Dreamwalker's Bride - Chapter 395

Chapter 395: Mind bending
Mia grew dizzy under the weight of the magic around her. She might have fainted dead away if she weren’t already leaning heavily on Ford, with the chill air fanning her face to keep her alert.

Her anxiety bloomed as they moved closer to Uncle Trace, and so her magic became as disjointed and scattered as her thoughts.

She could see the entire path to her uncle, but her mind was plagued with images of the sources of each sound that alarmed her enough to search for it.

And so, as they moved onward, she grew more and more distressed, needing focus more than ever and yet, finding it elusive. She strained to hold her fraying thoughts together.

The road ahead was sharper in her mind than in front of her eyes, with every speck of dust, every facet of each jewel in extreme detail.

Moaning, she lifted her palm to her forehead to try and keep the splitting headache from fracturing her mind.

Ford’s arm came around her as his other hand came to her cheek.

“Mia, Mia are you all right?”

She felt Webster slow to a crawl as the group’s attention focused on her.

“It’s so much,” she whispered, holding her head.

“What can we do?” Ford asked softly. “How can we help?”

Mia’s temples throbbed. “Focus… I need focus,” She explained. “I keep looking for other things, and the images fill my brain to bursting.”

She’d closed her eyes in pain, but opened them as a new, cool hand touched her cheek. She opened her eyes to see Anaisa’s clear ones staring directly at her.

“We’re here for Trace. Only Trace. Don’t worry about the rest, we’ll take care of it. All you worry about is Trace, got it? Focus, Mia.”

The words pulled the young woman out of the spiral she’d begun, and she nodded slowly. It was difficult, but with the assurance that the others were going to handle the rest, part of the burden left her shoulders.

“I’m trying,” She whispered.

“Ford, you focus on making us invisible from danger the moment it arises. Mia, you focus on my voice,” The redhead commanded. “This whole journey has been for Trace. The others will cover defensive measures and hiding, all you have to do is sit and think about your uncle, search for him, and guide us.”

Mia looked ahead into the glittering forest. They were on a sort of road now, a wide path through the bejeweled trees that seemed well-traveled. That worried her slightly, and she almost began to look for those who used the road most often–were they nearby?

“No, Mia,” Anaisa’s eyes arrested the younger woman’s attention once more. “I can see your mind is wandering. If focus is what you need, I’ll make you, just like I make my sons sit perfectly still until their arithmetic is completed.”

The smile that accompanied the jest was given half-heartedly. The worry in Anaisa’s eyes was apparent, and Mia passingly wondered how she must look to garner such an emotion.

She renewed her efforts to focus, leaning into Ford’s shoulder as she did. He hugged her gently.

“Almost to the edge of the forest,” She said after a time. How long had it been? Mia could see the road ahead and the place immediately in front of them at the same time, which was extremely disorienting.

“Then what?” Anaisa encouraged her to keep her mind on the path. “Do we turn, continue forward?”

“Look,” Mia’s eyes widened as the shape of the castle came into view through the thick branches overhead.

It was far more enormous than she’d realized. The scale of it was mind-bending. She was sure humans could never build such a structure. Mentally, she’d seen doors and windows and converted them to her own size instinctively, but they were much, much larger.

“What lives there??” Grandpa exclaimed quietly, his voice hushed with awe. Webster stopped his steady lope through the trees at the very edge of the wood.

The obsidian structure seemed impossible, a vision and not reality.

Grandpa’s question was a logical one. The wights they had seen with the dragons so long ago would not need even a tenth of the height these doors allowed. The dragons, too, would be utterly dwarfed by the entrance. It was simply overkill.

Unless there was something other than wights and dragons that lived in this castle. Or owned it. The group collectively shuddered at the possibilities. After all, they currently sat atop a monstrous… bug, for lack of a better term. A monster with six hairy legs and webbed antlers and jaws with tusks that could impale a man with little to no effort.

Who knew what further horrors dwelt within the depths of this cave, within the confines of a castle so ornate and imposing that human minds could not have conceived its marvels and scale?

Grandpa’s question triggered Mia’s curiosity, and she winced as her mind was flooded to overflowing with images of a path. Through the gates, into the castle, up stairs, around corners, and into a darkened room… the exact same room where Trace was.

Except, instead of going under the bed and up the human-sized steps to the chair where Trace sat, the images in her mind took a dizzying turn, lurching vertically up the plush bedspread—was she supposed to climb the fabric to reach the top?–and up over the edge of the mattress.

The coverlet was intricately woven with threads that seemed to have been spun from the jewels of the magical trees, multicolored and glowing such that Mia could see every fine detail of every stitch of embroidery across the shimmering surface.

Momentarily captivated by the craftsmanship and beauty of the intricate piece, it was incredibly jarring when the next image filled her with terror.

It was only a portion of the being she’d been looking for, since only a face was visible over the top of the covers.

A face that nearly shattered her mind.