Dash is frowning, trying to follow what I’m saying. “I … I don’t know, Em. Maybe I heard about her ages ago, or—”
“Or maybe you did hear someone speak about her now. The report said she’s still at Reinhold because they’re trying to determine further uses for her ability—”
“Emerson!”
I pause. The gym has become a forest of tall, skinny trees reaching high into the smudged grey sky. The tips of their spindly branches blur into the background. “Did you hear that?”
Dash’s eyes, suddenly wide and afraid, dart behind and around me. “Hear what? A hiss? Was it the serpent?”
“No, it sounded like my name.”
“Em!”
I spin around, my eyes searching between the trees. “There, did you hear it?”
“Yes.” He breathes out slowly. “If they know your name, then it’s one of us.”
“One of us? You mean …” I look again. The spindly trees melt into trees that are larger, more gnarled, tangled. And between crisscrossing branches, I see a woman running toward me.
“It’s as if we’re all trapped together inside the same nightmarish world,” Dash says quietly.
“They’re dead!” someone screams behind us, but I’m already moving forward because I know who it is that’s racing through the trees toward me. A flash of her purple hair, another shout of my name, and I know for sure that it’s her.
Of all the ways I’ve imagined finally being reunited with one or both of my parents, this wasn’t one of them. An ever-shifting nightmare landscape never crossed my mind. I race as fast as I can, but the trees don’t get any closer. Looking down, I find that my feet aren’t actually moving. “Stupid nightmare!” I mutter between gritted teeth. I wrap my hands around my right thigh and manage to pull my foot up. The ground stretches, becomes elastic, and part of it remains attached to the sole of my shoe. When I can no longer hold my leg up, the elastic ground tugs my foot back down. “Oh, come on!” I shout at no one in particular. “This isn’t even my nightmare!”
“Em!” I look up at the sound of Violet’s voice. She’s close now, the sticky elastic ground appearing to have no effect on her. She’s almost in front of me, and this is supposed to be an amazing moment as I’m finally reunited with my real mother, and this stupid nightmare is ruining it!
As she reaches me, I manage to launch myself forward with a great effort. But we’re like the mismatched ends of two magnets. Our arms move past each other, unable to ever touch. “Are you real?” she asks, her eyes searching my face. “Please be real. Please tell me you’re not part of someone’s nightmare.”
“I’m not. I’m—”
The ground expands between us, and we’re no longer in a forest. We’re in a bedroom. There’s a rocking chair behind Violet—and between us stands a crib. I know immediately what this nightmare is, and all I want to do is shove myself far away from what must be lying in that crib. But I can’t move. And the crib seems to be growing larger. Or I’m slowing falling toward it. I can’t tell.
“You’re not real,” Vi whispers. “This is still the nightmare. Just another version of it.”
I am real, I want to cry out. But just as I can’t pull my feet from the ground, I can’t pull my eyes from the crib. My body leans over it, as if some sick, twisted part of me is in control now, forcing me to look. Finally, with my stomach churning, I see the tiny, motionless body lying within the crib.
The floor opens up beneath my feet. I let out a yelp as I drop through the hole and—
Twenty
I jerk as I wake up. My eyes are heavy, my mouth is dry. “What … whyamiawake?” I mumble, pushing myself up into a sitting position. Bandit rolls down my chest with a squeak and transforms into something blue and sparkly with wings as he launches into the air.
“Oh, hey.” Aurora sits up, looking sleepy. “Did you manage to speak to Dash.”
I blink. “Yes, but—why did I wake up? I wasn’t finished there.”
“The spell only lasts a certain amount of time. It must have reached its end.”
“But I need to go back. Can’t you do the spell again?”
She shakes her head. “It isn’t good for you. You need to wait at least a day.”
“But—”
“Why do you need to go back? Weren’t you able to ask Dash about Reinhold? You were there for—” she glances sideways at our floating numbers “—almost three hours.”
“Three hours? It felt like only minutes.”
She arches an eyebrow and gives me another one of her duh looks. “Yes, well, dreams tend to feel like that.”
“I … I did ask him about Reinhold. It sounds like the Griffin rebels are there. But I need to go back into the dream for another reason. Let me just drink some water—I’m so thirsty—and then you can do the spell again.” I stand—
—and the world spins so violently around me that I have no idea for several moments which way is up or down. When everything settles, I find myself lying on the ground, squinting past Aurora at the bright sky and the palm leaves waving across them. “Sorry,” she says. “I forgot to mention the intense dizziness side effect.”
I want to sit up but decide to give myself another few moments to recover. “Is that the only thing that’s bad for me? Because if it is, I can handle it.”
“Em—”
“Violet was there. Which means Ryn must have been somewhere there too. I just want to talk to them and—”
“I can’t send you back, Em. The dizziness is just the beginning. If your mind doesn’t have a break between dream communication sessions, the spell will begin to leave permanent damage. And even if that wasn’t the case, I can’t put you in someone else’s dream world if that someone isn’t here.”
I slowly push myself up, trying not to bring on any further dizziness. “But … I saw Violet.”
“She was obviously part of Dash’s dream.”
“That’s not what Dash said. He said it’s like they’re all inside one nightmarish world.”
Aurora lifts her shoulders. “I don’t know, okay? If they’re all inside the same dream, then that’s some other magic I don’t know about.”
I pull one knee up against my chest and wrap my arm around it. “It must be the torture prison magic.”
“You mean Noxsom? I thought you said they’re at Reinhold.”
“Yes, I think they are. But they’re still under the influence of whatever torture magic was administered to them at The Noxsom Facility. I don’t know what’s affecting their bodies now, but their minds are still locked up in a mental prison.”
“Okay, so if you’re sure they’re at Reinhold, then let’s go rescue them. You can talk to them once they’re free, and you can stop pestering me about putting you back into dream contact with them.”
Beside us, Dash mumbles around the sock. I’m fairly certain he’s trying to say, “You must be killed.”
“Oh. My Griffin Ability. I can feel it.” A rush of joy accompanies the surge of magic. I shut my eyes and concentrate on making sure none of it escapes me yet.
“Cool,” Aurora says. “Now you can try to wake Dash.”
I open my eyes and look at him. His unseeing gaze stares past the palm fronds waving lazily in the breeze. I place my hand on his arm, desperate to free him from his horrendous nightmares and see his green eyes alight with life and humor once again. “But … wait. I don’t know exactly what’s wrong with him, so I don’t know what to say to fix it.”
“So then just say a whole bunch of things,” Aurora says. “Say everything you can think of that might be wrong with him.”
“What if that ends up hurting him?”
“Don’t be silly, Em. Why would that hurt him? If you say to someone, ‘You no longer have scaled knuckle disease,’ it’s not going to make any difference to them if they don’t have scaled knuckle disease to start off with.”
“Okay. I guess so.” I don’t add the real reason for my hesitation: that I care more about Dash tha
n I realized and I don’t want to screw this up. I let my breath out slowly. “This is going to work,” I quietly tell myself. “This is going to work. Crap, this isn’t going to work.”
Aurora’s hand rests against my back. “Em, your Griffin Ability is probably the most powerful I’ve ever come across. Why would this not work?”
Because, I answer silently, when you want something so badly you can actually feel it hurt, life never lets you have it. But out loud, I say, “Okay. I’m gonna try now.” My eyes slide shut as I let go of my power and speak. “Dash, no external magic is controlling your actions. No external magic is controlling your mind. The only magic within you and affecting you is your own.” I trail off then and open my eyes, unsure of what else to say.
“I think something’s happening,” Aurora whispers.
I watch closely as a shiver ripples through Dash’s body. He blinks, then blinks again. Slowly, the white cloudiness vanishes from his eyes. At the sight of that vibrant green I’ve missed so much, hope breaks free from the careful hold I have over it, exploding with warmth throughout me. I lean forward and tug the sock away from Dash’s mouth. I don’t touch the ropes, though. It may not have worked properly, I remind myself, tempering my excitement so the disappointment—when it inevitably comes—doesn’t crush me.
He looks around, his eyes traveling across the bright, colorful landscape, so different from the dark nightmare world he’s been locked in. “I’m … awake,” he says, sounding utterly confused. His voice—no longer robotic—sends another wave of warmth through my body. I dare for a moment to believe that perhaps this time, disappointment isn’t coming.
Finally, Dash’s eyes settle on me. “Em. You were there. Inside the nightmare. Is this … am I really awake now?” Then his gaze falls to the ropes around his wrists and ankles. His chest rises and falls more rapidly. “Holy fluff cakes. What did I do to you? Please tell me I didn’t hurt you.”
I almost laugh at the words ‘fluff cakes.’ As I rush to untie the knots at his wrists, my words tumble happily from my mouth. “Oh my goodness, it actually worked.” My fingers fumble with the knots, and whenever my skin brushes against his, heat burns inside me and sparks zip around our hands. I remember Aurora’s explanation about magical manifestations of attraction, but I can’t find it in myself to be embarrassed.
“Emmy, did I hurt you?” Dash asks, his voice pained.
I laugh and shake my head. “You should be more worried about what Imperia did to you than what you might have done to us.” I pull repeatedly at the ropes, and the stupid things are so stubborn, and then Aurora’s leaning beside me, pushing my hands out the way so she can use magic instead. And then Dash is tugging his hands free, and finally, finally his arms are wrapped tightly around me and I’m sinking against him.
“Thank you,” he says into my hair. “You saved me.”
I shake my head against his neck. “My Griffin Ability … I didn’t really know what to say. My command seemed so simple, but it worked.” I want to hold onto him forever, but eventually I have to let go and pull away from him. I want to talk about the last time I saw him. I want to kiss him the way I did then. But now hardly seems like the appropriate time for things as frivolous as kisses.
“Aurora,” Dash says, looking past me. “Hi.”
“Hey,” she answers, giving him an awkward wave.
“You’re … on our side?”
“You know I saved Em from losing all her magic to my brother, right? So yes. I’m on your side.”
“Okay …” Dash sounds uncertain, but he doesn’t argue. Then his eyes are on me again, and he reaches up with both hands to cup my face. “Your parents … your family … I’m still stunned. You’re Victoria. You have a brother and grandparents and an aunt and uncle. I met you when we were both babies. How crazy is that? It’s all I want to talk about, and yet now is just …”
“So not the right time?” Aurora says, echoing my own thoughts.
Dash’s eyes remain trained on mine as he says, “Yeah. Exactly.” He withdraws his hands, leaving my skin cold.
I clear my throat. “What’s, um, what’s the last thing you remember? Do you know what happened to you after the Guild took you from Velazar?”
Slowly, he nods. “Things are coming back to me. They’re clearer now. So much clearer than when I was dreaming.” His eyes take on a haunted look as he focuses on the ground. “The nightmare … consumed me. It became everything. I couldn’t imagine anything existing beyond it.”
I place my hand gently over his. “It’s over now.”
“Yes,” he says in a tone that suggests he doesn’t completely believe me. Then he gives his head a small shake and focuses his bright gaze on me again. “They took me to the Guild first. The detainment center. They told me they sent Vi and Ryn straight to Noxsom, but that I’d be receiving a fair trial. And I actually believed them.” He lets out a bitter laugh. “Then one of the Councilors came to my cell with three other guardians. They beat me up and dragged me out, telling me just before I passed out that it was completely unacceptable how I’d attacked these three men. Seeing as how dangerous I was, they’d need to remove me to a more secure facility.”
“I knew that story was a lie,” I mutter, then add, “Perry told us,” when Dash gives me a questioning look.
“I woke up at Reinhold,” he continues. “I’d never heard of the place before, but the men and women around me were talking when I woke. I thought they were healers at first. Boy, was I wrong. I remember them mentioning that we were at Reinhold, and they kept referring to someone named Shyla. They spoke about how she was already controlling several people, but she was definitely capable of handling more. And then they dragged me off to administer the nightmare essence.”
“Nightmare essence?” I ask. “They actually called it that?”
“Those were the words they used.”
“Freaking creepazoids,” I murmur.
“They took me to a room with a funnel hanging from the ceiling over a bed.”
“That sounds like the cells in The Noxsom Facility,” I say.
“Well this nightmare essence must be what they use at Noxsom to torture the inmates,” he says. “They probably developed it at Reinhold.”
“Yes, that’s what those papers said,” Aurora chimes in.
Dash is frowning now, his eyes darting back and forth as if watching the scene play back across his eyelids. “They forced me onto the bed and pulled the funnel down so it was closer to my face. The serum came out like a vapor, and no matter which way I twisted my head, I couldn’t help breathing it in. And then …”
“And then what?” I ask.
“I remember it all now. Everything the researcher woman said. Like she was gloating. As if she enjoyed the fact that I knew what was going to happen and could do nothing about it.” He looks up. His hand grabs my wrist, and his words become more urgent. “She said I would be a brainless soldier for them. That my friends and I would all be soldiers. While our minds were locked up inside in a nightmare, Shyla would direct our bodies. They’d recently realized her ability could do that too: take control over bodies while imprisoning minds. They planned to send us out in twos or threes, and I didn’t know what that meant because I thought they’d only captured two of my friends—Ryn and Violet. But then she told me about the others. She said we would be used to round up the rest of the rebels. Because the rebels would trust us. And by the time they realized something was wrong, it would be too late.”
“It almost was too late,” Aurora mutters. “Fortunately, we got away on—”
“That’s not all she said,” Dash interrupts. He stands, sways for a moment, then steadies himself. “Stylus,” he says to me, holding his hand out.
“What?” But I stick my hand into my jacket and find my stylus anyway. “Dash, what’s going on?” I ask as I hand it to him.
“In order for us to leave the research station but still remain inside the nightmare—” he pauses for a moment to utter the words
of a doorway spell “—they would have to give us an extra-large dose of nightmare essence. A lethal-sized dose. That’s what she told me, just before I drifted into the nightmare. ‘And that’s why we’re only going to send you out in twos or threes,’ she said. ‘Wouldn’t want to kill you all at once.’”
“Wouldn’t want to kill you all at …” I jump to my feet as a doorway opens beside Dash. “But you’re fine. The serum didn’t kill you.”
“Because you stopped it. Your Griffin Ability got me out before it was too late. But whoever else was with me will still have a lethal dose of serum running through their bodies.”
I suck in a breath. “Vi and Ryn.”
He reaches for my hand. “Come on, we’ve wasted enough time already.”
“Wait, my jacket!” I add, shoving one hand into the backpack and tugging my jacket free.
“Wait!” Aurora cries. “What do I do? I can’t leave Imperia—”
“Stay here,” Dash tells her, pulling me into the paths. “We’ll return to this spot.”
“Watch Bandit for me!”
“What if you don’t—”
But her protests are lost as the darkness seals itself up behind us.
Twenty-One
We hurry out of the faerie paths into an icy white landscape of endless slopes and snow-dusted trees. The first thing Dash says is, “Wait, you didn’t use up your Griffin power on me, did you?”
Sick with worry, I manage to stutter, “I—no, I’ve still got some.” I pull my jacket on and zip it all the way up. My eyes sweep across our frozen surroundings, eventually settling on a grey building just beyond the curve of a small hill. “Dammit, Dash, why did they have to choose the three of you first? I know it’s incredibly selfish to wish they’d picked someone else, but … argh!” I let out an agonized cry. “Why the people I care about the most? Why?”
“Hey!” He grabs my shoulders, almost stabbing me with the stylus he’s still holding, and gives me a small shake. “Stop freaking out. We’re not too late. We’ll get to them in time.” He takes my hand and pulls me forward.