Page 2 of Demon Reform Academy, Term 3

2

REED

M y dreamscape felt foreign and hostile, mirroring the despair that was consuming my soul with every passing minute. The crushing weight of my failure to protect my mate pressed down on me, stealing the very breath from my lungs.

The blue trees around me cracked, sending splinters of bark spiraling into the starry abyss above me. Cold, dark purple clouds trembled underfoot as every fiber of my psyche hung on by a single fraying strand.

An acidic tang clung to the air, and it was sharp on my tongue. My sanctuary had soured with heartache.

My heart pounded painfully. Each beat echoed the turmoil festering inside of me. I felt hollow without Pandora.

We couldn’t find her anywhere.

None of our contacts could find her, either.

Death himself couldn’t locate her.

And what was I doing? Wasting away in my dreamscape, tethered to the hope that my mate would find her way here again to tell me where she was so we could get to her.

Every inhale scraped my throat like I was breathing in shards of glass.

“Why can’t we find you?” I whispered to the void, my voice cracking like the trees around me. The words sounded warped as they slipped from my lips into the vast emptiness of what was supposed to be my sanctuary.

As the dark haze roiled, a figure emerged.

Her form was faint but unmistakable.

My soul tugged toward hers.

She flickered, wavering like a candle in a storm, and my breath caught in my throat. Longing mingled with the fear that I’d gone mad.

I’d wanted to see her so badly, had my magic conjured her up? No. It had to be her. Dream magic couldn’t conjure an image of others unless they were actually there.

There were limits.

“Tourmalyke,” she rasped. Her soft voice pierced through my anguish. But even as she spoke, her image distorted, flickering like a dying star.

Why was she so faint?

“Pandora!” I surged forward, desperation clawing at my throat. “Please, don’t leave! Please . I can’t lose you again.”

The clouds beneath me shook violently, and I fell, feeling the clouds give way.

I face-planted into the coldness, and it numbed me to my bones. Pushing against it, I looked up to see her make her way to me and crouch down.

“Reed…” Her slim arms wrapped around my trembling body and held me tightly when I was the one who should’ve been holding her. “We’re… Rapture Cavern .”

“Rapture Cavern?” Hot tears streamed down my face. The anguish I felt was a physical entity, an unbearable sorrow that felt like it was going to destroy me completely if I couldn’t bring her home. “We searched it.”

“ Deeper ,” she urged, her voice fading like the last notes of a love song, echoing in the vast emptiness of our sanctuary.

She was fading from it.

“Pandora!” I cried out, panic surging through me as her form began to dissipate into the swirling shadows.

“Find us.” Her eyes glistened with tears.

I felt the tremors of my magic intensify. The very fabric of my dreamscape unraveled around us. “Are you and Dex okay?”

“Tourmalyke is still…affecting me.” Her voice lingered, a ghostly whisper that slithered through the otherwise piercing silence.

With that, she vanished, leaving me cold and alone in the swirling maelstrom of what used to be my peace.

Rapture Cavern.

I jolted awake gasping for air. My blood roared in my ears so loudly I couldn’t hear anything else. The remnants of my magic clung to me like a thick fog as I pushed off the couch and stumbled to my feet.

“Rapture Cavern!” I shouted into the room.

Hunter and Skel jolted upright, their eyes wild and unfocused.

Their faces were still lined with exhaustion. They’d barely slept, and it showed in the paleness of their skin.

Still, they were just as ready to find her as I was.

Skel blinked groggily, his voice a hoarse rasp as he fought to push through the drugged fog still dragging him under. “Where?”

One hand clutched his temple as he steadied himself. The sleeping pill we’d forced down him to keep his fear magic at bay was potent, so he was using everything he had to stay awake.

“Rapture Cavern?” Hunter’s white eyes were frantic as he became alert quicker than the rest of us. “She’s been that close all this time?”

My heart twisted at what that meant. A hollow ache spread through me at the thought of her within reach, suffering at the hands of Dark Veil.

I tasted bile in the back of my throat.

Bram sneered from the corner, one hand raking through his hair in a nervous, jerky motion. “We searched the cavern,” he snapped. “Nothing was there.”

“Not even the damned cats,” Skel mumbled, rubbing his face with both hands as though he was trying to clear the haze I knew was clouding his mind.

“We didn’t go deep enough,” I choked out, my voice cracking. “She said to search deeper!” My chest tightened, making it harder to breathe. “She was…fading from my dreamscape. I’ve never seen anything like it—she…she mentioned tourmalyke.”

Hunter’s face lost the little color it had, and I saw his hands ball into fists, his knuckles turning white. “Tourmalyke,” he repeated.

“It explains why none of Drecken Grimsworn’s spells worked when the Supernatural Council tried to find her—why we couldn’t find her, even with her matebonds. Damn it ,” Death growled as he wrenched the door of Hunter’s office practically off the hinges. “I was so afraid of this.”

He’d been pacing around the room while we slept. I hadn’t seen him sleep once since Pandora had been missing.

“Enough waiting,” he bit out. “Let’s go, now!”

We didn’t hesitate.

The four of us rushed behind Death as we charged out of Reform Hall and into the desert night. The gritty taste of dust filled my mouth with every breath. My heart thundered in my chest, a wild rhythm that matched the pounding of our feet against the sand.

“Please be okay… please …” The words were barely a breath, but they were an anguished prayer to the Fates.

Each step felt like a race against Dark Veil. I couldn’t shake the feeling that time was slipping away, just like her flickering form had in my dreamscape.