“You believe insult to another justifies revenge?” asked Jerome. Oh, that voice. That voice made the air grow still.
“Yes,” said the Oneroi as one.
“Me too,” replied Jerome.
He didn’t even move, but I felt the power flare out from him, like a torch thrown into dry tinder. It exploded—and so did the Oneroi. Well, it was more like they imploded. That power hit them, and then—they were no more. Just like that.
“Oh, Jerome,” said the man holding me. “Do you know what you’ve done?”
Jerome glanced back at us and shrugged. “I don’t like people taking my things.”
The swirling purple gate had never left, and now it began to grow brighter and rotate faster.
“Shit,” said Jerome. “I was hoping no one would notice.”
The man holding me sighed. He looked down at me, and silvery gray eyes pierced my soul. “Listen to me. Do not move. Do you understand? Stay right here.” When I didn’t answer, he sighed again. “Do you know me?”
Did I? Yes. The eyes. I knew the eyes. “Carter.” The word came out strangely on my tongue.
“Yes,” he said. “You know me. Trust me. Do not move.”
He let go of me, waited to see what I’d do, and then walked up to join Jerome when I stayed in place. Nothing could have made me move anyway, not when I saw what came through the gate.
It was monstrous. Literally. Yellow-eyed and scaly, mottled purple and gray. It had what looked like a pig’s snout, and seven horns ran over its head like points on a crown. It towered over Jerome and Carter as it emerged from the gate, but the two of them stood where they were, regarding it defiantly.
“You destroyed my subjects,” the creature growled. Its voice came from deep within its throat and made the floor vibrate. “You broke the laws.”
“Your subjects were in our realm,” said Jerome. He was perfectly calm. “They stole one of my people and abused her. They broke the rules.”
“That doesn’t give you the right to do what you did,” came the response.
“They would have destroyed her if they were capable of it. Next time, keep a better watch on your employees so that they don’t go causing trouble where they shouldn’t.”
The monster’s nostrils flared. “I could destroy you for this.”
“Try,” said Jerome. “Try taking on both of us.”
Those yellow eyes flicked over to Carter. A few teeth showed in the creature’s mouth. I think he was smiling. “An angel and a demon fighting together. It would almost be worth seeing.”
Heavy silence fell as everyone sized each other up. I had no sense of the monster’s strength. Physical size was not proportional to power. Jerome and Carter, however, were burning like small suns, ready to burst at any moment.
At last, the monster shrugged. Or did his equivalent of it. “But it’s been enough just to see you defend each other’s honor. I will not destroy you…today. There will be no more assaults on my people. If there are, I won’t be so forgiving.”
“And if your people don’t leave mine alone,” said Jerome smoothly, “I won’t be as forgiving either.”
The creature snarled, and for a moment, I thought he might very well change his mind. He didn’t. Instead, he stepped backward toward the purple light. He merged into it, vanishing to our eyes, and then the gate itself disappeared as well.
“He is such a fucking liar,” said Jerome. “‘Forgiving’ indeed. He knew we’d blast his scaly ass out of here.”
“Yeah, well, I hope we never find if that’s true or not,” said Carter. “Fighting a Morphean demon would generate paperwork even on my side.”
Jerome’s lips twitched into a smile. “Now that would be worth seeing.”
I looked between both of them, my fear from the near-confrontation fading. With the last of my energy, I lunged for Jerome, beating my fists against his chest. He caught them and stopped me as easily as Carter had.
“You should have let me do it! You should have let me destroy them! It was my right!”
“That’s what you’re pissed off about? Georgie, I’m not even sure how you’re still standing.”
“It was my right,” I repeated. “You don’t know what they did.”
“I can make some good guesses.”
I stopped in my struggles, and at last, the full force of everything that had happened descended on me. My being’s full depletion hit me. I sagged in his arms, and he caught me. The sights and people around me were still a little muddled, but lots of things were starting to come back.
“You were supposed to keep me safe,” I said in a small voice. I felt my eyes grow wet. “You shouldn’t have let that happen—let them take me. You’re supposed to protect me.”
Jerome looked truly surprised and didn’t respond to me immediately. I was afraid he’d get angry, but instead, he said quietly, “Yes. I am. I did in the end, but—I was late.”
“Great apology,” said Carter.
Now Jerome’s anger returned. “I have nothing to apologize for!” He turned back to me, and again, his voice was calm and patient. Almost gentle. I knew this was uncharacteristic for him. “I brought you back. You’re safe now. They will never harm you again. Do you understand?”
I nodded.
“Good. Now it’s time to finish this.”
Jerome turned toward the humans. One of them was old, very old—with dark brown skin and graying hair. His eyes were compassionate. The other man was younger, with messy hair and brown eyes that turned honey-amber when the light caught them. He was staring at me like he knew me, which wasn’t a surprise because I knew him too. I didn’t know how, but I did. In fact, I was beginning to realize I knew everyone in this room. Other names were coming back to me. This one man’s name eluded me, though, largely because several kept popping into my head. He studied me intently, like he was trying to figure something out, and I found myself falling into those golden brown eyes.
Jerome said something to the gray-haired man in that other language. I still couldn’t understand it, but there was something familiar about its sounds. The old man didn’t answer or move right away, and palpable tension fell over the entire room. At last the old man took a wand he was holding and began touching points on the circle upon the floor, murmuring softly as he did. When he touched the circle a fourth time, it was as though a great pressure—one I hadn’t even known was there—was released from the room.
Jerome exchanged a few curt words with the man and then turned to me. “As I was saying, how you’re conscious is beyond me—but considering all the other absurd things you do, I shouldn’t be surprised.”
He stepped toward me and pressed his fingers to my forehead. I gasped as a jolt of…something…raced through me. At first, it was shocking and prickly. Then, it transformed into something sweeter and more wonderful. The most wonderful thing on earth. It filled me up, energizing me, making me whole. Until this moment, how could I have thought I was alive?
The world came into greater focus, the sights grew more familiar. I staggered, not from weakness this time, but from the pure bliss of life Jerome had gifted me with. He said something to me in that other language, and I frowned, not understanding.
He spoke again in my own words. “Change back, Georgina. Time to go.”
“Change to what?”
“Whatever you want. Your current favorite, I’d imagine. Not this.” His hand gestured toward my body.
I examined myself for the first time. I wasn’t quite as tall as him, a few inches shorter, maybe. My legs and arms were long and lean, my skin tanned from the sun. A plain ivory dress covered me, and I could see the tips of black hair falling onto my chest. I frowned. This was me…and yet not me.
“Change back, Georgina,” he repeated.
“That’s not my name,” I said.
“Shake off what they’ve done,” he said, clearly impatient. “It’s over. They’ve fogged your mind, but you can clear it. Change back, Georgina. Come back to this time.” His n
ext words were in that other language, and I shook my head angrily.
“I don’t understand. I shouldn’t be here. This is my body, but this isn’t my time.”
He gave another command that I still didn’t comprehend, and I uttered the same response. Three times we went through this, and then on the fourth, his words came through to me, perfectly understandable. I knew what he was speaking. The English language exploded in my mind, and with it, much more.
I held out my hands before me, staring long and hard as though seeing them for the first time. “This is my time,” I murmured in English. I looked down at my long legs. A strange sense of revulsion ran through me. “This is not my body.” Yet…it was. It was, and it wasn’t. With no energy, it was what I had reverted to.
“What’s your name?” he demanded.
Letha. My name is Letha.
“Georgina,” I said. And with that, I summoned the power to make my body’s shape change. Slim and short, with light brown hair, and golden green eyes. The off-white homespun shift became a blue cotton dress. A moment later, I changed it to jeans and a blue shirt.
Jerome glanced at Carter. “See? No harm done.”
Carter didn’t acknowledge that. Instead, he asked, “So now what?”
“Now?” Jerome’s gaze fell on me again. “Now Georgina sleeps.”
“What?” I cried. “No! Not after…no. I’m never sleeping again.”
Jerome almost smiled before touching my forehead again.
I slept.
Chapter 20
I woke up in my own bed and found Mei sitting beside it. Not even Nurse Ratched could have startled me that much.
Mei was flipping through a magazine and glanced up, appearing bored. “Oh. You’re awake. Finally.” She stood up.
“What…what happened?” I asked, blinking at the light pouring in through my window. I was kind of surprised she hadn’t shut the curtains. She didn’t really strike me as a fun-in-the-sun person.
“You don’t remember?” Her disinterested expression sharpened. “Jerome said it would all come back to you. If it hasn’t…”
I sat up, drawing my knees to my body. “No, no. I remember…I remember what happened at Erik’s. I remember…the Oneroi.” Saying the word made me shudder. “But what happened after that? How long have I been asleep?”
“Three days,” she said flatly.
“What?” I stared at her, my mouth agape. If Mei was the joking type, I would have expected the punch line now. “I don’t…I mean, it went so fast. And I didn’t dream.”
She crooked me a smile. “Seems like you’d want that. And heavy sleep heals you faster.” The smile changed to a grimace. “Not that waiting by your bedside for three days has really felt that fast. Jerome made me keep all your friends away. That was fun.”
“Did you just use sarcasm?”
“I’m leaving,” she said, back to her all business self. “I’ve done what Jerome asked.”
“Wait! What happened to Seth and Erik? Are they okay?”
“Fine,” she said. I waited for her to vanish, but it didn’t come. She peered at me curiously. “It shouldn’t have worked, you know.”
“What shouldn’t have?”
“That ritual. There is no way that human could have found you. Not among all those other souls.”
The Oneroi had said the same thing, and thinking back to the storm of color and disorder, I could understand their reasoning. “We…we love each other.” I wasn’t sure I had the right to those words, but they came out anyway.
Mei rolled her eyes. “That means nothing. Human love—no matter what all your songs and chick flicks tell you—isn’t enough. It shouldn’t have worked.”
I didn’t know what to say. “Well…I guess it did.”
“Jerome knew it would too,” she mused, a small frown wrinkling her brow. Her gaze hardened on me. “Did you? Do you know how it happened?”
“What?” I squeaked. “No! I don’t understand any of this.”
I expected her to deny this and question me further. Instead her frown only deepened, and I realized I was no longer of use in solving this dilemma to her. She vanished.
The instant she disappeared, Roman came bursting into my room. “She’s gone?” he asked. If he was nearby, he would have felt her signature go away.
“Have you been hanging out the whole time?” I asked.
He sat down in the chair she’d been in. “Jerome ordered her not to let anyone come near you.”
“You could have taken her,” I said, attempting a joke.
“Not without causing a whole lot of trouble.” He frowned, eyes troubled with thought. “Although, I would have revealed myself if I’d needed to if that…thing that came out of the gate had tried to take on Carter and Jerome.”
I shuddered at the memory. “I didn’t even know there were monsters like that in the—wait. How could you have helped them? Were you…were you in the circle?” I’d assumed he’d been watching from the sides.
“Of course.” He said no more, and the way he spoke implied that it had been a ridiculous question for me to ask in the first place.
“Are you crazy?” I exclaimed. “You weren’t just letting yourself get trapped. If you were discovered by Mei—even any of the dream creatures—you’d be fucked. They would have turned you in too.”
“There was no choice,” Roman said. “I had to be there, in case you needed me.”
“It was too big a risk,” I countered, my voice faltering this time. “If there’d been a fight, Jerome and Carter would have had no reason to defend you. And while that Morphean might have been afraid to hurt them, you would have been fair game.”
“I told you, it doesn’t matter. I had to be there for you.”
His eyes, those eyes that were so like the sea I’d grown up with, held such earnestness and affection that I had to look away. I couldn’t believe he’d risked what he had for me. Why? He had no reason to care about me after what I’d done to him, yet it was clear he still wanted me. The night I’d been captured seemed like a lifetime ago, but its events came back to me in perfect detail: his lips, his hands…
“I wish you wanted to kill me again,” I muttered. “It was easier.”
He rested his hand on mine, its warmth spreading through me. “Nothing about your life is ever easy.”
I looked back up at him. “That’s for damn sure. But I don’t know…I don’t know if I can do this…by which I mean, well, you know.”
“You don’t have to do anything,” he said. “We’ll just keep going on like we have. Roommates. We’ll see where things go. If they change, they change. If not…” He shrugged. “So it goes.”
“Did I mention that it was easier when you wanted to kill me? I’m not sure how I feel about you being so reasonable.”
“Yeah, well, maybe I just feel sorry for you right now after everything that happened. Maybe I’ll change my mind in a little while.” He squeezed my hand. “Was it…was it awful?”
I looked away again. “Yes. Beyond awful. It’s hard to explain. They showed me every nightmare I could have, every fear made flesh. Some of the things they showed me had already happened—and were almost as bad as the nightmares. I couldn’t tell what was reality anymore. They showed me you guys…but it wasn’t always real. I doubted everything: who I was, what I felt…” I swallowed back tears, glad I had averted my eyes.
“Hey,” he said softly, reaching out to tip my chin and make me look back at him. “It’s over. You’re safe. We’ll help you get better—I’ll help. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
Again, his feelings for me made me uncomfortable and confused. Was it a lingering effect of the Oneroi? No, I decided a moment later. This was the kind of situation that would confuse anyone. My heart was still tangled up in Seth, someone I knew I should let go, but who had found me against impossible odds. And here was Roman, someone I could be with a bit more easily—well, kind of—and who had risked his life for me. Could I move on with him? I di
dn’t know. But I could try.
I found his hand again and squeezed it. “Thank you.”
He leaned toward me, and I think we might have kissed, but the ringing of my cell phone jolted us out of any romantic spell. I pulled my hand from his and grabbed the phone from my side table.
“Hello?”
“Miss Kincaid,” came the kind, familiar voice. “It is a pleasure to speak with you again.”
“Erik! Oh, I’m so happy it’s you. I wanted to thank you—”
“There’s nothing to thank me for. I would gladly do it again.”
“Well, then, I’m still thanking you anyway.” Roman, realizing this had nothing to do with him, got up and wandered off—but not before giving me one more fond look.
“As you wish,” said Erik. “Are you feeling better?”
“More or less. Certainly better in body. And I think the rest will come.” I wished that with my body’s healing, I could also forget all the horrible things I’d seen. That wouldn’t happen, though, and I felt no need to trouble him with my problems.
“I’m glad,” he said. “Very glad.”
Silence fell, and a suspicious feeling nudged its way into my brain. I’d assumed he was simply calling to check up on me, but something now told me there was more.
“Miss Kincaid,” he said at last. “I’m sure you don’t want to talk about what happened….”
“I—well.” I hesitated. I knew Erik. He wouldn’t bring this up without a good reason. “Is there something we should talk about?”
Now it was his turn to hesitate. “You thank me…but to be truthful, what we did shouldn’t have worked. I didn’t expect it to.”
Mei’s comments came back to me, as did the other conversations I’d witnessed via the dreams. “Nobody seemed to.”
“Mr. Jerome did.”
“Where is this going?”
“I don’t know how it worked. Mr. Mortensen should not have found your soul.”
I loved Erik and hated the irritation in my voice. “I keep hearing that over and over, but obviously he did. Maybe it should have been impossible, but after what I went through? I don’t care how it happened.”
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