Tending the garden seemed a strange way to attempt to break a sleeping curse, making me suspect there was more to his reasoning. Those particular details were likely not be something I had time to discover before I awoke, so I set that mystery aside for now.
“How long has the curse been in effect?”
His brow furrowed. ”I…don’t even know. Each day blurs into another. Time almost seems…frozen here.”
As befitting dream logic, though it seemed more than that, even if I couldn’t explain my knowledge. I wrestled with the problem as silence settled back around us while we continued our trek through the misty grounds. I studied my surroundings with new eyes, as if seeing it for the first time.
The dreamscape was so much bigger than the first time I’d visited. A setting that had previously been confined to a single garden now stretched to include the palace, as if the dream was growing and expanding the more I explored during my waking hours.
Nothing about the surrounding vibrancy indicated that the kingdom was trapped in slumber. On the contrary, the details felt far more vivid than when I was awake. If not for the brambles choking the grounds and lacing up the castle stone like a spiderweb of ivy, it would appear almost identical to the real world.
We reached the steps leading up to the front doors, covered in a layer of moss and crumbling in places. No guards were stationed at the entrance, leaving no one to prohibit my companion from pushing the creaking door open. Stepping inside was like entering a tomb. Stillness and silence choked the air, as if the room itself had been cloaked in slumber. Neglect draped the walls like the threadbare tapestries, cloaking the faded artwork, fallen columns, and the cracked stained glass, several of which were missing panes.
It was the very symbol of abandonment, yet one that still contained a glimmer of familiarity different than the gilded prison I inhabited during my waking hours.
Layers of dust covered the floor, muffling our footsteps as we wandered the empty corridors. No matter how many hallwayswe traversed, we never encountered a single soul—not even anyone sleeping—as if we walked through a gravesite choked with the air of loss, without even any tombstones to mark the resting place of their victims.
“Where is everyone?” My whisper was nearly swallowed by the quiet, as if it was the first voice these walls had heard in quite some time.
“The sleeping curse descended at night while everyone was asleep in their rooms. I moved the guards who succumbed to their slumber while at their posts; I couldn’t bear the constant reminder whenever I walked by their slumped forms. Now I am the only one who walks these corridors.”
For all the disarray and neglect, the layout was identical to the one in the real world. We walked a short distance more before reaching a crossroads I felt sure I recognized. My companion started to turn left, but my attention was drawn towards the hallway to the right that disappeared in shadow darker than the rest, as though the castle itself held its breath there.
“What’s in that section?” I asked.
“A series of bedrooms, where the curse keeps several of its victims.” Something in his tone tightened, a silent warning to drop the subject…which naturally only invited more questions.
I should have felt nothing but disinterest. There was nothing compelling about strangers sleeping behind doors or rooms empty of any stories worth stealing. Yet my feet carried me forward down the forbidden corridor, drawn by a strange force that made it impossible to turn away. I heard a sharp intake of breath from the man with me, but he didn’t try to prevent me from exploring, following me at a short distance.
The corridor seemed to narrow as I walked, the air growing thicker with each step, an impossible feeling of life that didn’t belong in a place so abandoned. I slowed before an ornate doorcarved with a border of roses—each petal as detailed as if freshly cut into the wood.
“Who’s behind this door?” The question felt wrong, as if a forgotten part of me already knew the answer.
My companion didn’t answer, but a shadow passed over his face, gone so quickly I almost missed it.
I lifted my hand. The moment my palm met the wood, heat bloomed beneath my skin—not the chill of old timber, but an almost living warmth. My magic stirred—not reaching outward as it usually did, but tugging inward, as though something on the other side were tugging back on the same thread. A peculiar sensation struck, so sharp it stole my breath—the sense of standing in two places at once.
The world tilted as a sudden wave of exhaustion crashed over me and my knees threatened to buckle. Before I could hit the stone, firm and steady arms closed around me, keeping me upright.
Other than the rough handling of the guards when they’d captured me, it was the first time I’d been touched by a man in recent memory. For an illusion, he seemed surprisingly solid; if I hadn’t known this was a phantom within a dream, I would almost mistake this moment asreal.
“Easy,” he murmured near my ear. His hold anchored me; I felt the strength in it, the warmth of his chest against my shoulder, the way his fingers tightened once—almost a reflex—as if he was afraid I might vanish if he let go.
For a heartbeat, I let myself remain lost in the comfort found in his embrace, the way my skin tingled where he held me, the way my heart beat frantically as if trying to tell me something. The scent of roses clung to him, as did something else I couldn’t name—as familiar as a half-remembered song, haunting because I couldn’t quite recall the words.
He stood close enough for the fog filling my mind to thin. I looked up and lost myself in his soft gaze, searching mine with a quiet, intent concern that made my throat tighten.
“Are you alright?” he asked softly, his hand shifting on my back as he sought to support me more comfortably. The heat of his touch seeped through my gown, warming me in a way I didn’t expect.
I should have stepped away at once, but in this moment I seemed to have forgotten my own rules—touch was a kind of trap, tenderness an even sharper one. My body leaned towards him anyway, betraying me.
Before I could lose myself completely, a sliver of sense penetrated the spell he’d cast on me long enough for me to wrench myself back. Breath unsteady, I averted my gaze. “Forgive me,” I said hastily, as if apology could erase the treachery that had just occurred. “Shall we continue to wherever you’re leading me?”
Without waiting for a response, I moved away from the door and whatever lay beyond as though I were fleeing a crime scene. Yet as I left, it felt like I was abandoning something precious on the other side.
It only took a few twisting corridors beyond for me to realize where he was leading me. We entered the same gallery I’d stood in before sleep had overcome me, slowing in front of the very panel where my memories of the night had ended just before entering the dream. Only this time, it wasn’t a blank wall that greeted me.
“This appeared last night,” my companion said. “I noticed it during my rounds to check on the ever-unchanging state of the castle, as if the world itself is gradually being reawakened.”
