The Luna Queen's Rebirth (Ellie and Dominic) novel Chapter 503

Chapter 503

Nico’s POV

Ellie’s voice chased me out of the dream.

I shot upright in Amelia’s bed, drenched in sweat, my heart slamming. For a few seconds I couldn’t tell where I was. The water was still everywhere, black, freezing, endless, and my sister was still sinking through it.

You were right. Stephanie. She tried to kill me.

“Nico?” Amelia’s hand found my back. She was awake in an instant, the way she always was when I came out of a Dream badly. “What happened? What did you see this time?”

“Something bad.” I was already swinging my legs out of bed, grabbing my clothes off the floor. “I think Ellie is in trouble.”

“But I thought you said she was okay.”

“She was. But that was the first Dream.” My hands were shaking so hard I could barely button my shirt. “She was drowning. Or dreaming she was, I don’t know. I could barely make sense of it. But I heard her. She said Mom tried to kill her.”

Amelia froze, the blankets clutched to her chest.

“I’ll be back.” I kissed her once, quick and hard. “Lock the door behind me.”

The village was gray and half-asleep when I left the apartment. I ran the whole way home, rehearsing it in my head, trying to figure out how to say I saw it in a dream without sounding insane. Dad had believed Ellie about her rebirth. He’d believe me, right?”

I never got the chance to find out.

The front door was standing open when I arrived. Two packs were dumped in the entryway, ropes and ice axes spilling across the floorboards, and voices were coming from the sitting room. I stepped over the gear and stopped in the doorway.

Bastian was by the fire. He was filthy, hollow-eyed, one arm strapped against his chest, still in his climbing layers. Mom was shivering in the chair beside him, gasping as a pack medic worked on wounds that looked like they should have been tended by Ellie.

And then there was Dad. Standing in the middle of the room, leaning on his cane, staring at Mom with wide eyes

and an ashen face.

“-there was nothing anyone could have done,” Mom was saying softly. “The mountain came down on her, Terence. She was gone before anyone could dig through.”

Ellie was…

I looked at Bastian. He was staring at the floor.

Upstairs, a floorboard creaked. Dad closed his eyes.

“Not yet,” he said to no one in particular. “Eli can’t hear this yet.”

Mom rose, wincing, and crossed to Dad, touching his arm with her freshly-splinted hand. She passed close enough that I caught the smell of snow still on her coat. Her eyes were red and puffy, and if I hadn’t heard my sister screaming through a dying dream hours earlier, I would have believed every second of it.

“Nico, sweetheart. I’m so sorry. I know how close the two of you had gotten.”

“Yeah,” I managed.

Bastian simply turned and stalked out of the room without saying anything, his shoulder bumping mine as he passed. Mom told Dad that he had fainted at the summit after seeing Dominic jump.

I didn’t believe that one bit.

While Mom and Dad were busy dealing with the aftermath, I quietly went to Bastian’s room and entered without knocking.

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