Asylum (Dragon Reign Book 6) Read online

  Sabella Doe, no last name.

  Never a last name.

  No parents, no siblings. No one but myself, and the voices and visions to keep me company.

  “Sabella, please take your meds. I don’t want to put you in solitary today.”

  I shuddered at the idea of being locked in that room, no window, no way to see the storm moving in. I whipped around and took the cups, throwing back the pills as fast as I could and chugging the water. I opened my mouth to prove they were gone and she nodded, satisfied. Too bad they didn’t work, not anymore. Nothing did.

  She was still talking, but I wanted to watch the storm. Thunder shook the stone foundations as it rumbled closer and closer, like a train thrown off its tracks and rushing toward us. The harder I stared, the more the shapes of the clouds changed until they weren’t clouds at all.

  I blinked, trying to clear my head, but it was too late. Far too late to stop what was coming. I drifted, blowing like a raindrop in that storm outside, caught in the crazy whirlwind of shadows and screams. I winced, but when I opened my eyes, I wasn’t in my room.

  Voices whispered behind me, strange growls and utterings in words I didn’t understand. The skin on my arms prickled, the tiny hairs there rose, and I smashed my hands to my ears, wishing it would stop.

  More screams and then two voices I did understand.

  “No! Let her go! Get your hands off her, I’ll rip you to pieces,” the man growled, furious as he yanked at the bars holding him back. “Kate!”

  The woman, she struggled and cursed, but the things that held her—nightmarish things—made of shadows with flaming red eyes and sharp nails that dug into her arms. She winced and flailed, but they didn’t let her go.

  The man, his face shifted behind the bars, and I staggered back, afraid of what he turned into. But I couldn’t run, couldn’t get out. I shut my eyes, humming loudly to myself as I tried to drown out the woman’s screams and the man’s bellowing that sounded inhuman.

  I hunkered down and felt the world shift around me.

  When I opened my eyes again, a wolf stood before me, huge, with knowing hazel eyes that pierced straight through me. Its fur was dark, reds and browns, its chest was white, stark against the rest of it. And on its right shoulder, a strange bare patch of skin that looked jagged and torn.

  I wasn’t sure why I did it, but I reached out a hand to touch it, wanting to feel how soft that fur was beneath my fingertips… then the wolf took off as if startled. I chased after it, ignoring the tree branches swatting me in the face.

  This was real, it had to be.

  I ran faster and faster, but never gained any ground. The wolf was there, I could just see the flicker of its tail as it darted in and out of the trees—

  I screamed as the ground was suddenly gone and I was falling, falling into nothingness.

  I thrashed as I fell, trying to catch hold of something, anything, but then my body was stuck, suspended mid-air. Beneath me, I heard the screams of the dead, so many, so many reaching hands trying to get to me. I clutched at nothing, screaming myself hoarse as a wave of darkness rose in the far distance.

  I wanted out of this place. I needed to leave before it reached me. I turned myself around and around, but then I was falling again except I didn’t land in the dead.

  Something soft was beneath me, and I heard Nurse Beth saying my name, over and over again. Dr. Tim was there, too, but I couldn’t see them, couldn’t see anything except the darkness.

  “We need to leave,” I yelled at them, trying to get free, but there were straps holding me down. “No! You don’t understand. It’s coming for us, we can’t stay here. We can’t.”

  “Sabella, you need to calm down,” Dr. Tim said sternly. “You’re going to hurt yourself.”

  “But it’s coming, it’s going to kill us all. And the woman, he’s hurting her,” I cried, tears streaking down my cheeks. “Please… please, just make it stop.”

  I slammed my head back into the pillow, wanting to forget what I saw, what I could still hear echoing inside my head. Whatever had that woman, it was going to hurt her… maybe kill her, and all I could do was watch. I mumbled her name under my breath over and over and over, until my body gave into exhaustion and I collapsed onto the mattress.

  Dr. Tim was giving orders to the nurses, but I didn’t listen.

  I felt the bed sink, and his hand pressed a cool cloth to my forehead.

  “Sabella, you have to remember, none of what you see is real,” he told me gently.

  He cared about me, I knew he did. Told me quite a few times I was like a daughter to him, one he never got a chance to have. I liked Dr. Tim, but he didn’t believe me.

  I shook my head, whispering her name until he sighed and said he was going to leave me to rest.

  “Kate,” I breathed into the stillness of my room as the storm raged on outside. “Have to find her… have to stop the darkness… before it’s too late.”

  I dozed, in and out, all day long, and into the night.

  Beth came and let me out of my restraints twice to use the bathroom and try to eat, but I wasn’t hungry.

  I whispered the woman’s name a few more times, and Beth watched me worriedly as she left me in my room again, but this time, I was allowed to walk around.

  The storm was gone, but there was another one brewing, I felt it. Deep inside my mind, I saw it coming closer and closer.

  If only they would listen to my warnings, we might all survive. Might being the operative word.

  I circled my room, running my fingers along the walls and trying to think about anything other than the woman. The wolf. I liked him. I knew it was a him, that look in his eyes said he was strong, a leader.

  And that that look also said he searched for something.

  The wolf, I hadn’t seen him before. I wanted to see him again, but never before had I been able to control where my mind went. What I saw or when. It just did what it wanted and left me to trail behind, kicking and screaming.

  I hopped up onto my bed, sat with my legs crossed, and scrunched my eyes shut as tight as I could. I thought of the wolf, his fur, and those eyes. I pictured him before me again, running through the trees of some forest I’d never seen before, one that probably wasn’t even real. I held my breath until my lungs burned and I was ready to give up, when I felt myself thrown.

  I hit the ground hard, with a grunt.

  Leaves crunched under my hands and twigs were stuck in my hair, but when I raised my eyes, I saw him. He stood before me, those eyes watching me closely as I scrambled to my feet.

  It worked.

  I hopped up and down, clapping my hands to see him again. I waited for him to take off, but he remained exactly where he was.

  He sat down on his haunches and huffed at me as if trying to say hello.

  “Hello right back,” I whispered in awe.

  Slowly, I reached out a hand to this beast that stood as tall as me when he sat. I bit the inside of my cheek, willing him to stay put, and sighed in wonder when my hand reached his shoulder.

  I scratched around the bare spot, amazed at the soft feel of his fur. I could’ve nuzzled against it and stayed there forever, but suddenly he was on his feet, ears laid back against his head as he growled. He stared at something behind me, and as I turned, he placed himself in front of me, protecting me.

  But the ache in my gut told me there was no protecting me, not from this.

  The only thing I saw when I turned around was the tidal wave, crashing through the trees and headed straight for us.

  There was no escape, not this time.

  I screamed as it swallowed us both up and didn’t stop screaming well into the next day, not caring what Dr. Tim or Beth told me about what I saw not being real.

  It was real, and it was coming for us both.

  3

  Tristan

  I jolted out of bed, drenched in a cold sweat and reached out to grab… someone.

  A young woman, with messy red hair and wild e
yes. She’d been right there beside me in the woods. And there was something else… but the last bits of my dream, or nightmare really, slipped further and further away as my eyes adjusted to the early morning gloom.

  I rubbed hard at my eyes, but the fear on her face stuck with me even as I forced myself out of bed and splashed water on my face. Shaking my hair out like the wolf I was, I gripped the edges of the counter and told myself to forget my dream. I had bigger concerns today.

  We would be setting out to search for Craig and Kate. Nothing had turned up in the Darrah lands or near Boshen, but Lucy had sent word that whatever took them could be slipping in and out of the space between realms. I didn’t understand that magic, never liked magic to begin with, but the bottom line was, we had a lead on finding Craig and Kate. Somewhere in the seams between realms. Even though they were one land as they were before, the power that broke them apart remained and created pockets, hidden worlds within our own.

  I shuddered at the idea of dealing with more magic I didn’t understand. Shifters shied away from it, always, ever since our kind was cursed by a seer all those centuries ago. A story no shifter ever forgot.

  The woman—a seer—had been infuriated when spurned by our king, and she was the one who laid the curse on us, a moment every shifter would face. The chance of being driven mad by their inner beast, to be consumed by it if we ever let our rage get the better of us. If we gave in, we would remain a wolf forever, never able to shift again. Never able to be with our own kind again.

  And I knew every name from our history that had given in, and never returned.

  Seers were a plague upon this world, and I didn’t much care for any form of magic. It was magic that brought about Cassius and this new darkness. I doubted magic would be able to stop it.

  “Sire, King Forrest awaits you in the hall,” Boris called through my door.

  “I’ll be right down,” I replied and dressed in a rush.

  The plan was to scour the far reaches of Torolf and work our way back. Drake and the elves would be doing the same in his territory in hopes one of us would come up with something of value. I had my hand on the door when that woman’s face flashed before my eyes again, and a shiver ran down my spine. Not fear for myself, but for her.

  “Just a dream,” I told myself sternly. “Only a dream.”

  I exited my chambers, pausing when I found Boris, along with ten other guards waiting for me.

  “Is this necessary?” I asked, pushing past them and making my way toward the hall.

  It had taken several months to repair, after the final battle against Cassius nearly destroyed my castle and damaged the surrounding grounds.

  Just when I felt everything was getting back to normal around here, the world seemed to fall out from under me again.

  “You are a monarch and therefore at risk of being taken by whatever this new threat is,” Boris stated. “It is my duty to keep you safe, and that is exactly what I’m going to do. You can fight me on it all you like, but alpha or no, I will do what I feel must be done to keep you alive.”

  I wanted to fight him on it, but I remembered the oath he swore to my parents before they died. He would not let the same fate befall me. He had stood by me as I fought against every challenger for my position. I ultimately came out on top. I was the alpha and Boris my second. No matter what came after me, he would remain steadfast and loyal.

  I stopped and laid my hand on his shoulder, grinning at him. “You are and always will be a true friend, Boris. Don’t ever let me forget that.”

  He bowed his head, eyes glinting with appreciation. “I won’t, don’t you worry about that.”

  We barked with laughter as we hurried through the castle and met up with Forrest and his dragon guard. He appeared better than he had two days ago when he first arrived, but there were still lines etched onto his face. Worry, anger, and fear that he’d already lost two of the most important people in his life.

  I clapped him on the shoulder and offered up an encouraging smile. “We’ll find them, and now we have somewhere to start.”

  “I wish I had your confidence,” he muttered. “All I keep thinking is we’re going to find them, and it’ll be too late.”

  “Have a little faith. They’re not lost yet, not until we find their bodies.”

  It was the only real comforting thought I could give him. Boris told us he would make sure the supplies were ready to go and fetch us when it was time to leave.

  Forrest paced around the hall, closing his eyes, probably trying to pick up a trail on Craig or Kate. My people bustled around, working at ensuring this place was well fortified for whatever was to come. We’d already moved most of the villagers closer to make getting them to safety quicker, but there was still much work to be done, especially when we had no real idea who this enemy was.

  I was staring absentmindedly out the doors when a red flash of hair caught my eye.

  Heart hammering in my chest and palms sweaty, I shook my head, clearing away the vision that couldn’t possibly be real. When I glanced again, the redhead was gone.

  “Tristan?” Forrest was staring at me curiously.

  “Nothing, just making sure we’ve thought of everything,” I lied.

  His brow raising told me he didn’t buy it. Damned empaths.

  “Something’s on your mind and don’t try to lie again. You’re terrible at it.”

  “Hard to lie when you can read emotion,” I grumbled. “It’s nothing, just had a dream last night, bit disturbing really. Throwing me off, is all.”

  “I could use a few minutes of distraction. What was it about?”

  I hopped up on the table behind me. “A redhead.”

  Forrest stared at me blankly for a few seconds then chuckled. “Dreaming about a woman, eh? Interesting, that’s very interesting indeed. Perhaps your biological clock is trying to tell you something.”

  “I’m not even a hundred yet,” I argued. “No reason to settle down.”

  “And this dream with the mysterious redhead, what happened?”

  I didn’t want to dig into it, but I saw the pleading in his glance to give him something else to think about, aside from imagining his friends, dead somewhere.

  “I was in wolf form, just standing in the woods and she was there with me,” I said, trying to remember the details. “Her eyes, they were filled with… awe and at the same time… she seemed unstable I guess?” I picked at my nails, a strange sensation growing in my gut, worry like I’d never felt before. “She seemed frightened, but not of me and then there was darkness, all around us… a tidal wave almost…” I shrugged. “That was it.”

  “And you’ve never seen her before?” he asked.

  “No, why?”

  He shrugged, but I could tell there was more to it. “No reason.”

  “Fine, hold out on me.”

  “I’m not. it’s just after dealing with my past and the others, dreams sometimes have more significance than you realize,” he told me seriously. “You may not want to brush off this young woman so quickly.”

  I considered asking him more about it, but Boris returned and said they were waiting for us. We’d go on horseback, well, at least some of us would, while myself and the others would track through the grasslands and trees, see if we could find any trace of our missing monarchs. I’d seen how close Craig and Kate were, and wondered what crazy fool would ever try to hurt her in front of him. He might only be half-demon, but no smart man messed with the wife of a demon king. It tended to never end well.

  My nose was buried in the leaves, rustling along as I tried in vain to find anything to lead us to Craig and Kate, but just like it had been all day long, there was nothing. Not a whiff, not a scent. I hoped to even hit on a crackle of magic, but all was quiet. It was really as if they had just vanished into thin air. The strain was weighing on Forrest, and we all needed a break. The sun was setting, and as I shifted back, I called for Boris to set up camp.

  “You’re calling it?” Forrest asked anno
yed.

  “Just for today. We’ll get some rest, regroup, and pick up the search in the morning,” I promised him. “Lucy didn’t give you a helpful way to find these seams, did she?”

  “Nothing, just said we’d know when we found them.”

  I reached out my hand as we walked through the trees while Boris and the others set up camp. The air didn’t feel any different, didn’t smell strange. Most magic gave off some sort of… tingle for lack of a better term, made my hackles raise, but all it did now was give me a bit of a chill, and I considered shifting back into my wolf form, so I could let the fire warm my thick fur for the night.

  “I noticed you haven’t stretched your wings all day,” I mentioned.

  Forrest shrugged. “Trust me, I’d love to be up there right now, soaring in the clouds, but my guards would have a fit. My guard are afraid I’ll vanish from the sky and be lost.” He growled, and smoke trailed from his nose. “If they keep me pent up much longer, I’ll be shifting in my chambers and busting out through the freshly built walls.”

  “If you hadn’t noticed, I snuck out the other day when you came calling,” I said with a laugh. “Boris has put me on lockdown, too. Why do you think I suggested I tag along? Aside from my being the best tracker amongst my pack.”

  “Nice to see you’re still holding onto the title of alpha.”

  “There’s always going to be challengers, but for now, the packs are content obeying my commands. I think the threat of oncoming war has forced our petty differences to be put aside, for the moment at least.”

  I covered my mouth as I yawned, unsure of why I was so tired all of a sudden.

  The day had been long, but I’d hardly run at all. Yet sleep tugged at me as we sat around the fire and rations were passed around, as was the ale. Talk was light, but there was no denying the underlying tension felt by every single one of us.