Page 117 of Realm of Dreams & Shadows

“That’s enough!” The familiar voice cuts through the room like a blade, sharp and deadly, as if to remind me of how much is at stake. Chase.

I whip around to see him striding toward us in his familiar black jeans and tee, his arms covered in tats. His hair is tousled and wild, and his golden eyes burn with barely contained fury.

Part of me wants to run to him. The rest of me freezes, still remembering the trees, the dead Brides, and the cold sting of betrayal.

“Hunter,” Adric says coolly, but I catch the flash of irritation in his silver eyes. “Didn’t our mother teach you that it’s rude to interrupt? Oh, wait. We had no mother, so let me be the one to break it to you, brother dear. You’re not welcome here.”

“Good.” Chase’s gaze finds mine, and I see something that looks like hurt beneath the anger. “Because she’s coming with me.”

“I don’t think she wants to,” Adric replies smoothly. “Do you, darling?”

I honestly don’t know how to answer that question, so I’m weirdly relieved when Chase jumps into action, that familiar golden rope lashing out from his hand and wrapping around my waist. Then with one tug, I’m flying through the air toward Chase, not sure if I want to cry out in relief or scream at him to release me.

Not that it matters, because escape is really the only thing on the agenda now, what with the library beginning to crumble around us, books tumbling from shelves as reality shifts and warps. Through the chaos, I hear Adric shout something in a language I don’t recognize, but it’s too late.

Chase catches me against his chest, one arm banding around my waist as he propels us toward what looks like a massive hole torn in the library wall to reveal nothing but a star-filled sky. Then he’s diving through it, my body held tight against his, and we’re falling, faster and faster, until something golden appears beneath us—a magnificent dragon with scales that shimmer between gold and bronze, wings that span impossibly wide, and intelligent eyes that look up to fix on Chase with what looks like love.

We land on the dragon’s back, and I barely have time to register the sensation of powerful muscles moving beneath us before we’re rising, the wind whipping through my hair as we soar through a sky painted in shades of purple and silver, the nightmare realm spreading out below us like a twisted fairytale.

It should be terrifying. I should be screaming or clinging to Chase in panic. At the very least, I should snap that he’s the last person in the world I want to rescue me. But I don’t. Because right now, I feel more alive than I have in my entire life, even though I know this is only a dream. The rush of wind and speed and impossible flight fills me with a wild and delicious euphoria like nothing I’ve ever known—and that’s almost worse than hating him.

“This is freaking awesome,” I shout over the wind, and I feel Chase’s answering laugh rumble through his chest where I’m pressed against him.

Below us, the world twists and breathes like something alive. The ground ripples with shadow and light, the forest shimmers with an eerie blue glow, and rivers of molten silver twist through valleys carved from obsidian. In the distance, a castle rises from the earth—dark and broody, like something from a horror movie, and yet still magnificent, with spires that gleam like black glass, and walls veined with crimson light that pulses, as if the stone itself has a heartbeat.

“Is this real?” I ask, though part of me already knows the answer.

“Real enough to matter.”

The dragon cuts through the night air, its wings slicing through clouds that glimmer faintly with dreamlight, and as I look around, my fear vanishes. This time, I’m not the victim, fighting monsters in the Nightmare Realm. Now, I’m seeing another side of this strange and beautiful place where shadows take form and light dances. I’m not Cora Lyte, confused college freshman. I’m not even Cora, the potential Bride. I’m something else—something fierce and untethered, born of nightmares and stars.

Chase holds me like I’m precious and powerful all at once—and it’s intoxicating. For a moment, I want to beg Chase to let the dragon take us away. To get lost in the beauty and the wildness.

But I can’t. Uncle Finn needs me. And though I can’t see it, I know that somehow, we’re still traveling. Still tethered to Whistler.

And we need to hurry to our landing spot so that we can rescue Finn and bring him home.

“He pulled me here,” I say. “We have to go back now.”

“We are,” Chase says as the dragon dips toward the ground, picking up speed.

That’s when the mares attack.

Three of them, coming out of the dream-mist with burning eyes and snapping jaws. Our dragon shrieks and banks hard as skeletal hooves rake across its flank.

“Hold on!” Chase yells.

I obey with one hand but thrust out with the other. “Reverti!” I cry, and even though I have no idea where that word came from, I’m not at all surprised when the closest mare shrieks and falls away from us, as if desperate to obey my command. The second snarls, wriggling before bursting toward us.

Without thinking, I hold out my hand again, this time expecting the power that explodes from me like streams of silver and gold twined together, raw and wild and brutal enough to consume the attacking mare, her dying screams echoing over the dark hills below as she tumbles down, down, down.

I whip around, looking for the third mare—only to see it already racing toward the horizon and getting the hell out of Dodge.

The whole battle takes maybe ten seconds. Tops.

Chase twists on the dragon’s back to gape at me. “Jesus, Cora.”

I stare at my hands, breathing hard, silver and gold sparks still snapping at my fingertips. “I did that.” My voice is soft, barely a whisper.