CHAPTER 56: CHAPTER 56: THE DREAM WALKER 2

"BEAUTIFUL, ISN’T IT?" a voice said behind her, and she turned to find herself face-to-face with...

Herself.

The figure standing before her was an exact mirror image—same dark hair, same uncertain eyes, same nervous fidgeting with her hands. But there was something fundamentally wrong about the reflection, something that made Mailah’s skin crawl with instinctive dread.

The other Mailah’s smile was too sharp, too knowing, and when she moved, it was with a predatory grace that belonged to something wearing her face rather than truly being her.

"Are you a Dream walker?" Mailah managed, her voice sounding small and strange in this impossible landscape.

The creature wearing her face tilted its head with an expression of mild amusement.

"Whatever name they call me now doesn’t make a difference. Names are just labels humans use to make sense of things they don’t understand." Her voice was Mailah’s voice, but it seemed to echo. "The real question is: do you know why you’re here?"

Mailah fought the urge to step backward, sensing that showing weakness in this realm would be a fatal mistake. "I need to strengthen my mental defenses. To survive what’s coming."

"Ah, but that’s not really why you’re here, is it?" The Dream walker began to circle her with fluid movements, sometimes walking on air, sometimes through the spires themselves. "Tell me—what are you really defending against? The demon who wants to devour you? Or your own desire to be devoured?"

The accusation hit too close to home, and Mailah felt heat rise in her cheeks. "That’s not—"

"Isn’t it?" The Dream walker’s laugh was like wind chimes made of broken glass. "You’ve spent your entire life being acted upon rather than acting. Adopted by people who resented you, pretending to be your sister who lived the life you should have had, rescued by a demon who treats you like spun glass. When was the last time you chose your own path, Mailah? When was the last time you were the predator instead of the prey?"

The words struck with surgical precision, finding every insecurity she’d tried to bury. The Dream walker was right—she had always been reactive, always at the mercy of forces beyond her control. Even now, her growing feelings for Grayson were complicated by the power imbalance between them.

"I can give you what you truly want," the Dream walker continued, her voice dropping to a seductive whisper that seemed to bypass her ears and speak directly to her soul. "Not just the ability to survive his feeding—the power to match him. To stand beside him as an equal."

Despite every instinct screaming danger, Mailah found herself leaning forward. "What kind of power?"

The Dreamwalker gestured, and suddenly Mailah could see herself as the entity saw her—not just a human woman, but a being of infinite potential, connected to realms and possibilities she had never imagined. "You think you’re here to learn defense, but what you really need is offense. The ability to meet your demon as an equal, to feed him without being consumed."

"Is that possible?"

"In the dream realm, everything is possible." The Dreamwalker moved closer. "But it requires surrender. Not to him—to yourself. To what you could become."

The offer hung between them, shimmering with temptation. Around them, the library faded, replaced by a garden where flowers bloomed in reverse and rain fell upward toward a sky full of impossible moons.

"What would I have to give up?" Mailah asked.

The Dreamwalker’s smile was terrible and beautiful. "Nothing you won’t willingly sacrifice when the time comes. The only question is: do you trust me enough to find out what that means?"

As the entity extended her hand, Mailah felt a chill of recognition. This was the moment of choice, the threshold Vivienne had warned her about. Whatever happened next would change everything.

But as she looked into her own face reflected in the Dreamwalker’s eyes, she couldn’t shake the sudden, terrifying certainty that Vivienne hadn’t brought her here to save her.

She’d brought her here to transform her into something else entirely.

"I won’t let you manipulate me with promises of power," she said, forcing steel into her voice. "I came here for one thing—to protect the man I love. Everything else is irrelevant."

The Dream walker paused in her circling, and for a moment, something like approval flickered across her borrowed features. "Now that’s more interesting. You reject the easy path of transformation for the harder one of love. There may be hope for you yet."

"What do you want in return?" Mailah demanded again, sensing the negotiation behind the creature’s words.

"A taste," the Dream walker said simply. "One night in your body, walking in the mortal world. I’ve been trapped in the realm between for so long, I’ve almost forgotten what it feels like to draw breath, to feel a heartbeat, to experience sensation without the filter of dreams."

The request sent ice through her veins. "And what happens to me during that night?"

"You’ll be here, safe in my realm. Think of it as... a vacation from mortality. And when morning comes, you’ll return to your body stronger than ever. Strong enough to not just survive Grayson’s feeding, but to help him control it. To become a true partner rather than a liability."

The offer was everything she’d wanted, wrapped in terms that made her skin crawl. One night. What harm could one night do?

"I need time to think," she said carefully.

The Dream walker’s laugh was like silver bells in a hurricane. "Time, little mortal, is the one thing you don’t have. Your demon is already sensing something amiss. Can you feel it? That pull in your chest, the way your heart races without cause? He’s calling to you across the barriers between worlds, and soon he’ll come looking."

As if summoned by her words, Mailah felt a sharp tug in her chest—not physical, but deeper than that. A connection she hadn’t known existed suddenly blazing to life with desperate urgency.

Grayson. Something was wrong.

"Choose now," the Dream walker pressed, moving close enough that Mailah could see herself reflected infinitely in those too-familiar eyes. "Power and partnership, or remain forever in his shadow, forever the fragile thing he must protect rather than the equal he deserves."

The tug in her chest intensified, and somewhere in the distance, she could hear her name being called in a voice rough with panic and fury.

"Mailah!"

The sound sent shockwaves through the crystalline landscape, cracks appearing in the floating spires as raw supernatural power pressed against the boundaries of the dream realm.

"He’s breaking through," the Dream walker hissed, her serene composure finally cracking. "Decide! Now!"

****************************************************************************************

Grayson’s entire body went rigid the moment he stepped onto the estate grounds.

Something was wrong—he could feel it like a discordant note in a symphony, a wrongness that set his teeth on edge and made his supernatural senses scream warnings.

The mental connection he’d carefully maintained with Mailah throughout the day, subtle enough not to intrude but strong enough to monitor her wellbeing, had suddenly become a void where her presence should be.

Not gone—that would imply death or distance. This was worse. It was as if she existed in a space his consciousness couldn’t reach, couldn’t touch.

He abandoned all pretense of human limitations, moving through the estate with inhuman speed as he searched for any trace of her.

Her scent lingered in the library, stronger near a particular shelf where an ancient text lay open on the floor.

Secrets of the Realm Between.

The title sent ice through his veins. He’d seen this book before.

Following Mailah’s trail, he found himself racing toward the north tower—a section of the estate that had been sealed for decades, its upper room reserved for rituals that bridged the gap between worlds.

The narrow staircase felt endless as he climbed, supernatural strength propelling him upward faster than human legs should manage. But when he finally reached the tower room, what he saw made his blood turn to ice.

Vivienne stood outside a circle of silver chalk that pulsed with otherworldly energy, her usual maternal facade completely abandoned.

This was the guardian he remembered from centuries past—ageless, powerful, and utterly without mercy when it came to protecting her ward.

In the center of the circle, Mailah lay motionless, her breathing so shallow it was barely perceptible. But it wasn’t her still form that sent rage roaring through his veins—it was the way the very air around her seemed to shimmer, as if reality itself was uncertain of her presence.

"What have you done?" The words emerged as a growl that made the windows rattle in their frames.

Vivienne turned to face him with an expression of calculated calm that only inflamed his fury further. "I’ve given her what she asked for, Grayson. A chance to become more than human. To survive what you’ll have to do to her."

"She’s in the dream realm." It wasn’t a question. The signs were unmistakable—the silver circle, the displaced reality, the way Mailah’s spirit felt both present and impossibly distant. "You sent her to the Dream walkers."

"She went willingly," Vivienne replied, though something in her tone suggested the situation was more complex than she’d anticipated. "Though I must admit, the negotiation seems to be taking longer than usual. They’re quite taken with her."

The casual admission made him want to tear the tower room apart stone by stone. "Do you have any idea what you’ve risked? The Dream walkers don’t trade in favors—they trade in transformations. She could emerge as something completely different, or not emerge at all."

For the first time since he’d arrived, uncertainty flickered across Vivienne’s features. "The connection she has with you should anchor her. Make it impossible for them to keep her permanently."

"Should." The word tasted like ash in his mouth. "You gambled with her life on ’should.’"

But even as fury threatened to consume him, Grayson felt something else stirring in his chest—that connection he’d maintained with Mailah suddenly blazing to life with desperate intensity.

She was calling to him. Fighting to return.