“Yeah,” he said, his voice a bare breath. “She was somethin’.”
“What happened to her?” Zoe asked.
Bo scrunched her shoulders, and pressed a kiss onto the top of her head through the mountain of hair. “Nothing good and don’t you worry about it.”
She gave him an unhappy sigh.
I contemplated the stars through the masts and the three dropped sails. “When did you get a night? And does that mean you have a day?”
“We do, with a sun and everything. It all happened a few days ago, almost a week. We still can’t track time though. Sometimes, day is really short, sometimes long. It depends on which suns are in the sky.”
“What?”
He grinned at me over Zoe’s hair. “You’ll see.”
“Huh.”
“Back to you. What are all these people she saved going to do? Are they coming back?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know what Harley’s intending to do. I can tell you,” I said, recalling her Who—her blind faith in the people around her, her ability to overcome all obstacles, the odds she’d already had to beat just to remain alive, “if she picks a side, I’m with her. Her heart is good.”
“Why are we at war? What am I not seeing?”
I reminded myself Bo didn’t know as much as I did. “Right. Well, let me put a few of the pieces together for you. First, Dreamland’s a virus.”
“You want to repeat that?”
“Yeah. Well, apparently, she infects entire civilizations with hope. Then rips it away, feeding off the chaos she leaves behind.”
“You’ve got to be kidding.”
“I’m not, and there’s more. Dreamland is ready to move onto another civilization. She’s leaving Earth.”
He stared at me, his eyes gleaming in the pale light of a rising moon. “We’re already trying to kill one another. We don’t need help in that area.”
“I am aware, but that’s just where things begin. The elders are a part of the containment system.”
“Containment.”
“Yeah. I don’t know what their plan is, but they need Dreamland to remain in this fold of space-time. For that to happen, we all have to die. All of us. The dreamers will—” I zeroed in on Zoe’s head as a dark pit of realization hollowed my chest. “The dreamers will disappear.”
Bo pushed his chin up, his head sliding along the deck. “And all the Dreamlanders cease to exist. So, this virus that nearly took everyone out . . . ”
“Actually wasn’t released by the elders,” I finished for him. “Nope. It was released by the mechanics. They’re trying to keep Dreamland from reaping and leaving.”
“Sounds like that’s the right team, but I don’t know about their methods.”
“Which might be why Harley is opposing them.”
“So where do you think we fit in all this?”
I opened my mouth and shook my head, seeking council in the stars. “I don’t know. We might not.”
“We could hope. War’s ugly, Riv. There’s nothing glorious about it.”
I let out a breath. “Where are the other kids?”
“The graveyard settled down. It stopped trying to eat them, started providing for them again. Olivia decided it was safe until we could find a dustman who could take them home, so I left them there.”
“You planning to go back?”
His head shifted in my peripheral vision. “I talked it over with Kelsi. She’s okay with it. She couldn’t say no to them anymore than we could.”
“Well, there’s one change for the good.”
“I’m glad you think so. She is madder than a wet cat.”
It took me a minute to remember what a cat was and why a wet one would be mad, but eventually I remembered. “How long’s it going to take to return them all home?”
“The Dreamlander Burbs are all quiet. The few who survived are laying low. The elders and their runners are keeping Dreamlanders out of the dreamplanes except as needed. The dustmen are pretty busy and hard to get to.”
“We’ll figure something out.”
“That’s what Rulak said, too. Kelsi gave him a bell to ring if he got news.”
“Excellent.”
“And she gave one to the kids in case they got in trouble.”
Relief swept through me like a hot beverage on a cold day. “So, that’s the reason we’re just drifting?”
A pale, white light shown on the horizon to my right.
Bo turned his face toward it, though if he was looking at me, I couldn’t tell, not in these shadows. “Everything’s under control. It’s just us, the wind, the seas, and our sails.”
“Hmm.”
“The way it used to be before you showed up.”
A ping of regret wrenched my heart. “Do you ever regret picking me up?”
My left ear tingled and the hairs on the left side of my neck rose, signaling his gaze on me.
“Never,” he said. “In the short time I’ve known you, you’ve become a brother. I’m not letting you go that easy.”
I peeked at the dome of another rising moon at my feet. “I’ve never had one of those.”
“A brother? Oh, I ain’t sayin’ it’s a joy ride, Riv. Not all the time, but now you’ve got one. Me. So you’d best get used to it.”
Zoe’s soft snores filled the silence gathered between us.
“Well,” I said with a ghost of a smile. “I’ll do my best not to let you down.”
“No worries.” Bo rearranged Zoe’s legs, cupping the back of her head with the hand she slept on. “You will. Just don’t let it define you.”
“Right.”
“It’s the only trick I know. If you have a choice, always choose the path you’re least likely to succeed.”
The moon at my feet could have belonged to Earth, only bigger. I scooted closer to Zoe, closer to my family.
This was nice. This moment, this space, this quiet. I’d relish it while I could. I knew it wouldn’t last long, not with all I knew.
I STAYED UP all night listening to Bo and Zoe snore. Little as she was, Zoe was surprisingly loud. Bo looked so content with her in his arms, sleeping under the stars.
The moons were amazing. The medium-sized white moon, and a smaller, yellow one both rose from the same part of the sky. A large, red one rose from the direction of my feet. A blue moon a bit bigger than the yellow one rose to my left, and from just over my shoulder came a green one with shoots of white. Some were crescent moons. The red one was at a half moon. I’d never seen a sky so busy.
The seas were different, too. Night’s Cruelty pulled towards the red moon as if the waters surged toward it. When the green moon met the quarter mark, the air became heavier, chillier. They each had their own speed. They didn’t go in the same direction. The white moon actually zagged in the sky. How did a moon go up, then fall to the side? It didn’t seem possible.
But I had to remind myself we weren’t on a planet. Those moons didn’t orbit around us. They were simply in our sky. Who knew what moon or moons we’d have the next night? Or the night after that.
It was nice to relax though.
Bo took in a deep breath and stretched, jostling Zoe.
She blinked, clamped her eyes closed and rolled over onto me.
Bo chuckled, pressing his knuckles to his forehead. “She’s not much a morning person.”
“Who is?”
“I am.” He slugged the arm I’d wrapped around Zoe’s slim shoulders. “Come on. If you two get up, I’ll make French toast.”
That got my attention. I’d never had French toast, and I’d never seen Bo have anything on his ship other than moldy bread and moldier cheese.
Zoe sat up, instantly alert as well. Her head swiveled first one way, then the other. A slow smile brightened her face. “He makes the best French toast.”
I took the hand she offered and tried to pull myself up without dragging her down. It wasn’t as easy as it sounded. “You’re talking more.”
She sh
rugged, leading the way.
“Hey.”
She looked up at me.
How could a person not fall for that face? “I love the sound of your voice. I’d be okay if you chattered all the time. Like, nonstop. Okay. Maybe not nonstop.”
Her dimpled smile widened as she led the way.
Our main mission was to get these guys home, but I didn’t want to see Zoe leave. She’d become more than just a dreamer. She was family. I didn’t even know how it’d happened and I’d lived through all of it. The thought of not having her in my life one day saddened me.
Probably the reason I hadn’t slept the night before.
If I did what I’d sworn to do, she’d be gone. I suddenly realized the benefits of being a loner. I’d never felt anything like this before, this gut wrenching hollow ache at the thought of her leaving. Not even when I left Mech, and he’d been the closest friend I’d ever had. What did that say about me?
Zoe and I found Bo in the long mess hall located below decks. Two long tables took up most of the room. Barrels lined either side. Men and women sat on them, talking rambunctiously to each other. They didn’t even look up when Zoe and I entered the room.
Bo stood at a potbellied stove, flipping thick slices of bread over a long griddle. “First batch is up!”
A woman, tall and wiry, rose to grab the platter. She pushed her course black hair over her shoulder, her dark skin shining in the dim light with a healthy sheen. “It’s good to see real food for a change, cap’n.”
“Ain’t that the truth?” someone else shouted. “I thought we were in some kind of new Hell. One made of mold.”
Bo chuckled, scooping the toast onto the platter and waving the woman off.
“Never thought to see you as a cook, though,” she said with a good-natured smirk.
Bo threw her a grin and slopped some pieces of bread onto the griddle. They hissed as they hit the hot surface. “Riv, Zo, find a place to sit. And don’t be shy. It’s first come, first serve.”
The woman bared her teeth, holding the platter away from me. Her dark brown eyes twinkled with mischief. “You’ll have to go through the likes of me to get any, though.”
A wide, bald man half rose and snagged two pieces of toast, making a face at her back.
Two other men lunged at the plate as well.
Zoe and I found a place to sit at the end of the table closest to the door while they fought over the food.
The woman glared at them, a smile tugging at her lips. “You’re all animals.”
“You’d know more’n most, Margo,” someone said at the other table.
She sobered minutely, then righted her smile. She slapped another man’s hand away from the platter as she offered it to Zoe with the last two remaining slices of toast. “Eat up, little one.”
Zoe grinned, took the plate passed down to her, and dove into her breakfast.
I looked around the table. I’d been on this ship for, what, weeks? I’d never met any of them. Not really.
Margo leaned forward to talk in front of the three men between her and me. “You look like you’ve been poleaxed, Riv. What’s wrong?”
An embarrassed glow tinged the tops of my ears. “I just realized I don’t know any of you.”
She shoved food in her mouth. “Well, since you came on, we’ve been more than a bit busy. That, and we kept our distance, it’s no wonder.”
“But I’ve seen you guys die out there and never thought about it.”
“It’s what happens when we’re not people to you.”
I blinked, my eyebrows raising as I digested what she said. Not people. Wow. I was awesome.
“Harsh, I know, but true. It’s what we all do to shield ourselves, one of the reasons we didn’t get to know you, for instance. That way, if you died out there, we wouldn’t care or think twice, either.”
It felt like someone punched me in the gut.
She stood up with her plate and sauntered toward us. She tapped the man sitting next to me on the shoulder, and gestured toward her abandoned seat with her chin.
He glanced at me and shrugged, moving without comment.
“Margo,” Bo called. “Be nice.”
“Yes, sir, Captain Tightpants.”
He glowered at her.
I smirked, getting the Firefly reference, knowing Bo probably didn’t.
She sat down, shoving a piece of toast in her mouth. “The sea’s a beast. Most of us, when we first get here, don’t make it the first week, even with the ship. We get taken by the dreams or by our past, and we just end ourselves.”
She seemed so strong. They all did, so the thought of them taking their own lives was strange, wrong.
She nodded, finishing off her toast. “Yeah, but you don’t know what we survived to get here, Riv. So don’t judge.”
“I wasn’t intending to.”
“It’s a natural thing to do.” She twisted on her barrel to face me. “When you came on, we didn’t know what to expect, or if you’d even make it. Sure, the captain seemed to take a shining to you, but he does that with all of us. He fights to keep us here and alive. What you didn’t see because you were so busy being a big damn hero was how hard he took it when those that went out with you didn’t make it back.”
Bo laughed at something one of his men said, flipping more breakfast onto the platter that had made it back to him.
“Also, the bit when you were dying. But now you’re back for the third time, and I think he’s taken more than just a shining to you.”
I frowned at her.
“No, don’t get me like that. If the captain likes you this deep, has gone out of his way to fight for you the way he has, you’re family now. It runs like this. He calls you one of us, I respect him enough and owe him enough and like you enough to call you mine, too.”
“Thanks.”
She leaned in and grasped my wrist, her fingernails digging in. “But hear this. You get my cap’n into any more trouble, you endanger his life or the lives of any more of my brothers like you have before . . . ”
My breath stuck in my throat as her dark gaze pinned me in place.
“I will end you, dream boy. I will end you.” She let go of me and turned to the man beside her, completely ignoring my presence.
Bo raised his eyebrows at me.
I gave him a ghost of a smile and shifted uncomfortably. Maybe I was better off being a loner after all.
AFTER BREAKFAST, BO left Zoe with Margo and took me to the deck.
I blinked into the bright sunlight and looked up to see the location of the sun. One sat low in the sky, just now peaking over the horizon. I didn’t even know if it was a sun, but it did give off a soft glow. The other had reached the quarter mark. I assumed it was climbing, but as the moons proved the night before, I could be wrong.
“Margo took a liking to you.”
My eyebrows shot up. “That was a liking?”
Bo chuckled. “She’s my second. If you ever run into an issue and can’t find me, go to her.”
“Uh, okay.”
“See this mast?” He put his hand to the pole. “This is the mizzen mast. The rear part of the ship is called the stern.”
“You’re giving me a lesson right now?”
He smiled at me and pointed to the middle pole. “Main mast, of course.”
“Bo, what are we doing?”
He gripped my shoulder. “You’re back, River, and I’m keeping you with me as long as I can. In order to do that, though, you’re gonna have to learn how to work, pull your own weight.”
I rubbed my eye, glancing around, really taking it in. I was seeing a lot of things for the first time. “We’ve got to get the dreamers back to Earth.”
“Would you stop worrying about them? When Rulak finds a dustman, then we’ll worry.”
“And you’re sure the kids are safe.”
Bo wrapped an arm around my shoulders and strolled to the helm. “You’re worse than a woman. Kelsi!”
She emerged from the
mizzen mast, her skin the same color and grain as the wood. Silver hair cascaded down her back. It is good to see you again, River.
I bowed my head. “You, too.”
Bo clasped his hands together. “Do you think we’d have time to see the kids for a bit?”
Kelsi paused.
“Look,” I said, “if they’re in danger, I’ll go and let you be on your way. I won’t hold you or your captain back.”
Unfortunately, she said, rounding her black gaze on Bo, he has already claimed you as his, which means you are now mine. River.
“I know, Kelsi.” And I did. She had her priorities and they weren’t mine. “I will do my best. If your sisters need your help, leave. I can always get back. I have your Who.”
Her wood-grained chest rose and fell heavily as she stepped back into the mast. Hold on.
Bo grinned, raising his face to the sky. “We’re going aloft!”
The deck shifted. I stumbled, one hand out, but Bo’s steady arm was still draped over my shoulders. I peered over the side of the ship, expecting to see the ocean waves surging around us.
All I saw was sky.
Frowning, I broke away from Bo and walked to the rail.
We didn’t ride the Sea of Dreams. We flew.
Bo leaned against the wood, propping up his booted foot. “Dreamland’s changed. We fly. We have real food, real rest, real sunlight—you can get sunburned, just so you’re aware.”
The red sun dominated our sky with a blazing heat as we rose to meet it.
Bo shook his head, his blue eyes filled with wonder. “I didn’t think it was possible, but I think this place got more amazing.”
With a pop that hurt my ears, we passed through the skin of a bubble. The large, red sun was nowhere to be seen. A white sun sat in the far distance, partially blocked by several tall towers of dreamplanes.
Above us drifted the graveyard.
The dreamplanes, which had once been ragged, torn and disheveled, now radiated health. They had better shape. There weren’t as many gaping holes ripped through their thin skin. The trailing ropes of willow root pulsed with dim light and moved like the arms of an octopus, rebuilding the planes. We passed by one as we continued to rise. Trees with large, blue leaves the size of small umbrellas wandered by. I could almost hear their chant.
Dream Killers - Complete Season 1 (The Dream Killers Book 3) Page 24