut. The light softened at the edges. The chirping thing slowed.

She was still holding his hand. He could feel her hands around it, the gentle caress, and he tried to close his fingers to tell her to stay, but managed almost nothing.

He was slipping back under, the dark rising to meet him.

That was all right.

She would be there when the next dream started. He wasn't sure how he knew that, but he felt certain she would be there.

3

KIAN

"The composites plant in Ohio is the sexier option." Shai flipped his tablet around so Kian could see the photos. "Carbon fiber layup, autoclaves. They have the whole setup. They've been making boat hulls for forty years, and the family that owns it wants out. On paper, it's perfect for airframes."

"But?"

"But it's a single-capability facility." Shai turned the tablet back. "You'd get beautiful shells and nothing to put in them. The motors, the battery packs, and the boards would still come from somewhere else, and there is a shortage of these components."

"I'm well aware." Kian leaned back in his chair. "What about the other facility?"