The ocean was absolutely infinite, the surface of the water as smooth as glass. An icy wind blew across the surface, carrying with it the tang of salt. Taer shivered, fear skittering down her spine. She wrapped her arms around herself in an effort to stave off the cold.
She had wanted to do this.
She had wanted to get inside his head, but …
It was almost as if Korvain’s shield was as aggressive as the man.
Gritting her teeth, she forced Adrian’s death on Korvain’s mind, making him relive it in every terrifying detail as she’d had to for the past month in her dreams. She made him experience it all—the scent of blood, the gasping of Adrian’s final breaths, her feelings of desperate despondency.
She didn’t know what she’d expected to happen, but she’d at least expected something. There was no response, nothing changed—she’d had no effect at all. If anything, the wind that had been blowing only got stronger, sending Taer’s loose hair billowing behind her.
She tried again, upping the intensity of her attack, summoning all of her anger and grief. She concentrated on her pain, feeling the first tears of frustration fall down her cheeks. The wind was blowing even harder now, and Taer had to widen her stance to stay upright. If it were to get any stronger, she would lose her footing completely.
After a third try, Taer decided to give up on that particular line of attack. Reliving her brother’s death wasn’t working. She had to think about what would really upset Korvain. What did he love? Well, Bryn obviously, but Taer had already tried that angle without success. She had to think about what was really going to hurt him. Failing Adrian was something she knew had wounded him deeply, but he felt no fear in facing the memory. So what did he fear? Discouraged and frustrated with herself, Taer went through all her possible options again.
There was only one more thing she could try. Taer focused on her own near death, but instead of seeing herself recovering from her injuries, she forced the idea of her dying from them on him instead.
Soon she noticed the whipping wind was starting to die down. She watched on as the still black water began to ripple. Taer concentrated on the thought of her own death, waiting to see what would happen next.
The water grew choppier and choppier. Soon it was as if a tempest was raging around her, yet she was untouched. She squinted at the ocean in front of her as a visible channel formed in the water, growing deeper until she could see the sandy bottom right in front of her feet, as though a pathway had opened up for her. A high wall of water stretched up on both sides of the chasm, defying logic and gravity.
Taer stepped from the stone she had been standing on down onto the sand, the black walls of water looming above her. As she took another step, she waited to see if the walls would stay up, wondering if she was about to be drowned.
When it was clear that nothing was going to happen, she turned around again and started walking forward. After more than an hour she came to a blood-red door at the end. Reaching out a hand, she twisted the doorknob and pushed into the room.
It was completely dark—not even a pinprick of light was able to get inside—but Taer tamped down her fear and stepped forward. All she could hear was the sound of her breathing—and how it changed when she was suddenly thrust up against a wall with something sharp pressed into her throat.
Warm breath feathered across her cheek. She swallowed, feeling her throat work past the sharpness of the knife.
There was a growl, then she heard Korvain curse.
Taer gasped and her eyes flew open as he shoved her forcefully from his mind. She sat up, hearing the sound of angry footsteps coming down the hallway. A second later, Korvain was there in the doorway, staring menacingly down at her. He gripped Taer by the upper arm, yanking her out of bed, out of the bedroom, and dragging her into the living room, where he pushed her roughly onto the couch.
Korvain’s shadow tracked across the carpet as he stalked in front of her. Taer watched him cautiously, seeing how tightly wound he was.
Eventually he stopped, spinning around to face her.
“How did you do it?” he roared. From the corner of her eye, Taer could see the shadows from around the room gravitating toward him.
“How!”
Taer jumped, peering behind him to see if they’d woken Eir or Bryn. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I didn’t think it would really work.”
“You got past my shields. How did you do it?”
Taer blurted out the answer without thinking. “I projected what I thought was your greatest fear onto you.” The words tumbled from her mouth almost too quickly for her to understand.
Korvain cursed. “Why?” he demanded, spittle flying from his lips. “How did you know how to do that?”
Taer shrugged. “I was just trying some different things out to see what would get past your shields.”
He rounded on her again. “Why didn’t you warn me you were going to do that?”
Taer shrugged again.
“Fuck!” Korvain dropped on to the couch beside her, his head in his hands. After a few minutes, he lifted his head, his dark gaze meeting her green eyes. “I need to tell you something.”
Taer blinked at him. At least he sounded more reasonable now. She stared at his face, noting the dark circles under his eyes. “Okay.” She sank back into the cushions, drawing her knees up and wrapping her arms around them.
His chest rose and fell with a deep breath, and the gravity of what he was about to say settled between them with an almost physical weight. “I’ve been watching over you in your sleep.”
That wasn’t news. He’d told her that before … except …
“What does that mean, exactly?” she asked.
“I’ve been inside your head while you’ve been sleeping.”
“But how? Since our shielding lesson, I thought I’d been protecting my mind.”
“You have been, but your mental shields are still weak. For someone like me or Darrion—”
“Darrion?” she interrupted, surprised. “What does that bastard have to do with anything?”
“Your nightmares? Darrion’s behind them.”
What. The. Fuck?
But then she thought about it. Darrion was part of her dream. She’d assumed she had just imagined him, conjured him up … but this made more sense.
Darrion was tormenting her.
“These last few nights, I’ve been keeping him out, but last night we had a confrontation.”
“Why wasn’t I aware of this?” she snapped, standing up and starting to pace, needing to physically burn off her agitation and to give herself some time to come to grips with what she was being told. “Why couldn’t I feel you inside my head? Why couldn’t I feel Darrion in there?”
“We can both shield ourselves to avoid detection.”
Taer shot him a glare, but kept moving. “You need to explain this to me, Korvain. I need to understand what’s going on.”
The Mare sighed. “Darrion has been causing your nightmares for the last month. He told me he’s been trying to break you.”
“Why?”
He shrugged. “Who really knows why? Darrion is a sadistic bastard. He was probably just doing it because he could … or he might be punishing me through you for taking you away before he could finish the job.”
Hearing that made her hate him just that little bit more. She hadn’t even known she was capable of that much hate. But with Darrion, her loathing seemed to know no bounds.
“All right, so he’s fucking with me. How can I stop him?”
“I can keep watching over you—”
“No. I won’t let you run yourself into the ground for me.”
“Or you can kill him.”
“But how? We have no idea where he is.”
“We don’t know where he is physically, but we don’t need to know that. You got past my shields, and they’re on par with Darrion’s. So all you need to do is break Darrion’s shields like you did mine and kill him within the dream.”