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.
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