Dreams for the Kraken. Dreams they sent through the kra’a every night and morning, their combined strength allowing them to leave their new island home near the nesting ground while maintaining the link to the sleeping beast.
A risk. If anything happened to them . . .
It is worth the risk, the kra’a had said. For dreams.
And now, here they were. Home. Finally.
The old house was in better shape then Jenny remembered. It looked nothing like the sagging gray place of her nightmares. Never had, actually—but for so long that was how she had remembered it, that seeing the fresh white paint and green roof, and the gingerbread trim along the eaves—sent a strange shock through her. The house perched on the grassy hill, facing the sea, and the chimes hanging from the porch whistled and sang.
Her grandparents waited on the steps. Maurice was with them. Jenny sat in the car, staring.
“You love them,” Perrin said quietly, opening his door and letting the dog out. “Don’t blame them for the loss of your baby.”
“It could happen again,” she whispered, watching the dog run ahead to the house and straight to her grandfather. “When I come here, that’s all I can think of. The Consortium might have given up on me for now, but that won’t last. This family . . .”
Perrin dismantled the wall between their minds, and his warmth rolled through her, slow and easy, bringing with it a sense of complete and utter peace. Tears bit her eyes, and she closed them, savoring the miracle.
“There are many miracles,” he told her, gently. “We’ll be fine.”
Jenny took a deep breath and nodded. “Okay. Okay, you’re right.”
Perrin kissed her cheek, his mouth lingering until she turned her head and brushed her lips over his. Sweet, gentle, making her ache to press close against him, hidden from the world. She missed their island, suddenly, with a sharpness that stole her breath away. “Jenny,” Perrin said.
“I do love them,” she told him. “I do.”
Near sunset, Perrin and Jenny escaped from the big house on the hill and made their way down the twisty trail to the beach. It was windy and the temperature had dropped. Jenny felt fat in her big coat, but Perrin rarely felt the cold and wore nothing more than a silver cashmere sweater and jeans.
The sun was white behind a thin layer of clouds, and the water glittered as though scattered with diamonds and starlight. Jenny gripped Perrin’s hand, and they walked slowly and carefully through the sand, over driftwood and stone, until they came to the spot.
“I’m sure this is it. I came here every day, every summer, for years.” Jenny clutched his arm, pressing her cheek against him. When he said nothing, when he remained so still, she glanced at his face and found his jaw tight, his eyes hard and heavy as he stared at that patch of sand.
Slowly, with infinite care, Perrin knelt and drew Jenny down beside him. They sat together, side by side, holding each other’s hands, staring at the sea, and the sky and water was silver and full of light, and it was the dream. Only this time, when Jenny turned to look at Perrin, she could see his face, his eyes, and when she wanted to kiss him, he met her halfway, hungry and hard, and hot.
Her heart was so full. The kra’a hummed inside their minds. And when Perrin unzipped her coat, and pushed up her sweater to expose her round stomach to the ocean air, she leaned back on her elbows and laughed.
“This is where you began,” he told their baby. “Once upon a time.”
“There was a girl who loved a boy from the sea,” said Jenny, smiling. “And they found each other in dreams.”
About the Author
MARJORIE M. LIU is an attorney and New York Times bestselling author of paranormal romances and urban fantasy. In the world of comic books, she is also the writer of NYX: No Way Home, Black Widow, X-23, and Dark Wolverine (with Daniel Way, for Marvel). She lives in the American Midwest and Beijing, China. For more information, please visit her website at www.marjoriemliu.com.
By Marjorie M. Liu
In the Dark of Dreams
The Fire King
The Wild Road
The Last Twilight
Soul Song
Eye of Heaven
Dark Dreamers (anthology)
The Red Heart of Jade
Shadow Touch
A Taste of Crimson (Crimson City Series)
Tiger Eye
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
IN THE DARK OF DREAMS. Copyright © 2010 by Marjorie M. Liu. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
EPub Edition December 2010 ISBN: 9780062078490
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