Rise at Twilight

by Kayla Krantz

  Part of her feared the worst, that because Violet’s dream character had been killed before her physical one, that she was dead forever. The idea was reinforced by the thought that when Max, Sarah, and Amanda had come to her in her dreams, Violet hadn’t been with them then either. Luna could’ve asked any of them but then hadn’t seemed the right time for it either.

  Chance glanced up at her, frowning when he caught sight of the look on her face. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

  “I’m just…thinking too much,” Luna said, pulling her eyebrows together and swallowed.

  “No shit,” Chance said with an exaggerated look to her bloody knuckles. “What about?”

  “Violet,” she said. “You say you don’t know what happens, if we can die here…but I…I haven’t seen her. No one even talks about her and…”

  Chance breathed in but didn’t say anything, waiting for her to continue.

  “She’s dead, isn’t she?” Luna asked at last, looking up at him through her lashes like a bashful child.

  “Yeah,” he said simply, voice neither cold nor warm.

  “So, it is possible to die here,” Luna said so softly Chance had to lean toward her to hear her.

  “It’s always possible to die, anywhere you go,” Chance said.

  “So why not tell me that?” Luna asked, tears bubbling in her eyes. “When I first asked? Why would you pretend not to know?”

  “Because it’s not as if knowing makes it any easier to deal with. It’s not like if you know you can die, you’ll feel better.”

  Luna was silent again, not wanting to admit the truth of his words, and Chance sighed, lifting his fingers to her blouse. He undid half the buttons of the wet fabric before Luna slapped his hand away. “What are you doing?”

  “You’re gonna catch a chill,” he said, hand hovering in a way that told Luna he considered trying to unbutton the rest of her shirt.

  “I can undress myself, thanks,” Luna retorted, clenching her hands into fists which caused another drop of blood to pump out of her cut.

  Chance closed his eyes, breathing in slowly through his nose, before he looked back at her. “Okay. I’m going to go get you some dry clothes. When I come back, those better be off.”

  He left before Luna could argue.

  ***

  LUNA DIDN’T SPEAK much the rest of the day, and Chance didn’t press her. She skipped dinner, opting instead to lay in bed with the pillows over her head to stifle her crying. Chance could hear every minute of it, but he didn’t approach her, didn’t comment on it at all. He had a feeling she would appreciate it more if he kept his distance for a while.

  That night, when he was sure she was asleep, he slipped into the bed and gathered her in his arms. Words might be of little use, but he’d be damned if he was going to try nothing. Tears leaked from her eyes every now and then, even in her unconscious state. Chance lifted his thumb to wipe them away and planted a kiss to her cheek, wishing that would be enough to help her.

  He knew it wouldn’t be though and that thought was made worse by the fact that he didn’t know what could help her—if anything at all. He knew all too well what she was going through.

  The only difference? He had suffered through it alone.

  A knock rang out from the front door, and Chance groaned at the thought of company. He swiped Luna’s hair from her face, considering pretending he hadn’t heard the visitor outside, before the knocking sounded again, six quick taps. Knowing who waited for him, he pulled his arm free and eased himself out of the bed. He casted a glance over his shoulder to see if Luna woke up before closing the bedroom door and heading to the entrance in the main room.

  A woman with sparkling green eyes and brown hair flowing mid-length down her back stood on the threshold. She lifted her chin as soon as he opened the door. Layanna Harris. His sister, and one of the only people he knew who could manipulate DreamWorld as well as himself.

  “Brother,” Layanna greeted, dipping her head. “It’s been a while.”

  “Come in, Anna,” Chance said, stepping aside.

  The woman nodded as she passed him, keeping her eyes on his face the entire time. “You certainly look healthier.”

  “Let’s just say I’m responsible for more than just myself now,” he replied, shutting the door as quietly as he could.

  “The girl…she’s here?” Layanna asked, scanning the room as if Luna would be hiding in one of the corners. Chance nodded with a glance down the hall. “How is she handling things?”

  “It…could be better,” he admitted, thinking of finding her lying on the forest floor.

  Layanna narrowed her eyes. “You aren’t holding her hostage, are you?”

  “No, I wouldn’t do that,” Chance said, and Layanna tipped her head to the side, lips pushed into a pencil straight line. “I wouldn’t do that again,” he clarified, dipping his head to hide the blush on his cheeks before he looked back up at her. “Happy?”

  “If you are,” she said. “But…is she happy being here with you? How is she coping?”

  Chance shrugged thinking of the prior few minutes when she had cried herself to sleep in his arms. “She hasn’t tried to run away.” At least, I don’t think she has.

  “That doesn’t necessarily mean she’s happy with you,” Layanna pointed out.

  “Maybe not, but she’s got a lot going on right now. I bring her comfort, I can tell. That has to count for something.”

  “She hasn’t tried to leave?”

  Chance fell silent. He didn’t want to lie to his sister, but he didn’t want to tell her the truth either. Sometimes, silence is golden.

  Layanna arched an eyebrow. “Does she understand that she can’t leave?”

  “I don’t think she really understands. I told her it was risky, but she’s focused on something else. She’s hardheaded, and won’t listen.”

  “Isn’t that the reason you adore her?”

  “Most of the time, but not in this case. It’s too dangerous.” Chance frowned, remembering back to pulling the mirror shard from her hand. She’s become quite experimental with death. He couldn’t wrap his mind around what he had stopped her from doing. Everyone thinks they want immortality until they actually have it.

  Layanna scrunched her eyebrows. “Where has she tried to go? Maybe I can help.”

  “I doubt it. This situation…it’s complicated. She doesn’t want to listen to reason. She just wants our son, and I feel so helpless because I can’t get him for her. Hell, she doesn’t even believe I care about him.”

  “She also doesn’t know how many times you’ve tried to get him back and failed.”

  “I’ve told her all that, and it doesn’t matter because at the end of the day, he’s still out there somewhere, and it kills her…I know it does.”

  “She’s a grieving mother, Stephen. Even our mother, with all her flaws, still dedicated time to trying to find you after Dad’s death. What did you expect Luna to do? Just forget about him so you and her could live happily ever after?”

  Chance frowned. He hadn’t known what to expect, but it certainly wasn’t this. This version of Luna that was everything the Luna he loved was not. Everyone handles this place differently, he reminded himself. It hadn’t been all vanilla ice cream for him after his death either. Chance shivered at the thought, barely avoiding looking at the heaviest swathe of scars on his wrist.

  “Certainly, you can relate?” Layanna tacked on, misreading his silence.

  “Of course I want my son back,” he snapped. Why does everyone doubt that? “But she’s going to get herself killed if she keeps doing what she’s been. That won’t solve anything. Without her, I’ll never get him back.”

  “Then you need to be more direct. She’s in danger, and tiptoeing around it won’t keep her safe,” Layanna said.

  Chance tipped his head to the side. “I have the feeling we’re not talking about the same kind of danger.”

  Layanna narrowed her eyes to slits as she said, “That’s because
we’re not.”

  “What aren’t you telling me?”

  “Cody visited me…not too long ago.”

  Chance stiffened. Whenever Cody was mentioned, nothing good followed. There was no reason why anything good would follow. He was a terrible human, twisted in the head and guided without a sense of morals or conscience. He lived for himself and helped raise others to fit the same lifestyle.

  “And? What did he want?”

  “Wanted to know where you were,” Layanna admitted, balling her hands into fists.

  Chance pulled his eyebrows together. “Did he say why?”

  “The girl. He wanted the girl.”

  “Luna?” Chance asked, flinching backward as if Layanna had tried to strike him. “What the hell does he want with Luna?”

  “He said he needs her help. She owes him a favor, and he said he’d find her with or without us.”

  Chance was so at a loss for words that he licked his lips, staring at his sister, until the world stopped spinning around him. “But he tried to kill her! How could he have done her any favors?”

  Layanna stared back, and he hated that he could guess the thought in her head. You killed her and considered it a favor.

  She didn’t say it out loud though. Instead, she shook her head, scattering her long hair in every direction, and said, “I don’t know. He wouldn’t tell me any of that. He just wanted to know where you were because he had a feeling you could help him find her.”

  “As if I would do that,” Chance said, scoffing, and took a step away.

  “You wouldn’t willingly, but you…do owe him a favor too, don’t you?”

  Chance lifted his hand to swipe at his lip frustrated with the entire situation. All he wanted to do was curl up in bed with his favorite person, but instead he was out here, arguing with his sister about things he’d rather ignore. He didn’t want to think about Cody, about the favor he knew he owed. Sure, he had expected Cody to cash it in eventually, but he never would’ve thought Cody would use it to bring harm to Luna.

  Chance turned away, hoping to hide the worst of his emotions from his sister. When he was sure his face was a blank slate, he glanced over his shoulder at her, eyes narrowed. “Is that the reason you came? To help him?”

  “No, Stephen, you ought to know me better than that by now. Christ, after all I’ve done for you how can you even ask me that?”

  Chance pressed his lips together. There was an easy answer to that question—he could ask because he didn’t know how to trust anyone, even his own flesh and blood.

  Layanna sighed, and Chance admired the effort she put into stemming her rage. “I came to check on you. That’s it. The fact I’m delivering his message is incidental. What I really wanted to tell you was to be careful, and to keep her safe. I don’t know what he wants her for, but the fact that he’s got her in his sights isn’t good.”

  “Did you not hear me? I’ve tried keeping her safe. The only way to do that is to keep her in the cabin, and she won’t listen. She thinks I’m just trying to control her, trying to keep her away from her loved ones.” Chance paused knowing he hadn’t been completely truthful…with Layanna or Luna. “What can I do?”

  “Be honest with her. Build a relationship with her that isn’t based on lies.”

  Chance opened his mouth to argue, and Layanna lifted a hand. “I’m not trying to start anything. You asked, and I answered you. The way I see it is that she needs someone. Why not make yourself that person she needs?”

  “Because she hates me. Even here, even now, she just wants to get away from me.”

  “In time, she’ll adjust. And as you said, she needs you right now. She’s going through a lot between losing her son and her life. Whatever she’s trying to do, guide her, don’t stop her. You want to be seen as someone she can depend on, not just another problem for her to solve. The more you shoot her down, the more she’ll resist, and the harder she’ll try to escape.”

  Chance huffed, blowing his blonde bangs from his face. If that didn’t sum up Luna’s personality, nothing did. “Ain’t that the truth.”

  Layanna nodded curtly. “The sooner you get her fully on your side, the easier this entire thing will become.”

  “It’s never going to be easy to get Asher back,” Chance pointed out. “Not with what he means for this world.”

  Layanna bobbed her head. “Maybe not, but it’ll certainly be easier with her than without her. Get on it. I want to meet my nephew someday.”

  Chapter Twenty

  JUST WHEN REESE was becoming okay with the idea of never seeing Chance again, of trying to pull himself back together in the Real World and scrounge together a semblance of a life, he awoke to a dream with the blonde man. Wasn’t that the way it always went? As soon as Reese began to move on with his life, his hang-ups would pull him right back, forcing him to go through the entire process all over again.

  Reese didn’t speak at first, just allowed the moment to sink in, to wipe away the tiny bit of sanity he had regained. Chance looked more human than Reese had seen him since he had been alive, and all he could do was stare. He knew it was magic that was responsible for this meeting, but at the same time, the phenomenon overwhelmed him.

  Reese’s study stopped when he caught sight of Chance’s eyes, and his bewilderment turned to anger. The shadow in Chance’s eyes wasn’t friendly. It wasn’t the look that a friend would give another friend, and there was a wiggling in his gut that warned that Chance wasn’t here to see him, it told Reese that Chance didn’t care how Reese felt, he wanted something again.

  “Greetings,” Chance said at last, the corner of his lip curling up into a wicked smile that confirmed Reese’s suspicions.

  Reese nodded along but said nothing, waiting to see what Chance would say before he let himself get invested in the conversation one way or the other.

  “I wanted to let you know that the blood magic worked,” Chance said.

  “Yeah, I know. I felt it,” Reese said coolly, clenching and unclenching his hands.

  “Thank you for your hard work,” Chance said, but the statement was flat and without real appreciation. Reese knew that he was fishing, trying to pull a reaction out of Reese.

  This would be his moment, Reese knew that, but he also wasn’t sure what the best approach would be. Lay all his cards on the table? Keep silent? Walk away?

  “Not going to talk to me?” Chance asked, raising an eyebrow. “You’re not a sixteen-year-old girl, man.”

  Reese couldn’t bite back his aggravation this time. “Thank you? That’s all you’ve got for me, and you expect me to be overjoyed? Look, I don’t know what you think of me.” Reese stopped because he had a feeling he knew exactly what Chance thought. “But I’m not just here for your entertainment.”

  Chance’s twisted smile grew, and he held his hands up, palms out. “Not trying to poke the bear.”

  “Then why are you here? To visit me? I doubt it. You’ve never come to see me without asking for a favor. Not once.”

  Chance shrugged. “Don’t take it personally. Friends are not really something I do.”

  “Yeah, well, ‘puppet’ isn’t something that I do.”

  Sighing, Chance dropped his hands. “That’s fair, I suppose.”

  Reese’s nose twitched in irritation. “Not even going to attempt to fix the situation?”

  Chance tilted his head to the side. “Why? You make it sound as if there is no fixing it.”

  “You’re unbelievable, you know that? You pop in my life, only when it’s convenient for you, and you haven’t even taken the time to tell me who the magic was for or what you’re planning to do with it. I’m not just one of your dogs that you can tell what to do. If you want my help, and don’t expect me to break the blood magic bonding me to God knows who, you’ve gotta start explaining yourself a bit more.”

  Chance laughed and took a small step forward, shoving his hands into his pockets. The sound was light and lilting, but Reese had the feeling that the laughter was no
thing from happiness. “You don’t have to be a little bitch about it,” Chance said, the laughter ending as soon as it had begun. “I actually came here to tell you some things, but you distracted me with your whole ‘standing your ground’ schtick.”

  Reese deflated a bit. He had thought he was standing strong, that he was leaving an impression by speaking his mind rather than bowing his head like a stray dog, but Chance saw right through it. And why not? Chance was intuitive…not to mention the fact that Reese was predictable.

  “Who did you use my magic on?” Reese asked, suddenly not caring how see through he was if it meant getting answers.

  “Luna. Your magic is sustaining Luna,” Chance said at last.

  “Luna…Luna as in Amanda’s roommate, Luna?” Reese asked.

  Chance nodded.

  Reese felt himself further withdraw from the situation. It was one thing to use magic to achieve a goal, but to use it just for the Hell of it? That was dangerous. That was risky, and the more risks that Reese took, the greater the chances that someone would catch on, and he would lose his magic. Truth be told, that was all he had going for him. The thought of being stripped of his last asset made him ill.

  Why did I agree to help before asking questions? Reese wondered. How could he have been so star struck that even basic concern for himself went out the window? Maybe he’s right to see me as weak. Have I ever not been?

  “Why her?” he forced himself to ask at last.

  Chance sighed and sat in the sand beside his friend. A minute passed of them staring out over the ocean before he said, “Let me start at the beginning…”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  “SHE DOESN’T KNOW,” Amy blurted out two seconds after Max opened the door. “She doesn’t know where her daughter is.”

  “I…what?” Max asked, face scrunching in confusion as he opened the door to its extent to let Amy inside.

  She obliged and plopped down on the couch before she looked at him. “Rose, I went to talk to her, and she doesn’t know where Luna’s sister is. All she gave me was a name and a phone number.”