—17—

[Lucero's POV]

I walked by Rhys' room that evening and saw the maid he was talking to earlier, Tara, walked out of his bedroom door. She looked messy which could only mean they fucked.

She didn't see me because I was at the end of the hallway as she walked opposite me.

I try to talk to my brother again that night and he persuades me to leave his room and tells me everything is fine between us and that Zara was a bitch.

I believed him and left. Later that midnight I woke up to a whimpering from far away. I was laying in my bed as my hearing sharpened when I heard a faint whimpering sound. That sounds like Cara.

I pop my eyes open right away and stride out my bedroom into hers.

I try knocking but her whimpering gets sharper. I knock down her locked doors and see her trashing body on the bed.

I rush to her side and cradle her in my arms.

"Open your eyes, Cara." I shook her again and again, but she wouldn't wake up. I check her ring, where is the fucking ring!? Fuck! I can't possibly create a ring that fast, not with the amount of power I possess right now. I run to mama's room and keep knocking until she opens the door.

"What mijo?" (my son) She rubs her eyes tiredly but I pull her to Cara's room and make her sit on the bed.

"Mama, wake her up. Please mama now!" I sit back down beside Cara and hold her arm towards mama.

She looks at me like I've grown another head and shakes her head no. But I wasn't having it.

"If you won't do it, give me back my power and I'll do it myself!" I growl out. I lent her half of my power so she could practice control, but without my full power I can't perform any magic to this extreme level where I can pull someone out of a dream.

I don't know what's gotten into me but the only thing I could think of right then is that she can't die or half of me is gonna be gone because she— as cringe as it may sound— is my soulmate and I don't want to lose myself just yet and maybe I don't want to lose her too, especially after getting to know her for a whole month.

I hover my hand over mama's chest, ready to take my power back.

"No, mijo, listen to me. If you take back your power right now I'm going to lose mine do you understand!? I've linked our power." She genuinely looks terrified and is about to lose it. "Please mijo, I can't lose my power!"

"Then do it mama, I know you can pull her out with just your words."

I plead and plead and mama kept refusing saying "If I pull Cara out of her dream, I would need to go back to stage one where I would need to relearn how to control my power again. I would be inside my room most of the time away from the world again!"

"I really need to help her mama! Her ring is fucking gone and without the ring she can't get away from the nightmare!" I pull at my hair painfully and try to calm myself.

"What ring?!" She shouts, "The ring you gave me when I had nightmares from you? Now I have nightmares and she doesn't! How is it fair?"

"It's not even the same ring ma! Yours is yours, hers is hers, now give it back!" I command. Focusing my eyes on hers and controlling her mind to give me what I want. "Give. It. Back."

She says with clouded eyes, "I don't know where it is, I don't have it."

Mama snaps back to reality and closes her mouth.

"Then where the fuck is it." I get into her vision and my eyes turn into its signature black color when it enters a small door.

She is in a classroom full of evil incarnates. They're not humans which is why she feels like the odd one out. They keep annoying her and give her weird creatures to hurt her with and she can't do anything but sit down and take it. This class is the nightmare she's having. She hates being in a place surrounded by strangers and this is exactly where it brought her, her biggest fear. I have to find the ring.

I get out of my vision and try to touch anything that could give me vision. My brother's hand for example but instead of useful vision I got sexual fantasies.

He scolded me for intruding into his 'privacy'.

"Hold on, a green sage ring you said?" Rhys goes back into his room and brings me the said ring and asks "this?"

I grasp it in my hold and run to Cara, "You're welcome, I'll just fire her I guess."

"Don't! Bring her to the tiger chamber."

"Oh shit." I hear him mutter under his breath.

"I'll let Alexei torture her so you don't worry." I shout back to him, knowing Alexei was the most tolerable torturer. He should feel at ease.

As soon as I reached Cara she was already awake, but her face was as pale as a paper, her body so stiff, someone might mistake her for an action figure.

"Cara?" I touch her shoulder and she shudders away from me, not looking into mine nor my mama's eyes.

"You can go." I tell mama.

"Alright mijo, I'm sorry I couldn't help."

I know as soon as she says that she was the happiest person alive because she could keep her powers again.