"There is in every woman's heart
a spark of heavenly fire,
which lies dormant in the
broad daylight of prosperity;
but which kindles up, and
beams and blazes in the
dark hour of adversity."

~~Washington Irving

****************

~Nevada~

Michael still hadn't woken up by the time night fell. Nova and I had taken turns checking on him while someone hovered outside the room. Nova had bandaged all of the deeper cuts, applying a salve he had concocted from plants in the garden that would help reduce the fever in his skin along with the pain. I was fascinated and made him promise to teach me in the days to come. Something told me it would come in hand.

My mother hadn't come out of her room yet and I remembered how she had been after we thought Ashira had died. It broke my heart, knowing there was nothing I could do to ease her pain. She felt more and more like my real mom every day but this wasn't something I could just make okay again. There would be no kind words or consoling actions that could right the wrong that had been done.

Dominic had confided in me that Alana had eventually cried herself to sleep, leaving the both of us feeling lost and wanting to help. An idea kept bouncing around in the back of my mind, taunting me with its possibilities but I did my best to ignore it.

Our small group moved through the day in an almost automated way, mindless chores and repetitive training consuming our thoughts as best as possible. August did his best to keep a calm mask but I saw through it, every time he thought I wasn't watching or when his eyes would clash with Robbie's.

There was an undercurrent of tension inside the house, acknowledged but not verbalized because to do so would bring it all to life. Nova and I trained harder than ever and, despite August's unappreciative glare, we managed to uproot and replant a century old Oak tree at the back of the garden. Nova and I had celebrated although the feat was pointless in itself, it was proof that we could do more and without disaster following in our wake. It was progress nonetheless.

It wasn't until late that night, as I stared up at my ceiling in the dark, that I began to entertain the niggling suggestion that had plagued me throughout the day. I knew it was risky and that I didn't need to be alone, but if I even mentioned the idea to August... well he would be less than thrilled at the very least.

August and Robbie were patrolling and would be almost continuously for the foreseeable future, which left Nova and I alone in our beds. As quietly as I could, I crept to Nova's room and tapped on the door. He opened it a moment later, clothes rumpled but by the look on his face he hadn't been able to sleep either.

"Still awake, huh?" Nova commented, stepping aside to let me in.

I wrung my hands nervously, already starting to pace across his carpet. With a sigh, Nova switched on his bedside lamp and perched on the edge of his mattress.

"Alright, out with it before you pop," he demanded, watching me fidget.

"Okay, so uh, you know how my mom is having... difficulties, obviously," I began, stumbling over my words, "and we all know she wants answers and we do too of course. I mean, I'm sure everyone wants answers except maybe for the person... well maybe people for all I know, that did it. Maybe it was a group of -"

"Nevada!" Nova said loudly, startling me and halting my rambling. "Focus."

"Right, sorry," I grimaced, beginning to pace again.

""Okay, so what are you getting at?" Nova sounded wary and I had a hunch that he already suspected where I was going with this.

"Uh, well, I want to help," I began again, speaking much slower, "and I know it's dangerous, but Alana was right."

Nova simply looked at me, his face blank and giving nothing away as he waited for me to continue. Taking a deep breath, I plowed ahead.

"I want to try to dream walk," I rushed out, biting my bottom lip in anticipation of his explosive reaction.

"Okay."

My jaw hit the floor as I gaped at him in utter shock. I had expected at least some kind of resistance, especially after his arguing against it when it had first been mentioned.

"Wait... you aren't going to try and talk me out of it?" I asked after a moment. "No argument? Nothing?"

Nova raised his eyebrows. "Do you want me to talk you out of it?"

"Well, no!" I backtracked, shaking my head. "I just thought... I figured you would at least say something other than that."

"Look, Nev, you're a grown woman and can make your own decisions." Nova shrugged and leaned back on his hands with a half smile. "I don't think you would have made this decision lightly. Whims are my thing, not yours."

"So you think it's a good idea?"

"I didn't say that," he countered, growing serious. "I still think it's dangerous and the risks are... who knows the full extent, but you aren't stupid either. You know all of this already so I don't believe it needs repeating. Does it?"

"No." I sighed and took a seat beside him.

"So, what do you need from me, little sis? How can I help?"

"I just needed someone to know what I was going to do," I admitted, chewing on my bottom lip again. "August wouldn't have been okay with me trying and it may not work anyway, but if it does or something goes wrong..."

"Look at me," Nova said gently, waiting for my eyes to meet his gaze before continuing. "You're stronger than you give yourself credit for, both magickally and mentally. Everyone underestimates you and I think that's part of the problem. Neither of us are glass figurines, not by any means, but the more we get handled like we'll break at the slightest pressure, the harder it is for us not to. Pretty soon, they won't have a choice but to let us do something and honestly, I would rather us do it on our own terms, wouldn't you?"

"Yeah, I guess you're right," I agreed, suddenly exhausted. "Alright, I think I'm going to try this and see what happens. Maybe I won't end up like those teens in that one horror series."

Nova laughed as I opened his bedroom door. "No dying in your dreams allowed, Nev. We have archery practice tomorrow."

"Don't remind me," I groaned, shutting the door behind me.

●●●●

I had no clue how long August would be in the tower or if he and Hatter would end up switching positions at some point. It didn't matter because I had already made up my mind which meant that if all went as planned, by the time he came back to our room, I would already have put my plan to action and he couldn't stop me. At least, I didn't think he could.

After searching up an image of the Braelyn palace on my phone to give myself a visual focal point, I spent another several minutes meditating. Before all of this, I never bothered with it, thinking it was simply a waste of time. I was pleasantly surprised, however, after I got the hang of it.

Falling asleep, I admitted that I was terrified but I squashed it down as the shadows grew closer and closer. My mother needed me to do this, maybe even the world for all I knew. I could only hope that I could handle whatever I found. With that in mind, alongside the palace's image, I let myself succumb to the shadows calling my name.

●●●●

Opening my eyes, I was momentarily disoriented as I tried to focus on where I was. The room I found myself in was unfamiliar, dust coating nearly every surface, obviously thick even in the pale moonlight offered by the windows. I could make out the vague outlines of a few posters along the walls but the images were too obscured by shadows to make out.

On a desk pushed against one wall, sat a single lamp and a lone picture frame. Moving across the floor, my steps silenced by my sock clad feet, I took the picture in hand and tilted it into the light drifting into the room. A quiet gasp left my lips as I covered them with my hand.

In the picture stood a woman who was obviously my mother, her pale hair falling down her back in gentle waves as a bright smile covered her face. Alana's arms were wrapped around another girl, same blonde hair but with light blue eyes. The girl was beautiful and resembled my mother quite a bit except this girl was obviously still young. Barely a teenager at the time this image had been taken, I came to the conclusion that the must have been Avrilia.

A sad small tried to form on my lips as I looked at the young girl, the aunt I would never know. I had made it to my destination, fully aware now that I had successfully dream walked. The elation was swallowed by the reason I was here, the crime that I would have to search out in order to find answers.

Swallowing hard, I returned the picture frame to its spot on the desk and carefully made my way to the door of the bedroom. The halls of the palace were empty, eerily silent for a place so large. Everything looked as if it were carved from marble, dark or light with veins of various colors threading through. It was gorgeous and surpassed anything I had imagined, like a scene from a movie.

I kept my ears open for any sounds that might alert me to the presence of someone else, but I was completely alone. Goosebumps formed on my skin, a set of black marble stairs coming into view as dread crept down my spine. I wanted to close my eyes with each slow step, knowing that something terrible awaited me somewhere below.

Fear threatened to overwhelm my thoughts as I continued to descend, my body shaking while I clutched at the rail. A metallic, coppery scent filled the air and my heart raced in my chest so fast I thought it might burst.

The first thing I saw, stole my breath, a scream wedging itself in my throat like a log. Wall sconces lit the large room in a dim glow, and I almost wished for them to let me exist only in darkness. Blood slicked the floor, streaking across the walls and dripping down the pillars around the giant meeting all.

In the smaller or thinner places, it had already dried into darker patches, but there was so much...

Tears welled in my eyes as I surveyed the horror in front of and all around me. Weapons, swords and staffs or arrows with broken tips, dented shields, and more were scattered about the room as well, marred with dark crimson paths. Police crime scene tape was plaster sporadically around the space, as if they hadn't known where to mark first.

There were no longer any bodies, but from the state of things it seemed as if not only had the royal family been murdered but their staff and guards had been amongst the slaughter as well. With a trembling hand over my mouth to suppress any escaping sobbed, I did my best to move through the room and avoid the blood as I looked around.

Outside of horror movies, I had never seen anything like this before. My stomach churned and a wave of nausea nearly knocked me over, but I pushed it back. Alana needed me to find answers, I couldn't let anything deter my mission. I could feel the cold, sticky liquid soak through the fabric of my socks and I nearly gagged but I pressed on.

Residual magick lingered in the air, left over from the lives that had wielded it and then slipped away. Their names, their stories, all strangers to my mind, but I could feel them all around me just the same. My blood was like icy as it coursed through my veins, my heart pounding violently in my chest as I finally found a way out of the massacre room.

I found myself in a short, narrow corridor, with only a single flickering bulb to light my way. Two empty offices were behind the first two doors I tried but on the third try, what I found was promising.

"Third time's the charm, I guess," I mumbled, stepping into the room.

It was a medium sized room, two walls covered with multiple screens of various sizes and a large corner desk spanning the length of both walls. Metal racks took up the other wall, except for a plain black door, almost hidden in the corner. The screens all crackled quietly with fuzzy gray static, no images or signal to be found. The shelves were empty, no papers or folders left behind, most likely from the attackers or the investigators collecting evidence.

Pressing buttons on the keyboard resulted in nothing and the mouse was no help either. Biting my lip, I looked around while searching my head for what to do next. There had to be something, this couldn't just be another dead end!

I checked the drawers and cabinets of the desk, all just as bare as the rest of the room. There was a filing cabinet shoved in the corner but the drawers were locked.

Before I could unlock them, muffled voices caught my attention. Drawing closer as footsteps echoed down the hall, coming closer every second. Panic flooded my mind and I froze, eyes darting around the room for a place to hide.

Pushing the desk chair aside, I checked under the desk, mentally cursing the jumble of wires inhabiting the cubby space beneath it. The voices were even closer, becoming more clear as I quickly stood and spun towards the entrance, heart hammering in my chest.

"Why did you leave it here?" a male voice asked impatiently.

"It wasn't on purpose you nitwit!" growled another male voice, this one slightly deeper than the first.

"That's why it's supposed to go in your pocket, or carry a bag for fuck's sake!" hiss the first man, just outside the door.

I could see the shadow of feet at the crack at the bottom on the door, and I held my breath as I looked around once more. A light bulb went off on my head as I spotted the smaller black door a few steps away. Rushing towards it, I was inside and almost had the door closed behind me when the security room door flew open.

Two men strolled in, the first looking exasperated as he eyed the other man.

"We aren't supposed to be here!" the nervous man said, voice low as his eyes flicked warily around the room, and I recognized him as the first man to speak in the hall. "Someone could see us!"

The second man scoffed. "We are 'investigating' the murders, Manuel, of course we are allowed to be here. Relax, I know what I'm doing."

"Do you?" The first man said, finding courage somewhere as he growled at the other man. "I didn't sign up for this bullshit, Jackal. And I wasn't even a part of this!"

"Grow some balls!" Jackal growled, his back to the small crack in the door of my hiding place.

I held my breath, keeping as still as I possibly could. These men were shifters, wolves that had deserted the Blood Onyx pack. They were traitors and somehow involved in the murders! Jackal I knew to be a cruel bastard, but the other one, I had never met before. However, it didn't matter if he was a decent person or as cruel as Jackal, these two could easily pick up my scent and kill me.

"You played your games with that little fae bitch and look at what you've done," Manuel shot back, eyes blazing. "You helped kill a royal family! They'll come for you, Hatter and his people, and they'll rip you apart. You know that right?"

"I'm not concerning myself with that abomination or his little tribe," Jackal replied with a laugh as he picked the lock on the filing cabinet. "Besides, it was for the 'greater good' right? Those Braelyn pricks were going to call on the giants from what I hear. Earning a glorious blow job from the lovely Edith was merely a bonus."

I clasped my hand over my mouth to hold in my gasp, watching in horror as his words sunk in. Jackal finally undid the latch, pulling the top draw open and grinning down at whatever he saw. Reaching in, he plucked out a stack of several square items, metal glinting briefly in the flickering light from the monitors along the walls.

"We don't know that," Manuel replied without much conviction. "You've got the hard drives now let's go before -... the boss gets to looking for us."

"Fine," Jackal agreed before taking one last look around. "I wonder if they had back ups."

Manuel hesitated but only for a moment and Jackal didn't seem to notice. "Doubtful. Rich bastards are usually too cocky to think anyone would actually try to kill them in their own home."

Jackal nodded. "That's the truth."

As they were exiting the security room, I was almost positive that Manuel glanced towards the closet in which I was hiding. A rush of hope and sorrow drenched my mind and then the men were gone. I listened as their steps retreated back the way they had come and waited many more long minutes before I dared to exit the tiny space.

Taking a deep breath, my hands shaking, I felt a tiny ember spark to life in my chest. It hadn't been what I had expected, nor was it anything I was looking forward to repeating, especially to Nova. But it was more than we had before, and I could only hope that it would help lead us to answers and the end of all this madness.

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A/N: ....woah.... so yeah that happen....

I'm speechless so if you have words throw them at me!

Idk when I'll be able to update again, possible not until Monday or Tuesday. We'll see what happens.

Thanks for reading!

XOXO🖤❤🖤❤

~SM~