I was just so damned tired.

You couldn’t ever find good work these days. No, everything had to be done yourself or you’re asking for a shitty job to be done. Nismera’s second in command, Vincent, has been making heart eyes at the witch Dianna knew, Camilla. Pretty thing. Too weak for my tastes.

Fuck, and as usual my thoughts spiralled to her. Again. Dianna.

Those dark waves of dark mahogany, tumbling down her back ending mid back. Those brows, so expressive alongside her eyes, a glowing crimson. Every part of me regretted what I did to her. I long for the ability to go back and love her right, treasure her - prevent her and- and Samkiel from colliding.

I groaned, whirling and smashing my fist into the wall, the flawless marble Nismera insisted made everything look more regal crumbling, the crack seeping across the whole wall. My fist throbbed but I didn’t register it. I didn’t register a lot anymore. I didn’t realise I was biting on my lip until I tasted crimson, and cursed, kicking one of the grand statues, not hard enough to tumble.

I stalked back to my quarters, restlessness tugging at my limbs, leading me to attack the dummies and summon illusions to fight and spar with, hand and sword. It wasn’t until I was sweaty and my chest was heaving that I glanced out of the open windows; nighttime.

I didn’t remember falling asleep. Only that my body had been begging for its sweet reprieve and my own mind had been to exhausted to reject it further.

My dreams were murky; blood dreams. Infrequent. Sometimes it was darkness. Sometimes it was Dianna, with me, alone, wounded, or even entwined with her lover. Never had it been her.

The girl I’d forgotten from my past. Until she wasn’t forgettable. She’d kept up with me and Isaiah, and was clever enough to earn Nismera’s reluctant approval. She’d been my closest friend, the first I’d ever loved other than my family.

In my dreams, she was hazy. But now grown. Discarded was the gap between her teeth and the innocence in her eyes. Now there was a crease, imperceptible to those who didn’t study her, between her light brown brows. Her doe eyes wide with fright, and her lips, full and rosy - bitten. Bleeding. The sight of the blood hardened me, in a way that I longed for a warm, meaningless body.

Her hair was longer, and in curls as it spilled down her back. Her skin figure was donning a dress of the purest white, but her wrists and ankles were chained. I looked around, any recognition for where I was. Where she was. Her lips parted, and eyes fluttered in recognition as my name left her lips in a scream-

I sat upright.

I was surprised to see the sun shining, and by its positioning nearly midday. I’d slept through the night. And… she’d been in my dream.

I dressed, my mind occupied with a myriad of questions as I dressed in my leathers and armour. On autopilot I stopped one of the passing servants, a young woman, and fed. I sent her off, still numb and seated myself on one of the hrand terrace’s soaking up the sun’s rays.

“I’ve been looking for you.” The unsettling, icy edge could he heard in my elder sister’s voice, and I glanced up to see her smirking: never a good sign.

“Mm?” I hummed noncommittally. She gestured I follow, and I did, all through the palace, onto one of the corridors not far from mine. She nodded at the four guards patrolling and they stepped aside. The room had been made desolate, all the curtains sealed off, an impromptu prison cell. And curled in the corner, dressed in the purest white..

You.

I let it show on my face, clearly, because Mera smirked, gesturing at me. “Go in. She’s all yours. Rescued from Yejedin.” I heard her walk away but I couldn’t tear my eyes from you.

You were ethereally beautiful. Not like Nismera, or Milani - not up in your face beautiful - but beautiful like a comfort. Beauty you don’t spot until you look twice.

“Is it you?” Your head turned my way and I think I lost the ability to breathe.