by Shayn Bloom
considering that both you and Mr. Wildecore cheated by attaining a filled out copy prior to taking it. You have broken the honor code of Carroll Community College. Both of you could face expulsion.”
Blood was hot in my ears and cold in my heart. Horrible images came to me. I was in the hall telling Ash we’d been found out. I was sitting at the kitchen table telling Dad, the Chair of psychology at Hopkins University, that I had been caught cheating. Both scenarios were awful to contemplate.
“I can explain!” I gasped. “It’s not what it looks –”
“It’s exactly what it looks like,” Adia interrupted. Her legs were crossed, her hands gathered to her lap, her entire being composed of nothing but crystallized confidence. “However,” she continued. “I will not report you to the school ethics board, nor will I submit the necessary papers for your expulsion.” Adia was smiling now. “Aren’t you going to ask me why?”
“Why?” I asked.
“Because,” Adia began. “If I were to inform the ethics board about your misconduct, I would also have to inform them about mine.”
I stared at her in confused fascination. “What?”
“Do you really think Todd would have gone behind my back and given away exams?” Adia asked, twisting her hair between her fingers. “And even worse, given them away for free?”
“I didn’t –” I stuttered
“Of course you didn’t,” Adia sighed. “Annie, I instructed Todd to give Ash the exam. I knew that Ash, once in possession of the exam, would share it with you. I filled out the duplicate myself. You really think Todd would have written such elaborate answers?”
This revelation hit me like a piano falling from the sky, its tickled ivories laughing at me. “I don’t know,” I admitted. “I’ve been too distracted recently to notice. I’ve been thinking about him.”
“About Caleb?”
I nodded.
“You blame yourself for his death,” Adia said. She wasn’t asking.
I nodded again.
“Don’t,” Adia said. “Don’t blame yourself. Don’t think blame, don’t feel blame, don’t live blame, don’t believe blame. It’s not your fault. Fate will find fruition even in the fractured heart.”
“What are you talking about?” I asked.
“Annie,” Adia said. “You were meant to become a Dreamdrifter.”
I shook my head. “Anyone can say that about anything.”
Adia ignored this. “You were meant to become a Dreamdrifter,” she repeated. “I’ve known it for years.”
“Fine,” I scoffed. “For how many years have you known it?”
“Six,” she answered. “Have you ever heard of the Newcomer?”
I stared at her. Was this really happening? Was I about to discuss the Newcomer with Adia Arrowheart herself? The Utopian who had prophesied the Newcomer’s arrival? The same that was responsible for the Second Great Manifestation and the deaths of so many Utopians?
“Yes,” I breathed. “I have.”
“Well then,” Adia began. “You should know that you were meant to become a Dreamdrifter, Annie. The Newcomer is the reason for that eventuality. After all, you’re his sister!”
I stared. “You are insane,” I whispered. “Why are you doing this?”
“I’m telling you because it’s the truth,” she said. “And you should know.”
“That is ridiculous,” I deemed loudly. “I don’t have a brother!”
“Now that!” Adia’s voice rang above mine. “Is ridiculous!”
“Alexi is dead!” I hissed. “Why are you doing this?”
Adia leaned forward. “Because I realized that I have to do this,” she explained. “I couldn’t hide anymore, not from you. I realized it while you were in my arms. Until then I had never taken responsibility for the suffering you have endured. And then you were in my arms and I could feel it. It wasn’t just Caleb. I felt a lifetime of suffering and I am responsible.”
“I don’t understand,” I said, wiping my eyes.
“Alexi was the Newcomer,” Adia said. “He was born seconds after the Second Great Manifestation had failed, after I had failed. He was then killed, poisoned. With him died our hopes of Holurnial unification, our hopes for the ascendance of man. You’re the Newcomer’s sister, Annie.”
I shook my head. “He died of a heart attack. My parents told me.”
“Your parents lied,” Adia said. “They could hardly face the truth themselves let alone tell their twelve year old daughter. To this day they probably assume that Alexi’s death was an accident, not murder.”
I gasped. “You think it was murder?”
“I don’t know,” Adia responded. “I just don’t know, Annie.”
“But I still don’t understand,” I protested. “Alexi was human.”
Adia nodded sadly. “Alexi was and is a phenomenon. A Dreamdrifter has never been born of two human parents. Many Dreamdrifters have been born of a single Dreamdrifter parent and the children of human parents have become and attempted to become Dreamdrifters like you’re doing now. But Alexi was the first and last Dreamdrifter born of two human parents.”
I smiled despite myself. “How’d he do it?”
“We don’t know,” Adia conceded. “Dreamdrifter genealogists have researched the case, but none have found even ancient Dreamdrifter blood in either the McGallagher or Beonto lines. It’s a mystery. Alexi was the seed of two very gifted psychologists who copulated during their intellectual primes, but –”
I closed my eyes to forestall her. I didn’t need to hear about my parents copulating at any time, whether in their primes or otherwise. In any case, learning that my baby brother had been the Newcomer felt like just another puzzle piece, not the answer.
“But don’t blame yourself,” Adia said, changing course. “We all screw up, Annie. I am responsible for so much suffering. Regardless, I wake up every day and promise myself that I will do better, I will grow, and I will continue to do good work. You will too.”
“But I –” But I was interrupted.
Ash burst into the room, hazel eyes wide.
“Mr. Wildecore,” Adia said, immediately reverting back to her classroom style. “Ms. McGallagher and I are still in session. Please wait outside until our session has concluded.”
I smiled at Ash. “She knows we cheated.”
“Whoops!” Ash exclaimed, smiling and turning to Adia. “Good thing I’m your student elsewhere and Annie’s quitting college, huh?”
Adia actually smiled back. “True, Mr. Wildecore,” she said. “Before you interrupted our conversation, I was telling Annie that I instructed my brother to share the exams with you.”
“That’s like really embarrassing,” Ash said. “Why’d you do that?”
Adia relaxed in her chair. “I figured that with you working to become Utopian and Annie working to become a Dreamdrifter, both of you had enough occupying your brains without studying for an intro level psych class.”
Ash frowned. “What about my two deducted points?”
“You will both be receiving an A in the course,” Adia announced.
“Cheers to that!” Ash offered his fist for a bump. Adia ignored him and so I filled in, finding a laugh as I did.
Adia gazed at Ash. “Did you interrupt for a reason, Mr. Wildecore?”
“Oh yeah!” Ash said happily. “Julian just called. Caleb is alive!”
14. The Ladder
“How did Caleb survive?”
Flooring the clutch, Ash shifted Magic into third as we sped away from Carroll Community College. “It wasn’t voluntary,” Ash answered. “They pumped his stomach at the hospital. He attempted to overdose on medication and came very close. The preliminary report sounded final. Anyway,” he continued. “What did you need from home?”
I shook my head. “I shouldn’t say.”
“Why not?”
“I’m supposed to do this alone,” I replied calmly.
“So you’re going to Caleb?” Ash asked. “You’re going back?
”
“Yes,” I said.
Ash glanced over from behind the wheel. “You sure about this?”
“I’m going,” I said flatly. “I’m returning to Caleb’s subconscious. I’m going to try again and this time I have a plan. I’ve already failed him once, Ash. I must try again.”
Home was fast approaching. Ten minutes later we reached the descending driveway to my house. Ash didn’t park but lulled the toy bus in neutral just outside of my front door.
“I’ll just be a second,” I promised, and dashed inside. Oscar was chilling in the cave. He bounded forward upon seeing me. “Not now, Oscar,” I said. “But I’ll tell you everything later.” Surprisingly, Oscar seemed satisfied.
Upstairs, I gazed around my room. I had to find it. And that was the problem. Finding anything in my room besides my bed was a formidable task. The surrounding mess of junk threatened to upend my hope. I searched hurriedly, hearing the ticking of time.
Suddenly, I saw it. The object was on my desk. It could hardly have been more obvious. Breathing deeply, I crossed the room. Stowing the object in the pocket of my jeans, I went back downstairs. I had what I needed. Now all I needed was for my plan to succeed.
“Did you find it?” Ask asked. “Did you find the thingy?”
“Yup,” I replied.
“Excellent!” Ash exclaimed. Soon we were back on the road and speeding toward Everest. Ash, gazing over occasionally from the wheel, noted my loud silence. “Are you nervous?”
“A little,” I admitted. “But that’s not what’s on my mind.”
He watched me curiously. “So what is on your mind?”
“I can’t figure it out,” I began. “Why would Alexi have needed invisibility?”
Ash nodded. “I