“Yes, absolutely.” Allie grinned. She had been afraid she and Kayla would drift apart since she and Vince were getting closer now, but Allie knew they belonged together so it didn’t hurt as much.
Kinda like the way it’s supposed to work with Complements, Aidan interjected. You’re with someone and then they find their Complement. You aren’t angry or hurt, you’re just happy for them.
Right. I guess I never thought of it that way. It does kind of take the sting out of it.
“Allie!” Liam called from the garden just before he rushed into the living room with a sticky Kahlynn wiggling in his arms.
“Hey, Liam, what's up?”
“Oh, sorry, I didn't know you had company. I’m so sorry to interrupt, but can you babysit? I have to run out for a little while.”
“Sure, I'll take her off your hands if you can clean the sticky goop off her first.”
“She had Rice Krispies Treats for a snack and she's wearing most of it. It won't kill you to clean her up, Allie. I gotta run.” Liam passed his daughter off to her and with a quick kiss to both their foreheads, he was gone before she could protest.
“I need a raise, Liam!”
“I don’t pay you,” he called from the foyer.
“Exactly my point!” The slam of the front door was not the answer she was hoping for.
“Come on, little girl, let's get you cleaned up and then you're going to show Auntie Allie where the Rice Krispies Treats are.” Allie sat her niece on the counter and reached for the paper towels to clean Kahlynn's hands and face.
“Sorry about that. He’s a single dad so I get babysitting duty sometimes.” Allie glanced up at Kayla and saw she was white as a ghost and her hands trembled. She shook her head like she couldn't make sense of what she was seeing. Allie's eyes clouded over and a green aura washed everything in a weird light. Allie looked down at Kahlynn, grinning at her, her blue eyes sparkling with mischief. She looked up at Kayla again, her blue eyes wary and uncertain. Then Allie did the math.
“Her name's Kahlynn?” Kayla asked.
“Yeah. D-do you want to hold her?”
Kayla nodded. Her long blond hair fell over her shoulder as she reached for Kahlynn. Their hair was the same color. Kahlynn didn’t care for strangers too much, but she reached for Kayla with a smile.
Without thinking, Allie blocked Aidan from seeing this. She didn't understand what—or even how—this was happening, but she knew this wasn't something anyone else needed to see.
“So what can you tell me about the Etruscans?” Kayla asked in a calm voice. She sat with the baby in her lap, smiling down at her like Kahlynn had hung the moon.
“Lots of figure art and sculpture come from that period.” Allie pulled the textbook toward her and followed Kayla's lead.
~~~
CHAPTER
TWENTY-FOUR
“Oh good, you’re here,” Allie said the moment her brother stepped foot in her bedroom. “I was afraid you forgot about dream babysitting.”
“No, I didn’t forget,” Liam said. For the past several weeks, he had watched over her as she slept. He let her dream while he watched and observed. Sometimes, when the dreams were bad, he was able to sing her through them. Liam’s voice could be intoxicating as well as calming. He also made sure she had pencils and paper ready on those nights when she sketched what she saw. She had nearly filled an entire sketchbook with flames and smoke and trees with skies filled with a blood red moon. It was all useless because she still had no idea what her gift was trying to tell her and she felt an overwhelming fear that she was running out of time.
“I will help you get to sleep, but I will be leaving you to your own devices tonight. I want to see how you do on your own.”
“Am I ready for that?” Allie felt her throat closing up as the fear coiled tight in her chest.
“We won’t know until we try. There is nothing to be afraid of, little one. You can do this.”
Just no more snakes, Aidan said.
Allie shuddered at the memory of their writhing bodies and sharp fangs.
But he’s right, Lex. You can do this.
I know. I just need to toughen up.
Dream date first?
Yes, please.
See you in our usual spot. Night, babe.
Night.
With the soothing sound of Liam’s voice, Allie managed to slip into a tranquil sleep when she might otherwise have tossed and turned half the night away. Every time she went to the dreamworld, she thought about Navid. Maybe this would be the night she would see him again.
In a whirl of darkness, she fell into her dreams. She recognized the signs now and was getting better at traveling there on her own. She opened her eyes to the hazy light of the dreamworld. Tonight the sky was purple, somewhere between night and day with no visible sun or moon in the sky. It was cool and crisp like the first fall evening. As she hiked up the hillside that was a replica of the one near Aidan’s home, Allie mentally adjusted her clothing for the cooler weather. In an instant, she wore her favorite hoodie and jeans with her warmest boots. The tall grass bobbed in the breeze. Green in the real world, here the grass was a brilliant shade of yellow, a perfect complement to the purple sky.
Aidan hadn’t managed to fall asleep yet so she wandered around the hillside toward the cliffs. Heeding Navid’s warning not to go wandering off into the dreamworld without him, she was always careful that they stayed in her dreamscape.
Navid? Can you come for a visit tonight? She let the wind take her words to her father. He would hear her and if he could, he would come.
She stared down at the crystal waves below as they crashed over the jagged rocks. Much of this world reminded her of her drawings. Sometimes the edges were blurred in shadow and sometimes things were crisp and clear. She could focus on an object and eventually it would become more defined, but it always held a carbon-copy drawing quality to it.
She turned when she heard Aidan’s approach, but it wasn’t Aidan. Allie couldn’t believe her eyes as she took an unsteady step forward.
“Quinn?” she whispered. “Is that really you?”
He walked slowly toward her, gazing through her at the cliffside with sadness in his eyes. How he must miss the only home he’d ever known.
“Quinn? Can you hear me?” She wondered if he was really there or if he was just a figment of her imagination that her subconscious mind had created because she wanted so badly to know he was okay after everything they’d just learned. But he wasn’t okay. Not judging by his appearance. He looked like the Quinn she saw on the screen at Amrita.
He couldn’t hear her, but Allie followed him, afraid to touch him. She feared he might disappear the instant she did.
He looked terrible. His dark skin was haggard and the lines around his eyes made him look older than his nineteen years. He was thinner in some ways. In others, he looked stronger. Harder. Meaner. Less like the quiet boy she knew. His hair was shaved close and his clothes hung loose around his narrow waist.
He spoke, but she couldn’t hear him. He eased his long frame back into the tall grass, sitting with arms resting on his knees, gazing into the distance at the indistinct skyline of the city across the bay.
Allie sat opposite him and stared at his gaunt face. Wherever Quinn was in the waking world, he was not doing well.
“Allie?” Aidan called from their usual spot near the old laurel tree.
“Over here!” She stood, but kept her eyes trained on Quinn.
“Who is that?” He ran toward her. She could hear the anxiety in his voice. It was always just the two of them here. The sight of someone else startled him. “Quinn?” Aidan fell to his knees beside him.
Allie stopped him just as he reached for his friend.
“Don’t,” she whispered.
“What’s happening, Lex? Where did he come from? Are you doing this?”
“He can’t see or hear us, but he’s here. Right? You can see him too?”
“Yes. He looks like h
ell. But what does this mean? Is it just … something we want to see?”
“I don’t know. We need to ask Navid. I asked him to come but I don’t know if he heard me.”
They both stared at Quinn, aching to help him in some way, but too scared they might do something wrong.
“He’s really here. It’s not just an illusion of what I want to see. If I conjured him somehow, it would be the version of him I remember. I don’t know this guy.”
Navid, please hurry. I need you, she whispered urgently, knowing he would hear the desperation in her voice.
With a silent sigh, Quinn rose to his feet and turned away from the cliffside to make his way back down the hill. He moved quickly, as if he couldn’t stand the sight of home for another moment.
“Stay where you are!” Navid’s voice echoed like a boom all around them. Even Quinn faltered, gazing up at the sky with a look of confusion.
Navid rushed across the hillside. “Do not leave this place, Allie. You must let him go.” Navid reached to hold her back.
“But we have to follow him. We have to help him,” Aidan protested, taking another step toward the edge of the forest.
“You are not a dreamwalker. Neither of you can navigate this world beyond this place. If you wander too far from here, you could get so lost in the world of dreams, it would drive you mad. You will cause more harm than good. Let him go.”
“Why can’t he see us?” Allie asked as they watched Quinn shuffle along the path ahead, his hands shoved deep in his pockets and his shoulders hunched as if to protect himself.
“He doesn’t understand where he is yet. He just thinks he’s dreaming of home.”
“But he could get lost,” Allie said tearfully, watching his sad retreat. “You said it could drive him mad.”
“Quinn is a dreamwalker. He has been here before, although I’ve never seen him. There have been rumors of a new, untrained walker, wreaking havoc in this world. I will help him if I can.”
“Go now. Go help him,” Allie urged. “Find out where he is. Please, Navid.”
“I will do what I can. I will try to come back soon.”
“Thank you, Navid,” Aidan said.
Navid gave Allie a quick hug and pressed a kiss to her forehead, and then he was gone. Quinn’s footsteps faded in the darkness of the forest.
“Don’t tell anyone what you have seen here.” Navid’s faint voice carried with the breeze.
“This is incredible,” Aidan said. “I don’t want to get my hopes up, but if Navid can talk to him, this might bring us one step closer to bringing Quinn home.”
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.” Allie cautioned his excitement. “We don’t know if Navid will be able to talk to him, or even if he can find him.”
“You look more like your dad that I realized,” Aidan said.
“It’s the curly hair.” She nodded.
“And the freckles.” He smiled. “But you seem to have the same temperament too.”
“I feel like I should have seen it before, you know.” Allie crossed her arms over her chest. She wasn’t sure if she’d ever get used to thinking of Navid as her father.
“Navid might be a while, and I believe you have some dreaming to do,” Aidan said.
“Right. I hope I can stay focused enough so I don’t disturb you.”
“Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine. Just aim for anything other than snakes. Literally anything.”
“What about clowns?” She smiled.
“No clowns either.” He shuddered at the thought. “How about turtles? Or bunnies?”
“Try to get some sleep, Aidan. We’ll do everything we can to help Quinn.”
“I know. Sweet dreams.”
“Har har, funny guy.”
~~~
Allie found herself wandering along the path through the woods again. Her dreams were becoming more consistent and a lot less scary. The longer she worked with Liam, the less frightening they became. She still dreamed of fire and smoke, but it didn’t consume her now. The fires stayed in the distance and the forest was always the same.
A shadowed figure ran past her in a whirl.
“Quinn?” She raced along the familiar path after him. She sensed there were others, but they were shrouded in shadows. Allie stood alone near the orchard, calling his name, but he still couldn’t hear her.
He moved like a lynx through the trees. Dressed in dark clothes and a black leather jacket, he blended with the night.
As the blood red moon peeked through the branches, Allie noticed the absence of the green otherworldly tinge that normally colored her dreams. This vision was more realistic. Sharper and more focused.
Focus on the important details and discard the rest. Her mantra was her lifeline.
She was here to observe. That was the difficult thing to remember when she was caught up in the throes of her most terrifying dreams. Nothing could truly hurt her here. She knew that now.
Allie followed Quinn through the forest. There were others hiding among the shadows but she couldn’t tell how many.
“They are in the house,” Quinn said. “They don’t suspect anything.” His voice was vacant and held no emotion.
Allie couldn’t see the person he spoke with. The shadows thickened, creating an impenetrable barrier.
“There are only six of them.” His voice was flat, as if the Quinn she knew was long gone. “They are powerful so we’ll have to overwhelm them with our numbers. They won’t go quietly.”
He seemed so hollow, so … empty. She wondered if he would even recognize her. They needed to do something—anything. Quinn was running out of time.
“We have to get him out of this. Whatever this is,” Allie murmured.
“Allie!” Navid’s voice echoed all around, pulling her abruptly from her dream. She felt an unfamiliar tug forcing her back to the dreamscape she shared with Aidan.
“Allie,” Navid called as she wandered through the tall yellow grass again.
“Did you find him?” Her heart leapt in her throat at the thought her father might be able to bring Quinn home.
“I did. He is not well. He doesn’t trust me.”
“Where is he in the waking world? Atlanta?”
“He refused to say.”
“Can you help him? Please?”
“Of course, sweetheart. I will help him as much as I can. But I may not be able to help you find him in the waking world. He seems to not want to be found. Right now my priority will be to teach him to navigate this world safely.”
“Can I come with you next time?” Allie asked.
“I need you to stay away from this dreamscape for a while.”
“Why?”
“He can sometimes hear you and Aidan, but he can’t see you. It upsets him. Quinn is not in his right mind and he desperately needs my help.”
“You’ll teach him, won’t you?”
“Of course. But I’m afraid that means I cannot visit you. I am a powerful dreamwalker, but I am limited by how much time I can spend here. The longer I stay, the more difficult it is to leave.”
“Oh. So if you help him, you won’t have enough time left over to visit me?”
“I’m afraid not.”
“Go. Help Quinn. We will see each other again soon.”
“I may not be able to speak to you at all, Allie. This could be the last time we speak for a while.”
“I’m okay, Navid. I’m doing well. I’m safe and making good progress with my dreams. Quinn needs you more than I do right now … not that I won’t miss you.”
“I will call you back to this place as soon as I’m able. I do not think it’s wise to tell his parents about this. I will help him in this world, but he may refuse help in the waking world. I believe he fears his family will suffer if they keep trying to find him.”
“Please, try to let me know what you find out?”
“I will, daughter. It is good to see you doing so well.”
Allie waved as he faded away. She would
miss him, but she hoped it wouldn’t be long before she would see him again in the real world.
~~~
CHAPTER
TWENTY-FIVE
The yard. Midnight. BYOKS
—Graham
“Did you just get this text from Graham?” Allie asked. She was curled up on the sofa in Aidan’s office, studying for her AP English class.
“Yeah, we haven’t done this in forever.” He grinned down at his phone.
“What the crap does BYOKS mean?”
“Bring your own kitchen sink.” He laughed. “That’s Graham for bring food and lots of it.”
“Party in the yard? Junk food? Please say there will be buckets of junk food.”
“Looks like it. Let’s go raid the kitchen. We’ll grab a couple of bottles from Dad’s bar on the way.”
As Allie pilfered the kitchen for anything that didn’t look like it belonged on the list of Naeemah-approved foods, she saw a glimmer of Graham pacing nervously across the yard, waiting for them to arrive.
“Wait.” Allie handed Aidan a bag of cookies. “Um … I think this might be an important thing for Graham tonight.”
“What do you mean?” Aidan asked as they headed down the hall toward the yard, arms loaded down with everything they could carry.
“Let’s just say if Graham were to make an … announcement, would you be prepared for that?”
“What kind of announcement? Could you be more vague—oh!” Aidan stopped and looked at her. “Well, it’s about time.”
When they arrived at the yard, Chloe and Graham were busy putting drinks in an ice chest while Sasha set up chairs around the bonfire blazing bright under the growing darkness.
“Great, you’re all here.” Graham had all the food they could steal spread out on a table with pizzas and cold beers for everyone.
“We should do this more often,” Aidan said, digging into his pizza.
“Hello, food. How I’ve missed you. Would anyone judge me too harshly if I dipped my cheese pizza in the nacho cheese sauce?” Allie asked, eyeing the bubbling cheesy goo perched on a hot stone by the fire.
“Ew. That’s gross, Allie.” Chloe laughed.
Emerge: The Judgment: (Book 2) Page 19
