Dream Keeper

by Amber R. Duell

  I looked up to find him gently tugging an arm from his sleeve.

  “Direct contact will speed things up, and Baku doesn’t exactly have opposable thumbs.”

  I hesitated. I wanted to help, to do something I knew was undoubtedly useful, but the crate holding all my doubt weighed heavy, dragging me deeper into uncertainty. And not just about my plan with the Weaver. The Sandman was so certain of his feelings for me—he’d had a year to be sure—but it was new to me. I felt the same way but what if it was my relief tricking me? What if I loved him as a friend? What if I did love him more than a friend but I could never trust him like I had before?

  I leaned forward anyway, brushing the thoughts away. My feelings could wait in line. Right now, the Sandman needed to get better so that he could help me trick the Weaver and save my sister. My fingers grazed his stomach, and his breath caught. I pinched the hem of his shirt. The stretchy material clung to him, squelching as it separated from his bloodstained skin.

  His abs flexed, and he shifted to lift his arms over his head. My eyes caught on the tattoo over his breastbone. Thousands of blue and silver specks blinked in and out, spilling from a thick, navy blue crescent moon. My fingertips hovered over it, but I was too afraid to make contact. There had always been so many layers between us that touching bare skin still seemed forbidden.

  The Sandman’s fingers carefully circled my wrist, and he brought my hand forward. My palm almost covered the moon, only the pointed tips peeked out on either side of my knuckles. Electricity zipped through my arm, leaving peace in its wake. I gasped, my eyelids drooping. I hadn’t felt this calm in ages.

  “My magic lives in you,” he said in a hoarse voice. “The dream I gave you fused with your own power, but it remembers where it came from.”

  “I don’t have power for it to fuse with.” The pulsating rhythm beneath my hand was like a second heartbeat.

  “Of course, you do.” He released my wrist and placed his palm over my collarbone. “It lives here. In your heart.” He trailed his fingers up the side of my neck and skimmed my temples. A blush burned my cheeks. “And here.”

  I wanted to tell him he was crazy, that what he said made no sense, but maybe he wasn’t. Maybe it did. Keep a true mind and a true heart. I blinked slowly, watching the tattoo shimmer.

  He sighed, his hand falling away. “I would love for you to stay, but it isn’t safe yet.”

  “It is tonight,” I said quietly. “I talked to the Weaver again.”

  His muscles stiffened beneath my hand. “Nora, no. Whatever you’re thinking, the answer is no.”

  I broke contact, my skin tingling, and forced my eyes up to his. “Hear me out first.”

  “Do I have a choice?” he grumbled.

  “Of course.” I shrugged, one corner of my mouth lifting. “But only one of your options is really an option.”

  The Sandman’s face grew tighter with every word as I explained my encounter with the Weaver and my intent to cross him, his chest barely moving with each shallow breath. “If I didn’t know better, I’d ask if you had a death wish,” he said when I finished.

  I clenched my jaw. “My sister is wrapped up in this because of us, and we’re going to get her out of it.”

  “Baku is still searching the—”

  “There has to be another way.” I inched closer. “There has to be a way for me to do something from my side other than search blindly for where he’s hidden her.”

  The muscle in his jaw twitched. “If we could get one of the threads he wears on his arm, I could use it to track down Katie’s subconscious in his realm but—”

  “Great,” I blurted, hope swelling. “How do we do that?”

  “Nora.” He leveled a serious look at me. “If it were that easy, I would have rebound him and none of this would be happening. He’s not stupid. He knows I’ll go for them if I’m close by.”

  “You. But not me.” My voice wavered. I didn’t want to be close enough to the Weaver to touch him, assuming I could when he wasn’t completely in my world, but Katie needed me. “Tell me how to get one.”

  “If I gave you a…” He paused and clamped his mouth shut. “No. I won’t let you risk it.”

  “Then I’ll find a way into the Nightmare Realm and look for her myself.” My heart raced at the idea, my palms sweating. No part of me wanted to go there. None. I would do it though.

  “You really do have a death wish.” He closed his eyes and scooped a handful of sand. The granules moved painfully slow across his palm. “You have to do exactly what I tell you. Once you get the thread, the Weaver will pull out all the stops. We’ll have a little time before he recovers, but not forever.”

  16

  Nora

  A fog light illuminated the sign for MJ’s U-Store It. I paused at the stop sign a hundred feet from the address the Weaver gave me and eyed the rows of grey steel boxes behind a chain-link fence. A place with no windows. The last remnants of sunlight glowed pink across the otherwise empty field, creating a dusk too beautiful to be spent double-crossing an evil lord.

  I tugged the sleeve of my fleece sweater down over the heel of my hand. Four hair bands circled my left wrist and forearm beneath it, securing the box cutter the Sandman created. The warm metal dug into my skin—a promise of safety, a threat of failure. Really, the plan could go either way. However, as long as I saved Katie, I could deal with the consequences. I took a deep breath and eased the car forward.

  The tires crunched against the gravel drive of the twenty-four-hour storage facility. I knew this was the right place thanks to the internet, but there were at least a hundred tan and green units. Katie was so close. So close. It took every ounce of willpower not to call the police the second I knew where she was, but for this plan to work, the Weaver couldn’t sense my deceit.

  My heart flopped, and I tugged at my sleeves again. If I was going to save Katie and move against the Weaver, I had to be braver than I felt. If I couldn’t do that, then I had already lost.

  I pulled into the center row, halfway down from where another aisle cut horizontally, and put the car in park. Easing out of the driver’s seat, I slammed the door and willed away my nerves. The gentle purr of the engine felt reassuring, although the extra few seconds it would give me to escape wouldn’t matter against someone like the Weaver. I rapped my fingers against the hood of the car and squinted into the shadows.

  “You didn’t back out.” The Weaver stepped around the corner of the nearest row, the gossamer shroud still tying him down. “I admit to having my doubts.”

  “What choice did I have?” I snapped, the anger palpable.

  He shrugged one shoulder. “There’s always a choice.”

  I wiped sweaty palms on my grey leggings. What if I couldn’t do it? What if I missed my mark? But it was too late for doubts. The ride had started and there was no getting off. “Which unit is she in?”

  “Follow me,” he said. I took one step toward him when he vanished. His voice drifted across the parking lot. “This way, Sun-Kissed Keeper.”

  I stomped toward the back of the units where his shadow flickered and strained to hear his voice again. “I have a name, you know,” I shouted.

  The Weaver popped up beside me. I jumped, hitting a unit door with a clang, and he grinned. “I care nothing for your name, Keeper. Only what’s behind that freckled forehead of yours.” He bopped the air in front of my hairline with a finger.

  I locked my knees, refusing to step away and show an ounce of the fear storming through me. “Where is she?”

  His eyes narrowed, and he clucked his tongue. “Your Dreamer is here.” He vanished, reappearing at the last door in the row.

  My sneakers ground into the tiny stones beneath my feet, and I flexed my tingling fingers. Okay. Go in, make sure there’s a clear path to the exit, check Katie’s pulse, slide the box cutter out, open the blade, swing, grab the thread, run. Easy. Just like I practiced on the Sandman last night. I swallowed hard. I could do this. I had to.

&n
bsp; When I stepped up to the Weaver, he grinned before disappearing, popping up a few units in the opposite direction. “Here, here.” His voice bounced through my head. “She’s so near.”

  “I’m going to kill you,” I said under my breath.

  He materialized an inch from me. “Now, now. Don’t ruin the fun.”

  I scowled. “This isn’t a game.”

  “Of course, it is.” He stalked around me in a circle. “I let my nightmares out of the Night World. The Sandman bound me and slammed the doors shut. Now I do something to free myself, he comes running after me, etcetera, etcetera. The question is, who wins?”

  “You were letting your monsters run loose through the Day World. What did you expect him to do?”

  “People need something real to fear. They crave it.” He tossed a hand at me. “How many horror movies have you seen? How many ghost stories have you enjoyed?”

  “People like horror movies because they aren’t real, not because they think being murdered is enjoyable.” I pressed my arm against my hip, letting the cutter dig through my leggings and into my thigh. He had to believe I was going through with the deal. “Forget it. Do you remember your promise to ensure my safety?”

  One of his eyebrows lifted. “If I want to torment the Sandman’s favorite toy now and then, it’s my prerogative, but yes, I recall what I said.”

  Comforting. “I want it extended to my family.”

  “You’re hardly in a place to make demands.”

  I crossed my arms.

  “Fine, fine.” He dipped his head and flicked his fingers toward me. “Your family too.”

  “Good.” If this were real, I would ask him for clarification, but his vague half-promise was enough. Let him think I was an idiot. It only helped my cause. “Then, Katie. Now.”

  “You’ll take my word on the deal but not on your sister’s wellbeing?”

  I sneered, my muscles trembling. “If my sister isn’t okay, the deal is off. Consider this proof of purchase.”

  He shrugged and lifted a long finger to point at the unit directly behind me. “The combination is 22-7-10.”

  I lunged for the silver lock and fumbled with the dial. “How did you even get a lock on this thing?” I grumbled to myself.

  “Katie isn’t the only sleepwalker in the world. I’d think that was obvious. How is your mother, by the way?” He hovered at my shoulder, and I jerked the arrow too far past the second number. “Seven.”

  “I know,” I snapped. I wiped the sweat from my palms and spun the black knob to start over. It was too hot for this sweater. Too stressful. But I had to hide the weapon and the leggings offered the best range of motion. Neither of which would matter if I passed out from nerves.

  When the lock popped open, I yanked the overhead door up and rushed inside. Katie was still in her favorite pajamas—skull and crossbones shorts and a faded graphic T-shirt. Her hair was slick with grease, but her chest rose and fell in an even rhythm, her features smooth. No screaming, no tense muscles. Other than the fact that she was in the middle of a storage unit, she appeared to be having a regular nap.

  “Don’t worry. She received plenty of breaks to keep her heart ticking. I didn’t want her to expire before I was ready—like your father did,” he said reassuringly.

  My heart twisted painfully. Stay calm. Don’t ruin the plan.

  “And now you see the proof,” he added, a saccharine smile glittering on his features.

  I dropped to my knees, my back to the Weaver, and pressed my fingers to her neck like I was taking her pulse. With my other hand, I slipped my fingers into my sleeve and slid the box cutter free. My fingers fumbled to grip the smooth surface. I sucked in a ragged breath and slid the blade from the tip. “Hang in there,” I whispered to Katie. “It will all be over soon.”

  “Dream Keeper.” The Weaver’s voice was stern yet thick with anxiety. “It’s time for you to keep your end of the bargain.”

  “How...?” I asked, stalling. I knew how. The Sandman told me I would have to fall asleep and reject the safety of the beach. Then the Weaver would snatch me away to his realm where I would allow him access. Like there was any chance of me letting him drag me off to his home turf. Deal or no deal, I had no doubt he would torture me if he had the chance. Once he had the dream, I was as good as dead.

  “It’s easy.” He knelt on the other side of Katie. I shifted the box cutter so that it pressed between my knee and Katie’s upper arm. “You go to sleep. I’ll meet you on the other side and then you say yes.”

  “Will it hurt?” The black and gold band of threads on his wrist gleamed through the gossamer, stretching up his bicep to attach to his ever-moving shirt. I just needed one of them.

  He trailed a finger over Katie’s cheek without really touching her. “Not so very much.”

  “I see.” I took a deep breath and fussed with my sister’s shirt, smoothing the bottom down where the hem had flipped over. The Sandman sounded so sure this would work, and I trusted him with my life, but maybe whatever piece of his magic I carried wasn’t enough to breach the barrier between our worlds. Maybe the dream didn’t hold enough sway, even with the weapon made of sand to amplify it. Be quick, he warned. The binding would close itself almost immediately, and I didn’t want to lose a hand when it did. I took a deep breath. “Well, then...”

  I moved without thinking. The blade ripped through the fabric, tearing through the top layer of flesh below the Weaver’s elbow. The threads floated away from him, squirming in an attempt to return to their master, and the blade slipped from my hand. I gripped the band around his wrist and yanked with every muscle I had. Three broke away, falling with me to the floor.

  The gossamer flashed blue, and the Weaver’s nails clawed against the resealed binding, his eyes darting wildly across its surface. “You,” he bellowed.

  “Yes.” I scrambled off the floor, tying the three threads into a knot to keep them together. They twitched in my palm. “Me.”

  He bent, gasping over my sister’s sleeping body. “I will personally peel the skin from her body while you watch.”

  My legs shook beneath me. I knew he would threaten Katie after I did this. I knew it, but I also knew it was the only way to save her in time. “Not if I skin you first.”

  “Foolish Keeper,” he rasped. “You are no match for me.”

  “I appreciate being underestimated. It makes winning that much sweeter.” I tucked my prize into the pocket of my fleece and zipped it shut. He would have more soon—apparently, all it took was a trip to his loom to replenish what was lost. Twenty-four hours until he had a full arsenal wrapped around his arm again.

  I looped my elbows under Katie’s armpits and dragged her toward the waiting car. The Weaver watched every step with fury blazing in his golden irises. Surely, he was imagining each way he would torture me for this betrayal, but I couldn’t think about that now. I had to get Katie to the hospital, then find her in the Nightmare Realm before the Weaver paid her a visit.

  A nurse in teal scrubs wheeled Katie back into the curtained area of the emergency room, an IV bag swaying from a metal pole. They planned to run every test to discover why she was in a coma, explore every avenue of possibilities, but so far, they’d come up empty-handed. Of course, they had, unless there was some sort of supernatural CT scan. My mother shuffled after them, speaking in a low voice to one of her coworkers from the maternity ward while I stood silently in the hall with Paul.

  My eyelids threatened to slam shut where I stood, but I couldn’t give in yet. When I finally fell asleep, it had to be somewhere safe. Somewhere no one would be tempted to wake me before the Sandman and I did what had to be done. He was waiting for me now, waiting for the strands of thread in my pocket, so we could follow one of them straight to Katie. Time was ticking. The Weaver wouldn’t leave himself vulnerable by attacking her while weak, but there was nothing stopping him from telling his creatures to up their game. Nothing except some sort of sick satisfaction of doing it himself. The Sandma
n assured me that would be the case.

  Katie still appeared calm. The heart monitor beeped in a regular, steady rhythm, and that had to count for something.

  “She’ll be fine,” Paul whispered to me. “You did good.”

  But not good enough.

  I pressed my lips together and nodded. By the way Detective Bell hovered near the nurses’ station, casting suspicious looks in my direction, I guessed I was firmly up Shit Creek without a paddle. I could almost hear his questions now. How did I know where to find Katie? How did I know the combination to the lock? Why hadn’t I called the police first? Was I hiding something? Did I turn on my hypothetical partner in crime? I couldn’t handle it yet.

  “It’s going to be a long night.” Paul fished the keys from his pocket. “Let’s head home, huh? We could both use some rest.”

  I cast a glance at my mother. Her coworker held her up while another nurse went over Katie’s chart, line by line. “What about Mom?”

  “She won’t leave until your sister does.”

  I knew he was right, but I just found Katie again. I didn’t want to leave her, not even to save her, for fear she would disappear again. She was waiting though, stuck in the Night World. I had lost enough people to the Weaver for my sister to be next.

  “Okay,” I said. Twenty-four hours suddenly felt like minutes on the countdown, and I’d already wasted two of them. “Let’s go.”

  17

  Nora

  An identical long-sleeved shirt replaced the Sandman’s torn one, his old tunic gone. My pulse thundered in my ears, and I ran, my feet pumping nearly as fast as my heart. The Sandman moved toward me so fast I barely noticed him in front of me before he swept me into a crushing embrace. I closed my eyes, breathed in his light lilac scent. Allowed myself this moment of calm before venturing into the Nightmare Realm.

  “I got it,” I squeaked.