Free War of the Princes 03: Monarch by A. R. Ivanovich

nightmare. I'm sure it'll get better.”
    “ No, it won't. It hasn't. You need to understand, I saw Dragoons in my dream.”
    I was trying to be positive, supportive. What did he want me to say? “We've been through a lot.”
    “ It's not that! Kat, I've had these dreams my whole life, ” he said, gesturing emphatically. “I didn't start having the dreams here, I've always had them, Dragoons and all! They're only getting worse, more frequent.”
    Kyle was a cold-hard-facts kind of guy. It wasn't like him to put any weight on something as flimsy as a nightmare. Whatever was going on with him, I didn't like it. “What do you think it means? Could Sterling figure it out?”
    “ You know how he can– I mean could, sense other Abilities? He said there was something different about mine. He didn't understand it. I think this nightmare is a premonition. I think that seeing the future, my future, is one of my other Abilities and he didn't know what to make of it 'cause he's never come into contact with it before.”
    “ A premonition?” I didn't like this. One. Bit.
    He nodded, serious as the grave. “I don't even want to say it out loud, but I need to tell someone.” He inhaled through his nose, closed his eyes, and exhaled. His lids reopened slowly. “I think I'm going to die. Here. I think I'm seeing my death.”
    “ Kyle,” I said threateningly. After setting himself up to take the fall for the Cape Hill rebellion, Rune thought he'd die, too. I refused to accept that line of thinking, especially now, after losing Sterling. “This isn't the time or the place to joke.”
    “ I'm not joking!”
    “ Look, I understand. We're all under a lot of pressure. With everything that's happened, I've thought I wouldn't make it. More than a few times.”
    To say the least.
    “Gravity, I thought Stakes had killed me,” breathlessly, I touched the ring of scars on my chest. “But that kind of negativity will eat away at you. It's not healthy.”
    “ You don't get it! I feel it! It's not just a dream. I know it’s not. This is me, Kat, I'm no pessimist. I'm not superstitious. The dreams are more frequent every day because I'm getting closer. I don't know when or where, but it's going to happen. How am I supposed to cope with that?” He sighed, looking down at the water that sprayed out beneath our whirling turbines. “That's why I was afraid to go with you to the Installment Fortress in Cape Hill. It's why me and Sterling were fighting. He didn't believe the dreams meant anything either. He thought I'd lost my nerve, and he was right. When I got close to that place, I got a terrible feeling in the pit of my stomach, like I'd seen it before. I thought it was going to happen then, that I'd be killed for sure. I was lucky that time.”
    And Sterling wasn't.
    “If you think your dreams are showing you the future, why didn't you go back to Haven? Avoid the whole thing?”
    Kyle rubbed his eyes. “Because of Sterling. He was scared too, but helping you was more important to him than hanging back to hide on the ship. If fate exists and this is it, well, there's nothing I can do about it anyway. You're my best friend, Kat, and I'm not going to leave you alone out here.”
    I wasn't alone . I had Rune, and Carmine... even Dylan. But Kyle and I were from Haven and we saw things differently. That kind of kinship is impossible to imagine until you've experienced it. I didn't take his confession for granted.
    I pulled my shoulders up to shelter my bare ears from the sea breeze. Looking over at Kyle, I wondered if he'd made the right choice. “Half of me wishes you'd gone with Ru. Especially after...”
    Sterling.
    “It isn't only your duty to defend Haven,” he pointed out.
    “ The other half of me is glad you're here,” I continued. “You saved Professor Block's life, saved my leg. You've made a difference to all of us. Dreams are dreams. They don't mean anything.”
    Gravity, I have my share of interesting ones.
    “Knew