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I close my eyes, focusing, and open them again. Dreams gleam like wet gems at the bottom of a dark river. That’s always how they appear to me, whenever I hunt for them, though I have heard that other demons see them differently.

Only a few dreams lie within my reach. I’m deep in the wilderness of the Thornwood, and most of the dreamers sleep too far away for me to peer into their slumbering minds. Here and there, the dreams of dire wolves flicker, though I have never been able to enter the mind of an animal before.

“Where are you?” I murmur, though she can’t hear me.

Sleep puts some distance between my body and myself. I’m less bound by the needs of the flesh. My hunger no longer dominates my every thought, but I am still weakened.

I must feed.

Find her, my hunger urges me. Find her, quickly.

I wade into the dark river until the water laps at my mouth. Swimming now, I allow the current to carry me among all the fantasies and imaginings that don’t belong to me. My incubus senses allow me to hunt down my prey with unnerving accuracy. Instinct guides me to my target.

My gaze locks on a dream of sapphire blue, lying deep in the river.

Pyrah.

I dive down and capture the dream in my claws. When I touch it, the world changes between one blink and the next. Such is the strange logic of dreams.

I’m standing in the mountains, the white snow almost blinding, on the edge of a cliff. The sky stretches, enormous, above me. I have never seen a sky so blue before.

Where is she?

Powerful wings pound the sky. I whip around just as a magnificent red dragon soars over the cliff’s edge. She isn’t looking down, because her neck is stretched out, straining for altitude. Her talons rush past my horns.

Breathtaking. My heart floats higher just watching her fly.

“Pyrah!” I shout her name into the wind.

She circles back before landing on the edge of the cliff. Her wings arch above us and capture the brilliant sunlight. Illuminated, they look like red stained glass.

“Pyrah,” I say. “It’s me. I’m here.”

Her pupils narrow to slits. “No.” She digs her claws into the stone. “I keep dreaming about you, night after night, but you’re never real.”

My throat chokes up at her pain. That must be a particularly cruel torment. “Pyrah, that wasn’t me. I was unable to enter your dreams. They took me prisoner.”

“They?”

“The queen and her sorceress. They captured me. Chained me.” I swallow hard and decide to omit the details of my torture. “Drugged me with a potion of dreamless sleep.”

She blinks, again and again, as if she wants to wake herself from this dream. “I know you aren’t real. I’m only imagining what might have happened to you, hoping you aren’t dead.” Tears roughen her voice, though she does not cry.

I can’t let her suffer like this. “I’m not dead.”

“How can I believe you?”

“Let me prove it. Let me take control of your dream, if you will allow me.”

Her tail flicks against the ground like that of a wary cat, but she says, “Yes.”

When I take control, she gasps at the invasion of her mind. I’m gentle with her imagination, careful not to turn her dream into a nightmare. Slowly, I let the mountains and the vividly blue sky fade away. I bring her to Hexfall, where the red petals of roses drift like endless rain in the night.

She relinquishes the armor of her dragon form. When she shifts into a woman, she’s shivering, her naked body pale and beautiful in the moonlight.

Every muscle in me tenses. I thought that I could hold my hunger at bay here, but it roars to life inside me.

Fuck, how much longer can I resist her?

“Pyrah.” I growl out her name. “I haven’t fed in over seven days.”

“You must be starving.” She searches my eyes, her own glimmering. “It’s really you, isn’t it?”

“Yes.”

"Rook. Rook.” She repeats my name as if she can’t believe I’m finally here. “Where are you now? What happened to you?”

“I’m safe.”

“But where?” She glances around the dream. “Hexfall?”

“Yes,” I say again. “And you? Are you safe?”

"I’m in my cave. I don’t know when I stopped being able to sleep alone, but it took me an eternity to fall asleep tonight. It’s been so difficult every night without you.”

"Are you still bleeding?”

"No.”

My breath escapes me in a hard exhalation. “You can shift back into a dragon?” It would be safer that way, if she can defend herself.

“I can.” Her throat works as she swallows. “Let me touch you. Please.”

This is just a dream. I have to remind myself that I can’t hurt her here.

When I release her wrist, she combs her hand through my hair. Her fingernails lightly skim my scalp. Shivers rack my body. She curls her hand around one of my horns.

“Pyrah.” My breath shudders out of me. “I left you when you were vulnerable and in pain. I should have been there to protect and comfort you.”

She shakes her head. “It wasn’t your fault.”

"I don’t know if I should return to you.”

Her blue eyes flash gold for a moment. “Why wouldn’t you?”

“I would rather starve than hurt you.” My words sound guttural, and I force myself to gentle my voice. “Even in this dream, I can feel my hunger taking control. Turning me into something monstrous.”

“No.” She challenges me with a defiant stare. “You are my monster. Devour me.”

“I can’t.” My heart pounds like a hammer in my chest. “Not in a dream. Here, a kiss is just a kiss.”

She stands on her toes, her hands hooked around my horns, and kisses me.

Our mouths collide with an intensity that knocks the breath out of my lungs.

Even though it isn’t a devouring kiss, I’m overwhelmed by a rush of emotions too tangled and fast for me to name.

I’m falling from a high place and might never hit the ground.

She breaks the kiss, her breathing a little shaky, and locks eyes with me. “I will find you in Hexfall. Don’t you dare try to run away from me.”

I admire her ferocity. “I won’t.”

“Time to wake up, Rook.”

With a nod, I release my hold on her dream.