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“What are you talking about?” Bear asked heatedly. “And why did you push us in here? That was Darrius yelling to us back there—and he looked fine to me!”

“Jordan?” Alex pressed, looking at the ghostly face of her trembling friend. Her heart started beating erratically, as if she was trying to solve a puzzle that she subconsciously knew she didn’t want the answer to. “What fear are you talking about?”

Jordan stared back at her with terrified eyes as he whispered tremulously, “Don’t let the Fae take me.”

The air left Alex’s lungs in awhooshas realisation swept over her and she gasped out, “Skyla?”

Jordan’s body shimmered and transformed into Skyla, who looked even more afraid now that she was in her own skin. But Alex didn’t have any words to soothe her, since she was too shocked by the other girl’s presence.

“If you’re here, then where’s Jordan?” she spluttered.

The sound of someone applauding caused Alex to spin around, but she couldn’t see anyone behind her. She peered into the trees, but there was nobody there. Only when she took a step forward did her world fall apart around her.

“Well done, Alexandra,” Aven said, appearing out of thin air. “I expected you to take much longer to figure it out.”

“No,” Alex whispered, stumbling backwards, away from him. “No.”

She continued to retreat, as if distance would change what she was seeing. But no matter how many steps she took, and no matter how many times she blinked, the image remained the same. Three people stood in front of her: Aven on the left, and Calista Maine on the right. And between them was Jordan, staring blankly out at the space in front of him.

“Jordan?” came D.C.’s whimper.

Alex flicked her gaze to the side just in time to see D.C., Bear and Skyla lifted up and suspended in mid-air thanks to Calista’s telekinetic ability. Skyla looked confused and scared, but Bear and D.C… There were no words to describe their ravaged expressions.

“Hello, Princess,” Aven said, looking up at D.C. “You didn’t see this one coming, did you?”

“You—!”

“Now, now,” he admonished. “A princess must always remain polite. Tell me, dear, sweet Delucia. When did you realise your dreams were failing you?”

D.C. paled and her gaze swept over to Jordan, then Alex, before she looked back at Aven. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Is that so?” Aven asked with a smirk. “Are you saying you haven’t been waking from recurring nightmares for the last few months? Nightmares where you see the boy you so deeply care for surrounded by nothing but shadows?”

Alex wanted to step in and help D.C., but she wasn’t sure what to say. Especially because her roommate’s nightmareshadbeen recurring. But how had Aven known that?

“I have to ask, Princess,” he said, “was it frustrating when, no matter how hard you tried, you could never discover any details in your dreams? Almost as if you were being…blocked?”

“How?” D.C. whispered.

“One of my associates is gifted in the art of neutralising the abilities of others,” Aven informed her. “It’s a very useful skill.”

Alex remembered the woman he was talking about from Sir Oswald’s dinner party—Lena Morrow. Once again she was grateful that her own gift kept her safe from manipulation, but she wished she’d had the foresight to consider the scope of Lena’s ability on others.

Hindsight truly sucked.

“I have Lena to thank for keeping you in the dark,” Aven continued, “since darkness was all that your dreams contained. It was fitting, really. I particularly loved how you lost so much sleep fretting over your, ahem,friend.”

D.C. looked horrified. The idea that someone had been tampering with her gift must have terrified her, especially when it had been occurring so frequently.

“You’ll regret this, Aven,” D.C. seethed.

“I doubt that, Princess,” Aven said mockingly. Then he turned to Calista and ordered, “Keep them quiet.”

Immediately Calista focused her gift to snap their mouths closed. Alex could hear her friends trying to talk, but the only noises they managed were trapped in their throats.

“You have my gratitude, Alexandra, for helping me return to my homeland,” Aven said. “I couldn’t have done it without you.”

She couldn’t speak. Not because Calista’s gift worked on her. It didn’t. Her mind simply couldn’t come to terms with what was happening.