In Her Dreams by Bolryder, Terry (the reader ebook .txt) 📕

fae has ever gone into that place and come back,” Lorien says firmly.

“Why can’t I?” I plead desperately.

“Why can’t she?” Tess argues.

“It’s the void realm. The nightmare equivalent of a dream palace,” Jerrek says grimly.

“Only legends and myths speak of such a place. It’s where the dark heart of the nightmare rests, the true seat of their power. Without your whip, without your armor, you won’t survive there.”

“What about Reve?” Tears bite at the corners of my eyes. I thought it was over. I thought we were safe.

I thought it was finally the end to this nightmare.

“Cauchemar is a being unlike any I’ve ever encountered. Its heart is so evil, so corrupted, we don’t even know what you’d encounter.”

“You’re saying there’s no hope?”

I watch as the hole in space gets smaller, then disappears. Immediately after, the purple dome surrounding us dissipates, and bright sunlight casts over us as everything returns to normal.

Jerrek and Lorien release me, and I fall to my knees. Tess continues to argue with Lorien, and I feel a single hand on my shoulder as Jerrek leans down beside me.

To my surprise, in spite of the calm in his expression, I see that his eyes are glossy, the creases at the corners of his mouth betraying his soft words.

“If there’s any chance of hope, I’d put my trust in Reve to make it happen, Jen. Just wait and see.”

But waiting is the last thing in the world I can stand to do when the two people I love most are in danger of oblivion.

So instead of giving in to despair, I just focus on the tiny light twinkling deep inside me and reach out to Reve with all of my heart.

23

Reve

Utter darkness surrounds me for a minute as I’m sucked into the void where the nightmare disappeared, and I press forward until I see a dim light ahead of me.

At least Jen is safe. She’s my everything. My dream mate. I know Lorien and the others will make sure she’s all right.

Even if I don’t make it back.

In the meantime, I’ll do whatever it takes to save Joey from this awful monster.

Suddenly, I drop to my feet on hard, rocky ground, and I see where the heart of darkness now waits for me.

It’s like a dreamscape but something only a nightmare could conjure. Dark, jagged rocks surround a large, flat area that suddenly drops off the edge in a large circle. Like a floating, empty island surrounded by vacuous space swirling with dark-purple galaxies and pale-blue stars so far away only the faintest light reaches us. It’s freezing here, no warmth at all.

But even worse, I can feel the very life being sucked out of me, my dream energy fading as the nightmare’s loathing and emptiness pull at the last of my defenses.

And at the center of the island, I see a thirty-foot creature of swirling purple shadow the shape of a human. But it has no mouth, only dark-red eyes that turn to face me with hatred.

The nightmare’s true form.

And just as it looks over at me, I see Joey trapped in a translucent crystal beneath him.

If I don’t save Joey, he’ll just be food for this soulless villain.

I draw both my whips, saving only the barest amount of energy to shield me from this place, and move forward quickly, watching carefully because nothing in my training ever prepared me to fight a nightmare this old or this powerful.

“You think you can defeat me here? In the very void of evil?” It chuckles, an inhuman sound that rumbles the entire island. “I will destroy you and use this little one’s energy to restore my life force. So much love in a child. So much goodness to devour.”

“On my life, you will fall.” My whips glow and crackle as my care for Joey and Jen surges within me, giving me a final surge of strength.

“Welcome to your end.” At that, the nightmare’s unnaturally long arm comes crashing down toward me. I leap, feeling the ground shatter beneath a blow that sends rocks flying, and narrowly avoid him.

By the time I’m on my feet, he’s swinging again, sweeping his other arm with a grunt of rage.

I slash my whip toward him, slicing off half of his hand, which falls to the ground and bubbles like poison. The creature screeches, and I watch as the hand regenerates, the inky blackness of its body returning to normal, but I don’t stop my attack.

Using all the strength I have in my arms, I begin to swing both whips in rapid succession, snaps and cracks breaking the utter silence of this place as I strike its shoulders, its chest, its legs. Thick pieces of the nightmare fly off, only to be regenerated instantly, but I press my attack.

Whatever is at the heart of this monster, I will destroy it so it can’t hurt another being again.

Or ever come near my soul bonds again.

Cauchemar howls as I slice through the center of him, and for a moment, I see a pulsing dark energy revealed—a heart, black and beating and empty—and I know I’ve found his weakness.

I cock my arm back, striking forward with all the speed I can muster, hoping to end him. But to my utter shock, the nightmare grabs the end of my whip midflight. And though I can hear sizzling and burning, I’m caught off guard as he yanks me forward toward him.

I have no choice but to let go of the whip, and it disappears as I tumble over uneven ground. For a moment, I try to dematerialize and reappear, but my dream powers are useless here as they were in the bubble.

“Die! Die, die, die,” Cauchemar screams in a frenzy as he smashes the ground in a whirl of movement. I watch as long claw-like appendages shoot out from its fingertips, and I duck just as his bladed hands barely miss me.

Without my armor, without my defense, I’m utterly vulnerable.

But as my mentor once said: Better to