“I know. And thanks for the reminder about the timer, actually.” I move Bandit onto the ground before standing. Then I walk a few steps away and perform the spell that restarts the golden numbers counting down from fifteen hours. I’ve only done it once before, so it takes a few attempts for me to get it right, but fortunately, Aurora doesn’t comment on this.
“And yes, I did read some of those pages,” she says as I return to her side. “Do you think that’s where they did this to Dash?”
“Yes, maybe. I was starting to doubt it, since that report spoke mainly about experimenting on Griffin Abilities and Dash doesn’t have one. But someone said he might be there, and then he turns up acting like he’s under the influence of some weird zombie robot enchantment. It seems like too much of a coincidence, right? That must be where this happened to him.”
Aurora nods. “Definitely seems possible.”
“And if Dash came from Reinhold, then Violet and Ryn obviously came from there too. And since they didn’t catch us, that’s where they’d return to, right?”
Aurora lifts her shoulders in a hesitant shrug. “I don’t know, Em. We can’t assume that.”
“Where else would they go?”
“Well, there are many Guilds throughout the world, and any one of them could be imprisoning Griffin Gifted within their walls and carrying out experiments on them. This—” she gestures at Dash “—could have happened anywhere. Your friends—your parents—could be anywhere.”
I look at Dash again, and my voice is quiet when I say, “I hope you’re wrong, because I’m tired of not knowing where they are. But I also kinda hope you’re right, because Reinhold seems like one seriously awful place to be locked up.” I stick my hand into the backpack again and fish around for the Reinhold scroll. Eventually, when my fingers can’t locate it, I peer inside. A chill settles over me when I realize it isn’t there. “Aurora,” I say carefully, “what did you do with the Reinhold papers after you read them?”
Without saying anything, she lifts the bottom of her T-shirt, revealing a wad of roughly folded papers flattened against her stomach. “I didn’t leave them behind for your brainwashed Griffin rebel friends to find, if that’s what you’re asking.”
I breathe out and take the papers from her. “Thank goodness. It would not be good if the Reinhold researchers knew to expect us.” I unfold the pages and place them on the ground in front of us. “Okay, did it say anywhere in here where this place actually is?”
“I think I saw a town name somewhere.” Aurora shuffles through the pages. “It was on the first page, where they were talking about designing and building the place. It said something about how they planned to keep their work hidden from the locals, and they mentioned a town there. Yes, here it is.” She lifts one of the pages. “Hellirstad.”
“Do you know where that is?”
She lowers the page. “Normally I’d give you some snarky comment about how I have better things to do than memorize the locations of small random towns. But Hellirstad is, like, the only town in the whole of Soriss. So yeah, I’ve heard of it.”
“Soriss?” I ask. “Should I know what that is?”
“It’s the southernmost continent of our world. It’s completely covered in ice, so even with magic, it isn’t the most pleasant place to live.”
“So, like, Antarctica?”
“Uh, I think so? My knowledge of the human world is sketchy at best.”
“Okay. Great.” I gather the papers together and roll them up. “We’re going to Hellirstad.”
“You must be killed,” Dash intones.
I roll my eyes. “Yeah. Thanks. I heard you the first few times.”
“You really want to go to this place?” Aurora asks.
“Yes. I’m tired of running. I’m tired of waiting. I’m tired of being useless. I want to go to Reinhold Research Station and get everyone back.” I clench both hands around the scroll, crumpling the pages further. “You don’t know what it’s like, day after day, knowing that your family is being tortured somewhere and not being able to do a thing about it. Now that we finally know something, I want to act on it.”
Aurora nods slowly as she looks at Dash. “I understand. I still think it’s extremely dangerous. And … well … Violet and Ryn didn’t seem to be tortured in any way while they were marching toward us, so that’s a good thing.”
“True, but we don’t know what will happen to them when they get back to Reinhold.”
“If that’s where they’re being held,” Aurora reminds me.
“So what do you want to do?” I snap. “More nothing?”
“Not nothing!” she exclaims. “But, Em, what if you’re wrong? What if they’re not there? What if you and I end up trapped inside this research station?”
I pull my head back, narrowing my eyes at her, remembering that she’s the reason we were almost caught earlier, and what if … just maybe … it wasn’t an accident? “Are you trying to stop me from rescuing the rebels for some reason?”
She gives me an are-you-stupid look. “Not for some reason. The reason is that I kinda like being alive, and I don’t particularly want that to end. I figured you’d feel the same way.” Her brow creases further. “What other reason might there be?”
I shut my eyes, feeling terrible for having suspected her, if only for a moment. My brief suspicion didn’t even make sense. If she did want me to be caught, it would be by her own people, not by the Guild. I press my hand against my brow. “Sorry, I …” I have difficulty trusting people after everything that’s happened recently. That’s what I would say if I finished that sentence. Instead, I lower my hand and open my eyes. “We don’t have to get caught or lose our lives. I’ll wait for my Griffin Ability to recharge, and then I just need to tell the researchers to set all the Griffin rebels free and not to come after any of them as they walk out. Or something like that. I’ll refine the words before I say them, obviously.”
“And if you can’t remove the magic that’s turned them all into—this?” Aurora gestures at Dash. “I’m just saying we need to be sensible, Em. At the very least, we need to know your people are definitely there before we go charging in. And we should probably wait for Calla. We shouldn’t do something this big on our own. Especially since I have, like, zero experience in the rescue operation department.”
I sigh. “And the only experience I have is one failed attempt.”
“You must be killed.”
“Shut up!” Aurora and I shout at the same time. “Jeez,” she adds. She looks me. “Don’t you have something in that backpack of a zillion wonders that we can shove in his mouth to keep him quiet?”
“I’m sure I can find something.” I dig inside the backpack for the third time, searching for a small article of clothing. I look up after retrieving a sock and find Aurora leaning over Dash, peering closely at his face. “Uh, what are you doing?”
“Just wondering what’s going on behind those creepy eyes. Maybe he’s fully aware of everything we’re saying, but he can’t say anything back to us except what he’s been instructed to say. Or maybe he’s asleep. Or at least … not aware.”
“I don’t know, but can you please lengthen this so I fit it around his head?” I hand her the sock. “I’m sure you can do it faster than I can.”
She takes the sock, barely concentrating on the lengthening spell as she continues speaking. “If he’s not aware of us, then I wonder if he’s dreaming.” She passes the extra-long sock back to me. “Dreaming would be good.”
“It would?” I ask as I lean over Dash.
“Yes. Communication is possible through dreams.”
I sit back, the sock still in my hands. “Really?”
“Yes. I’ve performed the spell a few times. One of my ladies-in-waiting wanted to get inside the dreams of a guy she liked. You know, to try to influence him in the right direction.”
“But … okay.” I decide not to point out everything that’s wrong with that story. “Is that some kind of weird
Unseelie magic? Like, do I have sacrifice something or draw magic from another person?”
“I don’t think there are any laws against it, aside from the laws of social etiquette, which obviously say it’s rude to invade someone’s dreams without their permission.” She pauses, her frown deepening. “Yeah, okay, it’s probably against the Guild’s laws too, seeing as how it’s subconscious influence, and the actual spell can be dangerous if not administered properly. But it doesn’t seem like a super serious law.” She gives me a knowing smile. “I’m sure Dash wouldn’t mind if you invaded his dreams.”
“This is serious, Rora.”
“Right. I know. Sorry. So … do you want to try it? If he is actually dreaming and you’re able to talk to him, you can ask him if the other rebels are definitely at Reinhold.”
“That’s definitely a more sensible option than rushing off without knowing if they’re actually there. Calla might even approve of that option if she were here.” I bite my lip. “It still sounds weird, though. Potentially being inside someone’s dream.”
Aurora shrugs. “You don’t have to do it. You can always wait another few hours and see if your Griffin Ability works.”
I heave a resigned sigh. “I think I’ve already told you how I feel about waiting.”
“You’re tired of it?”
“Exactly.”
“Okay then. Time to put you to sleep.”
Nineteen
Thanks to the magic-laced lullaby Aurora sings, I fall asleep in less than a minute. It’s a different kind of sleep. Sleep filled with an awareness I’ve never experienced before. I walk across a shadowed landscape of continually changing scenery—roads, corridors, forests—feeling very much awake while also being certain that I’m dreaming. It’s fascinating, this dream world. I want to explore it. I reach with one hand toward the tree I’m about to walk past, wondering if bark feels the same in a dream as it does in real life. Beneath my palm, I sense the same rough texture as I drag my hand slowly across the tree trunk.
But all of a sudden, as if the change happened so fast I didn’t even see it, I’m standing in a living room near a floor-to-ceiling window. For some reason, the view beyond the window is hazy, but I can make out enough bright lights to know that there’s a city full of high-rise buildings out there.
I turn slowly, noticing that the edges of the room are also unclear. The pictures on the walls are blurred, and the staircase melts into a dark brown smudge about halfway up. But I can only seem to look at these things from the edges of my vision, so perhaps they’re not really blurry. Perhaps it’s just that something is keeping me from seeing properly. “Weird,” I murmur.
I keep turning—and my heart almost leaps from my chest when I see the creature in the center of the living room. Draped partially across the coffee table amid upturned furniture is a giant serpent. Its head hangs over one side of the coffee table, eyes glazed over and mouth open just enough to reveal impossibly large fangs. On the floor nearby lie the bodies of a boy in his teens and a man. And beside them, another boy, kneeling on the floor, his hands over his face and his body shuddering as he cries.
The green in his hair reminds me abruptly that I’m here for a reason. Somehow, I’d completely forgotten. “Dash?” I ask quietly.
He freezes. Slowly, he lowers his hands and looks around at me. I can’t tell how old he is—younger than present-day Dash—but it’s definitely him. He stands, and in less than a blink, he becomes the Dash I know now. “Em?” he asks. “How … how are you here? You’re not part of my nightmare.”
It’s him. It’s really him. The living room melts away as I race across it and throw my arms around him. But I almost fall forward as I end up hugging air. I look again and realize he’s just a little further away. I move forward as he opens his arms to me, but still I can’t seem to hug him. My arms move through him—or rather, past him.
“Em?”
“What’s going on?” I ask, surprised by how desperately I long to feel his arms around me. “Why can’t I touch you?”
“I don’t know. Maybe because it’s a dream. A nightmare.”
“You know you’re dreaming?”
Trees race past us, then melt away to reveal an empty room. “Yes. I feel like I’ve been dreaming forever. But why—how are you here?”
“It’s a spell Aurora did. You … you’re not exactly yourself at the moment. I mean, out there in the waking world. We got you away from whoever it is that did this to you, but they’re controlling your actions somehow. You keep saying the same thing over and over. Aurora said I’d be able to communicate with you properly if you were dreaming. Which you obviously are.”
“What is this spell? I’ve never heard of it.”
“Probably because it’s not the kind of thing the Guild would approve of. Wandering into people’s dreams without their permission, and all that.”
He nods, then blinks and shakes his head. “That isn’t important. You’re here. You’re here, Emmy. And you’re okay.” He pauses. “Are you okay? It’s hard to remember what happened before this. There were pods, and we were flying, and then a prison cell, and a funnel hanging above me …” He squints at the ground. “It’s a lethal dose. You’re going to die, Dash.”
A shiver chills my skin. “Dash, you’re not dying. None of this is real.”
“Wouldn’t want to kill you all at once …”
“What are you talking about?”
“I don’t know. I can’t remember anything clearly. It’s like a dream I can’t properly recall.”
“Dash,” I say carefully. “This is the dream.”
“No,” he whispers, still looking at the ground. “This is the nightmare. This is the torture prison.”
The chill sinks further, right into my bones. “W-What?”
I realize that the room we’re in is no longer empty. It isn’t small either. Without me noticing, it grew into an enormous gym. Behind Dash, I see various types of exercise equipment, a climbing wall, ropes hanging from the ceiling, and other unfamiliar items I don’t know the purpose of.
The floor between Dash and me expands rapidly, pulling him to the other side of the room in seconds. I start running toward him, watching as a woman walks up to him. I slow down as I near the two of them. “They didn’t make it,” I hear her say. “The poison spread too quickly. They’re both dead.”
Dash’s body seems to crumple in on itself. He drops onto his knees. “They’re … dead?” he repeats.
“They’re dead.” The woman steps away from him, walking backward as she repeats her words, louder and louder. The words become a screaming echo, tripping and tumbling over themselves as they claw their way into my ears.
They’re dead … dead … ed … ed …
… dead … they’re dead … they’re …
… dead … ed … ed …
I press my hands over my ears as the screams become unbearably loud. Dash is standing right in front of me again, though I’m pretty sure he didn’t move. His eyes are red, his face twisted in pain. He reaches for my hand, but his arm sweeps past me instead.
The echoes of the scream vanish, so I lower my hands. “What the hell was that about?”
He clears his throat before speaking. “Don’t you understand what this is yet? I’m caged inside my own mind. These are my memories … the worst experiences of my life. I’m forced to relive them over and over. Warped, twisted versions, even worse than the first time around. I tell myself none of this is real, but it makes no difference. It hurts every time. It hurts all the time.”
“So this … this is what the torture at The Noxsom Facility is all about? They lock you inside your mind and torture you with your own painful memories?”
“Yes.”
“Which means the others are still going through this torture as well,” I say quietly, something twisting painfully inside me. “Vi and Ryn, and the other rebels who were caught.”
“Yes.” Dash looks at me more intently then. “Violet and Ryn …”
he murmurs. “Your parents.” He smiles, and if it wasn’t for the dark skin beneath his red-rimmed eyes, he would look almost like his normal, happy self. “Your parents. I remember now. That’s what you shouted out. And it made so much sense then, after everything Zed explained about you being a changeling. And yet absolutely crazy at the same time. Crazy that you found your way to your family without even realizing it. Damn, I wish I could hug you right now. I’m so happy for you. I’m so …” He makes a half-hearted attempt at a laugh. “Look at that. I’m still inside my nightmare, and I’m actually feeling happiness instead of heartache.”
Tears prick my lower eyelids. I blink them away. “Dash, do you know where you were when they did this to you? This nightmare spell, and the other magic that’s controlling you. If you remember where it is, then I can stop whatever spell this is. You can be happy all the time again, and you can hug me as much as you want.”
He raises one eyebrow. “Careful. I’m gonna hold you to that.”
“I know. I don’t care. I want you to hug me all the time.” His eyebrows jump a little higher, and I race quickly past that admission before he can comment on it. “Just tell me: was it Reinhold? Reinhold Research Station?”
“That sounds familiar,” he says with a frown. “I think I heard someone say Reinhold.”
“You have to be sure, Dash. I can’t risk breaking into another high-security facility unless I know it’s definitely the right place.”
“It’s just … everything from the real world seems so fuzzy. So disjointed. I know I’ve heard someone talking about Reinhold, and about using the powers of certain Griffin Gifted fae, and something about a woman named Shyla … but what if it was a conversation I overheard before I was captured? What if it has nothing to do with me?”
“Shyla,” I repeat. “Yes. Her name was in the report. Her Griffin Ability was used at The Noxsom Facility. She can—yes, okay, it makes sense now. They called her Griffin Ability a mental prison. Which is obviously where we are right now. But how is that related to the way you’re being controlled now?”
Rebel Faerie Page 20