Bianca shot upright on the bed to the sound of her own screams. "Brantley!" She clutched the air with her fists as if hoping to hold Brantley close to her. She heard heavy footfalls near her.

"Bianca?"

​​

Her eyes flew open. She was in her bedchamber. It was the same nightmare that had been haunting her. In her sleep, she had seen how it ended. She heard Gayle's breathy voice. How he ran to save her, how the arrows were shot at him, how he lied in the pool of blood. He must have been so distraught when he succumbed to his injuries while saving her. She remembered his unblinking eyes, which stilled. She remembered his caring words. He saved her and died saving her.

Then Brantley had come to save her. The way he carried her… like a treasure. He was about to take her when an axe cracked his skull.

When Brantley burst open the door of the bathroom, she was on her knees, the blanket pooled around her hips. She stretched her arms and reached for him while crying and whimpering. Was it real? Or was it a dream?

Brantley held her and then picked her up to put her in his lap as he sat on the bed. "I am there Bia. I will always be there for you… Shh," he murmured softly in her ear and pressed her against his chest. "Shh, sweetheart." In order to calm her nerves, he caressed her back gently with his warm hand.

This is what he said in her dreams too. He would always be there for her. And he had said that every time she was in distress. Did that mean the dream was a memory she relived?

She snuggled close to him feeling every bit needy for his warmth and strength. She took her fingers to his head to check the scar. Was it because of the axe? She placed one hand on his heart to hear it beating against hers. The man had saved her from a nest of winged people at the cost of his life.

He kissed the crown of her head and she felt so close to him. How could she even think that she wanted to give him a chance to fall in love with her, when the man had been irrevocably hers, since life started? Her heart started pounding against her ribcage as if it wanted to leap out.

"Bia?" he asked and tucked her closer to him. "What is it? Did you see the nightmare again?" He stroked her hair but she couldn't stop crying. "Tell me sweetheart."

She looked up at him, his beautiful hair and that square jawline. "I… saw my Grandfather," she said in a broken voice.

He stilled and stared at her without blinking his eyes.

"Then I dreamt you saving me from winged people, and an a—axe hit your head." At the last part of her sentence, she almost thought she could die. Pain stabbed her heart. She curled her hands in his hair to feel the scar again. "I lost you in my dream. You died." A fresh wave of tremor cruised through her body.

"I won't go anywhere, sweetheart," he said. "You've been through a lot over the last few hours. You need sleep, love." He wiped her tears and then ran his thumb on her swollen lips.

"You and Grandfather saved me. I know that for sure." She cupped his face in her hands. "You have to tell me everything, else I will go mad. These— these dreams keep haunting me. And— and I realized that I get them whenever I touch that scar on your head. It's as if that scar triggers a long lost, long suppressed memory." Another shudder.

He covered her with the blanket in his lap and pressed her face against his chest. "Gods, I never thought you would come to know. I didn't want you to know. You were too young…"

She realized how protective he was about her and that her dreams were real. And she thought of testing him, she thought of making him chase her? She clung to him tightly. If he wanted he could have told her about the scar long back, but he chose to remain quiet because he didn't want her to remember that ugly day. She cried and cried, wetting his chest. He rubbed her back, her arms and her head to soothe her.

When she calmed down, she said, "I saw the axe cracking your skull. I saw Rirsyr picking us up in the sky. Gayle had rescued me from the cell where there were gray skinned people. He died rescuing me. Please Brantley, please. You must tell me about it!"

Brantley took a deep breath. He kissed her swollen lips, placed her on the bed and tucked her again in the blanket.

Outside, the sun had just risen above the horizon emulating his inner feelings. He had to shed light upon her dreams so that they stopped troubling her. Bending over her, he reached for the glass of water on the bedside table and gave it to her. "Have it Bia," he coaxed her. He lied beside her and pulled her closer to him beneath the blanket and kept his arm below her head. As he gently stroked her back and arms, he said, "A day before you turned seven, you were kidnapped by Kar'den, king of Zor'gan. He wanted to kill you."

"Why?" she asked, totally bewildered.

He exhaled heavily. "Let me start it from the beginning," he said. There was no point in hiding anything from her now. "Your Grandmother, Sedora, was the queen of sorcerers and she created havoc in the Lore. She wanted to master dark powers and become an undisputed leader of the Lore. For that she stole the Necklace of Lorza, killed her sister and her parents and then ascended the throne of Ixoviya."

Bianca gasped. She knew that Sedora was their Grandmother and that she was lost in the Lore. Because of that Uncle Caleb had to become the king of Ixoviya. But this was new.

Brantley continued. "Over the years she became even stronger and Loreans were beginning to get afraid of her." He looked at her. "There was a prophecy that she would be killed by my mate."

Bianca was so shocked that her body tingled and she sat upright in the bed. "What?" Her eyes were wide. "But she is already lost and the fact that she hasn't come back means she would never ever come back!"

He took his hand to her cheek and rubbed it with his fingers. "You are so adorable, sweetheart," he said with a smile. He continued, "And there was another prophecy which said that my mate would be born to a neotide who was a dragon rider. To cut things short, there was less than 0.01 percent chance that I would ever find a mate. However, things changed and you were born." His lips curled up when he remembered seeing her for the first time. "Sedora came to know that you were conceived, so she made a plan to trap your mother Dawn to kill her. It was a horrible plan. She could have been killed."

"What plan?" she asked with fear in her heart.

"That is not my story to tell Bia. And I would suggest that you don't ask about it to your mom." He crossed his hands beneath his head to make them a pillow.

"However, Dawn not only thwarted her plans, but she defeated Sedora, who had to run for her life. Unfortunately, she took Gayle with her while escaping." He sighed.