Looking worriedly at Rhiannon, Kalen replied, “What if whoever did make me the target, turns their attention to Rhiannon if they think she knows too much?”
“Then I’ll just have to make sure I don’t let on that I know anything. I don’t plan on telling anyone what I know about your lineage or what happened to your dad. And I promise you, I will keep my guard up while I’m back there. Besides, I have other more mundane issues to figure out, so I need to go back for that as well.”
“Like what?” Aoki asked.
“Well, now that I’m 18, it’s time for me to move off-campus. I never really made plans because it was always decided that I’d marry Oberon pretty much right away, but now…I think I need time to decide for myself if that’s what I really want. Which means I need to find a place to live.”
Kalen’s face lit up at her admission, and Aoki replied, “Not to keep bringing up sensitive subjects, but Rhiannon, have you looked into your family’s estate at all?”
“What do you mean?” Rhiannon asked.
“Well, it may be possible that your parents had life insurance and some funds that would have been left to you. After they passed away, who’s been taking care of your financial needs?” Aoki replied.
“Lady Villagomez…” Rhiannon said.
“Well, perhaps she’s been your guardian and has been taking care of your estate for you. Now that you’re of age, it could be transferred to you, then you’d at least have the money to get a place. I’d willingly offer to let you stay here, but given we are at the Lucid Dreamers base, I don’t think it’d be very safe for the Princess of the Fairies.” Aoki replied.
“I never even thought about anything being left for me…I’ve just been living in the bubble of Hada Academy for so long and doing what was expected of me, I never really cared to ask about any of this…” Rhiannon said, feeling foolish.
“You lost them at such a young age, it wasn’t your job to be an adult and figure all this out. The people around you should have let you know. But now, you have one more thing you’ll need to bring up to Lady Villagomez when you meet with her.” Aoki said sympathetically.
Taking a deep breath, Rhiannon mentally added one more thing to her checklist.
“Okay, I can do this, and I’m ready. I’m going to go through Lilyette’s dream so I can catch her up on everything and then just go straight through and make sure she’s physically okay.” Rhiannon said as she clenched her fists tightly.
“You want to go now?” Kalen asked in disbelief.
“Yeah, give me your phone number, and I’ll make sure to contact you as soon as I get somewhere private. Hopefully, if I go to through her dream now, there won’t be many people around since it’s still late.” Rhiannon replied.
“Are you sure you don’t want to get something to eat first, maybe take time to let your body relax? You seem a bit wired now, how are you going to fall asleep right away?” Aoki asked carefully.
“I do feel wide awake, but I’m not hungry at all. I could just take some melatonin or a sleeping pill? I don’t want to put this off, Oberon is going to be completely freaked out when he wakes up, and I’m not there – I don’t want him to get his mom involved before I have a chance to speak with her.” Rhiannon replied.
Kalen picked at his fingernails to keep from expressing his agitation and nodded in response, knowing that her words were logical in spite of his worries.
“Okay, let’s try melatonin since it’s gentler. I’ll go grab you a glass of water.” Aoki said.
“Thank you so much, seriously, for everything. You’ve been nothing but kind to me, and I’ll never forget that.”
Aoki smiled and gave a slight nod to Rhiannon as she headed out the door to get the water.
“Why does it sound like you’re saying goodbye?” Kalen said glumly.
“Not goodbye, just see you guys later? I don’t know what’s going to happen when I go back there, but no matter what I’ll keep you updated, okay?” Rhiannon replied.
“Okay, can I…give you a hug before you go?” Kalen asked cautiously.
“I’d like that,” Rhiannon said softly.
Kalen’s lips twitched upwards to a smile as he pulled her in for a deep embrace. Her soft and luscious curls brushed across his cheek as he breathed in the scent and feel of her.
I wish I could go with her, Kalen thought.
I wish I didn’t have to go, Rhiannon thought.
Chapter 2
Returning with the melatonin, Aoki stood quietly in the doorframe, observing Kalen and Rhiannon.
I have a good feeling about them, Aoki thought wistfully with a small smile to herself.
Giving a light knock on the doorframe to aware them of her presence, Aoki walked in and handed Rhiannon the glass of water and one tablet of melatonin.
“Thank you,” Rhiannon replied as she took the items and gulped down the pill quickly.
Kalen reached for her phone and entered his name and number, then also added his mom’s information before handing it back to Rhiannon.
“Well, here goes nothing,” Rhiannon said as she tucked it into her pocket. “Hopefully, I’ll be able to fall asleep.”
Hopefully, you won’t, Kalen thought but didn’t dare to say aloud so as not to sound selfish.
Lying down on the bed, Rhiannon gave one last smile to Kalen and Aoki before letting her eyes closed. She didn’t feel tired at all, but she focused her thoughts on getting to Lilyette’s dream. Mere seconds passed before Rhiannon felt herself being pulled towards the now familiar dream realm. In a way that she hadn’t been able to before, she was somehow controlling the trajectory of her mind and leaving the physical world of her own volition without having to be fully asleep.
Kalen and Aoki watched Rhiannon in awe as she unexpectedly began to fade away soon after she closed her eyes.
“Rhi” – Kalen began but was cut off by his mom who grabbed his hand and shushed him.
Under her breath, she whispered, “don’t break her concentration. This is incredible.”
Focusing harder, Rhiannon reached out mentally towards Lilyette’s stream of consciousness, and once she identified it, she felt her body pulled towards it at a rapid rate. Before Rhiannon could catch her breath or get her bearings, she popped into Lilyette’s dream.
“Back so soon?” Lilyette said without bothering to open her eyes as she sat cross-legged on her cloud meditating.
“How’d you know it was me?” Rhiannon said with a chuckle.
“Because I’m focusing on gaining control over my mind. I’ve had intruders, and it’s taken a lot of work to force them out. I think they’re doing something to me.” Lilyette said, eyes still closed.
Mouth dropping open, Rhiannon walked up to Lilyette and placed her hand on her knee and asked with worry evident in her voice, “What do you mean intruders? Other fairies have been coming into your dream?”
“I think they have been for a while, but I couldn’t detect them until you broke through that barrier. It feels like parts of me are missing. I started to feel like my brain was being plucked – it hurt.” Lilyette said as she let her eyes softly open to meet eyes with Rhiannon.
“They’re hurting you?” Rhiannon growled, “Why would anyone need to be messing around in your mind anyway! You’ve never done anything to anyone!”
“All I can think is that they’re trying to find out where you and Kalen are,” Lilyette replied.
“Well, they won’t have to mess around in your brain any longer to find out cause I’m going through your dream and facing everything.”
Lilyette’s eyes widened as she replied, “What? Are you crazy? We still don’t have everything figured out yet!”
“I know, but I don’t think that me hiding away is helping the situation at all. Look at what they’re doing to you, and since Oberon knows that I left with Kalen, who knows when they’ll send people after us. I need to just face Lady Villagomez and the High Council to get things set straight.” Rhiannon replied with determinatio
n.
“Okay…but be careful, okay?”
“I will be, I promise. And I’m going to do everything I can to try and help you wake up while I’m at it. That reminds me! Oberon told me how you got in here! Some jerk hit you with their car and just drove off, unbelievable.”
“Are you serious? Did they find out who?”
“Not yet, but they’re looking.”
“Okay…man, that’s crazy. I’ve been able to feel my body more and more every day, and there is this reverberating pain throughout my head, it must’ve been injured during the accident!”
“I’m nervous to see you injured like that. I’m going to kill whoever did this to you.”
“Calm down Kill Bill, you don’t need to avenge me, I’m going to wake up soon – I can feel it, I just have to fight through this cloud.”
“I thought you liked your cloud.”
“Not this one, but it’s like a mental block. Actually, can you do me a favor and check what kind of drugs they gave me? The more control I gain mentally, the more I can feel certain things. It almost feels like poison.”
“Okay, I’ll try my best,” Rhiannon promised.
“Thank you. Any other news from the other side?” Lilyette asked.
“In fact, there is, this is big news – are you sure you can handle it?” Rhiannon teased.
“Bigger news than some a-hole running me over? I have to know! Tell me now!”
“Kalen and Oberon – are cousins.”
Lilyette blinked a few times as if trying to focus her thoughts then burst into laughter. Between guffaws, she managed to say, “Are you trying to have some birth secret Korean Drama storyline right now? Seriously?”
“I’m serious! I told you it was big news,” Rhiannon began before diving into the full story that Aoki had told her and Kalen.
Lilyette’s laughter died out and was replaced by a grim face as she listened to all the details that Rhiannon told her. She felt tears begin to threaten at her eyes as she learned of how Aoki witnessed Kalen’s father being killed and didn’t realize when the cloud beneath her started to turn grey – matching her emotions.
“Wow, I’m sorry I laughed…” Lilyette muttered when Rhiannon finished.
“Don’t be, it was hard for me to wrap my head around at first as well. But I think this is why I was sent to kill Kalen. I think that at the very least this solidifies Arion as a top suspect and possibly Lady Villagomez since she’s his wife and head of the High Council.”
“What about Oberon?”
“I don’t think he knew, when I saw him in his dream, he seemed so genuine. I don’t want to believe that the Oberon we know would be capable of something like that.” Rhiannon replied.
“But with a dad for a murderer…” Lilyette said, letting her voice trail off at the sight of Rhiannon’s sad eyes.
“We can’t judge people for the actions of someone else,” Rhiannon said.
“You’re right, sorry for that,” Lilyette said.
“It’s okay. Anyways, if we are going to know anything for sure, I’d better get going.”
Leaning towards Lilyette, Rhiannon pulled her in for a hug and said,
“You stay strong in here, and I will try my hardest to take care of everything out there.”
“You got this.”
Rhiannon pulled away and said, “I’ll come to see you again once I have an update on everything,” then focused her mind again, this time on going through Lilyette’s dream and into her hospital room.
Lilyette was shocked to see how quickly her friend blinked out of existence.
Rhiannon took a deep breath and felt herself pull through Lilyette’s dream and out into her physical realm where she landed in the hospital bed beside her. Looking around, Rhiannon saw that there were multiple lines of IVs going into Lilyette, so she eased her way off the bed, trying her best not to disturb them. Once she was off, she looked around the room to see if anyone else was there and was relieved to know that she and Lilyette were alone. Taking a deep breath, she finally forced herself to look directly at Lilyette.
Rhiannon gasped and covered her mouth as tears began to instantly fall from her face. She’d just seen Lilyette in her dream she didn’t look anything like this. The bruises all over her face and bandages around her head left her practically unrecognizable. Rhiannon walked up to her and gently caressed her cheek as she said quietly,
“I don’t know if you can hear me Lilyette, but I’m going to take care of you and make sure whoever did this ends up in jail. I love you.”
“Rhiannon?” a voice similar to Lilyette’s but more mature called out behind her.
Rhiannon leaped away from the bed in shock, believing for a moment that Lilyette had spoken to her.
Looking towards the door, Rhiannon saw that the source of the voice was instead Lilyette’s mom.
“Mrs. Song! You scared me!” Rhiannon exclaimed.
“I could say the same for you, young lady, where have you been? I thought out of anyone you’d be here by Lilyette’s side,” she replied with evident disappointment tinging her words.
“I know, so much has happened, but I’m here now,” Rhiannon said.
“How are you here by the way? I came through the front and didn’t see you at all.”
“I guess Lilyette hasn’t told you guys yet. I can travel through dreams,” Rhiannon replied.
Mrs. Song gawked at Rhiannon in disbelief as she ran Rhiannon’s words through her head a few times before coming to a conclusion that made hope leap up in her heart.
“That means Lilyette is dreaming! Have you seen her? My husband had tried getting to see her, but there was some wall up! Is she okay?” she asked in rapid-fire.
“The wall is down now! She’s doing really well, but she has no memory of what happened to her. Now that the wall is down though she said she’s felt like intruders have been entering her dreams and doing something to her, but she’s fighting them off – could it have been your husband?” Rhiannon replied.
“No, he hasn’t had a chance to try again. That’s strange. He’ll have to go in and help her whatever the case may be,” Mrs. Song said.
“She was also worried about something else, she said she feels like she’s being poisoned,” Rhiannon said tentatively.
“Poisoned!” Mrs. Song exclaimed.
“Yeah, she asked me to check whatever medicine they have her on, but I don’t know the first thing about any of this. There are so many wires attached to her, where would we look.”
“I know my daughter, and she’s not the type to exaggerate this type of thing. If she believes she’s being poisoned, then we need to take her seriously. If we look on the IV bags, they should have listed what’s inside of them,” Mrs. Song said as she walked over to the bags and began typing in the various names in the search bar on her phone to find out exactly what they are.
After some time, she sighed with frustration and said, “Looks like your run of the mill hydration and nutrition bags. I’ll try and take a look at her chart when the doctor comes in again, maybe there’s something in these that isn’t listed.”
“I wish we could just pull them out…” Rhiannon thought aloud.
“On the off chance that Lilyette is mistaken about being poisoned, we can’t risk it. These are helping to keep her alive and well until she wakes up again,” Mrs. Song replied.
“True…well, I’d better get going. I have to go meet with Lady Villagomez and get some stuff straightened out.” Rhiannon said.
Mrs. Song walked towards Rhiannon and embraced her, then said, “If you revisit Lily’s dream, please let her know that I’m here with her every day, and I love her.”
Rhiannon heard Mrs. Song sniffle and felt more determined to find a way to help Lilyette wake up.
Rhiannon nodded, and as they both pulled away, she said, “I’ll be back, stay strong, she said she’s gaining more feeling throughout her body, so maybe if you hold her hand, she’ll feel it.”
Rhiannon walked to the d
oor then stopped and gave another look towards Lilyette just as Mrs. Song sat beside her, gently grabbed her hand, and began caressing it.
Chapter 3
As Rhiannon walked out the doors, she suddenly stopped as she felt her heart begin to beat fast. Her head began to sway as she became dizzy at the thought of all the things she had to do.
This is too much…it’s too much… she thought over and over again.
Bending over at the waist, Rhiannon placed her hands on her knees and tried her best to steady her breathing.
I can’t fall apart right now. There’s too much that has to be done…too much… she told herself.
Not feeling herself calm down Rhiannon let out a guttural scream that echoed around her. She looked up to see a few people looking at her worriedly, but before they could approach her to see if she was okay, Rhiannon ran.
Feeling the wind rushing through her hair and her adrenaline took over, Rhiannon started to lose herself in the run. She headed towards the general direction of the campus as she decided she’d go see Lady Villagomez immediately.
Rhiannon continued running, relishing the burning feeling in her lungs as it gave her something else to focus on.
One thing at a time, I can do this, she thought to herself as she sped up when she saw the campus coming into sight.
I’ll talk to Lady Villagomez first, and at the very least get the heat off of Kalen, she decided as she ran on without stopping.
Just when she felt as though her heart would beat right out of her chest, Rhiannon felt the intenseness of relief wash over her as she finally came to the steps of the main building where the High Council met. Pulling her phone out of her pocket, she checked the time and saw that it was just going on 7am, which explained why the campus was still relatively quiet. She was hopeful, however, that Lady Villagomez would already be here.
Taking a moment to catch her breath and wipe the sweat from her forehead onto her sleeve, she mentally prepared herself for whatever was to come. She’d ran as if she were being chased by the onslaught of responsibilities that seemed to be crowding her, and had found herself face to face with them again regardless of her efforts.
The Dream Deceiver Page 2
