The Rise of Ren Crown by Anne Zoelle

Author:Anne Zoelle
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Excelsine Press
Published: 2015-07-28T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty: Nightmares and Consequences

Perched high above—as if I was a spider in a corner crack—I looked down inside a bright, vibrant room that was edged in the same blackness that had overtaken me. Two very familiar people were facing off below.

I opened my mouth to shout, but nothing escaped my throat. Locked in nightmare status—like with Marsgrove's ball, it was as if I was separated from what I was viewing by a clear shield of glass.

Below, Olivia coldly examined Raphael. “I think not,” she said, continuing some argument.

He gave her a smooth, nearly mischievous smile. “You will.” His expression abruptly changed to mirror the coldness of hers. “Or I will physically extract your magic through your fingernails. And such lovely ones, they are.”

Olivia curled her fingers into her palm. “Your threats mean little.”

“Of course they do,” he said, voice taking on a cajoling quality. “You are the daughter of Helen Price. And action is everything.”

Even in a dream, my heartbeat sped up.

“I knew her, once.” Raphael's eyes glittered. “And once again. And I can see her magic, her marks all over you.”

“Impossible.” Olivia's voice was dismissive, but not entirely capable of hiding her unease.

“No? 'Helly' was such an adept student at figuring out how to take protection magic and turn it the other way. You forget that not only do I know exactly what to look for in her magic, but I devised most of the spells she uses.”

He leaned into her space and pressed a finger into the hollow of one shoulder. Olivia stiffened, and her leg jerked uncontrollably, pain overriding her control.

“She made sure to watch each spell I performed,” he said casually, twisting his finger just a bit and making her other leg spasm as well. “And she made sure to test each back upon me. Do you know what it's like to have a nearly limitless pain threshold, but the sensitivity of those with the least allowable amount? You feel everything, but never pass out. The pain just keeps going and going and going.”

Olivia lifted her chin, pain obvious in the motions as her legs continued to jerk.

“But you aren't the one who should suffer.” He lifted his finger. “Are you?”

“Go to hell,” Olivia said in her crisp voice.

He leaned forward and whispered in her ear. “I've never left.”

His gaze lifted and met mine, and he smiled at me, then lifted his finger back into position.

Panic rocked me and I tried to launch myself forward. The dream immediately began to shatter. I felt a foreign excitement that was not my own. It made me pause long enough to stem my panic. I drew back and looked at the shattering cracks of the dream. Olivia and Raphael were still moving inside, the jagged lines making their movement jerk from one shard to the next. I took a deep breath and carefully patched the glass shards together, shaking hands working feverishly to put each back in place, then smooth my hand along the cracks.

The foreign excitement had dimmed, and I wondered at my strange, splitting brain.

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