Page 136 of Dream Reaper

Her gaze flickered, unbidden, toward the tower.

Toward the innocents. Toward her friends.

Yes. The shadow’s giggle deepened into a roar as a dozen tentacles slammed into the tower, puncturing again and again and again…

Ava yelled, her heart in her throat. She grabbed hold of the tentacle around her waist and tried to yank it loose. To do something—to do anything—as stone exploded into the air. The tower groaned and creaked, and a side wall collapsed and tumbled to the ground with a bone-shattering thud.

More screams exploded from inside the collapsing tower.

Her friends flashed before her eyes. Ylsi and her ponytails. Brynja and her flashing eyes. Finnr and Siri.

And wild, unstoppable Roar, who didn’t yet understand how dangerous and cruel the world could be to brave little children.

Someone emerged from the tower, and Jerrid howled a warning.

Brynja turned toward them, her dagger in hand, teeth flashing. Others emerged behind her and fled toward the camp, many of them supporting their friends or carrying the children.

The shadow laughed and snapped toward them.

Ava shrieked and clamped her hands around the coil cinching her waist. Adrenaline flooded her veins, her weakness bolstered by hate for this thing—but no, not just hate. With love for these humans who deserved to be free. To live in a world without nightmares haunting their every sleeping moment.

Their every waking moment.

Below her, Brynja ducked and rolled as the shadow struck deep into the ground where she had been standing.

Ava’s hands, slick with her own blood, latched onto the shadow, and she pulled. Not at the tentacle, but at the shadow itself. An idea formed in the back corner of her mind.

It was a wild, crazy idea.

But she reached out with her thoughts, attacking the shadow lurking in the back of her own head, turning the tables against it.

It had stolen enough from them. From her. From Jerrid. From Prince Haryk and all the brave humans fighting for their lives below on the ground. Enough was enough.

Maybe it was time the shadow learned how it felt to be robbed of its essence, of its hopes and dreams. If she could take energy from Jerrid when he was connected with her consciousness, why couldn’t she do the same to this blasted shadow?

She attacked hard and fast, throwing herself deep into the nightmare like one of its own tentacles driving down, down, down into the ground. The world faded away until only darkness remained. It was all around her—the seething heart of the shadow.

And it didn’t know she was there until she sank her hands into its foul heart.

She squeezed her fingers tightly and yanked back with all her might, pulling it out of itself, stealing its strength, its power. The foul darkness flooded through her body, filling her mouth with the taste of ash. Terrible, terrible things flashed through her thoughts.

Vile things.

Things so terrible she had never in her life imagined they were possible.

Visions bombarded her of Brynja and the girls lying lifeless on the ground, their eyes glazed and bodies bloody. She saw Jerrid ripped out of the sky and torn apart, his roars of pain reverberating in her ears.

The vision changed, shifting out of the woods to a great city with dark-blue banners fluttering in a wild wind.

Eroth.

Her heart caught in her throat as millions of tentacles burst through the streets of the city. Screams exploded across Eroth as buildings burst into flames. Ava was dragged through the vision to the very steps of the palace. Familiar corridors and halls whisked by her. The wooden halls of Eroth began to ripple with heat as they crackled and burned.

A tall, lithe shape loomed out of the darkness, and her focus sharpened as the movement stopped, thrusting her in front of a young dark elf. Her heart jerked in her chest.

Peregrin! she cried out, but her brother didn’t respond.

Haunted eyes stared straight through her, his long black hair floating around his shoulders as he drifted off the floor, feet suspended several yards above the wooden slats.