Page 22 of A Curse So Cruel (Fated Mates of Shadowbone Academy #1)

Chapter Fifteen

~ Shade ~

D arkness. That’s all I see at first. All-consuming darkness that has no end.

It takes me a long while to realize it’s because my eyes are closed, and I’m in some weird semi-comatose state.

I’m vaguely aware of a blistering heat that comes from someone as I’m lowered onto something soft, a bed I’m guessing, but I still can’t open my eyes.

I can’t get my mind to cooperate and move my body.

I hear Kenzie fuss over me as the heat fades, leaving in its wake a frigid cold, and then it’s only silence around me.

Well, this is just great. What did Knox do to me? I can still feel the bone-weary exhaustion, and now on top of that I can’t wake up? Did Knox paralyze me? When they’d been throwing the word ‘replenish’ around, I’d thought the professors were going to heal me or something, but I still feel broken.

As much as I tell myself not to freak out, my mind spirals, and for some time, I’m simply left with my spinning thoughts.

I’m just coming to the conclusion that Knox is torturing me again, when I feel my mind slipping, falling, practically tripping over itself as it hurtles into a dream.

It’s the weirdest sensation. I’ve never felt myself fall into a dream before, but that’s what it feels like.

As if I’m moving from some weird in-between state and tumbling into the dreamworld.

I recall what Kenzie had said about some of the students. That a few were taken by dreamcrawlers. I have no idea what that means, but if I could shiver right now, I would.

The darkness around me lightens, changing to a gray landscape, and I’m surprised when my body comes into view, and I find myself standing on a patch of ash-colored grass.

Well, a dream-version of myself, anyway.

Stretching my ghostly fingers, I try to pinch my arm to wake myself up.

I don’t think it’ll do anything, but I yelp when there’s a sting of pain.

Oh, crap. Well, that can’t be good. I’ve never heard of dreams where you can feel pain. What the hell?

The landscape changes around me, and a number of headstones come into view.

It takes me a moment to realize why they seem so familiar, but then it dawns on me that I know this graveyard.

I’ve been dreaming about it on and off since the day I became human again.

I walk to the closest gravestone. It’s simple with a peony flower design etched near the top of the arch, and cursive text is carved into the stone beneath.

In all my other dreams I’ve never been able to read the text, but this time I can make out:

Alina Moore

Cherished, loved, but never forgotten

There’s more writing beneath that, but I can’t make it out no matter how hard I squint at the symbols and letters.

I stand there for a long time staring at the words I can read.

Alina Moore. Cherished, loved, but never forgotten.

I keep thinking of those words, and I almost jump when something wet drops onto my hand.

It takes me a moment to realize I’m crying, and silent tears are streaming down my cheeks.

Never forgotten. Something presses against the edges of my mind. It’s like there’s a memory desperate to break through, but the harder I try to grab for it, the more it slips away.

Never forgotten. My chest pangs, my heart aching for this person I can’t remember. Someone had loved them so deeply that they’d etched those words, but going by the dead vines covering the gravestone, I’m guessing this person was forgotten after all.

I wonder if it’s a family member of mine.

Someone my subconscious is trying to get me to remember.

Or maybe, this is your grave. The chilling thought makes me feel ill.

It’s not the first time I’ve had this thought.

That maybe I somehow died and was brought back as a crow. Is my name Alina? Alina Moore?

A high-pitched whistling noise fills the air, and I think I glimpse multiple eyes staring at me from the darkness, when the scene around me changes again, the graveyard fading away.

I gasp as I’m thrown into a memory from not too long ago. I’m in the demon realm during the most recent war. It’s the time when I was turned human…

Blake’s long, black hair flies around her face, her expression filled with sorrow as she talks to the demon king, and I watch on in my crow form, my feathers ruffled and the wind pushing against my small body as I fly in the air above them.

I want to help even though fear rattles through my system.

On the other side of the rooftop far below, a dark entity, Reselle, is standing there with a cruel smile that stretches across her face.

The possessed being turns her sights onto me, her eyes shining with dark intent, and before I realize what’s happening, she sends a blast of power my way.

“Blake!” I cry out in my friend’s mind as Reselle’s magic crashes into my small form, the force making me fall to the rooftop.

I roll, my wings battering against the stone, and a searing pain rips through me.

It’s as if all my feathers are on fire while I’m being torn apart, cleaved into separate little pieces.

My feathers fall from me, and my body contorts and reshapes, growing in size until I’m no longer a crow… I’m…human.

Reselle cackles like she’s proud of her accomplishment, and Blake stares at me like I’m a stranger.

“Blake?” My lips tremble. Lips. Lifting my hand, I brush my new fingertips against my mouth. Not a beak. A freaking mouth with lips and everything. “What? I-I’m not a crow,” I stammer, staggering as I stand.

“See, I told you this one was a deceiver as well,” Reselle snarls to Blake. “Now you can see for yourself, child. I’ve managed to manipulate the curse so you can see her with your own eyes. The world may not be as you perceived it, but in time, I trust you will adjust to your new reality.”

“What is she talking about?” I ask Blake, reciting the words I’ve spoken before. “Where are my wings?”

Before Blake can respond, the high-pitched whistling noise sounds, and the rooftop fades away, the scene changing yet again.

This time silver bars materialize around me, and my breathing becomes rapid as I find myself in a cage that’s all too familiar.

A cage I’ve seen many times in my nightmares.

Usually, in my dreams I’m a crow when I’m in this cage, but this time, I remain human, dwarfed by the massive bars that hold me prisoner.

No. I rush forward, my fingers wrapping around the bars as I stare into the darkness beyond my cage. I can’t be back here again. I just can’t. Cruel laughter sounds in my ears, though I can’t see where it’s coming from.

The whistling sound gets louder, and I freeze as multiple red eyes blink into existence, peering at me from the darkness.

I watch wide-eyed as a shadow creature emerges. Walking on eight furred legs, the shadow spider comes forward into the dim light that surrounds my cage like a halo. It looks like the kind of monster you’d encounter in your nightmares, which, I’m guessing, is exactly what this is. Oh, hell no.

I read a monster romance once where the main guy was a spider shifter.

The story was surprisingly hot, but while I’d like to imagine this guy simply wants to pleasure me, I’m not getting that vibe at all.

No, I’m getting serial killer vibes. I’m getting, ‘I’m going to encase you in a web and slowly consume your insides’ vibes.

I groan. I swear this stuff only happens to me.

I’m close to screaming, when I’m distracted by something that flickers in the spider’s eyes.

As the creature crawls closer, I can make out different images moving in each of its massive red eyes, playing continuously like a tv screen.

I’m in each of the images, and curiosity keeps me standing there rather than backing away.

I focus on the closest eye. In the picture, it looks like I’m in some kind of cell. Not the cage I’m in now, but a cell like one you’d find in a castle dungeon.

I’m distracted, staring at myself huddled in the image, when the spider closes the last distance between us with frightening speed. I don’t react in time, and before I can jump backward, I’m in the monster’s grasp, pressed up against the bars as red hot pincers dig into my chest like daggers.

The spider’s venom shoots into my dream body, and I scream as it feels like hot lava is traveling along my veins.

I try to pull away, but my movements are slow and sluggish.

I’m still so weak after Knox’s magic drained me.

Damn Knox. So much for regenerating my energy.

The spider holds me tight, webs shooting out from its abdomen as it wraps my legs, tying me to the bars.

“Oh yes, I love it when they struggle,” a voice hisses in my mind. “Mmm I can already tell this one will have more flavor than the last student.”

I can’t look away from that one eye I’m still focused on.

As pain makes my muscles stiffen, all I can see is me in the cell, sobbing, and rocking with my knees pressed to my chest. But why?

In the image, my mouth is moving like I’m saying something over and over, though I can’t hear any of the words.

And I can’t shake this feeling that I’m not glimpsing another one of my dreams, but a memory…

My vision shakes as the agony becomes too much, and I can feel myself slipping away as the monster drains my essence. “No, you don’t want me. I’ll taste disgusting,” I mumble, finally registering what the spider had said.

The monster stills for a moment. “What was that?”

“And I’ll give you indigestion,” I rasp. I have no idea if shadow spiders can even get indigestion, but right now I’ll say anything.

There’s a pause before the monster replies with a thread of curiosity in its hissing voice, “You speak, human, as if you hear me.”