One moment Dylan was wandering through school, searching for something. The hallways sometimes led to rooms in his house and other times to classrooms full of kids that stared at him. Then he was on a roof, looking out at a burning city.
He blinked as awareness came crashing into him, and he turned to see Morgan standing there. The perspective was all wrong and Dylan realized he was in his human form, not the dragon form he always took in these dreams.
“Greetings, dragonkin. It was a bit harder to find you this time.” The dark fae bowed. He was taller than Dylan.
“I thought you’d forgotten about me.”
Morgan smiled. “Oh, no. I could never forget about you. How is the potion going?”
“Fine. One drop every night, just like you said.”
“And have you found a proper location?” The dark fae tapped his fingers together.
“I think I found a good spot, yeah.” At the edge of his parents’ land so he’d be able to come and go without anyone seeing him.
“Excellent. What does it look like?”
“Well, it’s a—”
“No, no show me,” Morgan said.
“Show you? How?”
The dark fae spread his arms and gestured. “This is your dream, in your mind. Shape the dream and show me what the location looks like.”
“I’ll try.” Dylan pictured it and focused as hard as he could. The burning city disappeared, and the circle of trees near the edge of Shadow Valley appeared.
Morgan looked around. “Excellent. Most excellent. A grove of old, strong trees and a fairy ring nearly at the center.” He stepped closer to the circle of mushrooms and then looked back at Dylan. “You did very well.”
The eager look on his face unnerved Dylan. “I’m not so sure about this.”
The dark fae turned, expression becoming sober. “I understand this involves some… unpleasantness. But for you to be truly free, the wardens must be removed. It is necessary for my freedom as well. Faery is my home, but I know you understand the urge to travel, to see new places. I once walked your world, and I long to see familiar places as well as explore new ones.”
“And you’re willing to kill for that?” Dylan had had time to think, especially every night when he pricked his finger and watched blood drip into the glass jar.
“For freedom? Yes. Aren’t you?”
Dylan looked around the grove. How long did he want to be trapped in Shadow Valley? How much longer did he want to worry over which of two bad choices he was going to take? “Nobody else gets hurt, right?”
The dark fae began walking along the edge of the grove, lightly touching each tree as he passed. “Your parents and your friends, they will be safe. No one in town will be harmed. Only the wardens, and I take no pleasure in what must be done.”
Dylan wasn’t so sure that was true, but who was he to judge? He had recurring dreams about burning down whole cities.