The Dragon King and His Fallen Star novel Chapter 62

Chapter 62: Dreams We Both See

KIERYGAN’S POV

Sleep had become a fractured thing for me.

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These past days, I’d fallen into a quiet routine–closing my eyes for a fleeting moment of rest before her fears would wake me again. It was always her emotions that pierced the darkness, a telltale grip of terror reaching out, dragging me from whatever sliver of sleep I’d managed to find.

Every night, without fail, I found myself in her room. Sitting at her bedside. Waking her from nightmares. Lying beside her until her trembling subsided and sleep claimed us both once more.

I never grew tired of it.

Perhaps I should have. But how could I, when each night as her terror faded into calm, something in my chest loosened? When her warmth near mine became the only place I found the peace that had eluded me for so long? When lying beside her granted me the deepest sleep I’d known in

decades?

Tonight was no different.

That sharp jolt of fear coursed through my veins again. I knew it wasn’t mine–it was hers. I felt it even before the muffled whimpers reached me from her room.

I swung my feet over the edge of the bed and rose swiftly. The floor was ice beneath my steps as I crossed the corridor, not bothering with a shirt–or the fact that I wasn’t wearing one.

Her room was silent when I entered, save for the faint sounds she made in her sleep and the soft grunts of Nibbles at her feet, as if trying to wake her himself. Moonlight pooled across the floor, illuminating her restless form curled beneath the blankets.

I sat at the edge of her bed. Almost immediately, she stirred, as if sensing my presence even through the haze of her dreams.

“Eirlys,” I murmured, my voice low.

“Seven…” her voice trembled, breaking the quiet between us. “There were seven others.”

I stroked her cheek lightly with my thumb, coaxing her to continue. “Seven?”

She nodded against my hand, tears clinging to her lashes. “Yes. I counted,” she whispered, swallowing hard. “I don’t know who they were, but… they felt familiar.”

I stayed silent, letting her speak without interruption. I knew better than to break her rhythm.

“And there was… a woman.” Her brow furrowed. “She had hair like mine. Eyes like mine, too. She was saying something, I think.”

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Chapter 62: Dreams We Both See

She squeezed her eyes shut, straining to remember

“What was she trying to tell you?” I asked softly.

Her lip quivered. “I don’t know… I couldn’t hear her. It was muffled, like she was speaking underwater. But… it felt important.”

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I swallowed my questions and pressed my thumb gently to her lips, quieting her trembling breaths. “You did well remembering that much.”

She exhaled shakily. Without another word, I lay down beside her as I had every night these past weeks. She turned onto her side, facing away from me, pulling the blanket tighter around her

shoulders.

But tonight, I couldn’t bear the quiet space between us.

I shifted closer, pressing my chest against her back feeling her warmth seep into me. She stiffened for a moment, then slowly relaxed, her breathing evening out.

It almost made me smile. Every night ended like this, the two of us lying close together. By morning, we’d always wake up snuggled against each other–yet when daylight came, it was as if none of it had ever happened.

Confusing, perhaps. For me, certainly. But for her… it must have been even more so.

I exhaled softly into her hair, letting my eyes drift shut.

The soft cadence of her breathing and the faint, calming scent of wildflowers that always clung to her lulled me to sleep before I even realized it.

But it wasn’t a restful sleep.

I found myself standing in a dark forest, shadows curling between skeletal trees. Mist coiled around my ankles. The air was thick with rot and something far more sinister. My pulse thundered

in my ears.

Ahead, the hooded figure loomed–horned, cloaked in writhing black wisps. A creature torn from nightmares. Malric stood at its side, his eyes burning like twin coals in the dark. Morwenna was there too, her gaze feral and unblinking.

In Morwenna’s arms was an infant, small and impossibly fragile. Pale silver hair framed her tear–streaked face, her cries echoing through the dark forest. Even from where I stood, I could see the unmistakable violet glow shimmering beneath her lashes.

The infant was Eirlys. I knew it with a certainty that twisted painfully in my chest.

Then I saw them–the seven figures surrounding the clearing. Each one glowing softly, ethereal in

the darkness.

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< Chapter 62: Dreams We Both See

Fae.

Radiant. Crowned with light.

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And among them was a woman… her hair the same silver–gold as Eirlys‘, flowing like molten starlight. Atop her head rested a crown studded with jewels I could not name, each one pulsing with otherworldly brilliance. Her eyes glowed with that same haunting violet, and her face–gods, it was Eirlys‘ face. She looked exactly like her.

She reached out to the infant, her expression twisted in desperate anguish, lips moving frantically

in words I could not hear.

I strained to hear her, but it was like listening through crashing waves–muffled, garbled, lost.

This was everything Eirlys had told me about her dreams.

But this time, something happened that she hadn’t mentioned.

The hooded figure raised a hand, and black wisps slithered outward like living shadows. They coiled around the seven fae, and before my eyes, their radiant light began to dim–snuffed out, one

by one.

One by one, they crumbled into ash, scattered to the silent, rotting forest floor.

I couldn’t move. I couldn’t even breathe.

The hooded figure turned to the infant. Though its eyes were hidden beneath the dark cowl, I felt them–cold and ancient, boring into her tiny, trembling form.

A voice like cracking ice reverberated through the forest, rattling my very bones.

“When the time comes, bring her back to me,” it said. “She is mine.”

Rage flared hot in my chest. I lunged at the figure, my voice breaking from my throat in a snarl. She is mine,” I growled.

In an instant, I shifted into my beast form, fire roaring from my jaws. But my flames could not touch them. My claws passed through them like smoke. I was nothing to them–unseen, unfelt. Yet I roared the words again and again, each one burning through my lungs.

“She is mine.”

I woke with a violent jolt, the image of Eirlys‘ infant form burned behind my eyes. My breath came ragged, heart hammering against my ribs.

Nights spent listening to Eirlys recount her dreams must have rubbed off on me. I was beginning to see them too–and even more beyond what she saw.

I stared at her sleeping form. She lay there peacefully, unaware of the nightmare that had seized me. Only Nibbles seemed to notice, poking his head out from the blankets at my feet, his ears

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Chapter 62. Dreams We Both See

twitching and dark eyes

watchful.

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I closed my eyes and pressed my forehead against her shoulder, drawing in her steady warmth. So this is what haunts her night after night. No wonder she trembles every time I wake her.

I pressed myself closer to her, as if I could shield her from it all. She shifted in her sleep, turning toward me, snuggling closer, and murmuring something too quiet to catch. I couldn’t help but smile. Every night, without fail, she always found her way to the safest place she knew–right against my chest.

Soon, my eyelids grew heavy, and sleep pulled me under once more. This time, it was dreamless.