Moonveil Academy: Trapped With The Five Kings

Esme:

Her fingers tightened around mine.

The sudden pressure made me look down at our joined hands.

I had expected her to pull away even in her sleep. Instead, her fingers curled around mine as though she had been desperately searching for something to hold onto. The sound of another sob left her lips, and before I could think too deeply about what I was doing, I settled down carefully on the edge of the bed beside her.

”Elara,” I whispered.

She didn’t wake up. Instead, her fingers only tightened further.

”Mom...”

My chest tightened as I watched another tear roll down the side of her face.

”Please...”

She sounded so small. Nothing like the Elara I had come to know.

She was the same girl who, in front of the entire academy, had fought Reign without a second thought. She had stood in front of Liliana and her minions with nothing but strength. She had fought five men until she lost consciousness. Yet now she was crying in her sleep like a child who had been abandoned somewhere she didn’t understand.

”Dad...”

I looked away for a moment.

Then her lips parted again.

”Felix...”

That was when I became certain. She wasn’t simply dreaming. She was reliving them... her family.

From what Lorien had told us, the human family that had raised her had died the very night she was brought to Moonveil. I didn’t know the details. I had never asked. Lorien had only briefly mentioned that they had been involved with the Reapers and had known Elara’s true identity all these years.

Technically, her parents had been criminals. They had hidden the missing Argentis princess from the supernatural world for years. They had worked for the very organization that had helped destroy her family. But that didn’t change what they had been to her.

They were still the people who had raised her. The people she had called Mom and Dad. And Felix... I assumed he had been someone important to her too. Maybe a brother. Maybe a friend. Someone she loved.

Though a part of me hoped he was no more than a friend or brother. Because the idea of her having a lover she’s having nightmares about didn’t sit right with me.

But I somewhat understood her pain. I knew what it felt like to watch the people you loved die. I had watched my own parents die years ago. And there were still nights when those memories returned. Still moments when I remembered their final expressions.

So no, I couldn’t judge her for crying for people the rest of our world considered criminals. Because grief didn’t care about right or wrong. It didn’t care whether the dead deserved to be mourned.

The people who raised you were still your family. And losing them could destroy something inside you forever.

Another sob escaped her.

Before I could stop myself, something warm seeped through my palm.

I froze.

It was my dream weaving magic. It slipped through the contact between our hands and reached for her mind.

I should have pulled it back immediately. I knew that. Using weaving magic on someone without their permission was wrong. I was already standing beside her bed in the middle of the night without any explanation I could give to someone else, and now my power was touching her mind.

But then she sobbed again in pure agony, and any hesitation I felt disappeared instantly.

”Alright,” I whispered, lowering my voice. ”I’ll get you out of there.”

I closed my eyes and wove.

The darkness inside her mind shifted. The nightmare fractured. The memories blurred. And something beautiful took its place - sunlight, the scent of flowers, and warm air.

I opened my eyes.

Elara was standing in the middle of my private greenhouse. Or rather, the version of my greenhouse I had created inside her dream.

It was larger than the academy’s greenhouse and far more private. The glass ceiling stretched high above us, allowing the bright afternoon sunlight to pour inside. Tall vines climbed along wooden pillars, while flowers of every color bloomed in neat rows across the enormous space. The air was filled with the scents of roses, herbs, earth, and the faint sweetness of plants.

I knew this place well. It was the greenhouse at my family’s mansion. One of the few places where I actually found peace.

Elara stood several feet away from me, dressed in the same infirmary gown she had worn before falling asleep. Her silver hair was slightly messy, and her eyes moved over the greenhouse in confusion.

Then she looked at me, her brows pulling together. ”Esmeray?” Her voice was so soft I almost missed it.

Smiling softly, I spoke, ”Good afternoon.”

Her gaze moved around again. ”Where am I?”

”Somewhere better than wherever you were before.” I answered and watched as her expression changed immediately.

She might not remember the nightmare clearly, but she could still feel the relief of it being gone. I watched some of the tension slowly leave her shoulders. Then she looked back at me and asked, ”Why are you here?”

Despite myself, I found myself playing around with her as I once again gave her an indirect answer.

”That is a much better question.”

She narrowed her eyes. ”You are not answering.”

”I know.”

”Are you going to?”

”No.”

A look of annoyance crossed her face, but I could see the smallest hint of amusement beginning to appear in her eyes.

Good. That was what I wanted. Something other than fear and grief that had held her captive in that nightmare.

I turned toward the long table behind me, where several pots and gardening tools had been placed. ”Since you are here,” I said, ”you can help me.”

She stared at me, both confused and surprised. ”Excuse me?”

I picked up one of the pots as I remarked, ”These plants aren’t going to transfer themselves.”

Elara folded her arms across her chest. ”You literally dragged me into an unfamiliar greenhouse, and now you are giving me chores?”

”I would appreciate some gratitude.” I didn’t even look back at her as I started working on shifting the rose bushes to bigger pots.