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

leave yourself vulnerable and put everything on the line for love than to shield yourself from pain and live out your days alone.

“Give. Joey. Back,” I respond, whipping at him with each word as I parry and move. A glimmer of hope lights inside me as I realize the more I hurt him, the more exposed his heart gradually becomes.

I’m trying to concoct a plan through the flurry of blows when the nightmare smashes a tall, jagged rock to the side of me, sending razor-like boulders hurling toward me. I turn to face the largest one, pulling my whip and slicing down the center of it, and the two pieces tumble and explode on both sides of me.

But before the dust can clear, a wide slash flies forward, catching me across the back and sending me down onto my face. Bright pain lances through me, my exposed flesh burning in the acrid air.

I turn onto my back just as a huge hand crushes down on my chest, pinning me to the ground, and Cauchemar looms over me cruelly.

Even without a mouth, it’s as if I can see him sneer at me, red eyes squinting with glee.

“Such hope in you. Such determination. Pity I couldn’t have fed on you too.” With that, he raises his other arm high above him, the sharp edges of his fingers glinting with energy in the dim starlight behind him. I push against his strength, trying to reach for my whip, but it’s no use.

This is the end.

The sound of something shattering to our left interrupts the grim calm before the final blow, and both of us look in the direction of the sudden noise.

“Let Reve go!”

I’m both surprised and horrified as I see Joey charging forward, blue whip glowing in one hand, other hand reaching toward me as he runs.

I don’t even have time to warn him away as Joey leaps only slightly farther than a normal human child might be able to muster and brings his whip down on the nightmare’s arm that has me pinned.

His small whip glows as it cuts a clean path right across its elbow, and the nightmare screeches a hideous sound and rears back.

I have just enough time to get out from beneath the sizzling, dissipating mass of void energy, and I rush to Joey, who wraps his arms around me tightly.

I want to scold him, tell him he shouldn’t have done something so reckless.

Yet I’m so proud of him I can barely contain it.

My little warrior. So strong.

“Did you see? Did you see? I used my whip!” he exclaims gleefully, not fully aware of the direness of our situation, I think. “I just thought about how much I love Mom and how much I wanted to save you, and it just appeared in my hand.”

“Yes, you did great.”

Behind us, Cauchemar reels and howls in pain, arm slowly regenerating but leaving his heart even more exposed.

“Be careful. This place is dangerous. We must act quickly.”

“Yeah, it hurts to breathe like that one time Mom burned the oil and the whole house reeked.”

I use what remaining energy I have to bring my wings out. And even though they’re so much shorter than when I’m at full power, I keep Joey behind me, using the magic from my wings to surround him and protect him from the poison that’s slowly taking its toll.

“What do you say we finish this together?”

“And get back to Mom?” His brown eyes sparkle, reminding me of Jen.

“And get back to your mother,” I reply hopefully, knowing that I have no way of leaving this place but also knowing I have to try regardless.

Both our whips spark, and I move forward as ominous red eyes meet mine.

The nightmare charges at us, swinging with his one good hand, and I throw my whip forward in a horizontal arc, cutting halfway through his legs. It falls to its knees, arm hitting the ground next to us, and Joey raises both hands over his head and brings his whip down, cutting the creature’s hand off clean.

I don’t pay attention to the scream of pain or cries for mercy coming from Cauchemar as I whip his shoulder, knocking the rest of his arm off as it keels over to its side. He tries to bat us away with what’s left of the other arm, and with a zap, it’s gone too, the nightmare writhing on the ground.

“Please. I never meant to hurt anyone. It was just an accident. You can’t fault me for being what I am. I was just trying to survive.” His useless cries for pity fall on deaf ears, and I see the center of its heart spinning like a black hole in his chest.

If he hadn’t been stopped, he would have killed my soul bonds.

With one final strike, I slice down the center of the nightmare’s heart, sundering it in two, and Cauchemar lets out a final cry of rage before disappearing into ash and soot that dissipates on an invisible breeze.

It’s over.

I fall to my knees, completely sapped of energy. My whip disappears because I need what little magic I have left to power my wings, which surround Joey as I pick him up in my arms.

“That was awesome!” Joey yells.

“You did great, Joey.” I take the small moment of respite I can before it’s interrupted by a rumbling deep beneath us.

An earthquake shakes the ground, and I realize with horror that the void realm is collapsing now that the nightmare is defeated. Far off in the sky, tiny stars are exploding, going out like light bulbs, casting us in an even deeper gloom while the ground cracks.

I get to my feet, running for the edge of nowhere as a deep crack splits the floating island in half. With an ominous rumble, large chunks of each side fall away, disappearing as they’re sucked into a lightless void beneath, but I keep moving.

I call for Lorien and Jerrek, hopeful they’ll find a way here even as the