“Who are they? Can we help them?” Worth asked.
“I have no idea who they are, so we cannot help them. Remember, this is naught but a dream. If they are going to survive, it was already decided whenever this took place,” Drekkoril answered. “I doubt the soul of anyone not affected by Rorie’s spell is truly here; it is a mirage. We believe we are sensing things, but they are, in fact, memories.”
“I did not know more than two had tamed Faedrekan,” Rorie murmured.
“What is in his arms?” Coven Lord Bridger D’Vaire asked.
“It is too far away from this distance to be certain,” Drekkoril responded. “Nearly all the Fae are gone.”
“Think you the bemollo is their leader?” Rorie queried.
“I have no notion of what Hibozeth looks like and cannot discern if he is a leader from here,” Drekkoril responded.
“What the fuck?” Aleksander asked. The Faedrekan flying above disappeared, and Rorie had to assume they’d been summoned to their tamers, but what was shocking him anew was the bemollo and fairy lying down as if they’d fallen asleep and floating upward onto a cloud.
“I mean, what the fuck is going on?” Worth demanded.
“The Fae appear to be turning into elves, and I believe I see sprites too,” Prism Wizard Vadimas said.
“I do not understand. Elves and sprites were created by Fate thousands of years ago,” Ellery remarked.
“This is too much for me,” Rorie whispered, burying his face into Renny’s chest. Overwhelmed by the destruction of his land, he could barely process the fact that his people appeared to be no more.
“Roriethiel, please look,” Drekkoril begged. The tremor in his voice had steel infusing Rorie’s spine, and he swore his spirit was ripped apart most unpleasantly. There were now two versions of himself, and another Rorie floated up on a cloud alongside Drekkoril.
“We are in a mystical sleep,” Rorie managed.
Drekkoril whipped to face Ellery. “How many thousands of years ago were your people created?”
“Ancients estimate our history stretches approximately fifteen thousand years,” Ellery answered.
“Were we in the sleep that long?” Drekkoril demanded. “How did we awaken or come to be on your realm?”
“Let’s hope our current dream ends before the surrounding land disappears,” Brogan remarked.
“We’ll be okay, Brogan. We can’t be hurt,” Renny reminded him.
Rorie was swamped with emotion and held on to his v’airsell nioll as he tried to process the growing destruction of the land along with knowing that he may have slept through fifteen thousand years. Like Drekkoril, he had many questions, and he wondered why the Faedrekan had not provided the information about how their world was torn apart. When he voiced that issue, Saura laid a hand on his back.
“Your Faedrekan witnessed many things through their eyes and by connecting to your soul, dear. But no one and nothing is omniscient. Perhaps they can’t show you how the realms were destroyed because they don’t have those answers,” Saura commented softly.
“Orlami. Zurenzi. How did we find ourselves on Renny’s realm?” Rorie whispered, reaching across Renny to rub his ring.
Amidst the cracking, grinding, and loud carnage of the land crumbling into nothing, Rorie detected a shadow across his mind. Letting his lashes drift close, he allowed himself to be tugged away from the broken dream of his past. Breathing in deeply, he rejoiced in the weightlessness of his body and didn’t object to losing the feel of being in Renny’s arms. The spell he’d woven to bring the entire D’Vaire clan to his home was ending, and he was happy for it. Blackness surrounded him and for a moment cold swept through his bones; then there were new sensations.
The plush fabric of his onesie against his skin, and the warmth of the covers pinning him to the mattress. Opening his eyes, he sat up, and although he was happy to see the beauty of Renny’s room in Aleksander and Rafe’s mansion, tears fell down his cheeks. There was a dipping of the mattress next to him, and in the next breath he was tugged close to someone whose presence he would forever recognize as the other half of his soul.
“I’m so sorry,” Renny murmured.
“I could have never imagined such a scenario as what we witnessed,” Rorie responded, but he forced himself out to pull away. “Drekkoril will take it harder than me. We must find him.”
“Agreed, let’s go.” As they raced out, Rorie shook his head at the separate beds they’d once kept. The first thing they’d get rid of was the extra one. When they went to Drekkoril’s space, there was no answer.
“Where the fuck is everyone?” Renny asked.
“Go check on them again,” they heard a voice he recognized as Dra’Kaedan’s say. Turning toward the sound, they discovered the Grand Warlock heading for them with the Grand Duke at his side.
“Check on who?” Rorie asked.
