Herana.

  A soft voice whispered in Jàden’s thoughts. Pain pounded against her temple, but each time she tried to open her eyes, heavy darkness sucked her back down.

  They’re coming for us. We can’t hide any longer. A gentle hand pulled her from sleep into a vivid green meadow filled with bright sunshine and tall màvon trees. Her hair ruffled in the breeze as a pale entity with brown eyes watched her.

  Panic squeezed her chest. She recognized the slender figure who rode with éli. She tried to step back, but the wind only blew harder, curbing her to the meadow. Who are you?

  Evardo. Their eyes filled with tears, mouth unmoving as they spoke with a gentle mind voice. I have heard your screams my whole life, Herana. You and thousands of others who cannot escape the sleep between one life and the next.

  Jàden’s heart hammered with fear as she tried to piece together their words. You mean those still in hypersleep.

  But that couldn’t be. Stasis was supposed to be dreamless.

  And yet Evardo nodded affirmation, heavy grief etched into a face far too young to carry such weight.

  There was a gentleness about them, a longing so deep she almost expected Evardo to break down into sobs. But still as a companion of éli, she didn’t trust them.

  You’re the dreamwalker. A snarl curled her lip as she thought about Mather.

  Sunny trees faded to thin lines of light, a thousand colorful threads webbed together. Soft whispers pulsed along each thread, voices of all the people who had once suffered in Bradshaw’s cages.

  Jàden could hear them—whispers, screams, aching hearts for all they’d lost. They’re still alive.

  She’d spent two years trying to block out their screams. The pain and loneliness they’d all endured for the sake of Bradshaw’s ‘science’ still stabbed at the deepest part of her heart. Where are they?

  Safe, sleeping. They will wake soon enough, and it will begin again.

  The words hit her sharp as a blade. No!

  I need to show you something. Evardo’s gentle voice filled with pain as the webbed lines melted away to steel walls.

  Jàden hunched as if the walls would crush her, but slowly the truth set in. This was a dream or, at best, some unconscious space inside her head. Evardo was the dreamwalker from the north, and they’d pulled éli into that young warden’s head.

  You killed Mather.

  I didn’t want to. Evardo squeezed her hand, so much pain and fear in their eyes she thought they might crumble. My owner made me do it. I am so afraid, Herana, that you will abandon us. If you do, I will be forced to do so much worse.

  Nobody’s forcing you! She pulled her hand away from him. What Frank and Bradshaw have done is vile and fractures the essence.

  Evardo stifled a sob as blue light traced through the seams in the steel walls. Jàden followed their path to the cockpit of a small cruiser, large enough to comfortably transport six people from one star system to the next.

  “You ready, baby?” Kale sat in the pilot’s seat, a headset over his ear.

  She settled into the navigator’s chair and clutched his hand. Lucie, her black-and-white collie, curled up on the floor between them, panting happily. “I’m with you until the end.”

  It was the ship she and Kale prepped to leave Sandaris, but they’d never made it further than the Ironstar Tower. Wait, Evardo. This never happened.

  No. Evardo hung their head as the cockpit melted away. That is the moment that nearly doomed us all.

  Jàden rubbed a hand across her chest to dull the ache in her heart. She’d wished so many times for that moment, just the three of them together. But the dread in Evardo’s words gripped her. I don’t understand. This should be a happy moment.

  The vision changed again, showing Sandaris after they’d disappeared from Hàlon’s radar. Without her, the moon started to die. Small seedlings carpeted the plains then withered once more as her tether with the moon stretched to the point of pain.

  Its agony isn’t on the surface but deep within the core, Evardo whispered as the anguish of a dying, sentient technology withered away, its last breath slowing the flow of power through Hàlon’s core. The bionet generators exploded, and the Sandarin atmosphere disappeared, spacing thousands of citizens from the surface.

  As if in fast motion, Hàlon became a graveyard. The cold black seeped through steel welds. The ship drifted slowly away from Sandaris until a fleet of Alliance ships dropped out of lightspeed. Their engineers dismantled the starship and mined the moon until they found their prize.

  The gateway core wrapped in a vessel Jàden couldn’t put words to.

  The shape and color was so alien, and she’d never forget her time inside that awful place and the thousands of chrysalis-like pods clinging to every wall—and still occupied.

  That’s their starship, isn’t it?

  Evardo only nodded. The ship or creature—she couldn’t honestly say which—disappeared into a station built from Hàlon’s gutted remains. The station and the last of the fleet disappeared until nothing remained but a graveyard of bone drifting in the black.

  This is our future if you leave, Evardo whispered. They were right to keep you here. You should have opened the gate the first time.

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

  Jàden stared at the emptiness, seething anger at Evardo’s last words. You weren’t there, and you know nothing.

  Her words came out much sharper than intended, but she refused to take them back. Evardo killed Mather, sided with Frank and Bradshaw. They may have had the gentleness of a lost child, but if she could see inside their head, what would she really find?

  Evardo stepped in front of her, a raw terror stark in their eyes. Please, Herana. You must stay, or both halves of your life-essence will be lost. The one from before and the one you seek now.

  #

  Evardo’s mind retreated abruptly as raindrops fell on her face. Jàden jolted awake, her cheek pressed against a soft warmth. Groaning with heavy fatigue, she lifted her head from someone’s shoulder, the jungle alive with frog chirrups.

  The horrors of her dream lodged deep inside her chest, stirring up that unknown instinct deep in her bones.

  Beside her, Braygen leaned against the tree trunk, tracing his thumb across the hilt of her dagger and the strange orb with trailing legs. “You okay?”

  “Bad dream.” She sat up straighter, gripped her head in both hands and leaned against her knees, trying to shake away the anger.

  “Where did you get this?” He gripped the obsidian blade and offered her the hilt. Something in his voice had become guarded.

  “From the crew on the Darius.” She sheathed the dagger and leapt down from the low branch. An engine rumbled overhead, its gray hull practically invisible against the clouds.

  But Evardo’s words hit her again. They’re coming for us.

  Us. As if Evardo was somehow involved in all of this. Though with their strong dreamwalker abilities, Bradshaw would scoop them up in seconds.

  “Tell me what you saw.” Braygen placed his hands on her shoulders to stop her pacing, his eyes a gray storm of emotions.

  “No.” She ached to hug him. To hold on tight as if he might shield her from what Evardo had shown her. She clenched her hands to keep herself rooted in place. “I don’t know. But the man from Felaren who held me pinned, he’s got a dreamwalker with him. A powerful one.”

  Someone who could show her whatever they wanted her to see. Maybe éli forced their hand now, furious that she’d disappeared with the wind. Or maybe he’d found Jon instead.

  Jàden pulled away and resumed her pacing.

  This is our future if you leave. They were right to keep you here. You should have opened the gate the first time.

  She cried out in frustration. Frank had never been in the right. Opening that gate was too unpredictable and could easily make things a lot worse.

  You must stay, or both halves of your life-essence will be lost. The one from before and the one you seek now.

  This one hit her chest hard. The one she sought now was easy to figure out—Kale. But another half of herself, another soul mate.

  Maybe that was Jon. Except she’d met him after Kale, not before.

  Braygen leaned his shoulder against the tree and watched her calmly, only his eyes in turmoil. She couldn’t say if it was about the symbol on her dagger, her anger or something that happened while she slept.

  “We need to get out of here.” She couldn’t stay all day fretting about Evardo or whatever they had planned with éli.

  The ship roared again and lifted skyward, zipping away into the storm. At least that was one problem gone, and yet she still couldn’t shake Evardo’s vision. She had no reason to trust them, but there was no way they could have known about the inner gate and the moon’s sentience. No one knew except her and Frank and a few dozen others who could be dead or in hypersleep.

  She crossed the small clearing to check on Ashe, his eyes open and staring at the sky.

  Relief washed through her, sweeping away her anger. “You’re awake.”

  Ashe groaned and rolled to a crouch. “Where’s Andrew?”

  She pressed a hand to his forehead to check for any lingering fever, but he batted her away. “Andrew’s with the captain,” she said. “They should catch up tomorrow.”

  Still pale and weak, his gaze darted between the Tahiró. Ashe grabbed her dagger and slid it out of its sheath. “Where the fuck are we?”

  “Peace.” Jàden lowered his hand. “These people saved your life.”

  He grunted and flipped the blade against the flat of his arm, his dark eyes boring into hers. He shoved past her and climbed onto Hena’s back. “Shouldn’t have left the captain.”

  “What was I supposed to do, let you die?” she said. The others were waking up as she grabbed Hena’s bridle. “It’s been three days since Felaren. Just listen and don’t charge off like a stubborn ox.”

  If a glare could kill, Ashe’s would have sent a dozen spears straight into her heart.

  Letting go of Hena, she placed a blanket on Agnar and climbed onto his back. “The captain knows we’re safe.”

  “Not likely,” he muttered, glaring at Braygen. He coughed a deep hack strong enough to make him grip his chest. “I don’t like that guy. He’s keeping too close a watch on you.”

  Aren’t you a ray of sunshine.

  “You’ve been awake all of ten minutes.” Jàden nudged Agnar between the two men while the others packed up. She tried to tell Ashe everything that happened since Felaren. “éli’s here with thirty Rakir and a child.”

  “A child?” This seemed to snap his attention back to her. He practically barked his words at her. The poison must have erased any sense of humor he once owned. “That bastard cares as little for a child as he would a dead whore. Boy or girl?”

  “Boy, seven or eight. Why?”

  Clenching his jaw, he kept opening his mouth as if to say something then shutting it again. “We need to find the captain.”

  “Good to see you alive, soldier.” Alida nudged her horse alongside, grinning at Ashe. The dark branch-like birthmarks against her pale skin seemed to stretch with her smile. “Come, we ride for Veradóra. If you’re nice, I’ll let you sleep with me and my wife tonight.”

  That seemed to get his attention. Ashe turned his horse around and followed. Jàden rolled her eyes and patted Agnar’s shoulder. They trotted along a narrow trail through the trees, the ferns so tall they stretched over her head.

  For the next few hours, Alida led them through thickets of wood and over large, fallen trees while Braygen stayed close to her side. The invisible trail became more defined as a dirt path, tiny glowing lanterns along one side. The pathway curved along the cliff, opening into a wide meadow filled with horses. Several women stepped from the trees, orange-fletched arrows nocked in their bows.

  A woman with umber skin and black hair curled tight against her scalp stood ahead of the others, tiny leaves and flowers growing along her arms. “Rakir are not allowed in Veradóra.”

  “Do you see a Rakir uniform?” Braygen’s voice was laced with a hard edge as he trotted ahead. “You do not rule this land, Sumaha. Not yet.”

  Jàden grasped the dagger from Ashe’s hand and returned it to its sheath so he’d be a bit less threatening.

  “Northmen do nothing but destroy.” Sumaha eased the tension on her arrow. “You are a fool to bring him here.”

  Alida dropped from her horse and raced to Sumaha, pressing her forehead against the dark-skinned woman. She whispered something in a language Jàden didn’t understand, but the sentiment was clear.

  This must be Alida’s wife.

  “Not Rakir.” Ashe’s deep voice sliced through the air. “Hunted by Rakir because my brothers and I protect Herana.”

  Sumaha cursed under her breath and wrapped an arm around Alida. “You leave at dawn. We do not want your hunters in our land.”

  “Guess that means I ain’t sleeping with them,” Ashe muttered.

  Jàden scanned the others, all women, and each one looked ready to put an arrow in Ashe. Yet they welcomed Braygen with open arms, hugging him like a long-lost brother or punching him playfully on the shoulder. They were wary of her though, even when she dropped her face covering. The branches were so thick overhead she doubted Frank could get more than a heat signature off anyone.

  She slid off Agnar’s back and scratched his cheek, watching the trail behind them as if Jon would ride around the bend at any moment.

  Ashe held Hena’s reins as he stepped close to her. “Be careful what you say. I don’t trust these people, and neither should you.”

  “They killed éli’s men and kept you alive.” Jàden unclipped the reins from Agnar’s bridle as his ears practically zeroed in on a herd of short horses at the far end of the field.

  “You trust too easy,” Ashe muttered. “Have you learned nothing?”

  She unbuckled the twin dagger sheaths and handed them to Ashe. “Then here. Take it.”

  “The captain would murder me.” He shoved them back. “Rule number one, Jàden: I am your weapon.”

  She bit back a harsh reply as Braygen clapped her on the shoulder. “Come, I will get you both settled. Alida already has scouts searching for your friends.”