Frozen Tides (Falling Kingdoms 4)

Was it possible he could still contact her through her dreams?

She approached the bird tentatively. “Alexius?”

The hawk cocked its head, then vanished before her eyes.

“I’m very sorry to say that no, I’m not Alexius.”

Lucia spun around. Standing before her in the meadow was a young man wearing white robes like those of a high priest. But most priests Lucia had ever known were old and wrinkled and ugly—not like this man, who was every bit as beautiful as Alexius had been.

“Beautiful, am I?” he said.

She gasped. “You can read minds.”

“Only in dreams. Like yours right now.”

“Who are you?” she demanded.

“I think you already know the answer to that question,” he said, walking a slow circle around her.

“Timotheus.”

He nodded, smiling slightly. “And you are Lucia Eva Damora, the princess of Limeros. The sorceress reborn. The king gave you Eva’s name. How predictable.”

So here he was, the creature who’d imprisoned Kyan and kept him apart from his family for countless centuries. A monster as cruel and evil as Melenia had been.

Her fists lit up with fire and she narrowed her eyes. “You made a mistake drawing me into this dream.”

“Oh, don’t insult me, child.” He flicked his wrist and her fire went out.

She looked down at her hands and, hiding her dismay, tried to reignite her fire magic. But she couldn’t even summon a spark.

“Let’s take care to understand each other from the beginning,” Timotheus said. “You have no power here. I am in control of this dream.”

“This is my dream. And I want to wake up.”

For a long silent moment, Timotheus said nothing, did nothing, except stand before her and watch her. Finally, in a calm, even tone, he spoke. “I never understood why Alexius was so smitten with you. So far you’ve done nothing to impress me. They say you’re as powerful as Eva? Even if you spent the next five centuries living and breathing nothing but elementia, you would only be a fraction as great as she was.”

She lunged forward, trying to hit him. If she couldn’t use her magic she’d happily use brute force. But when she swung her fist, she hit not Timotheus, but an invisible surface, solid and hard as rock.

She cried out as unimaginable pain shot up her arm.

“How dare you!” She reached for him, fighting against futility to try to scratch and claw at his face, but the invisible, magical barrier he’d manifested prevented her from touching him.

“Stop acting like an infant.”

He flicked his wrist again, sending her flying backward and slamming, hard, into a rough, thick tree trunk and knocking the breath clean out of her lungs.

“Just let me go!” she gasped. “Let me wake up! I don’t want to be here with you. This meadow was for me and Alexius, and all you’re doing is destroying it.”

Timotheus stared down at her with his eyes like churning, molten gold, filling her with disgust. “Alexius gave up his immortality to be with you.”

“At Melenia’s request.”

“You make theirs sound like a friendly partnership. Melenia used him.”

“And he let her!”

“My, you’re stubborn. Fine. I won’t sully your memories of this imaginary location another moment.” Suddenly the air began to swim and shimmer, and the scene around them began to shift and change.