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forty-four

Dove

T rembling, I close my eyes, hoping this dream will be over soon. I cannot be stuck here again. Usually, I get some warning that I’m sinking, but this time… Nothing.

Clawed fingertips trail a line along my jaw, and I shudder at the biting touch.

“Please,” the plea is a whisper from my lips.

“Please, what, pet?” His claws trail down my neck, raising the delicate skin and leaving it pinched as he continues to move towards my chest.

“Please, stop.” His nails disappear, and I open my eyes.

“Mesmerising,” says the daemon standing before me. It’s the only word that seems to fit him. He once called himself an angel fallen, but with his black horns, pale skin and sooty, feathered wings, he reminds me of the daemons of old. The scary creatures we were told would get us in our dreams if we did not do what our parents told us. And mine came to do unspeakable things. Things only Argus knows about.

How did my daemon come to life? He was just a figment of my mind. A warped creation. Now he’s standing before me, beyond my dreams. Beyond the darkness.

His endlessly dark eyes hold mine. I struggle to pull away, and I stumble from the bookshelf, moving around him towards the wolf in human form, still not looking our way.

Argus rears his head within my chest, igniting the embers. How could he bring me here? To him? Is this life even real?

But this is not like the past times he visited me, when all feeling left my body and only soothing tones prevailed. No, this time feels too real. This time, I can feel the chill in my bones, and the salt on my tongue, the bite of his claws. Argh. This must be real. None of this makes sense. I have already experienced the impossible, so what is another impossibility? Just another part of my life. Surely, the Goddess is laughing at the show I am putting on for her.

“Hey, you. WOLF.” My voice comes out high, and I notice his slight flinch. Finally, a reaction from the brute of a wolf beast standing by the fireplace.

He doesn’t turn, instead letting the thing behind me speak. “Come now, Pet. Gideon has informed me you are after Saff’s egg, and I possess such an egg. He has not lied.”

Whirling in my boots, I point a finger at his towering, ominous frame. “I don’t trust a word that comes out of your mouth.” Our eyes fix, my flicker of licking flames, ready to take hold of any looming threats.

“I really must thank you. I have not seen my creations in the flesh in an age. It was quite the surprise to see you on your way to me earlier than expected.” He grins my way, not a care in his dream-waking world.

Without apprehension, I take a step towards him. His almost grey-toned skin ripples over hard edges. Only black leather pants cover the expanse of his lower half, leaving his wings to flex through our dance of words. “You are the reason I’m here?” My breath comes out hot and heavy, words thudding at my feet. If I were Saff, I’m sure I would have smoke billowing from my ears, with the heat rising within my chest.

With a slight snicker, he steps forward, meeting his black-booted feet with my brown-booted ones. “I am a lot of things, but unfortunately, I cannot take full credit for your rise.”

Just seeing his steely black eyes and thickened, pointed horns, I want to strike him down. I want to make him feel an inch of the pain I’ve had to experience since he started visiting me in my dreams all those rotations ago. His paleness is almost translucent, giving way to the blackened veins beneath, further leading down to his raven-tipped claws.

“Come, now, pet, I thought we could make a deal.” His sharp nail tip traces a line over my tunic. I shiver at the contact and back away from him.

“What deal?” My voice crackles, unfamiliar to my own ears, anger rising.

“I give you what you want, and you give me what I want. Easy. A fair deal, really.” His head cocks to the side, a sly smile on his thin lips, every word out of his mouth a slippery slope I don’t think I’ll be able to return from.

Continuing to burn a hole into the floor beneath me, I glare at the daemon.

His chest muscles ripple as he takes another step forward, and as I step back, I feel the coolness of the stone behind me. “You see, my pet, I want my revenge, and you have the ability to help me.”

Balking at his admission, I ask, “What? How can I help you?” My whisper is choked, but he hears me.

“The fae—their Goddess, Oona, was the instigator of my prison.” He opens his arms, indicating the room around us.

“This is your jail?” I ask, my curiosity getting the better of me.

“This island is my prison, and just like any other creature, I wish for freedom.” Something about his hard-cut words cries out to a piece of me—the part I found when I saw Rivern’s intimate for the first time, my first real taste at freedom through the feelings of another. Something I could only ever wish for, but so far, had been bogged down by the wants of others. Until Saff, that is. My newest freedom fighter and my first real friend.

Surely, this daemon in front of me is here for a reason. Stuck in this wasteland made of ash. There has to be a good reason someone would place him in this scathing environment. Only one thing survives on this island. Plus, he is the daemon who has played a prominent role in my dreams since before I wound up at the temple.

Letting the hard wall behind me bolster my voice, I say to the daemon, “I cannot help you.”

His smile does not falter, exposing a set of razor-sharp incisors. “Oh, my sweet pet, you see, I’m purely asking out of a sense of propriety.” He leans in close, his body mere inches from mine as he breathes into my ear. “You are at my mercy, and you will do as I please.”

The urge to thrust him backwards is strong as I clench my hands, pushing against the wall. A gruff growl comes from behind the monster in front of me.

“Mmm, hello old friend. I was wondering when you would have your say, Gideon. Never one to walk silently into the night.” Shifting back on his feet, the daemon goes to sit on the large, iron four-poster bed. Rubbing his hands up and down the soft blankets, he shifts his eyes from me to Gideon. “Have your say, dog.”

Gideon’s stare is etched in concern as he peruses my body. His gaze shifts up and down, and once he finishes his full examination, his shoulders seem to relax visibly. However, my gaze does not travel lower than his torso, knowing I will find nothing but his body on display.

“Give Saff and Dove the egg. Let them leave without harm, and I will do your bidding,” Gideon directs towards the daemon.

Is he actually trying to protect me ? Now I feel bad for doubting him. Ever since he threw me over his shoulder, he’s been trying to help in some way. Maybe I was too quick to doubt him before.

Gideon’s eyes hone in on mine, and that’s when I notice the flicker from black to amber and back again—the same darkness I found in one other, someone who has only visited me in my dreams until now. Dark pools of infinity that are hard to escape stare me down. I grew up with them in my nightmares. Eyes that weaselled their way into my soul with promises of a better life until they took everything from me.

Nothing but resolve shows on his face, my gaze trapped within his snare as this new realisation takes hold. Gideon and the daemon are somehow linked by something more than knowledge of an egg.

Clapping can be heard in my periphery, and I wrench my scrutiny from Gideon to find the daemon with a strange look on his face, like he is turning over the latest yields for the summer harvest.

Placing his arms behind him and crossing his legs, taking a relaxed position on the covers, the daemon oozes confidence. “Oh, Gideon, you forget who your master is, and who the pet is here. You have no room to negotiate. Once you stepped foot on my island, I gained full control of the magic that lingers within your veins.” His voice is smug as he chides the wolf. Gracefully standing, he stalks to stand in front of Gideon, the daemon a few inches shorter than the eight-foot shifter. “But you are right. You will do my bidding with the help of my little pet.”

Turning, the daemon faces me. I wish he would stop calling me his pet.

Gideon looks ready to attack as his form is stiff behind the monster, asking, “Fury, what can a human do that your own creations cannot?”

“Quite a lot, it seems. Can’t you feel it?” Confused, we exchange a quick glance before our eyes go back to the daemon from my dreams—or Fury, as Gideon calls him. A name befitting the two-horned male standing before us. His hand travels to his chest, and he thumbs it twice. “A thread, a bond created by Oona herself. A direct line to her blood. The reason our little pet sings.”

“I…” The cord thrums a bittersweet little trill as it vibrates, letting me know I’m not close enough to my bonded. Rivern.

Just thinking his name hurts my heart. Suddenly, I’m met with his smell, his voice and his face, and I nearly crumble with the need for him.

“There it is.” Fury glides towards me .

“What are you talking about?” Gideon’s voice comes out rough and deep.

“This.” Fury’s hands float inches from my body, stroking the air, but we both know he’s not stroking some innocuous gas surrounding us, but a thin thread. A glimmer that stretches all space and rhythm. For the first time, I finally see it. The reality of my connection with another and with the Goddess.

With this cord now before my eyes, the thought of being without it is not a possibility I can live with.