Page 85 of Realm of Dreams & Shadows

I fumble, but manage to grab it, my hands clutching it tight and my ankles twisting in the dangling twine.

I feel a single sharp jerk, and then the pit is gone.

No pit. No nightmare garden. Nothing except the emptiness of the void between dimensions as I’m yanked back through layers of consciousness, back to my body, back to safety.

Back to The Griffin’s Nest and its room of mirrors.

Chapter

Twenty-One

Igasp awake in the mirror room, my heart hammering and sweat beading on my forehead. I’m still on the cushion, Chase crouched in front of me, his eyes wide with concern. Tia’s on my other side, looking more than a little freaked out.

“Are you okay? What happened in there?”

“Adric,” I manage between ragged breaths. “He found me. He was in the Neutral Zone.”

“The hot, scary king?” She tilts her head to glare at Chase. “I thought he was bound to his castle.”

“He shouldn’t have been there,” Chase says, his voice hard. “But it’s a liminal space, and technically part of it is on the castle grounds.”

“I think it was me,” I admit, struggling to stand up. “He said I went too deep, traveled too far. That I was in his realm.”

“Blast it,” Griffin says to Chase, his sharp voice making me hate how weak I’d been, staying when I knew I should run. “You know what that means.”

Chase meets Whistler’s eyes, then nods, his expression still concerned as he extends a hand and helps me to my feet.

“What?” I ask, my hand still tight in Chase’s grip, his touch grounding me back in this reality.

“He’s been pushing at it,” Tia says. “That’s right, isn’t it? His realm’s been eating away at that section, and now there’s no more Neutral Zone at all.” She looks at Chase. “It’s all Adric’s backyard now, isn’t it?”

The two men exchange glances. “You have exceptional instincts,” Chase says.

I hold my hands out, apparently the last one at this party. “And that means what?”

Mr. Griffin turns toward me. “Basically, it means that Adric has been using the energy from the failing barriers to bring the Neutral Zone fully into his realm. He succeeded. And that’s just going to urge him on.”

In other words,” Chase says, “he wants them down even faster.”

“Oh.” I share a glance with Tia. “Well, that’s not good.”

“No. It’s not.”

“I’m confused now,” Tia says. “I thought the barriers only failed once Adric boinked the Bride?”

“Tia!”

“That would be a total collapse, yes.” A hint of a smile dances at Griffin’s mouth. “But in the meantime, Adric has been urging his followers to test the edges. To push against them and open cracks.”

Chase nods. “Every crossing, every experiment weakens the fabric between realms. It would take millennia to fall completely, but it’s happening faster than anyone wants. And now there’s a very large crack that has essentially eradicated the Neutral Zone.”

“You could say it’s been fully annexed by the Nightmare Realm,” Mr. Griffin adds.

“Well, that’s not good,” I say, in what is probably the understatement of the century.

“It’s really not,” Tia says. “And here’s another stumper—why does Adric need Cora after the barriers come down? I mean, she’s hot and all, but if his goal is to make the barriers fall and consummating their marriage takes care of that, then, well, you know…” She trails off with a shrug and an apologetic look toward me.

I’m pretty sure I look a little green. “He could kill me right then,” I say. “He’d have no more use for me at all.”