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Chapter 7 - The Dreaming Maw

The shore was a graveyard of broken ships.

Sunrei dragged Kaelis onto the bleached skeleton of a warship's hull, the wood groaning beneath them. Salt crusted his lips, his brand still burning with those strange, carved words.

Kaelis hissed as she pressed a torn strip of cloth to her thigh. If your brother's dead, I'm going to kill him again.

Sunrei scanned the black waves. No sign of Cael. Only the carcasses of ships, half-swallowed by the sand.

And the cave no, the demon they'd escaped. Its mouth yawned in the cliffs, teeth glistening. Watching.

Waiting.

A wet cough sounded behind them.

Cael hauled himself onto the wreck, his clothes soaked in black fluid. The arrow wound in his shoulder had stopped bleeding, but the flesh around it had turned an unsettling shade of violet.

You're alive, Sunrei said.

Cael spat onto the sand. Unfortunately.

Kaelis's knife was at his throat before he could blink. You led us into a living demon.

Cael didn't flinch. And you'd be dead if I hadn't.

Sunrei grabbed Kaelis's wrist. We need him.

She bared her teeth but lowered the blade.

Cael's gaze flicked to Sunrei's brand. She spoke to you.

It wasn't a question.

Sunrei's fingers traced the new markings. Who is Lithriel?

Cael's smile was razor-thin. The woman who made us monsters.

The wreckage stretched for miles.

They picked their way through the skeletal remains of ships, each older than the last. Some were little more than splintered ribs jutting from the sand. Others still bore faded sigils kingdoms that no longer existed.

Kaelis limped beside Sunrei, her thigh bound tightly. This isn't a shore. It's a feeding ground.

Cael nodded. The Maw's been here for centuries. It dreams, and the ships come.

Sunrei frowned. It lures them?

Not intentionally. Cael kicked a rusted helmet. Its nightmares bleed into the world. Sailors see mirages treasure, safe harbor, lost loves. By the time they realize it's a lie, the Maw's already tasting their fear.

Kaelis muttered something foul.

Sunrei's brand pulsed. The words etched into his skin itched.

The Eclipse is coming.

A whisper, just on the edge of hearing.

He turned

And saw her.

Lithriel stood atop a broken mast, her silver hair whipping in a wind that didn't exist. Her lips moved, but the words weren't hers.

You promised you'd forget.

Then she was gone.

Night fell like a shroud.

They took shelter in the hull of a merchant vessel, its belly picked clean of anything useful. Cael lit a fire with wood so dry it barely smoked.

Kaelis sharpened her knives, her gaze never leaving Cael. How do you know all this?

Cael poked the flames. I remember.

Sunrei stiffened. You don't have the brand.

Not anymore. Cael rolled up his sleeve.

A scar circled his wrist pale and jagged, where a brand had been cut away.

Sunrei's breath caught. That's possible?

Everything's possible. Cael's voice dropped. If you're willing to pay the price.

The fire popped.

Something scratched against the hull outside.

Kaelis was on her feet first, knives ready.

Sunrei crept to the gap in the ship's ribs, his brand flaring.

The shore was empty.

Then movement.

A figure crawled from the waves, its limbs too long, its skin peeling like wet parchment.

Not a skeleton. Not a demon.

A person.

Or what was left of one.

Its head lolled, revealing milky eyes and a mouth stretched too wide. It dragged itself toward the ship, leaving a trail of black fluid in the sand.

Cael went very still. Dreamers.

Sunrei's pulse spiked. What?

The Maw's victims. Cael's hand went to his missing brand. It doesn't always kill. Sometimes it just... changes them.

The Dreamer reached the ship. Its fingers curled around the broken wood.

Then it spoke.

Prince.

Its voice was Lithriel's.

You shouldn't have come back.

Sunrei's dagger was in his hand before he could think.

The Dreamer didn't attack. It just... watched. Its too-wide mouth stretched into something like a smile.

She's waiting for you, it rasped. At the Moon's Cradle.

Kaelis shifted. What's the Moon's Cradle?

The Dreamer's head tilted. Where the first brand was made. Where the last will be broken.

Then its body convulsed.

Black fluid erupted from its mouth, its eyes, its pores. It collapsed into the sand, dissolving like salt in water.

Silence.

Cael exhaled sharply. We need to move.

Sunrei didn't argue.

The fire died as they left the wreck behind, the Maw's teeth glinting in the moonlight.

Watching.

Always watching.

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