Page 18 of Realm of Dreams & Shadows

Before I can process his words—much less everything else—Kali’s hand clamps around my arm, yanking me away so hard it feels like she’ll rip the limb off. “This way. Quickly.”

She drags me through the tunnel, her grip bruising as I stumble to keep up. My lips still burn from the king’s kiss, my mind a torment of wild thoughts and confusion and desperate longing.

The torchlight blurs as we move faster and faster until everything tilts. The tunnel warps around us, the air rippling like heat rising off a sunbaked street. Then Kali’s gone, the cave dissolving into smoke as the ground vanishes beneath me.

I’m falling again. Tumbling through darkness.

A golden rope lashes around my waist, yanking me sideways, and I crash onto soft moss at the base of an enormous redwood, the impact knocking the breath from my lungs.

Golden Eyes stands over me, his expression grim as he coils the rope back to his hip.

“You saved me again,” I whisper.

He shakes his head. “Not yet.”

Before I can ask what he means, a piercing screech splits the air. We both look up to see a silver dragon tearing through the canopy, its breath of flame surging toward us.

Golden Eyes grabs my upper arms, pulling me close enough that I can see flecks of copper in his golden irises.

“Every time,” he says, his voice rough with emotion, “I tell you to forget me. Not this time.”

His palm cups the back of my head, fingers tangling in my hair as he searches my face with desperate intensity. My breath catches as he leans in, his intention clear in the way his gaze drops to my lips.

He’s going to kiss me. And despite everything—the danger, the strangeness, the fact that this is all a dream—I find myself tilting my face upward to meet his.

But the kiss never comes.

“Remember,” he whispers instead, his breath warm against my lips.

Then I’m falling backward, his hands on my shoulders propelling me through a gossamer barrier into swirling mist. As I tumble through endless gray, I catch one last glimpse of him—drawing his sword to face the dragon’s fiery breath alone.

“No!” I cry, reaching uselessly toward him.

Then the flames engulf him, and all I can do is scream as the man who saved me burns before my eyes, his silhouette blackening against the inferno before disappearing altogether.

I’m still screaming when I lurch upright in bed, the sound ripping from my throat and echoing all around me. Sweat plasters my T-shirt to my body, and my heart hammers so violently I can feel each beat in my fingertips. For a few seconds, I can’t move, convinced the bed will melt beneath me like the lava in my dream.

It takes several disoriented seconds to register my surroundings—the narrow twin bed, the splash of moonlight coming in through the small window, the faint glow of fairy lights from the other side of the room.

My dorm.

I’m in my room. It had all been a nightmare.

And unlike my mother, I’d once again made it back alive.

“Cora?”

I turn to see Tia, now kneeling on her bed, her eyes wide with concern. “It’s okay. You’re okay. It was just a bad dream.”

“Yeah. I’m okay.” I force the words past the tightness in my throat. “I’m sorry I woke you.” I fight the urge to cringe. We’ve known each other less than a day, and already I’m giving her reasons to regret the roommate lottery. “I’m fine. Really.”

Apparently, she doesn’t believe me, because she hurries to dampen a towel at our in-room sink, then perches on the side of my bed as she lays the cool, damp cloth against my forehead, the sensation feeling a bit like heaven.

“You’re okay,” she whispers, and I nod and breathe, nod and breathe.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

I shake my head, then glance at the clock. Three in the morning. “I think I’ll try to sleep again.”