I grabbed the arms of my chair to keep from falling out of it. My eyes darted between the two women as I prayed one of them would smile and admit this was some cruel joke. They looked back at me with matching serious expressions.
I cleared my throat. “Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”
Lady Elaine said, “From this day forward and until such time as circumstances change, you will only be permitted to dream-feed with Eli.”
I shot to my feet. “No way. I can’t! My magic doesn’t work on him. What if he wakes up again and his dad shoots me? What if he—”
“Sit down.” Lady Elaine whacked the desk with the palm of her hand.
I sat.
As if it was scolding, the keyboard made a couple more Stooges sound effects.
Lady Elaine gave the keyboard a shove, an annoyed look on her face. “Your fears are understandable, but unnecessary. Eli has been made aware of the situation and is being enrolled as a student here as we speak.”
My jaw dropped onto my chest, and I glanced at Hendershaw. “You’ve got to be kidding.”
The principal smirked, folding her arms. “Not at all, my dear.”
“Somebody kill me now,” I muttered, leaning back in the chair and placing a hand over my eyes.
Lady Elaine’s voice was harsh as she said, “You shouldn’t make such jokes, not after what you witnessed last night.”
I swallowed and let my hand fall into my lap as I looked back at her. “I’m sorry.”
She let out a humph.
“But how does this work, exactly? I mean, Eli’s an ordinary.”
“We have protocols for dealing with a situation such as this one, even though it’s extremely rare,” Lady Elaine said. “Eli’s father has been informed of the existence of magickind, and his name has been added to The Will registry to ensure he will be unable to tell any other ordinaries the truth about his son.”
“Not that he would try in the first place,” Hendershaw added.
“Oh,” I said, thinking about my dad. Things had been much the same for him when he hooked up with Mom.
Lady Elaine tapped the desktop with her index finger. “I cannot stress enough how important it is that you take this seriously. You must dedicate yourself to developing your dream-seer abilities.”
I shifted in my seat. “But why? I mean … it doesn’t seem all that useful.”
Lady Elaine ignored my question and addressed Hendershaw. “Would you mind giving us a couple of minutes?”
The principal frowned, but she left the room without argument.
As soon as we were alone, Lady Elaine said, “You were able to see what happened last night while I was not. For some reason, you and Eli are more attuned to unfolding events.”
I shook my head. “By the time I saw the dream, Rosemary must’ve already been dead. If I’d seen it a week ago, maybe I could’ve saved her, but it’s just torture when it’s too late to stop it.”
“Ah, but last night was the first time you ever dream-walked with Eli. If you had been visiting his dreams regularly you most likely would’ve seen it far enough in advance to prevent it.”
All the air in my lungs evaporated. Talk about laying a load of guilt on a person. Tears stung my eyes.
Something of my horror must’ve shown on my face because Lady Elaine said, “Now, I don’t want you to feel responsible for what happened, because you most definitely are not. It’s not as if you have any choice when it comes to your dream-feeders. Missed opportunities are one of the drawbacks of The Will, I’m afraid.”
“Drawback? That’s putting it mildly.” Rosemary had died, and I might’ve been able to stop it.
Lady Elaine pursed her lips. “Moving forward, I’m sure your gifts will prove more useful. With practice, it’s even possible you’ll be able to revisit Elijah’s dreams from before the attack and identify Rosemary’s killer.”
Her little speech about not feeling guilty didn’t help much, but I nodded, pretending it did. At least I might have an opportunity to make some kind of amends. It was better than nothing.
Lady Elaine flashed a yellow-toothed smile at me then reached into her big pink purse and withdrew something slim and rectangular. She handed it to me, and I realized it was an eTab, the magickind version of a tablet computer.
“What’s this for?” I said, turning it over in my hands. The advertisements for this sucker said it was animation resistant. I’d wanted one for a while now, but they were pretty expensive.
“It’s an eTab.”
“No kidding.”
Lady Elaine yanked the zipper on her purse closed a little harder than was necessary. “You will use this device to record the content of Eli’s dreams. Every dream. As soon as you have completed a dream-walk, you will fill out an entry in the dream journal application already installed. You must do it as soon as possible so you don’t forget anything important. I expect something so small should be easy to carry with you at all times.”
She was right about that. The thing was so light it felt like nothing at all. I ran my fingers over the touch screen, admiring the smooth, shiny surface. Surrounding the screen were thin, barely discernible engravings, rune marks designed to dampen the animation effect.
“Your entries should be as specific as possible. Pay special attention to recurring images or patterns. All dreams are symbolic at their basic level, even the ones that predict the future.”
I forced my attention back on Lady Elaine, trying to make sense of what she’d said. Symbols, reoccurring images, or patterns. That didn’t sound very easy. “But what I saw about Rosemary was almost exactly what happened. How’s that symbolic?”
“Sometimes the closer to the event, the clearer the vision.”
I thought about it a moment. “You mean it sort of comes into focus? I guess that makes sense.”
“Indeed. Here is your username and password.” She handed me a slip of paper. “The device is connected to the school’s wireless system, but you will be expected to obey classroom rules about its usage. There is also an instant message application. Make sure you check it regularly. I may sometimes contact you in that manner.”
“Okay.” The wireless stuff was pretty cool, but I was still hung up on the bit about symbols.
“You’ll start your new dream-feeding schedule on Wednesday.”
“Right. But is there anything specific I should look for? I mean, aside from the obvious. What about the ring you asked me about?”
Lady Elaine hesitated. “No. There’s nothing … specific.”
I could tell she was lying. “Okay. Then what’s a Keeper and why do you think Rosemary was one?”
She stared at me, at first thunderstruck then angry. “Where did you hear about Keepers?”
I gulped, but it was too late to worry about the consequences. “I heard you and Mr. Marrow talking.”
“You should be careful about eavesdropping. You’re liable to hear more than you want to.”
I wasn’t about to argue with her on that one, but I couldn’t just unremember what I’d heard. Besides, this was a life-and-death matter, in a very literal sense. “So what’s a Keeper?”
To my surprise, the old oracle smiled, the gesture something other than condescending. It looked almost like affection. “You’re certainly Moira’s daughter. But no, I’m not going to tell you what the Keepers are or what they’re guarding.”
She paused, and I knew she’d intentionally let slip the guarding reference. It was a clue.
She continued. “It’s a forbidden subject. I can’t tell you anything more.”
“Who forbids it?”
“The senate, of course.” Lady Elaine stood. “Well then. I think we’re finished here. Oh, I almost forgot. I would like you to attend some additional lessons in dream-walking with Ms. Grey. She’ll be able to teach you how to extend your abilities and to recognize potential signs.”
Great. I’d taken a couple lessons with Ms. Grey, or Bethany as she preferred to be called, befo
re, and she was about as much fun as a Marine drill sergeant the first day of boot camp. She hated my mother, too, a fact she loved to go on about whenever the mood struck her. Which was pretty much all the time.
“You’ll meet her tomorrow after classes in room three-fourteen of Jupiter Hall,” said Lady Elaine.
I repeated the room number, committing it to memory.
“Do you have any questions?”
I hesitated. “Why didn’t my magic work on Eli?”
Lady Elaine looked relieved, as if she’d been expecting something else. “You and Eli are a dream-seer pair. As I said before, that is one of the indicators. Dream-seers are fated to work together as if they are one person, like magnets of opposite charge. It’s a bond almost impossible to break. You can’t use any magic on him that you can’t use on yourself.”
Awesome. More good news. “So are all dream-seer pairs between a Nightmare and an ordinary?”
“No. The dreamer is usually magickind. The fact that Eli is an ordinary might have something to do with your heritage, although no one can say for sure.”
“Oh.”
Lady Elaine picked up her giant purse and slung it over her shoulder. “Any more questions?”
Just one, but I was almost too afraid to ask. “The way the senate is going on about this and the business with the Keepers and ring, I sorta get the feeling you’re expecting more bad stuff to happen.”
Lady Elaine nodded, a grim look in her eyes. “What happened to Rosemary Vanholt is only the beginning.”
4
Daytime Nightmare
“Cheer up, Dusty. It won’t be so bad.”
I stifled a yawn as I glanced at Selene sitting across the table. Around us the cafeteria was in full breakfast-time swing, the noise level at a dull roar from so many voices and clanging dishes. I’d been up all night worrying about everything—the dream-seer stuff, facing Eli again, and worst of all, the fear of failure. It was a hard thing to live with, knowing that if I didn’t discover the killer’s identity, someone else might die.
“You should be excited,” Selene continued, doing her best to lighten my spirits. “Just think of all the cool things you’ll be able to do with that much extra magic.”
I rolled my eyes. “That’s half the problem. I have a hard enough time handling what I do have. Anything more and I’ll probably blow myself up.”
“You don’t give yourself enough credit. For as little time as you’ve had to learn, you’re doing great.”
“Yeah, sure. Tell that to your hair, why don’t you.”
“Don’t even try that.” Selene reached behind her head and slid her long black braid over her shoulder. She picked up the end and examined it. “See. You can’t even tell it was ever singed.”
I tapped my fork on my plate. “That’s because you’re a siren, and your magic corrects imperfections quickly.”
Selene frowned. I had her there. At the end of gym class last Thursday, the tip of her braid looked like the top of a burnt candlewick. I hadn’t meant to set her hair on fire, but we’d been studying combative magic that day. Well, we studied it most days. Sure, we did the usual stuff like sit-ups and dodgeball, but our classes more often resembled paintball games or laser tag, only with spells instead of toy guns. Before The Will, people learned combative magic to survive, given all the magickind-on-magickind violence. Now we learned it for sport.
Selene tossed her braid back behind her shoulder. “Accidents happen. Besides, that capture the flag game was intense. I saw loads of people come out of it beat up.”
“Sure. Only how many of them were injured by their own teammates?”
Selene shrugged as if this didn’t matter. Then a grin spread across her face. Even without makeup she was stunningly beautiful. “It’s not always so bad when your magic goes awry. I think we can count the Katarina snake incident as a total win.”
I couldn’t help it. I grinned, too.
“See, your day’s getting brighter already,” said Selene.
“Yep. Somebody get me some shades.” I shoved a forkful of eggs into my mouth, still nervous but trying to put a good face on it for my friend’s sake.
Selene took a dainty sip of her hot chocolate, the action so at odds with her tough-girl, tomboy appearance. She sported the combat-boot-and-army-pants ensemble today. She looked tired and her violet eyes were thoughtful. It seemed she was now falling victim to her own bad mood. I knew she hadn’t slept well, either. Some of it was no doubt my restlessness in the bed opposite hers, but I suspected most of it had to do with Rosemary. Selene used to hang with the same “in” crowd as the consul’s daughter before she launched her sirens-are-more-than-sex-objects social protest. I didn’t think they’d been close friends or anything, but friendly enough.
“You know,” whispered Selene, “you should ask Melanie about Rosemary’s ring.”
“Who?”
“Melanie Remillard. She and Rose were best friends.” Selene dropped her voice even lower. “I bet if Rose told anybody about this Keeper business, it was her.”
“Sure, okay. Do you see her anywhere?” I scanned the crowd, which was kind of pointless since I had no idea what Melanie looked like, and she was most likely an upperclassman and wouldn’t be eating in this cafeteria in the first place.
“She hasn’t been in school since it happened.”
“Oh,” I said, unsurprised. If someone killed my best friend, I’d probably go into social hibernation as well. I’d be devastated to lose Selene.
“But how did they do it?” Selene rapped her knuckles on the table. “How’d they get around The Will?”
I prodded an apple slice on my plate with the tines of my fork. “Maybe it’s not as hard as they say.”
“I dunno. I’ve tried before and never had any luck. Only, hasn’t your Mom done it?”
“All the time,” I said. This, more than any other reason, was why my mother had such a bad reputation. She made a regular—and miraculous—habit of breaking The Will.
“Any idea how she does it?” asked Selene.
I opened my mouth to respond but the cafeteria suddenly went silent. I peered around, wondering what had gotten into everybody. Didn’t take long to figure out.
Eli stood just inside the main entrance, surveying the crowd. He looked as hot as ever with his short black hair and eyes so bright a blue you could almost see the color from a distance. His dark gray T-shirt with some band logo on the front fit snug across his chest, and his frayed jeans hung low on his hips. Things would’ve been a lot less uncomfortable if I didn’t find him quite so appealing. Stupid male magnetism.
He wore his usual tough-guy expression, but I detected shock and a little fear in the rigid way he stood there. I sympathized. The students had reacted with the same judgmental silence when I made my first appearance. I was sure it didn’t help that Eli was so new to the whole concept of magickind. The faces staring back at him weren’t all that weird, not with Arkwell’s ninety percent Humanoid Resemblance Requirement for admission, but plenty were weird enough.
That remaining ten percent could be a doozy if the kids weren’t wearing their glamour charms that day: some had pointed ears or oddly colored skin, even horns and tails. Selene and the other sirens had wings. Not that I’d ever seen them. Sirens were like birds in that way; their wings were visible only when they were using them. But The Will prevented people from flying, which meant sirens rarely had a reason to unfurl them.
Still, Eli was the true weirdo here. He was one hundred percent ordinary. Talk about being a disadvantaged student.
Eli gazed at me, his eyes narrowing into something like a glare. A spark of fear went through me, and my nerve endings tingled. I wanted to look away, but couldn’t. Silly as it sounded, we were connected now. For better or for worse.
It was definitely going to be worse.
For one terrible, nauseating moment I thought he was going to come over to me right then and give me a telling-off for getting him involved in this mess,
but he marched down the main aisle through the row of tables until he reached the one farthest from the cafeteria monitor’s station. Not just any table, of course, but the table. The popular kids’ table. Mr. Popularity himself, Lance Rathbone, immediately started introducing him to the other cool kids. Lance was a wizard whose father was a big-shot senator.
Eli’s easy acceptance surprised me. The amount of magic a person could wield—at least in theory—mattered a lot when it came to the social ladder around here, and Eli had none. Katarina bestowed one of her dazzling smiles on Eli and gestured for him to sit beside her. Eli’s eyes widened, and he practically fell into the chair. Apparently, I’d underestimated the importance of good looks even among magickind.
“Geez,” I said, looking back at Selene. “Is being at the top of the social food chain like a universal birthright or something?”
She grimaced. “I think there’s a national registry. It’s online at eat-crap-dot-com.”
I forced another smile.
“So I guess he was popular at your old school?”
“Um, yeah, you could say that.” Back at Chickery High, I’d been fairly popular, too. I didn’t inhabit the inner circles Eli did, but I had plenty of friends, most of them my teammates from soccer.
“Well, he is pretty cute,” Selene said, looking him up and down. “Not that I care one bit about that. Looks shouldn’t matter when it comes to judging a person.”
I snorted. “Yeah, right.”
She grinned. “So you think he’s hot, too.”
I shrugged, feeling suddenly warmer than before.
“He must be Lance’s new roommate.”
“Looks like it.” I glanced over my shoulder. It was weird to see Eli looking nervous. He was usually so cool, almost to the point of being aloof, but right now he appeared on the verge of bolting for the door. No wonder he’d glared at me. Two days ago he’d been a normal high school boy in a normal human world. Now he wasn’t.
And it was my fault.
The Nightmare Affair Page 4