The Red Hawk overlord stood before me, arrogant in his stance, silver eyes hard as steel. He wore a long black coat that billowed behind him, accenting his pale skin and emphasizing the crimson veins glowing under his eyes. Like the devil himself, he stalked toward me, murder shining in the depths of his treacherous gaze. Greed coiled around him like the wings of a fallen angel, spreading wide as his lips curled.
I lunged forward, thinking this was it. This was the moment I’d been waiting for, the chance to avenge the asshole that had killed my entire family. As we moved, his arms mutated, making them tentacles of sorts, like an octopus. He wrapped them around me, holding me off the ground.
“You came,” he crooned in a smooth voice that gave me goose bumps. “I didn’t think you had the guts.”
I frowned, tipping my chin. “I want my brother.” I also wanted to gouge his eyes out.
“He is yours for a simple trade,” he replied, running a hand through my hair in a creepy-old-dude vibe.
My feet dangled in the air, but otherwise I was motionless. “What is it you want?”
He moved closer. “I only want one thing. Power. Your power.”
I shook my pounding head, trying to fight against his binds, but the tentacles held me fast. “No! I can’t do it. This is wrong.” Something was off. I couldn’t pinpoint what, but I didn’t feel right. Beside the thumping temples, my head was fuzzy, as if I’d been drugged.
“You’ve just issued your brother’s death sentence,” Heath said.
The words go to hell were on the tip of my tongue when something pulsed in my hand. It was a blade, radiating white. With a banshee cry, I raised my arm and plunged the tip into Heath’s chest, sinking the knife into his heart.
The overlord staggered backwards, his mouth opened in shock and horror. Only…as I stared into his eyes, the satisfaction of killing him turned my blood to ice, for it wasn’t Heath’s eyes I was looking into. It was Zane’s bright starlight blue. Cloaked in darkness, the shadows surrounding him faded as he swayed on his feet.
“Christ,” I whispered. “Zane…oh God.” I repeated the phrase of sheer shock and disbelief a few too many times.
“Piper,” he murmured, his shaky hand reaching out and eyes beseeching me. Thin droplets of blood trickled from his mouth. The blade was still stuck into his chest.
I stepped back, shaking my head back and forth. No. No. No.
“Why?” he wheezed, wrapping a hand around the hilt of the knife as he fell to the ground.
I thought I was going to die, right alongside him of a broken heart. Never in a gazillion years would I have hurt him. This had to be a trick. My heart was roaring in my ears as I sunk to the ground and that was when I noticed the blood covering my hands. Zane’s blood.
“Don’t die,” I told him, running a hand over his forehead. He was cold, way colder than normal.
“Why did you…” He lay on the ground, struggling to get the words out. I felt the life leaving his body, rapidly, piece by piece each second. “…betray me?” he managed to utter before his eyes went blank.
Betray him? I would never. Tears were rapidly streaming down my cheeks. “Please, don’t leave me,” I sobbed, cupping his face with my bloody hands.
Nothing. His mouth was pale and his eyes were closed, unmoving. Damp bits of hair clung to his forehead and temples. I pressed my mouth to his blue cold lips, tasting my own salty tears. “I’m sorry,” I murmured over and over again. “I’m so very sorry.”
The depth of my despair was so overwhelming that all I could do was scream.
I jolted awake, eyes wide open, staring at the ceiling with the sharp taste of fear in my mouth. My room was cold. Or maybe it was just me. The reality sunk in as I caught my breath, forcing my lungs to breath in and out. It had only been a dream, but a dream like that left a mark on my soul, nonetheless. Zane was fast asleep beside me. I watched the steady rise and fall of his chest, reassured by the movements.
Quietly, I slipped out of bed and tugged on one of Zane’s hoodies, but it did little to rid the chill that had taken up residency inside me. Cold air prickled over my skin. I stood tall, searching the shadows, but I saw and felt nothing. How could I when I was still rocked to the core by the dream? Was it a premonition? Could this be my fate? To kill the one I loved?
Giving up any notion of going back to sleep, I wandered to the window seat. I hugged my knees to my chest, laying a cheek on the cool windowpane as I glanced out into the vast waters, sparkling as a bit of sun crested, casting crystals on the surface. I shivered and glanced up at the sky. A flock of dark birds fluttered in the shape of a “V”, wings glistening in the sky.
“Hey,” Zane said from behind me. “Can’t sleep?” he asked.
I lifted my head off the window. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you.”
He laid a hand on my shoulder. “Why didn’t you? What’s wrong?”
I rubbed my cheek on top of his hand. “You looked so peaceful, I didn’t have the heart to disturb you.” It didn’t make sense that both of us should lose sleep.
“That’s why I’m here. If something is wrong or something has happened, I want you to tell me. It doesn’t matter what time or what I’m doing. I’m here for you.”
I scooted forward a tad, making room for him. Without hesitation, he moved to sit behind me and drew me into his arms. I leaned my back against his chest. “I had a dream.”
“You’re freezing,” he noticed and rubbed his hands up and down my arms. “What happened in the dream?”
“I stabbed you. I killed you.”
“It was only a dream,” he murmured in my ear, making my stomach flutter.
If anyone could thaw the ice in my veins, it was Zane. “And if it wasn’t? What if I hurt you or worse?”
“It’s going to take more than a knife to do me in.”
I nudged him with my elbow. “This isn’t funny.”
“I know, but there is nothing we can do about it now,” he said softly. “Come back to bed.”
Things were tumultuously spinning out of control, but when Zane pulled me into his arms for a short time, I found peace. He played with my hair, twisting strands around his fingers. “You’re not relaxing.”
“I know,” I sighed. “I’m sorry. Every time I closed my eyes, I see your blood on my hands.”
“Maybe we can find a way to distract you.” His hands moved over the flat planes of my belly, melting my icy skin.
My lips curved. “That might work.” I need to do more than know he was alive, I needed to feel he was alive.
The first touch of his lips, fire licked in blood and roared in my belly, warmth shooting across the back of my neck. My fingers yanked him closer, digging into his hair as his arms held me close, like he wanted to merge more than our souls. Our tongues swept in a dance as old as time. This was what I needed—the quick and wild, almost desperate need. I wanted to forget the dream completely. There was no room for thought, only feeling.
Mission accomplished.
Zane was above me, pressing his body against mine, his lips suddenly at my neck, tracing a line of flames along my skin. My breath hitched. I knotted my hands into his shirt, pulling his face back to mine and bit down on his lip, making him moan. I drowned in the sound, in Zane.
My hand slid over his cool chest, feeling the hard muscles of his stomach and chest. He made my entire body tingle, senses buzzing in a rainbow of emotions.
He pulled back slightly, eyes bright in the darkness as he stared down at me. His breath was cool on my face as he murmured, “You’re beautiful, you know that?” The soft tip of his thumb brushed along the end of my chin just under my lip. “I know I don’t tell you often enough, but I want you to know. I’ve never met anyone who can stop the air in my lungs. You turn me inside out.”
My pulse fluttered. “I don’t need sweet words. I just need you.” The emotions between us swirled in the air as if almost a tangible force. I closed my eyes, and I swore I could see the colors of our souls merging together.
Afterward, I held onto him, murmuring how much I loved him. More than anything I wanted to cling to the honeymoon high, but the day seemed to be a chain of extreme ups and temperamental lows.
And the emotional roller coaster didn’t end there. The day was only beginning.