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It rolled up to the top; the flames lighting the branches and each of the leaves. But even as they burned, they didn’tchange. They didn’t dissolve to ash or blacken. The burning tree lit the clearing like the beacon of a sun.

“We mourn the loss of the darkest night, welcoming the time of the sun,” Mab said as she returned the torch to the holder. A few pieces of bark fell away from the trunk as she scraped it.

The first of the leaves fell upon the ground, burning as it floated free.

Seven days.

26

Estrella

That haunting voice called my name—the sounds of each syllable resonating like a song in the wind.

Estrelllaaa.

The vision of the woman from Mab’s gleaming jeweled crown appeared before me. Her brown skin shone in the light of the twin moons overhead as her full lips formed my name. The voice stretched across the dark void between us as she took the first step to close that gap.

“Come home, Estrella,” she said.

She crossed the distance suddenly, as if that single step had moved her across an entire world. A flash and then she was in front of me, her deep green and gold hair writhing upon her head.

It took me longer than I cared to admit to realize it wasn’t hair that sprouted from her scalp, but the living bodies of snakes. They bared their teeth at me, their green hued scales the same color as her shining eyes.

As the leather and armor she wore upon her breast.

“My mate is my home,” I whispered to her, unable to tear my gaze off those eyes.

I swallowed, tears pooling in my eyes as I felt something click into place. Fear tore at me like phantom talons, sending my heartbeat racing until it flooded my own hearing.

There was nothing outside of our stare, nothing existed but that moment of connection.

“Take what is yours and come home,” she said.

The memory of that gleaming black gem, of the crown Mab didn’t deserve to wear, flashed through my head. The rage followed—the illogical drive to tear it from her skull and make it mine. I couldn’t shake those thoughts, couldn’t get that unending pit of rage to go back to sleep within me.

It was a fire, consuming my every thought, as I took a single step away from the woman in front of me. Her snakes slithered closer, reaching out with fangs descended—

***

A phantom touch brushed against my cheek. I turned my head to the side, thrashing away from the mouth of the snake. These ones wouldn’t obey me. I knew with every bone in my body. That woman, she owned them.

My power was but a fraction of what existed within her.

“My star,” a man said.

Hands grasped my arms, pinning me down as I tossed from side to side. I couldn’t get away, couldn’t break free from the confines of the grip holding me. Panic flooded me, the thought of being trapped beneath the snakes waiting to devour me—

“Wake up.”

Love tugged at my center, pulling me from the depths of despair.A dream, I realized with a start. I gasped as I took a real breath, the fear fading away as my eyes flung open to find my mate staring back at me.

“Just a dream,” he reassured, confirming my realization.

My body felt slicked with sweat, my hair a tangled mess about my head. But Caldris didn’t care, leaning down to touch his mouth to mine in a sweet caress.

“A dream,” I echoed, nodding my head as his forehead pressed into mine.

He sighed, his lips pressing into a thin line as he stared at me. Waiting for the shadows to clear, for the worst of the terror to fade, he watched me.