Whispers Waltz Around Our Dreams . . .

Losa couldn’t explain it. She’d fallen asleep, weary from her journey toward the ocean . . . and something had snapped her awake like a splash of ice water across the face. She lifted her head from where she lay, trembling slightly, feeling disturbingly naked with the night sky stretching above her. Darkness provided the cover vampires needed to hunt, and according to legend, the bloodsuckers craved nothing so much as they craved the taste of an Arcus Irae. The precious rainbows were a drug to them—the very finest ambrosia, sweet lust and passion and desperate ecstasy threaded thickly in their delicate veins. If one of the red-eyed demons were to find Losa out here, without a Tempest to protect her . . . she was as good as dead.

But it wasn’t this terrifying possibility that had shaken the ex-princess from her slumber. Yes, her skin crawled under the cold light of the stars, yet no fatal scarlet glow blazed in her vision. Something else had gripped her in the middle of her dreams. It was like a song she could barely hear, low and mournful music dancing on the edges of her awareness. She swallowed a tide of malaise that seemed to have no reason behind its existence. Her ears perked, and although she knew she could only hear the faint sound of grass rustling softly and crickets chirping, Losa couldn’t help but strain to hear that quiet symphony. Her heart ached for it. Her vocal cords tightened as if to hum along with the wordless melody. And without understanding why, the Arcus Irae abruptly stood up and began trotting out deeper into the fields, away from the banks of the mighty river.

Moonlight bleached her pastel sunrise coat to a muted tapestry of silver and charcoal. The silent music drew her inexorably toward the center of the plains, moving as if in a trance, tears beginning to burn behind her mismatched eyes. Eventually, tall grasses gave way to bundles of delectably perfumed blossoms, shimmering ivory beneath the moon’s . . . no. Wait. Losa did not pause until she stood in the midst of a vast, milky-white sea, blinking in shock as part of the spell on her wore off. Carefully, she held a forepaw over the bobbing head of a flower—and gasped when she saw how light shimmered from the petals and bounced off her paw pads. The plants are glowing?! Fascination—horror—curiosity—muffled the mysterious song in her brain, and Losa spun in a circle to fully take in the impossible splendor she’d marched into. This was magic! It had to be! That explained the odd pull she felt, the song without lyrics that simmered around her soul! The land itself pulsed with energy, magic bleeding from every square mile of flora Losa could see. The soil was drenched in magic. The air hung heavy and saccharine with the flavor of magic. Losa dared uncage more of her spirit, and inhaled sharply at the sensation of magic meshing with her own special aura. She did not notice if any other wolves were drawn to this same place, did not care if she weren’t alone to experience this exquisite phenomenon. It didn’t matter.

“It’s . . . lovely.” The rainbow damsel breathed the words in a tremulous voice, nuzzling against a shining bud. And that’s when—without warning—the world lurched with the force of a gigantic heartbeat, and Losa dropped to the ground in a sudden dead faint.

☽Arcus Irae Princess | Sister to Zawyne | Chained to Duma | Bound to Hurricane | xathira☾