“I have no idea how to do that! I can barely―”
“I don’t care, try!” Simon shouted, his rage jolting her enough to put her hands to Noct’s face and dive through the blinding white flash into his mind.
The first thing that occurred to Penny as her consciousness reformed was a strange, empowering control that she had never before felt when seeing other’s dreams. The next thing she realized was that she had a physical presence. She took a moment to look at her hands, and then ran to where a young Noct sat in his sleeping mother’s lap, his face troubled as he eyed a vial clutched in her hand.
With a gasp he pulled it from her hand and flung it against the wall, and the woman’s flesh began to deteriorate, holding the boy in an inescapable grasp as she was reduced to dry bones. Horrified, Penny rushed forward and took his hand. As she strained to free them from the ghastly scene, a strange sensation occurred to her, like peeling back a layer of reality. Penny urged this to happen again and soon the dream faded and they were launched back into consciousness.
Noct sprang to his feet, whimpering and disoriented, but Penny did not have time to comfort him. She crawled over to Annette, her body still quivering from what she’d seen, and grasped her friend’s arm.
The flash flared into her eyes and as it faded a scene very much like a memory of Annette’s unfolded before her eyes. Annette stood on a stage, overweight, sobbing, and chained to the ground as a crowd of people in the audience laughed at her and called insults.
“It’s a dream, Annette, it’s not real. Wake up!” Penny shouted, willing the layers to peel away again.
They ripped away so quickly this time that Penny had to blink several times before she realized they were back in reality. Annette sat up, holding her head and wiping away tears as Simon embraced her. Without hesitation Penny rushed to Mia’s side next.
Feeling more in control of the situation, she entered a space of expansive darkness in Mia’s mind. The small girl lay in the center of all the darkness, her body weak and her eyes staring at the nothingness that surrounded her. Her body appeared translucent, as if she were being erased by gradual washes of darkness. Penny went to her and tried to pick her up.
“No use, big sister. I’m disappearing. Look.” Mia’s eyes went to her arm as she showed it to Penny. Penny ignored her despondent state and hoisted her up, ripping through the layers of the dream in her head, and again the vision faded in an instant. As Penny watched Mia come back into consciousness, a shaky smile crossed her lips.
I think I’m getting the hang of this, she thought with an incredulous thrill, and then leapt over to Armonie, who was trapped in a vision that portrayed a cell in Nestor’s castle with Elise holding a key in one hand and an Eidolorbe in the other. After Armonie sat up blinking and massaging her bruised throat, Penny touched Gavin’s hand lightly and freed him from the delusion of being caught in a web of piano wire and mirror shards. She moved to Argent next.
Argent’s nightmare caught Penny off guard the moment she entered it. She appeared underwater, in the middle of a churning, freezing ocean with Argent nowhere in sight. As the waves tossed Penny, she tried desperately to pull away the offending dream layer that kept Argent trapped, but it was completely out of her grasp.
When the spinning stopped, Penny opened her eyes to see a world of ruins underneath the waves. Broken steam cars, half-finished houses, and ghostly temples lay in the briny depths, illuminated by an amber light radiating off the seafloor. It blinked from the window of a gutted airship which looked as if it had been lying moldering on the bottom of the ocean for decades.
Penny swam toward it, discovering that she did not need to breathe. Once she had glided through the exposed ribcage of the dirigible and pried open the door that led inside, the water vanished. She wandered through inverted rooms filled with gleaming treasures in disorganized heaps, until she reached the door from which the light came.
Inside Penny saw hundreds of dull, glowing stars made from an earthy, stone-like material hanging from the ceiling. The walls were covered with child-like paintings of fantastic beasts, celestial objects, and the recurring image of an angelic woman. Amidst the riches and glimmering items in the very center of the room sat a small boy wearing fine clothing. He sat cross-legged, his face pointed to the ground. Penny found herself afraid to disturb him from his silence, but recognized the silvery hair.
“Argent, wake up, this is a dream,” Penny said kindly, but he would not look at her.
“Leave me alone, please,” he said quietly. “I don’t need you. I don’t need anyone. I’m safe in here, so just go away.”
“No, we have to go. Everyone needs us, come on,” Penny insisted, grabbing for his wrist and when she did, the child lashed out at her, slapping her hand away before retreating to the corner.
“I don’t want you in here, this is the only place I’m safe! You can’t come in. You ruined everything, Jet! You ruined my life, you ruined everything!” the boy bellowed, snarling at her with such unrestrained violence that Penny shuddered. “It’s all your fault! I’m glad you’re dead!”
“I’m not Jet―it’s Penny, can’t you see? Look at me.”
“Penny?”
Then it was all gone and Penny was left staring at the waking form of Argent, whose face was burning red. His eyes were filled with such vulnerability that Penny looked away, swearing to herself she would never see or acknowledge what she had just seen.
“Hurry, Penny, wake Hector up and we’ll go get them!” Simon urged. Penny went limply over to Hector, hesitating for the longest moment yet. She thought of her mother’s peril and a burning thirst for revenge rose up in her mind. She took Hector’s hand in hers, her heart fluttering at its weight and warmth.
Penny stood in a temple of deep green marble and tarnished bronze, its ceilings and walls hidden by a haze of darkness. Chandeliers above dripped wax from candles that burned in witchy colors of deep purple and smoggy red. Each searching footstep that Penny took seemed to crash like falling hammers in the silence. At the end of the temple Penny could see a shrine, wreathed in flames and surrounded by blackened bones and broken boulders.
A man stood between Penny and the shrine, facing the fire as Penny slowed to a halt. He wore opulent white robes adorned with feathers and gold jewelry. His sleeves were so long that they completely covered his hands and draped onto the floor.
“Hector, is that you?” Penny asked, and the man turned gracefully. Penny gasped at his face, strikingly different but unmistakable. The Hector that she faced was around her own age and wore his hair very long.
“Deepest apologies, but this esteemed stranger is mistaken. His name is Aín,” he told her with the utmost politeness. Penny blinked at the peculiar way he’d spoken to her, but pieced together its meaning. His expression suggested he was petrified by some overwhelming emotion that he was trying his best to restrain.
“What are you doing here?” she whispered, feeling deep fright snaking through her.
Hector turned his head away and took several deep breaths as he repressed his emotions again. “He is repenting. He is not permitted to leave until he is forgiven.”
“What?” Penny asked with confusion, turning to look at the shrine. In the center of all the bones, smoke, and cracked stone there was a torso of a person so badly burned Penny could not tell whether it had been male or female. It was cradled in a bed of stone as if it had been trapped, and as the flames licked at its face, two naked eyeballs stared accusingly out at her. Penny averted her gaze.
Behind the barricade that the burning shrine created was an open door that showed a bright garden where begging voices whispered. A cool breeze billowed into the hellish chamber, carrying the sweet smell of flowers and fresh grass with it. Penny tore her eyes away from the scene and ran to Hector again.
“Tell me, what’s the place beyond the door?” she asked breathlessly, and watched his emotions turn to bittersweet longing.
“Paradise.”
“Let’s go t
here together then, Hector. We don’t have to stay here any longer.” She grabbed Hector by the arm and tried to pull him toward the door, but he would not go.
“This man has told you, he can’t. He has no choice but to stay. He doesn’t deserve it.”
“Come on!” Penny shouted and yanked on his arm with all her might. She distanced her emotion, warping the dream to make herself stronger than Hector and forced him over the heap of bone and rocks. The fire crackled at their clothes and the smoke stung their eyes, but Penny fought it back, holding Hector’s arm in a vice-grip until they made it through the door back into Eden.
In an instant everyone was back on their feet, clearing away the last of their shivers and trying to form some semblance of a plan. Noct itched with restlessness as Hector and Argent settled into a debate over what was the most logical action. At last, the boy lost his temper and filled the air with cinder and flame.
“I’m through with this! Let’s go get them!” he bellowed and then shot off like a flaming rocket through the overgrowth in the same direction Nestor had gone. Mia went after him, and the others followed, either inspired by his vigor or intent on stopping him before he hurt himself.
Penny and Simon jogged at the back of the group, both expressing a fear of not knowing the correct direction to go. Bizarre sights whizzed past them: beguiling fountains, far-off terraces of white stone, massive blooms soaked with radiant color.
Without any warning, Simon stopped dead in his tracks and Penny collided into his back at full speed. He didn’t seem to mind; he was transfixed on something rustling through a grayish purple bush. He made a low noise like a snarl, and then leapt forward at full speed.
“Lydia!” he shouted at the brush, and Penny’s hear surged in fear.
“Don’t leave the group, Simon! You won’t be able to win―no!” Penny begged him, but he was too overcome with rage to hear her warning. She looked from the trail of movement through the brush as her friends trampled away, to Simon fighting his way through the oily purple leaves to get to Lydia. She could not leave him alone.
As she tumbled out the other end of the brush, Penny knew her pursuit had been too late. An explosion from Simon’s wand had knocked Lydia off her feet.
“I should kill you for what you’ve done,” Simon snarled as she stood again. Archibald reared back in an attempt to protect his master. “You lied to me, you betrayed all of us―a girl is dead because of you. Lydia, how could you?”
Lydia sneered as she attempted to weave a dream in shaking hands, but Simon flicked his wand again and blew up the dream before it could fully form.
“What part of ‘I’m working for them’ didn’t penetrate your thick skull?” Lydia smiled, her eyes wild. “And what do I care if some bimbo got caught in the crossfire because she was too stupid to clear out? I’ve personally killed more important people than that, and I’d probably kill you if I got the chance. I might even do it now, if you come a bit closer.”
In that moment, Penny hated Lydia more than anyone she had ever known.
“You’re going to pay for this if it’s the last thing I do. I actually thought you cared about me,” Simon sputtered, and Lydia interrupted with a shrieking laugh as she slapped a palm to her forehead.
“Cared about you? You’re a joke! You think I liked choking back vomit every time you got near me?” she cackled with genuine mirth. “Oh, Simon, if nothing else, you’re always good for a laugh.”
Her laugh pierced Penny’s ears, inflaming her own wrath until it came to an intolerable boil that sent her flying at Lydia.
She wanted nothing more than to break Lydia for good, and called upon ever power she had within herself, her palms aching to force Lydia to relieve every wretched moment she’d ever suffered. Weak traces of dream matter collect around Penny’s fingertips, but Lydia sidestepped her attack and sent Penny hurtling toward the ground.
“Down, kitty,” Lydia mocked as she summoned nightmares with her black-polished fingertips. Snarling, Simon waved his wand at a nearby stone, which leapt obediently off the ground and smacked full force into Lydia’s side. She fell to the ground, gasping.
“Simon, look out!” Penny pointed at Archibald, who skittered at Simon’s ankles, fangs dripping milky-white venom.
“You broke my rib…you actually…” Lydia grunted, looking disconcerted before turning in a fury to her pet. “Kill him, Archie!” Reaching into her pocket, Lydia pulled out a skinny tube tipped with a tiny skull. She pulled the skull away from the sheath, revealing a long needle dripping with a viscous liquid Penny assumed to be spider venom. “I’ll end you myself, Nestor be damned,” the girl spat at Penny.
Penny gasped and moved as Lydia lunged at her, the long needle narrowly missing her throat. The needle flashed in the moonlight, and Penny had less than a second to catch Lydia’s wrist. Penny’s arms felt weak as they threatened to buckle and the mad look of maleficent pleasure burned in the whites of Lydia’s eyes.
“Oh, God, it’s on me, it’s on me!” Simon screamed. Noises of scuffling ensued, followed by a victorious bellow and a heavy squelch that tore Lydia’s eyes away from Penny and made her arms go limp. Penny looked to see Simon standing in a pile of thick greenish-blue liquid that oozed forth from a ruptured abdomen and eight twitching legs.
“Archie!” Lydia wailed, clutching the sides of her face in horror as Simon stepped out of the mess before turning on Lydia with murderous intent in his eyes.
“You bastard, you killed him!” Lydia cried, raising the needle high into the air. Taking advantage of the distraction, Penny tackled Lydia, knocking them both to the ground. They grappled and Lydia managed to roll on top of Penny and wrap a hand around her throat. Lydia, now fighting back tears, poised the needle above Penny’s eye, preparing to stab it. Simon lunged forward and grabbed her around the waist, wrenching her off.
Lydia twisted and thrashed against him and in a sickening flurry of movement, Penny saw the needle find a resting place in Simon’s side. Lydia shrieked in victory as Simon stumbled back, his eyes blank. Lydia spun around, drew the needle out, and took the opportunity to stab him again and again, each thrust making a sickening squelch.
Simon kicked at her, whipping his wand out with a shaking hand. A war cry exploded from his throat and a massive force erupted from his wand, smashing into Lydia’s head and ripping a gash across her forehead. Her eyes rolled back as she collapsed.
Penny rushed to Simon, who fell to his knees, his eyes irate as he stared at Lydia as if deciding whether or not to kill her. Penny pressed against his wounds to stop the bleeding, but his body had begun to shake with a violence that suggested the venom was streaming through him.
“Did you―” Simon gave a sputtering cough and most of his anger melted away, “did you see? I got her. I don’t screw up every time. Just most times.” He tried to laugh, but a shadow of pain crossed his face and Penny held tighter and pressed harder, as if it would somehow keep his life inside.
“Don’t talk, Simon, please. I’ve got to find Armonie, she’ll have something…something that’ll…” She knew there wasn’t enough time to find Armonie, and dove through her bag, desperate for anything that would help.
Simon’s face turned chalky and Penny slipped a bundle of her jackets under his head so he could lie down. She started to get to her feet, but Simon caught her hand and gave a weak smile.
“Penny. I’m finished,” he told her with frank seriousness, and shut his eyes for moment. “By the time you get Armonie, I’ll be gone. Don’t leave me, please. I’ve been alone for most of my life, and I’d rather not be alone at the end of it—if you don’t mind.” He gritted his teeth under the pain, but still smiled.
Penny brought his hand to her chest and clutched it as she began to sob. Simon cried out and clawed at his chest as if something was burning him on the inside. When it passed, his expression had changed from feigned confidence, to deep terror.
“I d-don’t want to die, Penny.” A tear welled in his eye and spilled over an
d he looked at her almost pleadingly. “I’m not ready. I didn’t do any of the things I was supposed to. I wasted my life.”
“That’s not true, you know it isn’t. You’re wonderful, Simon. I love you,” Penny whispered with quivering lips, her chest contracting painfully under the strain of her emotions. This made Simon grin in bittersweet enjoyment and he shut his eyes again. He tried to keep his voice lighthearted.
“Aha. I knew I’d get you some day. They all fall for me…eventually.”
“Simon!” Penny cried, squeezing his hand even tighter.
“Penny…do me a favor,” he whispered. “I’d like to see home once more. Can you do that?”
It took every fiber of restraint Penny to keep herself together when she heard this, and she nodded, pulling on Simon’s fading memories for his home, her heart feeling as if it too were dying.
Fields of grain swayed in pale gold against the cloudless blue sky. Simon walked along the dusty trail, his eyes fixed on the farmhouse in the distance. His book-bag slung carelessly over his shoulder as he hummed a tune under his breath, eager to get out of the hot sunlight. As he approached, he could see his mother sitting on the porch….
The memory slipped from Penny’s grasp of its own accord and she dropped Simon’s hand to the ground with a thud.
“Simon! Don’t die, not yet!” she shouted at him. She turned to her bag, maniacally digging through the contents in hopes she might’ve stashed any of Armonie’s potions that could keep him with her longer. She flung things out in frantic handfuls, saving things like bandages and bottles of salve containing medicine Armonie had made for her. When the bag seemed to have been completely emptied of all contents, Penny threw it aside in rage and watched as a glinting something was flung out. Her heart exploded with a surge of raw hope as she recognized the object.
THE WATER I TOOK FROM WARWICK’S GROTTO.
Penny rushed forward, her fingers fumbling through the grass and slipping on the edges of the tiny vial. Just as her hand closed on it, a hard crack sang out from the back of her head and Penny collapsed.
Eden Undone (The Dawn Mirror Chronicles Book 2) Page 35
