She had to save him somehow. “From the dreamworld? No. We’re not really here, Pax,” she said. “That’s not how it works. We need a plan.”
“Our plan is to get you to safety,” Paxton said, his body jerking.
She clutched his arms. “What was that?”
“Nothing, don’t worry about it.”
Realization smacked her. “Oh my God. They’re torturing you right this second, aren’t they?”
He grinned, the look fierce. “They’re trying to bring me back awake, but I like this unconscious state.” His body jerked again. “Hope, no matter what you do, get free. I think Vero will help you. If he does, you have to go. Don’t worry about me.”
“I’m not going to leave you in Kurjan territory.”
“Yes, you are.” He grabbed her, kissed her hard, and then soft.
Conflicting emotions spun through her as she clung to him. “No, wait!”
He slowly disappeared from sight. They must have brought him back to consciousness. She pressed a fist against her mouth, trying not to cry. How in the world was she going to get him free?
She looked around the beautiful dreamworld she’d created and wished she could bring Paxton back in. Her gaze caught on the green book lying open on a dark slate rock farther down the lakeshore.
That was it. She was done playing around with this thing. She stood and stomped down the beach, willing it to stay in place. The book didn’t move. A slight wind started to rustle the pages. Maybe she was supposed to be in Kurjan territory or in the same vicinity as both Paxton and Drake to reach it. She didn’t know.
Her heart thundering, she sprinted the last several yards and leaped across the sand to land on the book. The wind rushed out of her lungs, and the bound corners cut into her skin, but she held tight and yanked it off the rock, rolling several times on the beach.
Sand coated her hair and her body, but she didn’t care. She sat up, holding tight, and then flattened the book on the sand. It shut instantly. “Oh no you don’t,” she said, keeping her hand on the leather-bound cover.
She flipped it open to see the face of a woman she didn’t recognize. Words came into focus, darkening on the page, a lot of it in Old English. She read several pages about a woman who looked a lot like her, an ancestor of some sort. The urge to read the entire tome drove her, but she didn’t have time right now if she wanted to save both Paxton and Hunter. Instead, she riffled through the thick pages, heavy with ink and illustrations, and then stopped cold at the sight of her parents as children. Janie and Zane, their images perfectly captured by an artist’s hand.
Unable to stop herself, she read about the first time they’d met. Lovingly tracing each line, she read about their romance, and their difficulties, and their final triumph. Turning the page, she saw herself as a baby. Her heartbeat started to increase. Finally.
The answers were coming.
She flipped the pages several times and found a full-page illustration of her in Kurjan territory, in that ridiculous gown she’d worn last night. She might have looked like a queen, but she looked like a furious one.
She liked that.
Then she turned the page, and it was blank. She waited for the words to appear, for the page to darken.
Nothing happened.
Wait a minute. That didn’t make sense. She flipped over several more pages and found them all blank. She carefully cracked open the book and patted it. “Come on, let’s see what’s there.” Nothing. The wind picked up and rustled the pages back and forth.
She stubbornly flipped to the current page, right after the illustration of her in the dress. Nothing formed on the page. She pounded on the book. “Why won’t you show me?” The words and illustrations, the directions she needed, didn’t appear. Tears streamed down her face. She had believed. She had truly thought once she could read the book, she would know her path. Lifting her head, she screamed to the heavens. Then she went silent, her body aching.
A form wavered next to her. She gasped and fell to the side.
Paxton came into view on his knees, his eyes blinking. “I must be unconscious again,” he murmured. “You’re still here.” His eyes widened. “You have the book.”
She stared down at the useless book, her lips trembling. “It’s blank, Pax. Everything after yesterday is just blank.” She looked up, her entire body feeling stunned.
He nodded, his eyes gleaming more silver than blue in the dreamworld. Wisdom glowed in them, along with a fierce determination. “Of course it’s blank, sweetheart. You make your own fate. She only records it.”
Chapter Thirty-Two
Paxton sat back on the loose dirt in the underground cell, listening intently. He tried to send healing cells to his damaged organs, ignoring the open wounds across his body. It was odd that Ulric preferred a bullwhip to striking with his hands, but he certainly knew how to use it. “Hunter,” Paxton called out. No answer.
Damn it, they still had him somewhere else, being tortured no doubt. Paxton couldn’t see because his eyes were swollen shut, so he tried to spare some cells to get them to work again. His blood was flowing more freely, having finally accepted the additional drugs. It might be a good thing they’d shot him full of whatever it was that had jump-started his genetic alterations, because now that his body was accepting the change, he was getting stronger again.
Even so, he had taken damage to the heart during the last beating, and he had to fix that before anything else. Seeing Hope in the dreamworld had calmed him somewhat. For now, at least, she was safe.
Time crawled. His eyes healed within an hour, and he could open them even though he was still working on internal damage. His foot was twisted at an odd angle, so he tried to fix that bone as well. The healing cells were finally doing their job.
He couldn’t believe he was part Kurjan. A lot of his childhood had been spent hating himself, and now he knew the reason why. Part of him was evil.
The drip, drip, drip of water in the background caught his attention, and he listened intently for any signs of Hunter. There was nothing. He didn’t think they would kill the king’s kid, but then again, he wasn’t sure. It would be quite the statement to make.
He had to figure out a way out of this cell in order to find both Hunter and Hope—and somehow get them out of Kurjan territory. A door opened at the end of the tunnel, and heavy footsteps clomped downstairs. It wasn’t Hunter. Even so, Pax forced himself to stand, putting most of his weight on his good foot.
Drake came into view through the iron bars. “Looks like the general took out his bullwhip,” he said mildly.
“He does have a certain fondness for it,” Pax said. “Where’s Hope?”
“She’s sleeping, probably.”
Good. As long as she was sleeping away from this imbecile right now, she was safe. “What’s your grand plan here?” he asked. “You know the last two times you’ve gone to war with the Realm…you’ve lost.” The taste of blood kept filling his mouth.
“Yes, but this time I have an ace in the hole.” Drake chuckled. “I do like that expression. I’ve been around a number of humans the last several years, and they have the sweetest little expressions, at least the females do.”