Dream of Us

Denali’s POV.

This was not how I wanted Dyani to find out about me, about us, about everything. I had a plan. I was going to slowly ease her into the world, not throw her in the deep end. She watched me kill someone, that has to be incredibly distressing for her with her human mindset. The sooner I explain things to her, the better.

Ani is silent in the taxi ride to the station. She stares out of the window with a vacant expression on her face. She has a tight grip on my hand, though. I’m relieved that she isn’t scared of me. Her soul knows me, even if her mind doesn’t, and it knows it can trust me. I would never hurt her.

We bought open-return tickets, meaning we are able to get on the next train that goes to Laleston at the station. It’s only half an hour on the train, and another short taxi ride to my flat. Ani doesn’t say a word the whole time, and I don’t push her to. I let her have her space to decompress and process, she’s going to need it again when I’ve explained it all to her.

She kicks off her heels and stumbles over to my sofa, where she sits down and looks at me with an expectant expression.

“I have tried for the last hour to wrap my head around this whole thing, but I can’t. You clearly seem to know a lot more about this than me, so please, fill me in Adrian.”

Here comes the hard part.

“Okay, but you need to promise me that you will listen to everything I have to say. There’s so much to tell you, and I can’t have you freaking out and running out on me before you know it all. It’s not safe for you if you do.”

She looks worried by what I reply. She should be, this is serious stuff.

“Okay, I promise,” she responds quietly.

I take a deep breath and sit down on the coffee table in front of her.

“Let’s start with you and why that man was after you,” I begin, knowing they will be her most burning questions. “Your name is not Annie Hogan, it’s Dyani Decoteau and your ancestry links back to Chippewa tribes. When you were fifteen, you were attacked and had your memories wiped, that is why you can’t remember anything from your childhood.”

She stares at me, her eyes widening with every word.

“Dyani,” she tests the word on her lips and clearly recognises it. “Ani.”

“Yes, your name is Dyani. We met when you were fourteen years old, I used to call you Dee.”

Hearing my nickname for her makes her eyes light up. Tears start to pool in her eyes, threatening to spill over.

“I recalled a memory from my past when I was in a kitchen with three boys, one of them called me Dee. That was you?”

“That was me,” I reply warmly, smiling at her. “I am so, so sorry that I didn’t tell you straight away. You had no idea who I was, and if some stranger walked up to you and told you the second half of your life has been a lie, you would have thought I was crazy.”

“I still think you’re crazy now,” she whispers, smiling half-heartedly. “Please, tell me more. This is so insane that I almost believe it. It kind of…makes sense to me. Is that weird?”

“No, it’s not weird. Those memories were taken from you and locked into the back of your mind, you’re slowly unlocking them and that’s why things seem familiar.”

She looks at me, pressing her lips together as she concentrates. “You’re not really called Adrian, are you?”

“No, my name is Denali Enger. My name means Great one. But you used to call me Den.”

“Den,” she whispers. “That makes so much sense. When I first met you, I didn’t think the name Adrian fit well. Denali, that sounds right.” She frowns suddenly. “Who attacked me? Are the same people still after me now?”

“This is where it becomes complicated. Stay with me, Ani,” I urge her. “You might have noticed that I stabbed the man with a silver blade today. A knife made out of anything, but silver wouldn’t have killed him. He was a shifter, a werewolf.”

Her mouth gapes open. “A werewolf? Like from books and TV?”

“The one and only, yes. They exist, as do beings called mages and celestials.”

“Whoa, back up. Werewolves, I’ve heard of. What the hell are mages and celestials?”

“Mages are deeply powerful magicians who can use elements to create power. They are very rare and most do no harm. Then there are celestials, the rarest beings of all. They are formed from stardust and can only be created once a millennia by extremely powerful mages working together.”

Recognition flashes in her eyes. “You’re a celestial.”

“As are you.”

She looks wary but not astonished by the fact. It appears her brain is more plastic than I hoped, accepting things faster than I had anticipated. This is good news; she will require less time to adjust.

“There’s…there’s more of us, aren’t there?” She asks in a small voice. “There’s four of us.”

“You, me and your other two mates, Calian and Nuka,” I inform her.

“Mates?” She queries. “As in, soulmates?”

“Yes.”

“I have three?” She stutters. She suddenly groans and covers her face with her hands. “Oh, gosh, that explains the dreams.”

“You’ve been dreaming of us,” I can’t keep the happiness out of my voice.

Her brain found a way to get through to her consciousness, a way to remember us.

“Ever since I can remember,” she says softly. “I dream of you three most nights, but your faces and the details are blurry.”

“It’s your brain’s way of keeping the memories alive in your conscience,” I explain to her.

She’s quiet for a moment, processing, and then she speaks again, “How much more is there? My brain feels like it’s overloading.”

“Quite a bit,” I reply gently. “Do you want to take a break and leave it until tomorrow? You could sleep on it.”

“I’m too wired to sleep; I’ll be too curious to know the rest. Okay, I’m ready, hit with it.”

I inhale and start the rest of the story. “The four of us were made by two powerful mages, they hoped to harness our power and use us as a force for good. One of the mages died in our creation, this kind of thing requires a lot of energy you see. The second mage watched over us until we met through fate as teenagers.”

She listens intently to every word I say.

“When celestials are together, their power increases. When we met, we had no idea how much power we would wield when working together. Our parents helped guide us to control our magic. The second mage went crazy trying to harness our power, the Elders became scared of what we could do.”

Here comes the really hard part.

“Your father is King Inteus, he rules on a large island in the Mediterranean Sea, unknown to humans. He was scared of the power we held and was worried that, one day, you would want his kingdom. He is a shifter with mages on his side, so he is immortal.”

“My father is a king?”

The disbelief in her voice makes me smile sadly. “And you are Princess. Your father realised that he had to split the four of us up if he had any chance of controlling our power. Your mother had been in ill-health all your life, when she died on your fifteenth birthday, your father used her energy to wipe your memories.”

I can feel myself getting choked up as I remember seeing Dyani after it happened and the vacant expression on her face as she didn’t recognise us.

“He couldn’t wipe our memories because we had already turned sixteen, the age where our powers settle. Without you, we were weaker, weak enough for King Inteus to send us to three separate locations in the world and lock us away for ten years.”

Ani gulps and looks at me in horror. “You were locked up for ten years?”

“In magical limbo, yes. I only broke free recently because of the planetary alignment. Our very bodies are made from stardust, so our magic is linked to celestial events.”

“You’ve waited a decade to come and find me?” She whispers.

“Yes, and now that we’re reunited, we will have enough power to release your other mates. We can save my brothers.”

“How am I supposed to help you save them when I can’t even use this magic you claim I have? I didn’t even know my own name before today, Adrian. Crap, I mean Denali. This is all so confusing.”

She puts her head in her hands. I lean forwards and rub her arms, soothing her with my touch.

“It’s okay, Dee. I’m here, I’m going to help you through it.”

She reaches for one of my hands and holds it tightly. “Don’t leave me.”

“Never again,” I promise her.

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