Page 78
Story: When Storms Collide
It was time to go.
Wake up, wake up, wake up.
WAKE UP!
He pushed the sheer robe back from her shoulder, revealing a patch of bare, tanned skin. His mouth explored her decolletage, her neck, finding her mouth once more.
WAKE UP!
I shot up in bed with a start, sweat coating my back, my nightgown stuck to me in every place it touched my skin. I placed a hand over my chest, slowing my breathing.
The Araneoch.
They could turn the tides of the battle, and I needed to find out where they were. Needed to find out how many of them she had created. I needed to do more research on dream walking, and I needed to do itnow.
I stood from the bed, wrapping a black robe around me. Despite the sweat coating my skin, a chill had settled in my bones. I slid a pair of slippers over my bare feet, treading out into the hallway. The torches were doused, the darkness clinging to the hallway in a menacing way.
It had to be the middle of the night.
I traced along the stone walls until I reached the library door, pulling it open and descending into the shadows. I found the table I had been working at yesterday by almost crashing into it, stubbing my toe in the process. I swore, rubbing at it until the sting dulled. I grabbed around blindly for the lantern on the tabletop and when I finally found it I struck the match, filling the space with warm light. I sat, wrapping the robe tighter around me as I pulled the dream walking books towards the front of the table.
I opened the first one, combing through the text to find anything I could about intentionally dream walking. If I could figure out how to leave a token behind, I could dream walk anywhere I wanted in The Stone Palace. I could find out where Donika was creating and hiding her Araneoch.
Annelise would be back to the cottage underground tomorrow and we were set to train. I knew I should head back to bed and get some rest, but my dream walking had unsettled me too much. We were running out of time, and we needed all the advantage we could leverage. We needed the upper hand. I was too anxious to sleep.
My eyes were bleary with exhaustion by the time I made it to the second book. The words were smudging together on the page as I peered down in the dim lamplight. The library door squeaked open, and I jumped, the book before me knocking the lantern over. I stood quickly, grabbing it and righting it before the light was doused.
I turned to see Nikolai standing in the doorway, his blond hair disheveled, his white T-shirt crinkled from sleep.
His gaze held mine for a long moment before he spoke. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you.” He swallowed hard in the flickering lantern light, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his linen pants awkwardly. “It’s just— I thought I heard something… then I saw the light on.”
I nodded, falling back into the chair and sliding the lantern away from the edge of the table. “I couldn’t sleep.”
He moved forward, his gaze on my profile as I remained turned towards the table. We hadn’t been alone together since I had administered the antidote, and I wasn’t sure what to say. How to act. He had been pushing me away so thoroughly I was surprised he wouldn’t have simply turned back around and gone back to bed when he saw it was me poring over the books in the library.
All the words I wanted to say to him were stuck in the back of my throat in a lump, allowing nothing to pass my lips.
“Bad dreams?” he asked as he squatted next to the table, his hands resting on its edge.
He was close enough to me that when I turned towards him, I could see the reflection of his glacial blue eyes in the warm light, flecks of gold spattered around the iris. His eyes were heavy with lack of sleep, his brow creased.
“Something like that.” My eyes fell back to the table.
“You can tell me, Diana.” His voice sounded fragile. Brittle.
“Can I?” My gaze swung to his once more, eyes narrowing. “You have been avoiding me like the plague, and for the life of me I can’t figure out what I’ve done wrong.”
He shook his head, one hand moving from the edge of the table to grasp mine from my lap. He squeezed, his palm warm against mine.
“You did nothing wrong.” His voice was raw this time—strangled.
I shook my head. “Then why?”
“This has nothing to do with you and everything to do with me.” His gaze fell to our combined hands in my lap. “You can’t imagine the guilt I feel. Every moment of every day it threatens to swallow me whole.”
He was punishing himself.
“Then tell me,” I pleaded, inching towards him. “Tell me what happened. I can’t help you if you don’t let me. It eats me up inside to see you like this, Nikolai. So… fractured.”
Table of Contents
- Page 1
- Page 2
- Page 3
- Page 4
- Page 5
- Page 6
- Page 7
- Page 8
- Page 9
- Page 10
- Page 11
- Page 12
- Page 13
- Page 14
- Page 15
- Page 16
- Page 17
- Page 18
- Page 19
- Page 20
- Page 21
- Page 22
- Page 23
- Page 24
- Page 25
- Page 26
- Page 27
- Page 28
- Page 29
- Page 30
- Page 31
- Page 32
- Page 33
- Page 34
- Page 35
- Page 36
- Page 37
- Page 38
- Page 39
- Page 40
- Page 41
- Page 42
- Page 43
- Page 44
- Page 45
- Page 46
- Page 47
- Page 48
- Page 49
- Page 50
- Page 51
- Page 52
- Page 53
- Page 54
- Page 55
- Page 56
- Page 57
- Page 58
- Page 59
- Page 60
- Page 61
- Page 62
- Page 63
- Page 64
- Page 65
- Page 66
- Page 67
- Page 68
- Page 69
- Page 70
- Page 71
- Page 72
- Page 73
- Page 74
- Page 75
- Page 76
- Page 77
- Page 78 (Reading here)
- Page 79
- Page 80
- Page 81
- Page 82
- Page 83
- Page 84
- Page 85
- Page 86
- Page 87
- Page 88
- Page 89
- Page 90
- Page 91
- Page 92
- Page 93
- Page 94
- Page 95
- Page 96
- Page 97
- Page 98
- Page 99
- Page 100
- Page 101
- Page 102
- Page 103
- Page 104
- Page 105
- Page 106
- Page 107
- Page 108
- Page 109
- Page 110
- Page 111
- Page 112
- Page 113
- Page 114
- Page 115
- Page 116
- Page 117
- Page 118
- Page 119
- Page 120
- Page 121
- Page 122
- Page 123
- Page 124
- Page 125
- Page 126
- Page 127
- Page 128