Feeling free, sun shining bright, Alexia beamed at her reflection in the ornate mirror. A cloth-of-silver wedding gown flowed elegantly down her frame, contouring her in a way her life's mate would appreciate. Loose fabric made smooth wings from her wrist to her elbows. She felt so high that she imagined she could fly like Burras Windrazor. The dress cut open at her knees, revealing her lower legs and the silver slippers on her feet. The gown's small train trailed behind her, nothing extravagant but just enough to feel special. Sapphires, rubies, and amethysts decorated the heart-shaped neckline. Thirteen different flowers were embroidered into the gown, each a splash of color. Alexia looked for her father's blue rose, but couldn't find it. The dress had three stripes that thinned out as they trailed down the bodice, like sunbeams emanating off the sunrise: blue going diagonally to her left, red going diagonally to her right, purple in the middle. Symbols of the union of east and west, joined together in the heart. Speaking of the heart, she wore a silver locket shaped like an inverted heart.

Alexia gripped it, beaming with delight. This was the best day of her life.

Azi materialized, rising from the ground, dressed in a sapphire blue gown that accentuated her eyes and bust. "You are more beautiful than Leverith," Azi said in her sweetest tone.

Alexia couldn't stop smiling, though she wondered why Azi's impossible means of arrival wasn't alarming. The impossible seemed commonplace where she was. She shrugged it off, feeling giddy. "Do I look like a queen?"

Azi gripped at her pearls. She nodded thoughtfully. "You are the true Sunrise Queen. My brother is blessed to have you."

Alexia closed her eyes, feeling the peace settle over her. The Sunrise Queen.

But the peace soon fractured, the mystical giddiness becoming turbulent and frantic anxiety, hitting her from all sides as if it were a maelstrom.

"Your brother?" she asked Azi. Alexia hyperventilated, wanting to tear herself out of the dress and run far, far away from this nightmare. She gripped the locket. It couldn't be Halius. She wanted Zander.

Azi furrowed her brow. "Gidi's Greatsword! Don't tell me your changing your mind." She shook her head, hands on her hips. "Don't you dare break his heart, Alexia."

Alexia shrieked, wind bursting from her in every direction. She wanted Zander. Never Halius. They would take him away from her. She felt a primal panic surging through her, so forceful she couldn't keep it in as Zafrir threatened to overwhelm her and grind her into dust.

Glass shattered around her as mirrors and windows broke in the maelstrom. The most hideous laugh she ever heard filled the air. Alexia tried to fight away the evil in that joy. "Zander! Where are you, Zander? I love you!"

She closed her eyes, sobbing, trying to will him to appear. She wouldn't bond Halius. Not here. Not now. Not ever.

Leverith, I am forever yours, but let me have this one thing. That's all I ask. Let me have Zander.

The storm quelled. The laughter faded and birds chirped. The air smelled of flowers. Sunlight beamed on her sealed lids. Water rushed in the distance, powerful yet soothing. Slowly, peace settled over her again.

Alexia opened her eyes. She stood beside a great tree, wider than fifty sequoias at its base, rising above the clouds, canopy spreading across the skyline in a splash of color as every flower imaginable grew along its branches in place of leaves. Lavender beds surrounded the base of the tree, punctuated with white carnations and moon's crown—two of her favorite flowers. Leverith's Love! They looked wonderful together. She smiled, forgetting everything else but this perfect moment where everything felt one.

"I am here, Sunrise."

Her heart pounded, the return of giddiness. The impossible was commonplace here. For perfect was perfected even further. Zander stood tall, dressed in magnificent finery equal parts red and blue. His cloak was three-colored just like the stripes of her dress. Amethyst in the center, ruby in the west, sapphire in the east. A sunrise was over the sapphire and a blue moon over the ruby. Best of all, the sigil of the silver locket was over the amethyst. She knew there was meaning in that banner, but it eluded her in her happiness.

"Zander!" She rushed into his arms, finding a perfect fit in his embrace. The locket, pressed between them, burst with Leverith's spirit, sending blue waves over Goddess Hill, down toward the Grand Confluence, rising up Covademara, and spreading through Mirrevar below.

"You can't let me bond Halius." She looked up into his moon eyes. "I want you."

Zander chuckled. "Halius!" He snorted. "My love, I will never let him have you. The Sunrise is mine and I am hers. You know that."

The ecstasy that came from his mouth was more delicious than any fruit, the sweetness of relief more potent than any fragrance upon the hill. "You won't let him have me?"

Zander pressed his hand to her cheek, his caress making her feel just as giddy as the first time they touched. He was so strong, so firm, in body and voice. "Today is our day, Sunrise. And every day after, for all of our days in this world."

Her tears fell upon the rubies and the sapphires at her neckline, upon the inverted heart at her peaceful heart. "Then I am whole," she said, standing on the tips of her toes to bring her lips to his.

Sunset kissed the horizon, casting a golden glow on them. The wind was just right, the temperature in perfect balance. His hands were firm and steady, taking their place on her waist, keeping her from falling when the world tried to knock her down. Her arms found where they belonged, upon his shoulders, easing the heavy burdens he carried. His smile was her home, tender and full of love, overflowing from them both, spilling into the world as waves of blue cascaded over the land, the sky, and the two rivers.

The first kiss was gentle as a moonbeam touching you on a perfect night where no clouds blocked out the stars. The second was more passionate, stoking the fires of the hottest day, her chest filling with heat and desire. The third… Leverith! The third was love incarnate, in her truest form. Alexia became one with Leverith, one with the moment, one with Zander.

This was everything she dreamed of, and even though she knew she was dreaming, she savored every kiss.

Her appetite sated, several times over, she melded into Zander. Robed only in moonlight, the melodies of life singing as their souls entwined, blue light weaving patterns around them—residuals of the love they expressed with their bodies—she was content to stay here beneath Covademara until the sun rose, and the dream ended. Alexia traced her fingertips up his arm until her hand intertwined his.

"This is our home," she crooned, her other hand set on his mighty chest. She didn't mind singing for him. Here, of all the places she'd ever been, she felt comfortable. If only she could capture this one moment they shared and find a way to live it every day. What a life she could have, blessed with peace and love.

But this was only a dream. When she woke, she wouldn't find Covademara or Zander awaiting her, she wouldn't have the locket on her chest like a second heart. She'd have Halius yearning for her, expecting more from her, wars to end, civilizations to preserve, genocidal tyrants coveting her that needed to be thwarted to save all of humanity. This was only a dream.

"Our dream," Zander said, reading her mind. "And I won't stop believing in it."

"Neither will I," she promised, tears falling down her face.

Perhaps the most believable part of the entire dream as far as she was concerned. She'd wake up and cry, but at least she could come back again, find him here, and remember what it was like to be home.

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Zander leaned in for a final kiss as the first rays of a new day crested the horizon. Leverith's essence surged around them, spreading to the far corners of her vision.

But the dream couldn't last forever. The Mirrevar landscape shook, Covademara's canopy blurred. Instead of a sunrise, a sunset burst at the sky's apex. No, an eclipse, a shadowy moon blocking out the midday sun. Zander flickered in-and-out of existence as the earth quaked, the sky went black, and everything went cold. The wind died down and water washed over everything. Drenched, the tide swept Alexia over the edge of Goddess Hill and down into the Grand Confluence. She called for Zander, but he wasn't there.

Falling, falling, falling, crashing toward the union of the two mighty rivers, she screamed. She tried to remember it was a dream, but she could convince herself of that no less than a pack animal could believe that the waterfall in Dalis's Wall wasn't going to drown them.

She plunged into the blackness, the tide sweeping her far from home. No Covademara. No Zander. Lions roared, lightning crackled, a serpent hissed. Golden hands grasped for her, restraining her so that she could neither move nor feel love.

The cacophonic laughter returned, louder. Inescapable. In a world of darkness, Alexia ran from the laughter. No matter how hard, or how far, she ran, the laughter built up, piercing her ears, her soul. She stopped running, but little tendrils of shadow, of maggots, of blood gripped her, pulling her deeper into an abyss.

She shrieked, howling for help. Calling for Zander, for Azi, for Timmeck, for Theos, for her father. Nobody answered. All but one were gone.

The creature appeared in front of her, shrouded in darkness, long blackened hair trailing down its length, nearly touching the ground despite its incredible size.

Alexia tried to scream, but her voice was gone. She reached for Leverith, but something blocked her. Instead, she drew a dark essence from the creature, making her nauseous, making her want to kill herself, and to hurt everyone around her.

The laughter stopped, but it wasn't replaced by anything less horrid. A distorted voice, broken and alien, invaded her mind. "THERE IS NO HELP HERE, CHILD! YOU ARE MINE!"

Alexia woke from her nightmare with a scream. Her ermine coat was drenched in sweat, clinging to her body. Gasping for air, she rushed to the cracked window. She fought with it, frantically trying to get it to unlatch and open, until in a blind panic, she blasted the glass with Zafrir's winds, sending it falling down into the bushes four stories below.

The cool, night breeze filtered in through the opening, but Alexia still felt like she needed to run, to hide, before the thing got her again. Trying her best, she remembered her training, using every breathing technique she'd ever learned to try to modulate the panic. She spoke to herself, fighting to keep her voice firm and controlled.

"It was only a dream. I am safe."

She breathed, repeating those eight words, trying to believe them. But she could forget neither the monster nor its voice.

She forced herself to change into a clean robe, removed the sheets from her bed, and paced her room, repeating her mantra and breathing. There were no clean sheets, but she wasn't about to summon a serving maid in the middle of the night and let everyone know she had a night terror and a panic attack.

Alexia went out into the common room, grateful to not see her father on the sofa. She sat, holding one of her mother's books, doing her breathing, channeling Dalis. None of it could make the voice go away.

THERE IS NO HELP FOR YOU, CHILD. YOU ARE MINE.

"I'm coming in," Sir Garrond announced.

It wasn't a question, nor even a suggestion. Nor was it even a courtesy. A stipulation in his safety plan. He would assess any and every possible threat, violating her privacy without question to do so. His announcement's purpose was an alert, no more compassionate than a horn blasting in the morning to wake soldiers in the predawn angles.

The man resided in the bedchamber beneath hers, a Sapphireguard posted at the bottom of the stairs leading up to the Bluerose suites in the Steward's Tower at all angles of moon and sun. All this to ensure that no shadows could sneak in and abduct her. Of course her screams, and shrieks, and pacing, and breaking windows, and opening and shutting of doors would've alerted him even in the dead of night.

The Dust was unarmored, his disheveled look suggesting that he'd only just awoken. That divinedamned sword was still there. The meladonite frostblade siphoned the heat from the room, flakes of ice shimmering in the air around the drawn blade.

Garrond took inventory of the room, watching the shadows on the wall and reaching his sword into corners and alcoves. His eyes swept over her last, barely touching her and fleeing before he finished his tiny utterance. "You screamed."

"I had a nightmare." She sat up against the armed end of her sofa, pulling her blanket up to the tops of her shoulders. "Do you ever have nightmares, Sir Garrond?"

Garrond walked around the room, testing the locks on the windows. They were to remain shut and sealed at all times when he wasn't in the room with her. He was silent so long that Alexia had given up hope on an answer.

"Don't we all?"

He wasted no words, spared no warmth—if he even had any. For years, they'd lived in Saphirhold. In all those years, he'd never offered her anything more than a sentence with a capital period. Except when he outlined her safety plan, shutting down all her attempts at collaborating on it as coldly as a cut from Dust.

This wasn't going to work. Not unless she did something to change it. Alexia knew what she had to do, even if she didn't truly want to.

Lower the mask, she urged herself.

She sat in the quiet as he searched her bedchamber. He grunted from within, almost certainly because of the broken window. At least he could feel something. Hopefully the well ran deeper than annoyance.

He returned, his face as impassive as ever, voice uncaring as could be. "You were to only open the window if you needed to call for me."

Lower the mask, she thought. But she was so afraid of this man. He was either the first or second most deadly warrior this side of the Cardian, depending on whether he or King Gideon woke up more of themselves that day. He said nothing, showed nothing, but perhaps a mild disdain for her. He'd killed a king, protected another without any sign of passion for it. And that, she realized, was her opening.

"I am scared of many things," Alexia confessed. "Killing. Dying. Failing. Talking. Halius. Gideon. You..."

There was a long pause before Garrond spoke. "Scary things." He sounded faintly exasperated and Alexia knew that he hoped she would leave it at that.

Alexia mournfully laughed. "I agree."

His silence killed her spirits. She wanted to let him shut the door on her.

"You'll need to sleep on that sofa," he said. "Until the window is fixed." He strode through her bedroom door, his cold eyes taking in the broken window.

Zamael's Hells! Alexia thought. He's going to stay in there until this window gets replaced.

Lower the mask. Let him see who I am. Let him in.

"It might be difficult for us, if I am afraid of you."

Garrond didn't even turn to meet her eyes. He shrugged, then patted at the stones on the wall, surveying the room for any hidden compartments. She hoped he would give her something to work with, to begin dismantling the wall between them. But Garrond said nothing.

Alexia directed his attention to this metaphorical wall, a last resort to get him to examine its hidden compartments with her. "Do you hate me?"

Garrond's face might as well have been a wall for all the emotion it bore. "I do."

His confession hit her like a gut punch. Alexia tightened the blanket around herself, feeling sick to her stomach. She wanted to cry, but tried hard not to. What had she ever done to him to make him hate her?

Garrond finished inspecting the wall. He went to her door, lingering on the inside, his back to her. "I need to stay in here until the window is fixed. Call out if you sense anyone, even if you can't see them, even if it might be your father."

"Do you hate everyone? Or just me?"

Garrond stopped before shutting the door. "Not everyone."

He tried to shut it again. This time, Alexia stood, letting the blanket fall to the floor. "Why me then? All I have ever done is shy away from you, but I think almost everyone does that with you. You terrify courageous knights almost as much as shy girls."

Garrond, standing sideways in the door, offering his frigid shoulder, sighed. It was the clearest emotion he had displayed the whole evening. Unfortunately, it was obvious that he was annoyed with her. He stressed the door, testing how much noise it would make at varying degrees of openness. His whisper was nearly smothered by the door's creaking. "Doesn't matter. I will do my duty."

"It does matter," Alexia said, closer to tears than shouting. Her experiences with Maleon taught her that much. She knew how she was able to face her fears when Maleon and her were aligned by love and she knew how much her fears propagated and were confirmed when they were distanced by hatred.

"I want to know who you are," sorrow choked her voice, "and I want you to know who I am."

Garrond removed one of the pins from the door. It creaked much more audibly when he pushed and pulled on it. Then, he went across the room, never setting his eyes on her as she fought down the tears and removed a pin from the main entry. He pushed and pulled the door, nodding to himself at the increased noise it made.

The Azureknight glanced at her father's bedroom door. "You're Eron's daughter. That is all I need to know."

Sir Garrond marched into her bedchamber, sealing the door before she could figure out what to say to him.

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