by E. J. Mellow
“How can you be so calm about this?” Dev said once the server left. “A Dreamer—the very ones you go out every day to protect, came here. Don’t you want to know why?”
“Of course, but sometimes it’s best not to jump straight into action.”
“So you think I have no basis for believing it wasn’t more than some random fluke that brought her here?”
Rae took a sip of his drink, and his controlled demeanor caused Dev to grind his teeth together. Rae hadn’t reacted the way Dev assumed he would. It was unheard of, if not impossible, for a human to break through into their dimension. How could the same man who almost punched a garbage can when finding out his favorite ice cream shop closed be so nonchalant about this? It didn’t make sense.
“I think we’ll need to wait and see if she comes back to decide that,” Rae said, taking his time putting down his glass.
“And if she does…”
“Then yeah, I’d say there’s a reason for it.”
Dev exhaled a long breath and glanced around the dimly lit space. Mostly Nocturna filled the restaurant, preferring it to other Anima eateries, not only because of the quality but also because one side had a floor-to-ceiling glass wall, allowing the patrons a replica view of a lazy afternoon Tuscan landscape, or at least what they thought it looked like. Roving honey-colored hills swayed in the distance, and even though they were separated from the carefully monitored ecosystem, Dev could almost feel the warmth radiating through from the other side. The sensation brought up phantom memories of his last encounter with the sun.
“And you said she just…fell from the sky?” Rae asked, turning Dev’s attention back to him.
“Yeah, a star separated from the rest and crashed down. Then”—he flicked his hand out—“she was there.”
“Hunh.” Rae frowned, his gaze momentarily unfocused.
“What?”
Rae blinked his eyes back to clarity. “Nothing. Just trying to get the events straight.”
Dev leaned in, lowering his voice. “I’m telling you, if you saw the beach, how detailed everything was, there’s no denying she created it. I mean, the Navitas does come from them. There has to be a purpose for her showing up here.”
“Maybe that was it—giving you a little dose of a Dreamer’s vacation destination was her purpose.”
Dev shot his friend a petulant glare. “I’m being serious.”
Rae dropped his bread roll and leaned back, finally giving Dev his undivided attention. “All right, so if she has been sent for some reason, what are you going to do about it? What can you do?”
Dev scratched the back of his neck. This was the same question he’d been spinning through his mind since she left. “I don’t know yet, but…there has to be something.”
“Something,” Rae repeated. “Yeah, real solid plan. Definitely do something.”
Dev pursed his lips. “I obviously haven’t figured it all out yet. I need more time with her to make sense of things.”
“And you think she’s definitely coming back?”
“Yes,” Dev said without a hesitation.
Rae rubbed his lips together. “You have to be careful with this one, Dev. If she comes to you again, you have to be cautious of what you tell her.”
Dev picked at the tablecloth. “I know.”
“Do you? Because this…development, if it happens again, will need to be reported to the elders. I’ll have to report it, and I don’t want you to get in trouble for not going to them first.”
“I told Tim and Alex as soon as I came back.”
“Yeah.” Rae nodded. “And thankfully that’s all you told.”
Dev frowned. “What do you mean?”
Before Rae could respond, Aveline stomped over to their table.
“How in all of Terra are you guys still eating?” she asked before waving off her friends hovering by the entrance of the restaurant. “Don’t you usually finish your meal as soon as it hits the table?” She pointedly looked at Rae while he delicately refolded his napkin.
“The first three, yes. Meal four and five are meant to be savored.”
She snorted a laugh. “You do know humans think gluttony is a sin, right?”
“Then it’s lucky for me that I’m not human.” As if to prove his point, Rae snagged a chocolate tart from a dessert cart as it was wheeled by.
Aveline rolled her eyes and took a seat. “We have to leave, Dev.”
“I’m aware,” he said while glancing distractedly out the glass window, his pulse quickening in anticipation for their rounds—a feeling of excitement that he had thought was lost to him.
“You’re thinking about her again, aren’t you?”
Dev found her calculated gaze. “And if I am?”
“Why are you so obsessed?” She turned to Rae. “Has he been bleeding your ears about this sent for a reason nonsense as well?”
Rae raised his brows while glancing between the two of them, clearly knowing full well to remain silent.
“We really can’t get preoccupied by this,” Aveline continued to Dev. “You always told me past shifts can’t distract from the next shifts. That’s how mistakes happen.”
“Aveline,” Dev said impatiently, “this wasn’t any old run-in with the Metus. This was a Dreamer.”
“All right, let’s keep it down a bit.” Rae flickered his gaze around the busy establishment.
Dev took in a calming breath. “I really don’t understand how either of you can be writing this off so easily. I mean, you wanted to leave her there, for Terra’s sake.” He pinned Aveline with a look. “That goes against everything taught to us in training. We serve to protect. Serve to guard—”
“Serve to honor our creation. Yes, I know our pillars of belief, Dev.”
“You didn’t seem to yesterday.”
Aveline rubbed her forehead. “It’s just that…well, I don’t trust her showing up the way she did.”
“What do you mean?” Dev asked.
“It seems so random, yet way too convenient.”
“You do realize that’s a bit of a contradiction,” Rae pointed out.
“Never mind.” Aveline waved a dismissive hand.
“No, explain,” Dev pushed. “What do you mean, too convenient?”
“I don’t know. Just that she happened to come here right when we got to the platform and landed right where we usually start our patrols.”
“Exactly.” He sat up straighter, his sense of determination stirring again. “Can’t you see why I’d want to know more? Why this seems serendipitous?”
“Or like a trap,” Aveline countered.
Dev rested against the back of his chair, a smile inching along the side of his mouth. “When did you become such a skeptic?”
“Around the same time a girl’s kept your interest longer than a few hours.”
Rae choked on a sip of wine while simultaneously letting out a splutter of laughter.
Dev raised a brow at the two. “I don’t know what you’re implying.”
“That this behavior isn’t like you.”
“And?”
“And it makes me worried.”
Dev chuckled. “Ave, if there’s one thing you never have to do, it’s worry about me.”
She shook her head. “I just think this should be handled at arm’s length. Let the Vigil take care of it if she comes back. I would think this would fall under their jurisdiction anyway. She is a human, after all,” Aveline said in a hushed voice. “This seems like something that should be dealt with carefully.”
“That’s what I told him,” Rae said, popping a toothpick.
“Because it’s good advice.” Aveline nodded.
“Guys, really.” Dev rolled his eyes. “You can take a breath. It’s me here. When have I ever not been careful?”
His companions stared at him for a beat.
“Um, maybe the time you thought it would be fun to sneak into a Metus den,” Aveline said pointedly.
“Or when you became convi
nced you could walk the zipline like a tightrope,” Rae added.
“All right.” He held up a hand. “I get it. But this is different. This is a Dreamer. She’s not a threat.”
“How can you be so sure?” Aveline asked.
“Trust me.” Dev laughed. “If you had hung around longer, you’d understand. There’s no way. What could she possibly do to me?”
Even though his question was meant to be rhetoric, the anxious glances shared between his two friends seemed to fill the heavy silence with many different answers.
— 5 —
DEV FLEXED HIS fingers before squeezing his hand into a fist over and over, as if that could relieve the tension he still felt from the images that clung to his retinas like a spot left after the flash of a bulb. The recent memory of long, smooth legs that disappeared into barely there shorts was testing his strength as a man. Not to mention walking away from slipping one of the delicate straps from her shoulders pushed the limits of him remaining a gentleman, though some might argue that never actually existed.
On either side of him the harsh whispers of Tim and Aveline filled the apartment as they sat around the dining table, each of his flatmates trying to discuss as much as possible during the tight window of time before Molly returned. The fireplace crackled in the background, and its pinkish glow mixed with the low blue-white lights around the room, layering the space in a warm pastel hue. Even in the dimness, Dev knew the moment she left the bathroom to make her way through the shadowed hallway back into the living room. She had pulled her hair up into a ponytail, and the change caused her features of large eyes, prominent cheekbones, and full lips to be even more startling.
Dev had been in the midst of making his way to the northern field in anticipation for her arrival, when he caught sight of a form traveling toward their apartment. But it wasn’t her unexpected appearance in the city that had Dev clenching his jaw in silent frustration—it was what he saw when he took in the rest of her. Aveline’s borrowed clothes clung to every curve, the dip of her waist, and he didn’t know which outfit he preferred more—the washcloth-sized clothes she arrived in or this practically painted-on ensemble she wore now.
Molly took a seat beside him, and he hadn’t realized the room had grown quiet until Tim spoke.
“If I didn’t know better, I would have thought you belonged here, Molly. Those clothes suit you very nicely.”
“Really?” She grimaced, looking down at herself. “I feel kind of ridiculous in them, to be honest. I don’t normally wear anything like this.”
“Obviously,” Aveline said under her breath, and Dev couldn’t help chuckling at the reactionary glare Molly gave her. Seemingly annoyed at being at the expense of his amusement too, she straightened and turned to Tim.
“So, Timon, that’s an interesting name. I’ve never heard it before.”
“Yes, it’s not that common.” He gave her an easy smile. “It’s a biblical name and means wisdom. Everyone’s name has a meaning. Aveline, for example”—he motioned toward her—“means life. While Dev”—he placed a hand on Dev’s shoulder, who winced, knowing what was coming—“is short for Devlin, of Irish origin, and means fierce courage.”
Aveline giggled next to Dev, and he shot her a scowl.
“What?” Molly asked, glancing between the three of them.
“Devlin thinks his name sounds feminine.” Aveline smirked.
“Shut up.” He shoved her shoulder, which only made her laugh more, and Dev had to refrain from going over and putting his full weight on her. It was an immature cheap maneuver but almost always affective in winning their arguments.
“So, Molly.” Tim routed the conversation back to him. “Where you come from, you have a last name as well. What is it?”
Her brows drew together. “Spero, uh, my last name is Spero.”
The room went quiet as a chill ran down Dev’s spine.
“What?” Molly frowned. “What is it? Does it mean something bad?”
Tim recovered first with a clearing of his throat. “Molly, which originates from Mary, can mean star of the sea. And Spero…Spero means hope. So your full name can translate to mean—”
“Star of Hope,” Dev said softly, his gaze unable to leave the Dreamer, wondering what other surprises lay hidden away.
When he mentioned to Aveline the idea that Molly might have been sent to help with the Metus, she had laughed so hard he thought she might choke on the sandwich she was eating. It was a good thing she didn’t, because in that moment Dev was undecided if he would have helped her.
But now, with Molly’s name meaning what it did, how could his friends possibly deny there being a reason for her presence? Dev studied Molly’s soft hands, the way her thin arms stretched out of her black T-shirt, not a sign of rigorous training anywhere. How much of her strength resided from within and how much would be required to manifest on the outside?
“Star of Hope. Okay…so?” Molly glanced to each of them. “Why are you guys looking at me like that?” She tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. “It’s just a name.”
“You must excuse us.” Tim leaned into her. “Here, names have great meaning and importance. It’s sort of prophetic for what one will be capable of accomplishing.”
Her eyes sparked on something he said, before they narrowed. “Where is here?”
Tim smiled smoothly before patting her on the back. “We’ll just have to see, won’t we?”
Molly’s shoulders slumped. “What does that even mean?” she asked and, when no one answered, dropped her head into her hands and sighed. The childish action caused Dev to smile.
Abruptly her head whipped up, her gaze searching for his, and when it connected, he worked hard to keep himself composed, the depths in her dark eyes threatening for him to fall in. “Dev, you said out on the fire escape that you liked what I was wearing tonight better than what I was wearing last night…”
A smirk lifted his lips. “You liked that, huh.”
“No,” Molly said with an eye roll, “I mean, you said you saw me last night.”
Under the table, Dev’s hand tightened on his thigh, but he otherwise kept his features relaxed, even coy. “Did I say that?”
“You just admitted you did. You also said to Tim that I’m the wonder you were telling him about. If we’ve never met, how could you talk about me?”
Colló. He needed to remember how observant she was. The silence that settled around them was thick, dramatizing the soft snap of the fire in the background. Keeping his stare steady, Dev refused to look away first and admit she was right. But by the small grin that formed at the corner of her mouth, he realized, with annoyance, that she already thought she was.
“I know you two would love to stare into each other’s eyes all day.” Aveline cut through the tension by pushing him in the shoulder. “But we have rounds to make, Dev.”
He held Molly’s gaze a moment longer, her determined concentration slowly melting his aggravation into amusement. With a flash of a smile, he stood.
“That’s it?” She gaped. “You’re not going to explain yourself?”
“I have nothing to explain,” he said passively as he headed to their gear closet, feeling Molly’s glare stabbing him in the back the whole way. He’d rather deal with her anger than with getting in trouble for telling her the truth. He couldn’t mess up his chances to be allowed around her. There were still too many questions, and he needed time with her to test some of his theories.
Removing his equipment from the Navitas charging stations, he swung the holder onto his back and let the Arcus drop into its chamber, hearing the top close over with an audible snap. Turning back around, he caught Molly watching him with fascination rather than annoyance.
“All right, Tim, we’ll catch you later,” Aveline said from the front door, waiting for Dev to follow.
He didn’t move. Instead he kept his attention on Molly. “Well, aren’t you coming?” he asked.
“Uh, what?” Aveline’s sharp tone knoc
ked into him. “She is so not coming with us!”
“Of course she is,” Dev said simply. There was no way he was letting the Dreamer out of his sight. As far as he was concerned, as long as Molly was in Terra, he’d be with her. The meaning of her name tumbled around his mind again.
Aveline growled as she pointed to Dev while looking at Tim. “See this, Tim? See! This is exactly what I was talking about! He’s lost his mind.”
“I resent that statement,” Dev said while leaning against the wall and studying his nails.
Aveline took in a deep breath. “Dev,” she began tightly, “please explain to me why Molly needs to come with us?”
He shrugged. “Because it would be fun.”
“Fun,” she repeated.
“Yes, fun.”
“So it would be fun, not dangerous and probably illegal, and the stupidest idea anyone has ever had in the entire existence of mankind?”
“Nope. Just fun.” Pushing off the wall, he strode over to Molly, who took in his approach with wide eyes, her apprehension clearly apparent.
“It’s okay. I don’t mind staying with Tim,” she said.
“You’re coming with us.” Hooking his hand under her arm, he pulled her to her feet.
“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Tim asked, his fingers combing through his graying beard.
“I think it’s one of the best ideas I’ve ever had.” Dev walked toward the door with Molly in tow, and made a point not to glance Aveline’s way. He’d worked with her long enough to know the scowl that would paint her features. Swinging the front door open, he turned to Molly. “Ladies first.”
She took in the awaiting exit and then him, a far-away look momentarily coating her gaze before an expectantly radiant smile lit up her face. Dev’s breath hitched. In all of Terra, she was beautiful. Molly blinked as he grinned back, her features sobering as she retreated a step.
“I wasn’t smiling at you,” she said pointedly.
“I see.” Dev looked around with raised brows. “So it was for the other man who opened the door for you?”
“As a matter of fact, it was,” Molly said and breezed past him.