Page 71 of Once the Skies Fade (Immortal Reveries #2)

Chapter 71

Calla

I sa still hadn’t come for me.

Granted it had been only a handful of hours, but that was longer than I’d expected from my best warrior…my best friend.

What if she betrays me like Graham did?

The thought pinched my heart.

How many betrayals could someone endure before the pain charred their heart and they decided to burn the whole world? Of course, at this moment in this iron room with nothing but a bucket in the corner, I couldn’t do anything—let alone destroy everything. Stars, I could barely use that damned bucket with these iron gloves on my hands.

Ursula hadn’t said how long I would remain here, claiming my trial was still being debated by the Assembly. Whether that debate was to determine the date of said trial or to have a trial at all didn’t matter much to me. The one consolation I had was the shocked hurt that had played on Ursula’s face when we arrived in the dungeon to find the door to Matthias’s cell open and the room empty.

Ursula had screamed at the guards holding my chains, as if they could have possibly known what had happened when they’d been with her arresting me the entire time. It had been Sera who had blurted out a single word from her cell down the hallway.

“Graham.”

Graham .

The bastard.

I spent the first hours in the dungeon wondering where Isa was, how Matthias was doing, and what I would do to Graham when I finally got a hold of him.

I simply needed Isa to get me out of here.

Until then, all I could do was wait.

After the pair of guards left with my empty supper plate—and I recovered from the humiliation of having to be fed by them—I settled myself on the floor and counted the rivets on the cell door until exhaustion finally claimed me.

At first there was only darkness, but just as disappointment kicked in, the void around me faded slowly until I was surrounded by the forest once again. I wasn’t near the edge of the forest as I had been in that last dream. Instead, I was kneeling in the mud and leaves, the rhythmic pounding of a horses’ hooves pulling my gaze over my shoulder, where my horse’s tail disappeared into the trees.

“Matthias?” I queried the stillness, my voice so meek and pitiful, I cringed. Pivoting onto my backside, I brushed the muck from my hands as I surveyed the forest.

Please be here. Please be here.

How were these bonded dreams supposed to work anyway?

They seemed highly inefficient and pointless—no different than mediocre, single-minded dreams if I couldn’t call to him to meet me. I hated waiting.

Waiting in my dream.

Waiting in the dungeon.

Heaving a sigh, I slammed my palms back into the dirt to push myself to my feet when a hand appeared before my face.

But it wasn’t Matthias’s eyes peering down at me. Brennan stood over me, that mischievous smile of his beaming. My heart lit up at the sight of him, but not in the way it had before. Raven was right. The bond had altered my feelings.

Slipping my hand into Brennan’s, I let him pull me to my feet.

“How are you here?” I asked, dropping my eyes to his chest.

When he spoke, though, it wasn’t his voice. It was Graham’s.

“It didn’t have to be this way. You could have just picked me.”

My whole body trembled as I yanked my hand from his and retreated backwards, shaking my head. This wasn’t real. He wasn’t really here. This was just a regular, run-of-the-mill bad dream. Glancing around, I searched for any sign of Matthias, any hint he was sharing this dream with me.

“Matthias!” I called, spinning around in the trees, the forest becoming a blur as I turned and searched.

“Calla, wake up.” A voice pierced my consciousness, but it wasn’t his, and I resisted its command, desperate to remain in the one place where I could find my mate and talk to him and make sure he was okay.

“Calla, wake up,” the voice repeated, and something gripped my shoulders, shaking me as I clamped my eyes closed, not wanting to see anyone but my mate. “It’s me, Isa!”

Her name yanked me from my dream, and slowly I opened my eyes to find myself back in my cell and staring at my best friend.

“We have to move.” She started to haul me up to my feet, but then stopped, noticing my iron-clad hands.

“Where have you been?” I asked as she studied the contraptions encasing my hands and shadows.

“Explanations come later.” Her eyes snapped up to mine. “How do we get these off?”

I shook my head. “I don’t know. The guards might have the keys? Who keeps the keys to the cells?”

“They wouldn’t make it that easy. You can’t conjure your shadows to help break free?”

“First thing I tried, and no, not without blinding pain. Even with the pain I don’t know if I can hold them steady long enough to free the lock.”

“Ursula?” Isa asked.

“Her or Warren maybe?”

“Okay,” she said, lowering my hands back into my lap and gripping my shoulder reassuringly. “I will find the keys, but until we can get those off, I want you to stay here.”

Before I could protest, she was at the door and slipping through the tight opening.

“Isa,” I called after her, and she poked her head back inside. “Where is he?”

My friend swallowed hard, her eyes darting back to the corridor. When she turned back to me, she didn’t meet my stare, shame pulling at her features as if all of this was her fault.

“Graham is taking him to Dolobare.”