by Kayla Krantz
Not to mention the girls inside, two she recognized instantly—Kate and Michelle.
Without meaning to, Luna began to scream, so loud and long that she had to squeeze her eyes shut to focus all her energy into it. When she opened them again, the school was gone, and she was back in the woods, but Sarah wasn’t with her.
She was alone again—her only lead for information destroyed.
Chapter Twenty-Three
LUNA WAS HARDER to find than Cody imagined she’d be. Under Chance’s protection, she was a shadow, a ghost, and he knew he had made a mistake going to Layanna. Of course, she would warn Chance—he should’ve gone after Chance directly. This is what happens when I have faith in people, he reminded himself. Without her, his mission would no doubt be much easier.
Feeling out surges in energy were something of a gift to him; he had found he had an adept gift at it for early on and had never questioned it or looked back. It was something he felt he was owed, and in instances like these, it paid off. Luna’s energy was unique and that in itself was both a blessing and a curse. Knowing her patterns was hard because it was easy to misremember things about it. When he got it right, however, there was no doubt that he had the correct target.
When he picked up the spike in a Realm just south of DreamWorld, he was surprised—more so because he didn’t detect Chance’s energy with hers, and yet, she wasn’t alone. Eagerness overcame him, and he followed it, but she was nowhere in sight. Instead, he glanced around at the place he had ended up in detached wonder.
A high school?
How could a high school have such menace?
It made no sense.
Then he went inside and all his questions were answered. He didn’t know what it was that made the place one of nightmares, but the beings inside had flocked to it, and they would ensure this place kept its title. The hatred, pain, and betrayal nearly bounced off the walls, penetrating Cody’s skin as he walked.
Invisible eyes watched him from the shadows, and even he, for all his darkness, found the place to be too much. Why would she come here? If she was as full of light and love as Chance believed, she would have no use for this place. Unless the mystery person she was with had brought her here.
A Keeper? Cody pondered.
He didn’t recognize the souls moving around the building, but one thing stood out to him—the stabs and slashes across nearly every person he saw.
These must be the girls Chance killed, he thought, but that realization didn’t make the questions any easier to answer. Why would she come here to see the girls who fate she had barely avoided sharing?
“Got a good enough look yet?” one of the specters, a thin girl with brown hair tied into a tight ponytail, snapped at him.
He hadn’t even realized he was staring and went to apologize when he stopped. What did he care if he offended this girl? He’d never see her again anyway. “I’m looking for someone.”
“Well, I’m not her,” she replied with a haughty toss of her ponytail.
Cody laughed. “Really, now, Captain Obvious, are you so sure about that?”
The girl didn’t like the dismissal, he could see it in the curl of her lips. “Alright then, smartass, who are you looking for?”
“A girl by the name of Luna. She—” the girl’s eyes lit up, and Cody smiled with hope. “Something tells me you’ve heard of her.”
“I just might have,” she said and wicked laughter poured from her coral red lips. “I just might have.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
SARAH’S WORDS STUNG.
Plain and simple.
But the fact that Luna had been so close to information only to have it ripped away hurt worse.
After the encounter with Max, Luna knew she should’ve been prepared for whatever Sarah would say, but she hadn’t been—at least, not as much as she should be. The excitement of seeing Sarah again, of making amends, had knocked her from her guard and left her exposed, vulnerable. In a way, Luna felt as if she was losing her loved ones all over again, only this time it was worse because they were choosing to walk away, making the informed decision that they no longer wanted her in their life.
I literally mourned them until I went insane…and for what? Luna thought. If the situation had been reversed, would they have done the same?
While painful, the thought gave her new insight to her situation. Chance had been insistent about the idea that they wanted to hurt her—that they were all out for her blood in one way or another—but Sarah seemed to have no ill intent toward her. She was hurt, sure, disappointed…definitely—both of which Luna could bring herself to understand—but she hadn’t tried to hurt Luna…even when Luna was sure she had given her the motive to.
Was Chance lying to her? Using fear to keep her from wandering too far from him just in case they didn’t turn out to be as bitter as he seemed to think they would be? Luna frowned. The tactic would be right up his alley.
Luna might not understand where Sarah had gone, but she was gone, moved onto whatever existence it was that came after this one, and Luna would not be able to get her back.
A shiver passed down the length of her spine just as the cabin came into view. Could all of the people in the Realm move onto the next one so easily or had Sarah’s case been special? If Luna got Asher back from Amanda would both of them disappear the way Sarah and Susan had? The sight of the glittering happiness in Sarah’s eyes just before she vanished from sight wouldn’t leave the front of Luna’s mind no matter how hard she tried to shove it away.
When Luna was beside the cabin, she didn’t immediately push the door open. Instead, she stared at the wood, remembering the first time her eyes had studied the delicate indentions of the wood, and tried her best to keep her face neutral. She was sure Chance was already home, and the last thing she wanted was for him to get a glimpse of her true emotions.
At last she gathered herself the best she could and pushed the door open with a creak that sounded louder than she would’ve hoped. When Luna stepped over the threshold, Chance looked up at her from his seat, an apple clenched in his fist. He slammed it to the table as their eyes locked and even through his careful mask of calm, she could see the anger.
“Where were you?” he asked, sounding out each word.
“I just walked the trail.” She shrugged and dropped her gaze, taking her usual seat across the table from him. She folded her hands together in her lap and waited for his questions though in the back of her mind, she wondered why it mattered. Chance disappeared all the time, and he had never felt it necessary to explain a thing to her.
He eyed her for a long moment, and Luna’s anxiety bit at her, wishing he would speak. There was no telling what he could pull out of her from a simple look over alone. “Something happened today. You seem…more stable. Emotionally. There’s a look in your eyes…one that wasn’t there yesterday. Who’d you run into?”
He was too good at reading her thoughts on her face, and she hated it. Couldn’t he have an off day? Just one? “Sarah, okay? I ran into Sarah.”
“And what happened?”
“Nothing. Nothing at all.”
Chance stared at her without speaking, searching her for a sign of a lie or maybe to create another one of his own. Luna wasn’t sure, but when his bottom lip jutted out into a pout, she knew he hadn’t found whatever it was he had been searching for.
“She said she missed me,” Luna admitted, knitting her eyebrows together. “Is that what I was supposed to be wary of out there…making up with my loved ones?”
Chance gritted his teeth and tossed his apple core into the nearby trashcan. “They talk a lot. That’s why you can’t trust them.”
“How do I know I can trust you?” she said, tilting her head to the side. “You insisted any and everyone was out for my blood, but that’s not true. They’re sad about me…for me…and…”
Chance’s eyes darted to the line of dried blood on her forehead.
“I did this to myself,” she stated, wipi
ng at the crusted crimson before he could say a word. “And Sarah helped me up.”
“Well, you got lucky then.”
Luna wasn’t convinced. “Are you just messing with my head…like you’ve always done? Or is there more to this story? Something you aren’t telling me?”
Chance flared his nostrils and ran his hand through his blond hair. “Okay, so I haven’t been entirely honest with you.”
Luna raised her eyebrows. “Is that statement supposed to surprise me anymore?”
Chance chuckled. “Fair enough. It was…unfair of me to say they all want to hurt you. As you’ve figured out, it’s not true. Some of them do miss you. Hell, they would probably welcome you back with open arms. But—”
“But what?” Luna demanded, standing to her feet. “You don’t think I should go? You think it’s dangerous to be loved? Or maybe you just don’t understand it because nobody loved you. You’d rather I stay here miserable to be with your sorry ass.”
Chance breathed out through his teeth and the corner of his lip hiked up in the beginning of a snarl. “I wasn’t about to say any of that.”
“But weren’t you though?”
“You’re hurt…I get it—”
Luna rolled her eyes and moved to storm off when Chance jumped up and reached across the table to grab her arm.
“Wait. Please,” he said.
“Why should I?” Luna demanded, trying without success to pull her arm free. “It’s all been a game…lies…something to pass the time, hasn’t it?”
“No, because some of it is the truth. There are people out there who will hurt you the first chance they get.”
Luna drew her eyebrows together. “I don’t understand. If it’s not the people I love doing this, then who?”
“Take a breath and try to hear me. By keeping you from everyone, I thought I was doing what was best. I wasn’t trying to hurt you, and I wasn’t trying to benefit myself. Having you here was the only way I knew without a shadow of a doubt that you’d be safe.”
“Who are they? Who are these people who want to hurt me?” Luna asked in a breathy whisper.
“There are lots of people who qualify for that. Keepers aren’t the only ones who protect this place, you know,” Chance said.
Luna tilted her head to the side. This was certainly the first time she had heard of it. Max, Amy, and even Chance himself had never hinted at anything else, and she wondered if there were others who fell into these categories. Was one of them what Amanda was now? “Who else protects it?”
“There are groups, cliques if you will. Executioners, Protectors, and Brainwashers,” Chance said and reached up to stifle a yawn. “Oh, sorry. I didn’t sleep well last night.”
Luna had the feeling he was deflecting, that the yawn was meant more as a distraction than a legitimate reaction. “Okay, Executioners I don’t need much explanation of, but you’ve got to be out of your mind if you think I’m going to sit here and not ask about the other two.”
Chance ruffled his hair and looked down at the table. “Pretty self-explanatory too.”
“Not exactly. Isn’t a Protector the same as a Keeper?”
Chance shrugged. “To an extent. They handle a lot of the same things as Keepers, but things not quite as serious. For example, when my dog got out” —his voice dripped derision, and she knew what he was thinking of, when Max had gotten away from him in the original dream cycle— “it was a Protector who sealed him back in DreamWorld again.”
Luna bobbed her head. That answered one of the many questions she had accumulated over the years at least. “And Brainwashers? I thought people couldn’t take away others’ freewill.”
Chance shrugged again. “They can’t to a degree, but I mean it all depends on how much power they have, and what they know to do with it. You won’t like to hear this, but I don’t think Max was much of a Keeper, he was more of a Brainwasher. I can even do it to a point, but it doesn’t always work.”
Luna licked her lips. “I really don’t know how much more of this stuff I can take.”
“Do you really have a choice?”
She didn’t, she knew that, but at this point in her life, it hardly seemed worth the time to know.
“I’ll keep it simple. People on both sides of this want to hurt you,” he said, fingers digging even tighter into her skin as if he feared another outburst. “Keepers and Cultists.”
Some of Luna’s steam went out when she saw the desperation in Chance’s eyes, felt it in his grip. There was a sparkle of emotion that she could almost identify…fear? “Okay. Keepers, I understand,” Luna mused, thinking of the way she had turned her back on the Voice and all of its followers. “But who are the Cultists?”
“You’ve met them,” Chance said, finally pulling his hand away, and eyed the ugly mark he left on her arm with a frustrated twitch of his lip.
Luna’s face crinkled in thought before her eyes grew wide. “Wait…you mean…Cody?”
Chance flinched at the mention of his name from her lips. He had thought she’d mention Reese, Amanda’s ex, but this was a brand-new angle. “Yes,” Chance said. “These people…they are the ones who helped me grow my gift. They…”
“Are evil?” Luna guessed.
Chance raised an eyebrow. “That obvious?”
“Anyone who calls themselves a ‘Cultist’ can’t be right in the head,” Luna murmured, and Chance laughed.
“I take offense to that,” he said, and Luna knew it was supposed to be a joke, but there were too many heavy emotions in his voice for it to come across lightly. “And I mean, it’s not like that’s what they call themselves. That’s more of my name for them. In their eyes, it’s a brotherhood, an Order. There’s respect and the like. Believe it or not.”
Luna narrowed her eyes. It wasn’t like him to be worried about anything. It didn’t sound right on him. “So, what?”
“They have been engaged in a war with the Keepers for a long time.”
That caused Luna to pause. “A…war? Like actual battle?”
Chance bobbed his head.
“Why is this the first time I’m hearing of this? What could they possibly have to fight about?”
Chance’s lip tucked between his teeth. “Think about it—Keepers make the rules and ensure they are followed, but do you really think I’m the only one who isn’t happy with that setup? Do you really think I’m the only one who wants more from this place?”
Luna felt herself pale as his words clicked with memories. “No.” She blinked. “And you’re one of them?”
“A Cultist?” Chance asked, and Luna bobbed her head, eyes plastered to his face. “I…used to be. Cody took me under his wing at some point, but…I went rogue.”
Luna tilted her head to the side. “If you believe the same things they do, why wouldn’t you listen to them?”
“Because I wanted you,” he said, looking her dead in the eyes. “I found out about your ability, and yes, I wanted it, but I also wanted to keep you from them.”
Luna’s eyes squinted into a narrow line. “Why?”
“If you think what I did to you for your gift was bad, imagine what a group of men who have desecrated graves, dismembered bodies, and killed people for fun would’ve done to you.”
Luna shivered. She could imagine all too well. “You’re saying you saved me?”
“In a way,” Chance said, lifting his chin. “In a way.”
“I’ve talked to the Voice before,” Luna admitted.
“The…Voice?” Chance asked, tilting his head to the side. “What Voice? The One who talks to the Keepers?”
Luna’s eyes stretched wide. “You know about that?”
Chance bobbed his head. “Let’s just say I have some inside information.” Luna’s lip twitched, but Chance continued. “Do you know what that Voice is?”
Automatically, Luna’s spine straightened. “No, not really.”
“It’s a Greek God.”
Luna blinked once, twice, three times, but the info
rmation still refused to process. “What?”
“Morpheus is the God of dreams. This world is his creation. The Keepers are his chosen people. There are many people he’s chosen, but each of them has a role in a way. The Keepers though are his favorites.”
“But…you’re a Satanist,” Luna said, trying to make sense of the information. “Do all Cultists—”
“Worship Satan?” he asked, eyebrows raised. “It’s tricky because Epiales is where their power comes from, and I didn’t want their power. I wanted stronger power, better power, so I tried to go to a different God, but…well, I hate to admit when I’m wrong.”
Luna gaped at him. “If Morpheus is the one responsible for everyone’s powers, why would you ever go against him?”
“Because he doesn’t give everyone their powers, just the people he thinks he can use.”
Luna blinked. “So why did he give me mine? He’s never tried to use me for anything.”
“Nonsense,” Chance said, thrumming his fingers on the table. “He used you to beat me. Do you really think you would’ve done that without your gift?”
Luna cut her eyes at him. “If I didn’t have the powers, I wouldn’t have been in the situation to begin with though, right?”
Chance scoffed. “Let’s not get into that.”
“Fine. Why are they even feuding? Morpheus and Epiales?” Luna asked, wrinkling her nose. She had never even heard of Morpheus, let alone believe he could be real.
Chance bobbed his head. “The veil is thinner here, the one between the land of the dead and the land of the living. They overlap here, Morpheus and Epiales, because this place is the easiest for beings who aren’t meant to contact the living to do exactly that. Dead people and evil spirits. Demons. They all come through this Realm at some point. To Morpheus, it’s an invasion, but to Epiales? It’s freedom.”
Luna’s eyes narrowed in understanding.
Chance simply shook his head and smirked in an I-told-you-so way. “Why do you think I didn’t want to tell you the truth? It’s insane. Even to me, and I’ve known this for years.”