“Your father’s home. The house your family owned for generations,” he gently tells me. I turn away from his red eyes to the ruined house, my eyes going wide, a strange feeling entering my chest. I’ve wanted to see this place for so many years. To know where I was born. To think, I came into this world in this very house, if my mum’s stories were true. “Four years after the family was murdered and all thought to be dead”—he pauses and gives me a slightly amused expression as I’m clearly not so dead—“a fire burnt the house down. The land is untouched, but it does belong to you now.”
“Why did you bring me to see this?” I question. It hurts to look at this house, to know what I could have had if my family wasn’t murdered. If I hadn’t lost everything.
“You never told me much about your father’s side, only about your mother and uncle,” he replies, looking at the house. “I wanted to search for you, to find answers.”
“Unless you know who killed them, there isn’t much to find,” I coarsely reply.
“After bribing some of the other houses down this long road, I’ve found out Kriffin Heartlocke was very close to the queen. It was even said she wanted them to marry. He chose another, a girl that came out of nowhere and had no family, bar a brother who she apparently left. She claimed she was from Earth, but everyone suspected she was far more than human,” Seth tells me, moving close to the gate and placing his hand on the metal. I can’t touch it, and even being here feels wrong somehow. “The girl never left the house, and Kriffin stayed with her. In the last year of their lives, the Heartlocke family were scarcely seen.”
“We both know the girl wasn’t human. She was Unseelie fae,” I mutter.
“There is nothing wrong with being Unseelie fae like this city and the queen here believes. Not everything that is dark is wrong, and not everything that is light is right,” he replies to me. “I believe you came here for a reason, Syn, and that reason has to do with what is in your blood.”
“I came here to escape my fate on Earth. Nothing more,” I reply, turning my eyes on him as he moves around me, making me step back. “Talking of Earth, I’m surprised you haven’t gone back yet.”
“You keep expecting that I will run,” he counters, stepping closer to me. I step back again until my back hits the metal gate, and Seth boxes me in with his body, gripping the gate bars near my head with his hands. I’m overwhelmed by how good he smells, citrus and earthy, and all things delicious. His silence forces me to look up, to get trapped in his gaze. Most people are scared of him, scared of the power of the demon overlords, but for me...it was never that simple. His power frightens me, but everything else simply does not.
“You have a track record of leaving me when I need you, Seth,” I counter.
His eyes trace my face, like he wants to remember every little thing about me. I used to do the same with him. “You were too young for me. Too lost and too scared of the world. It would never have worked between us back then, and I convinced myself walking away was for the best. Until I saw you again and knew nothing I did would get you out of my head.”
“I should run the fuck away from you,” I tell him.
He smirks, leaning closer and cupping the back of my head, pulling me to him. His lips trace mine ever so softly, and I feel like my heart near enough stops beating. “I would chase you forever, Syn.”
Then he kisses me.
A kiss I’ve wanted for five long years, and it does not disappoint. I sink my hands into his suit jacket as his tongue sinks into my mouth, battling with my own. Seth kisses me with expertise, and every touch is almost desperate. It’s addictive.
I gasp as he breaks the kiss, resting his forehead against mine, our bodies pressed tightly together. “Do you trust me now when I say I’m not leaving you?”
“Yes,” I whisper against my better judgment. “Because if you do, Seth, not even hell could hide you from my vengeance.”
He grins. “I would expect nothing less, Syn. Nothing less at all.”
Chapter 24
The darkness of the room bleeds away, a gleaming light burning the empty room into existence, and I can only stare, wondering where I am, knowing that this isn’t a normal dream. I don’t think I am even allowed them anymore; they seem like a distant memory. Now it’s nothing but these nightmares that never seem to go away. Slowly, water starts to trickle down the walls of the room, pouring onto the floor at my feet, and I try to move, try to do anything, but I can only stand still as the room slowly begins to fill with water.
Can I drown in a dream?
When the water is up to my knees, he appears in the room, stepping out of the wall like it’s not really a wall at all. The water doesn’t touch him, it simply parts as he walks in, leaving a gap around his legs. His face still remains hidden in the hood of his cloak.
“Oh to see your struggle,
How I wish to see you buckle under me—”
I cut him off. “Will you just fuck off with the songs? What is wrong with you?”
“Daesyn Heartlocke, your days are trickling to an end,” he answers. This time he doesn’t sing it, and I’m surprised he actually listens to me. The rising water hits my stomach, and I swallow down the panic I’m starting to feel.
“Who are you?” I ask. It’s the only question I want—no, need—to know.
His laugh echoes around the room. “You will find out soon. I will find you in the real world long before you find me in your dreams.”
He starts to walk away, and I grit my teeth from the feeling of the cold water rising. “Find me quick, and I promise to end your sorry excuse for a life.”
He laughs as he steps through the wall, disappearing and leaving me with only the rising water. I struggle and fight against the magic I can feel holding me still, forcing me to its will, but nothing works. I try to call my powers, and eventually I just scream even as the water rises to my neck. The lights start to flicker out just as the water covers my mouth, and I hold my breath for as long as I can. Seconds bleed into minutes underwater, where I can see nothing but darkness, and eventually I have to gasp, sucking in the cold water. I struggle for air, coughing and gasping on the water even as everything disappears around me.
I wake up with a scream, gasping and coughing on thin air. I fall out of my bed, coughing out water from my lungs that spreads across the floor. The door flies open, and Ryker runs in, followed by Poppy. Both of them stare at me in shock as I finish coughing up a swimming pool amount of water on the floor.
“What the fuck?” Ryker exclaims, leaning down and picking me up into his arms. I wrap my arms around his neck, feeling too weak to tell him to piss off and put me down.
“I will get towels!” Poppy mutters, sounding completely confused and worried all at the same time.
“What happened?” Ryker softly asks me, picking up my blanket and wrapping it around my shoulders. Mossy comes jumping into the room, landing on my lap and staring up at me.
“Have you been swimming?” Mossy asks, looking at the floor. It takes a lot of effort to shake my head. Poppy comes back into the room with several towels and places them on the floor, and only then do I notice the scythe in her hand.
“Where did you get that?” I question.
“They magically appeared an hour ago by the door. There is one for you,” she explains, using her feet to wipe the floor with the towels. “That’s why Ryker came up here. The Unseelie rebels are attacking the gates, and some have even gotten through. Ryker came to protect us just before the doors were locked for the night, according to the note on the scythe.”
“A lot happened while I was sleeping, huh?” I croak out and clear my throat a few times. It still feels sore, but my body is healing itself quickly as usual.
“Wanna explain the water?” she asks.
