Chapter 35: : Chapter 35

Thirty minutes later, Savannah and I found ourselves sitting on thick rugs around a smoking brazier of fire-cracked stones and incense in Sorsha’s sweat lodge. Well, she called it a lodge, but it was little more than a makeshift tent in her backyard.

I scrubbed a hand through my hair as a growing sense of unease settled in my bones.

Pack lore spoke little of the Dreamlands, mentioning it only in whispers at the dark edges of stories. It was a place of nightmares made manifest.

Trusting the witch to take us there was reckless as hell. Even if Sorsha didn’t simply drug us and try to rob us blind, we’d have to find this entity, Cavra, and convince her to help us.

To be fair, I hadn’t caught a scent of deceit or treachery from the witch. But while she seemed benign, the casual, practically offhanded way she talked about making a pact with a sinister being of unknown power and intent didn’t bode well. But the clock was ticking, and we had to stop Kahanov before he put any more werewolves to sleep.

But I wasn’t a fool. Rather than put our fate entirely in the witch’s hands, I’d called Neve, who’d headed our way instantly and was standing watch outside the tent. In the event that Savannah and I didn’t wake up, I trusted Neve to do what it took to extract an antidote from the witch.

Sorsha stepped into the sweat lodge carrying a brass tea kettle. She took a seat across from us and poured steaming brown liquid into a pair of terracotta cups. I watched her hands suspiciously as she pinched a variety of herb bundles that were strewn across the ground beside her and sprinkled them into the cups, swishing them carefully.

Finally, she reached over the baking stone pit and handed Savannah and me each a cup with a smile. “Drink this and relax. The brew will work quickly, so clear your mind and prepare yourself.”

The brew smelled godawful and was likely laced with mushrooms or peyote or something worse.

Savannah sniffed her cup and wrinkled her nose. “Will we just wake up in the Dreamlands? How will we find Cavra?”

Sorsha smiled. “It’s sort of like that. Your bodies will stay here while your souls travel there. I’ll guide you through your dreams so that you’ll arrive in the Vale. Once you’re there, make your intentions clear, and Cavra will find you. Navigating the Dreamlands is more about your intent than geography.”

Savannah glanced at me. I could smell her trepidation, and I saw a momentary flicker of doubt in her eyes. But just when I thought she was going to back out, she downed the concoction in a single gulp.

“Ugh,” she groaned, wincing. “This is worse than scrying potion.”

“Fucking hell,” I muttered, and shot back the cursed mixture in my cup. It was acerbic and bitter, and had a filthy, moldy taste.

Savannah had already gone pale, and sweat began beading on her face.

“Are you okay?” I slurred.

She forced out a faint laugh as her eyes began to cloud. “I regret everything. Mostly breakfast.”

“When you wish to wake, envision me sitting as I am, in this tent,” said Sorsha. “Call out my name and make it your intention to return to me. I’ll pull you back.”

I nodded even as my thoughts began to drift.

“And do fall asleep in the Dreamlands. Where you’d go from there, I don’t know.”

“Okay,” Savannah mumbled. Sorsha guided her down to the ground beside the fire and poured some of the liquid into the flames so that a fog filled the chamber. My vision blurred as my limbs grew heavy.

Savannah’s eyes closed. My pulse raced, and I fought the drowsiness that snaked through my body.

“Stop fighting it, Jaxson,” Sorsha whispered in the distance. “The Dreamlands has its sights on you, and there’s no backing out now.”

I cursed the woman and tried to crawl to Savannah, but instead, I found myself lying face down on the coarse rug beneath me. The world slanted, and darkness enveloped me, carrying me through a wormhole between dimensions.

A barrage of mutating images flashed through my mind—people and places I’d long forgotten or never met, shifting and falling into each other like a kaleidoscope. Possibilities grew from the ground like flowers and sunk into my thoughts like roots. The pressure in my skull increased, but when my head felt like it might explode, it stopped.

Sounds of the forest rose around me, and the scent of overripe fruit and anise burned my throat. I opened my eyes as sensations of wonder and astonishment blossomed in my heart. Trees with twisted trunks towered overhead as the barest of light filtered in from the full canopy above.

I couldn’t tell if the trees were real or a mirage.

I stepped forward, brushing a tendril of silver moss that hung from the branches. Tiny glowing lights drifted through the air like dandelions floating in the wind. I glanced down at my hands, unsure if I was dreaming or imagining this vision, but it was so real.

Dread focused my mind. I spun, but the forest around me was empty.

The thread that bound us pulled in my chest, and I shoved my way through the vines until I found her in a clearing beside a small pool that reflected a different sky than the one that hung over our heads.

“Jaxson! I thought I lost you,” she said in a dreamlike voice as some of the strange motes of light settle on her skin. “This place…”

“Is perilous,” I said gruffly as I took her hand and pulled her back from the edge of the strange pool. “As alluring as all this might be, don’t let your eyes deceive you. In the few stories I know of this place, it’s only ever mentioned as the source of nightmares. So stay close and don’t touch anything. We need to find Cavra.”

Before I could say a word, she raised her hands to her mouth and shouted, “Cavra! We need to speak with you!”

“What are you doing?” I snarled as her voice continued to echo unnaturally through the forest. “We shouldn’t draw attention to ourselves.”

“Sorsha said we only had to make our intentions known.”

I didn’t like this one bit. “Let’s go find her.

.”

We left the glistening pool behind us and pushed onward, gingerly stepping over the roots that snaked across the forest floor. The scampering and chittering of unseen animals preoccupied my senses.

Before long, a strange presence filled the air, and I suspected that we were being watched. I took Savannah’s arm and raised a finger to my lips.

It wasn’t a sound that caught my attention, but rather a feeling of power and silence. The noises of the forest died around us as a high-pitched humming reverberated through the trees. My claws slipped out, and my muscles tensed.

The smell of melon and sugar dulled my senses as a woman stepped through a curtain of moss dangling from the gnarled trees. Had it been there moments before? I couldn’t remember.

“Blessed day, beauties,” the woman drawled in a seductive voice, planting her hands on her full hips. She stood over six feet tall, and her wild, dark hair hung loosely around her, draped with vines and flowers. A crown of stag horns rose above her brow, and her nails were sharpened into points. “Now, which one of you summoned me?”

“I did,” Savannah said, slipping around me.

“My, my, two wolf pups lost in my wood. What brings you here?” The woman’s eyes darkened as she gaped at Savannah, taking a step forward.

“That’s close enough,” I growled. Cavra’s head snapped to mine like an animal’s, and her eyes brightened back to an emerald green. She smiled maliciously as she took my measure but quickly set her gaze back on Savannah.

I sensed Savannah’s fear, but she stood tall, betraying nothing. “We understand that you dictated a book—

—to a witch named Sorsha Delamont. That book was stolen by a blood sorcerer, and he’s using it to trap people in their dreams. We came to seek your help in stopping him.”

The woman tilted her head back and let out a hearty laugh, the air around her vibrating with magic. Whatever she was, she was powerful, and I didn’t like it one godsdamned bit.

After a moment, she clutched her chest and smiled broadly. “What a wonderful surprise. I haven’t had visitors for so long, and to hear that my grimoire is actually being read is delightful.”

“Will you help us?” I growled.

“So impatient, Jaxson. So keen for the hunt. You’re asking a great favor.”

Every muscle in my body warned me that this woman was perilous. A monster. I flexed my claws. “How do you know my name?”

“You knew name, so it’s only fair that I should know yours. Now, come with me and we’ll discuss the favor you ask.” Cavra shifted her body sideways and motioned with her clawed index finger—a talon unmistakably suited for ripping flesh.

We were stepping into the jaws of a dragon. But what choice did we have? We were committed to this path.

I stayed close to Savannah as we followed Cavra through the sinister forest. Birds with brightly colored plumage and curved beaks flitted through the branches overhead, feasting on the carcass of a small rodent. The stench of blood and raw flesh permeated the air, and Savannah gagged, covering her mouth.

Clearing her throat, Savannah asked, “Are you a sorcerer or a witch, Cavra?”

The woman chuckled heartily and glanced back at Savannah with an exaggerated sway of her hips. “Oh, gods, no, honey. I was a maenad once, though I outgrew it a long time ago.”

“What is a maenad?” Savannah asked.

Cavra lifted her arms above her head and twirled her fingers. Roots and vines uprooted from the dirt and twisted up her body like serpents. “Well, suffice it to say I was a celebrant of life in all its various forms.”

Our lore spoke of the maenads as . They were twisted beings of myth driven to frenzied rituals of excess and depravity. But that wasn’t what worried me most.

“You said you a maenad. What are you now?” I demanded, my voice low and tense. Cavra looked fucking maniacal, and if we didn’t need her help, I might have tried to rip her throat out.

“The Dreamlands made me more.” She turned and said, “I’m a lot like you, Savannah. I discovered myself in a new world, and it changed me. Perhaps it will change you, too.”

“You’re not native to the Dreamlands?” Savannah asked. She was much too calm and trusting of this monster.

“No. I moved to the Vale centuries ago, when my wicked sister ousted my mother from the throne and exiled me from the Summer Lands.” The roots and vines that encaged Cavra withered and darkened, turning to ash.

I gently gripped Savannah’s arm, pulling her to a stop. But she was unbothered, and her voice was tender and full of empathy. “I’m so sorry, that’s terrible.”

“No, terrible is what I will do to her when the time comes for revenge.” Like a chameleon, Cavra’s demeanor changed suddenly, and she smiled graciously at us. “But that’s none of your concern. Tell me, what is it you want me to do about this sorcerer?”

Up ahead, the forest opened into a clearing that was illuminated by thousands of glowing lights strung through the trees.

“Can you stop him from entrapping more people? And set those he’s captured free?”

“Yes,” the maenad mused. “But whether I remains to be seen.”

No doubt, her price would be steep.