by Kit Alloway
“Like a dog whistle for dream walkers,” Whim said. “That’s awesome.”
“My only thought,” Mirren said, “is that Peregrine’s trying to prove I’m as secretive as the monarchy used to be. Admittedly, they never would have turned the Karawar over to anyone. Maybe Peregrine thinks I won’t, either, and that he’ll be able to point at me and say I’m nothing new. But I have no issue with giving the Karawar to the junta, or to whatever government the dream walkers elect. If that’s the trap Peregrine is trying to set for me, why would he have chosen the Karawar? He must guess I have access to far more powerful instruments, ones I would resist giving up.”
“Maybe the other ministers chose the task,” Davita suggested.
“Or maybe,” Josh said, “Peregrine is planning to use the Karawar in a way we haven’t thought of.”
Mirren sank down into her neck brace, like a turtle withdrawing. “Let’s hope not.”
* * *
Exhausted, they lapsed into silence during the second half of the trip. Josh let her head fall back and took Will’s hand in hers, but her touch made his skin crawl. Does she let Feodor hold her hand in her dreams? he wondered, pulling away.
Josh lifted her head. She turned halfway in her seat so she could see him and whispered, “Is everything okay?”
If he’d caught her dreaming about Ian, her ex-boyfriend, he wouldn’t have been nearly as upset. He didn’t expect her never to think about anyone else or to control the content of her dreams. What bothered him wasn’t that she’d dreamed of someone besides him; it was that she’d dreamed of Feodor.
Feodor had hurt Will. He’d hurt Josh, too, and Haley, and Ian, and Winsor, and dozens of other people whose souls he had trapped. That Josh dreamed of him touching her, kissing her, was perverse. It suggested that something was deeply wrong in Josh’s mind, and as much as anything, Will felt like a fool for not having seen that in her sooner. She’d tricked him, just as Feodor had.
“Did you have a nightmare last night?” he asked her.
Did she hesitate before shaking her head? In the dim light, he couldn’t tell.
We had one of our most important talks in a limo, he thought, recalling how a thunderstorm had darkened the car’s interior that day; today the summer sun had set and left them in a purple gloaming. That day she had told him the truth, and today she’d lied.
“Will?” she asked.
He couldn’t deal with it all just yet.
“Tomorrow,” he whispered. “Let’s talk tomorrow.”
Through a Veil Darkly
A Royal Romance?
We here at TaVD have obtained the first confirmation of a romance blossoming between Princess Mirren and Haelipto McKarr. Some of you will remember Haelipto as one of the three teens who confronted and defeated Feodor Kajażkołski back in February, although he is the lowest-profile member of the trio. Humble, thoughtful, and good-natured, he’s also able to turn heroic at a moment’s notice, as he demonstrated when he and Will Kansas rushed the freezing and half-drowned princess into a hot shower (photo below).
Princess Mirren seems to have fallen hard for young Mr. McKarr, whom she calls Haley, as do his close friends. Although they met only a few short weeks ago, rumor has it they not only spend every waking moment together, but the princess even sleeps in his room! Will he prove to be the steady support she needs as she works her way through the trials, or will their royal romance crumble under the stresses of life in a world that long ago gave up on a dream-walker monarchy?
Comments:
scorpio_666 says: What a slut.
JMallShopper says: Seriously. Three weeks and she’s already living with him!
FemmeFatal says: I’m shocked to hear you slut-shaming someone you don’t even know. Young women need to support each other in building self-esteem. Maybe if Mirren had friends who helped her do that, she wouldn’t need to throw herself at a guy to feel confident and beautiful.
pouter40242 says: I thought that guy was a deaf-mute.
MCampbell_TarkenElectric says: I had this dream that she told me she was secretly behind the Silty incident.
fgh243l says: Of course she was!
MCampbell_TarkenElectric says: She said she faked Silty’s death, that he’s really been living with her in Switzerland.
FemmeFatal: What? That’s crazy. I knew Silty. He never would have abandoned his wife and kids to live in Switzerland.
Nineteen
When Josh entered the living room, the first thing she noticed was that someone had spray-painted the word “tulz” across the windows at the front of the house.
“What is that?” she asked Deloise.
“Oh, my gosh!” Deloise cried. “That’s awful! Who did that?”
Deloise had already returned to the kitchen to warn Mirren by the time Josh figured out that she was looking at the word “slut” reversed. Someone had graffitied the living room windows.
Haley didn’t let Mirren see the slur and instead took her straight upstairs to rest. Whim and Will followed them, leaving Josh and Deloise in the kitchen with Lauren, Kerstel, and Whim’s father, Alex.
“I’ll clean the windows tomorrow,” Josh promised, disturbed by this further sign of acrimony toward Mirren. “Do I need to find her somewhere else to stay?”
“I don’t know,” Lauren said. “But I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t concerned about her being here.”
“Where would she go?” Alex asked. “We’re the closest thing she has to family.”
Everyone except Josh, Will, Haley, and Davita believed that Mirren’s family was back in Switzerland and didn’t approve of her political ambitions. Even Deloise didn’t know about the Hidden Kingdom.
“Davita said the security team should be here before midnight,” Kerstel said.
“I don’t know that two men will be able to hold off a mob,” Lauren told his wife. “But I have to admit that I can’t imagine turning her out now.”
“And she and Haley are so fond of each other,” Kerstel said.
“As my son has so carelessly informed the world,” Alex added.
“What does that mean?” Josh asked.
“I think I’m the only person in this house who actually reads Whim’s blog,” Alex reflected. “A few hours ago he posted a picture of Haley and Mirren in the shower together after the trial.”
Can’t people just lay off Mirren for a day or two? Josh thought, even as she got up from the table. “I better go warn Haley. Maybe he can make sure she doesn’t see it.”
She went upstairs to the guys’ apartment. Haley was watching TV in his raggedy old flannel bathrobe, looking tired and like he didn’t want to interact anymore that day. But when Josh relayed the news, he grabbed his tablet and pulled up Through a Veil Darkly. Josh stood near him so they could read the latest entry together.
Haley finished before she did, but not before she’d read the brunt of the post and caught a glimpse of the photograph of Haley and Mirren in the shower. “Whim!” Haley shouted, and Josh jumped at the volume of his voice.
Haley banged on Whim’s door, then let himself in. His eyebrows were drawn together in anger, making his features sharper and his face older. “What is this?” he demanded.
Josh followed him into Whim’s room, which was outfitted with a minifridge, a hot plate, and a microwave stationed among the mess. Whim was lounging on his bed—just a twin mattress on the floor—and typing on his laptop.
He sat up when Haley stormed into the room. “Okay, dude, don’t freak out. I’m trying to do Mirren a favor.”
Haley waved the tablet at him. “You said she’s sleeping in my room!”
“Technically, that’s true,” Whim said, but under the heat of Haley’s glare, he admitted, “Okay, so I juiced it up a little. Everybody loves a royal romance.”
“They’re calling her a slut,” Haley said.
“I was trying to bring in some of the good press you got after the Feodor thing. You know, unpopular girl dates a popular boy, and then she’s pop
ular, too?”
Through his teeth, Haley said, “I’m not popular.” He held up the tablet. “Pouter40242 thinks I’m a deaf-mute!”
Josh struggled not to crack up. She felt terrible for Haley and Mirren, and she was proud of Haley for laying into Whim, but that deaf-mute rumor had been going around since they were in middle school.
“Well, now he knows you’re not,” Whim said. “Look, somebody was going to write this article eventually. People have noticed that you’re glued to Mirren’s side. Better that I choose the tone for the story.”
Haley’s lips were pursed so tightly, they were almost white. “You didn’t do this for Mirren. You did it for yourself.”
“Haley,” Whim said, clutching the hilt of an imaginary knife in his chest, “you wound me.”
“Stop writing about her!” Haley demanded.
“I can’t do that,” Whim said. He turned faintly green. “Do you know how much traffic I’m getting these days? The website is finally paying for itself.”
Haley turned and stormed out of the room.
“At least close the comments section,” Josh told Whim before following Haley.
She found him on the balcony off the living room, leaning against the railing and glaring at the lawn. “I’m sorry about Whim,” she said. “He’s—”
“I know who Whim is,” Haley said curtly. “He’s a fundamentally selfish person.”
Josh gawked at him, and he ducked his head, his momentary confidence fled.
“Sorry,” he muttered.
“No apology necessary. I mean, you aren’t wrong. Just … you reminded me of Ian for a second. In a good way.”
For a moment, Josh wondered what Ian would have thought of Haley and Mirren together, then decided she didn’t want to know. But Haley’s thoughts must have taken a similar course, because he said, “Next week is the Fourth of July.”
The holiday would mark one year since Ian’s death. Or rather, one year since they’d thought he had died. One year since Feodor had turned Ian’s body into his puppet. Josh had been trying not to think about the approaching anniversary, but the flags and holiday sales had made it impossible.
“We could go put flowers on his grave or something,” Josh said.
“I’m not—” Haley stuttered, and then in a familiar half whisper finished, “I might not be around.”
Before Josh could ask what he meant, he retreated into the house, his shoulders drawn up to his ears.
That was weird, she thought. She hadn’t seen Haley panic like that in a long time. And his phrasing had been so ominous.…
She set aside the urge to question him further—he’d tell her when he was ready—and went upstairs, unsure what else to do. Will had said they’d talk the next day; did that mean he didn’t want to see her tonight? It wasn’t even eight yet.
She sat on her bed, digging her big toe into the carpet and trying to figure out what she could have done to upset him. Had he found her notes or her workshop in the attic? He couldn’t have been too angry, or he wouldn’t have punched that lady who crushed the egg in Josh’s eye.
The apartment phone rang, and since no one else was around, Josh answered it.
“Hello?”
“Hello. Is this Josh, please?”
“It is.”
“Hi, Josh, this is Bash Mirrettsio calling.”
Suddenly she was glad she had been the one to answer.
“I hope it’s all right, me calling you at home like this,” he said. “I realized after you left that I’d forgotten to get your phone number.”
“I don’t have one. But it’s all right.” She closed her bedroom door firmly.
“Good. Well, I won’t beat around the bush. I was inspired by our meeting the other day, and I’ve done nothing since except try to figure out how we could make your inventions work. Honestly, Bayla is going to kill me if I don’t pay her some attention, but I simply can’t focus on anything else. And I think—I think—I may have found a way to attach our cell phone towers to the sea.”
Josh sat quietly for the next ten minutes and listened to Bash describe what he had done. He’d taken her idea of reversing the polarity of the particles and run with it, and he talked so fast that Josh had a hard time following the science behind his explanation.
“Wait a sec,” Josh burst out. “How did you do this without a particle accelerator?”
“Willis-Audretch has a particle accelerator.”
He went on, but Josh couldn’t keep up with all his jargon and his peculiar use of analogies. She’d have to ask Bash to explain everything again when they had a pad and pen in front of them.
“I suppose there is one other question,” Bash continued, “which is simply this: Do we want to keep moving forward? Up until now, this conversation has been purely theoretical. But if we place these towers in the Dream, we’ll have taken a very large step into the actual.”
Did I spend all these months writing on sketch pads and walls and my own body parts just to stop now? Josh wondered. She recalled last night’s dream again, not the red sky, but the feeling of quiet peace that had filled her when all the monsters were dead and the fighting was over. She wanted that peace.
She wanted that power.
“Let’s do it,” she said.
“I was hoping you’d say that. Excellent. Do you want to come see the particle accelerator?”
Of course she wanted to see the particle accelerator. But how would she explain another trip to Braxton without Will?
“I’d love to, but things are kind of a mess around here at the moment. I might not be able to get away.”
“Oh, yes, I saw the news reports. They said your princess made a poor mermaid, despite the long red hair.”
Josh laughed, even though the joke was a little lighthearted for a near-death experience.
“I’m just glad they passed her.”
“Any chance she’ll turn over the Karawar?”
“A pretty good one, I think,” Josh admitted, and she knew she probably shouldn’t be telling Bash any such thing, but it felt nice to talk lightheartedly with someone, and he was sort of a friend. “Listen, can you come by tomorrow night around eight? I’m scheduled to dream walk. We could try attaching the towers then.”
Bash’s voice brightened. “Splendid!”
“Come to the back door, all right? Don’t ring the bell out front.”
“Are we playing cloak-and-dagger?”
More than I’d like, Josh thought, but she told Bash, “Just a bit. I’ll see you tomorrow—have fun with your particle accelerator.”
* * *
By the time she woke up the next day—well after noon—Will had already left the house. He’d taken off to the mall with Whim and Deloise, which left Josh confused because he hated the mall.
Is he just trying to get away from me? she wondered. For the first time ever, she wished he had a cell phone she could call.
Since he didn’t, she spent a couple of hours scrubbing the spray paint off the house and the rest of the afternoon training. The doctor had told her to leave the eye patch on until the next day, but she thought she’d be safer training with it off. Her eye didn’t hurt unless she rubbed it.
When Will, Deloise, and Whim didn’t return for dinner, she helped Kerstel cook and then put herself through three rounds of a Romanian circuit-training video that left her gasping for air.
Afterward, she sat on the back porch and waited for Bash, watching the security guards wander around the yard. One of them was texting. While Josh glared at him, Haley and Mirren walked out the back door. They were holding hands.
“You guys going out?” Josh asked, concerned about their safety.
“We’re going back to the Hidden Kingdom,” Mirren said. “I’ve decided to give the Karawar to the junta.”
“Oh,” Josh said, and then realized how unsupportive she sounded.
“I just want all this to be over,” Mirren admitted.
“Do you want me to come? We could wait
until early morning, like last time.”
“Thank you, but I think we’ll be fine. My aunt and uncle are usually in bed by ten, and if we bump into my cousin, she’ll likely just ask to come back with us.”
“Be safe,” Josh told them as they climbed into Haley’s truck.
Alone, listening to the security guard argue with his son’s mother on his phone, Josh wondered if Haley’s cryptic comment the night before might have meant he would be in the Hidden Kingdom on the Fourth of July. That was a less frightening thought than others she’d had.
The security guard was threatening to sue for custody by the time Bash drove up the driveway and around the back. He parked and exited his car, at which point the security guard called from twenty yards away, “Is he okay?”
“Who’s that?” Bash asked, squinting into the darkness.
Josh raised her hand and gave the okay. “He’s the world’s worst security guard. He might be tied, though, with the guard in the front yard, who I’m guessing didn’t stop you.”
“No one stopped me. I did notice a man taking a smoke on your porch swing, though.”
Josh swore to call the security company and give them hell. After she and Bash tried out his invention.
“Are you wearing an eye patch?” Bash asked.
“Yeah. It’s a long story.”
“I heard you were in a fight.”
“All right, it’s not that long a story. Do you need help with these boxes?”
“Sure,” Bash said, smiling, and they each grabbed a large cardboard box from the backseat of his car.
Luckily, Saidy was at work, Alex had retired to his apartment for the evening, and Haley and Mirren were out, so no one saw Bash as Josh led him down to the basement.
“Nice setup,” Bash said, watching Josh type her code into the bank-vault door that protected the archway.
“It works,” Josh agreed. Only then did she realize that he had likely memorized her code, and she made a mental note to change it after he left. Not that she didn’t trust Bash, she just … Well, it seemed prudent.
