Immortals of Indriell- The Collection

by Melissa A. Craven

  “But we have to follow him. We have to help him,” Aidan protested, taking another step toward the edge of the forest.

  “You are not a dreamwalker. Neither of you can navigate this world beyond this place. If you wander too far from here, you could get so lost in the world of dreams, it would drive you mad. You will cause more harm than good. Let him go.”

  “Why can’t he see us?” Allie asked as they watched Quinn shuffle along the path ahead, his hands shoved deep in his pockets and his shoulders hunched as if to protect himself.

  “He doesn’t understand where he is yet. He just thinks he’s dreaming of home.”

  “But he could get lost,” Allie said tearfully, watching his sad retreat. “You said it could drive him mad.”

  “Quinn is a dreamwalker. He has been here before, although I’ve never seen him. There have been rumors of a new, untrained walker, wreaking havoc in this world. I will help him if I can.”

  “Go now. Go help him,” Allie urged. “Find out where he is. Please, Navid.”

  “I will do what I can. I will try to come back soon.”

  “Thank you, Navid,” Aidan said.

  Navid gave Allie a quick hug and pressed a kiss to her forehead, and then he was gone. Quinn’s footsteps faded in the darkness of the forest.

  “Don’t tell anyone what you have seen here.” Navid’s faint voice carried with the breeze.

  “This is incredible,” Aidan said. “I don’t want to get my hopes up, but if Navid can talk to him, this might bring us one step closer to bringing Quinn home.”

  “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.” Allie cautioned his excitement. “We don’t know if Navid will be able to talk to him, or even if he can find him.”

  “You look more like your dad that I realized,” Aidan said.

  “It’s the curly hair.” She nodded.

  “And the freckles.” He smiled. “But you seem to have the same temperament too.”

  “I feel like I should have seen it before, you know.” Allie crossed her arms over her chest. She wasn’t sure if she’d ever get used to thinking of Navid as her father.

  “Navid might be a while, and I believe you have some dreaming to do,” Aidan said.

  “Right. I hope I can stay focused enough so I don’t disturb you.”

  “Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine. Just aim for anything other than snakes. Literally anything.”

  “What about clowns?” She smiled.

  “No clowns either.” He shuddered at the thought. “How about turtles? Or bunnies?”

  “Try to get some sleep, Aidan. We’ll do everything we can to help Quinn.”

  “I know. Sweet dreams.”

  “Har har, funny guy.”

  ~~~

  Allie found herself wandering along the path through the woods again. Her dreams were becoming more consistent and a lot less scary. The longer she worked with Liam, the less frightening they became. She still dreamed of fire and smoke, but it didn’t consume her now. The fires stayed in the distance and the forest was always the same.

  A shadowed figure ran past her in a whirl.

  “Quinn?” She raced along the familiar path after him. She sensed there were others, but they were shrouded in shadows. Allie stood alone near the orchard, calling his name, but he still couldn’t hear her.

  He moved like a lynx through the trees. Dressed in dark clothes and a black leather jacket, he blended with the night.

  As the blood red moon peeked through the branches, Allie noticed the absence of the green otherworldly tinge that normally colored her dreams. This vision was more realistic. Sharper and more focused.

  Focus on the important details and discard the rest. Her mantra was her lifeline.

  She was here to observe. That was the difficult thing to remember when she was caught up in the throes of her most terrifying dreams. Nothing could truly hurt her here. She knew that now.

  Allie followed Quinn through the forest. There were others hiding among the shadows but she couldn’t tell how many.

  “They are in the house,” Quinn said. “They don’t suspect anything.” His voice was vacant and held no emotion.

  Allie couldn’t see the person he spoke with. The shadows thickened, creating an impenetrable barrier.

  “There are only six of them.” His voice was flat, as if the Quinn she knew was long gone. “They are powerful so we’ll have to overwhelm them with our numbers. They won’t go quietly.”

  He seemed so hollow, so … empty. She wondered if he would even recognize her. They needed to do something—anything. Quinn was running out of time.

  “We have to get him out of this. Whatever this is,” Allie murmured.

  “Allie!” Navid’s voice echoed all around, pulling her abruptly from her dream. She felt an unfamiliar tug forcing her back to the dreamscape she shared with Aidan.

  “Allie,” Navid called as she wandered through the tall yellow grass again.

  “Did you find him?” Her heart leapt in her throat at the thought her father might be able to bring Quinn home.

  “I did. He is not well. He doesn’t trust me.”

  “Where is he in the waking world? Atlanta?”

  “He refused to say.”

  “Can you help him? Please?”

  “Of course, sweetheart. I will help him as much as I can. But I may not be able to help you find him in the waking world. He seems to not want to be found. Right now my priority will be to teach him to navigate this world safely.”

  “Can I come with you next time?” Allie asked.

  “I need you to stay away from this dreamscape for a while.”

  “Why?”

  “He can sometimes hear you and Aidan, but he can’t see you. It upsets him. Quinn is not in his right mind and he desperately needs my help.”

  “You’ll teach him, won’t you?”

  “Of course. But I’m afraid that means I cannot visit you. I am a powerful dreamwalker, but I am limited by how much time I can spend here. The longer I stay, the more difficult it is to leave.”

  “Oh. So if you help him, you won’t have enough time left over to visit me?”

  “I’m afraid not.”

  “Go. Help Quinn. We will see each other again soon.”

  “I may not be able to speak to you at all, Allie. This could be the last time we speak for a while.”

  “I’m okay, Navid. I’m doing well. I’m safe and making good progress with my dreams. Quinn needs you more than I do right now … not that I won’t miss you.”

  “I will call you back to this place as soon as I’m able. I do not think it’s wise to tell his parents about this. I will help him in this world, but he may refuse help in the waking world. I believe he fears his family will suffer if they keep trying to find him.”

  “Please, try to let me know what you find out?”

  “I will, daughter. It is good to see you doing so well.”

  Allie waved as he faded away. She would miss him, but she hoped it wouldn’t be long before she would see him again in the real world.

  ~~~

  CHAPTER

  TWENTY-FIVE

  The yard. Midnight. BYOKS

  —Graham

  “Did you just get this text from Graham?” Allie asked. She was curled up on the sofa in Aidan’s office, studying for her AP English class.

  “Yeah, we haven’t done this in forever.” He grinned down at his phone.

  “What the crap does BYOKS mean?”

  “Bring your own kitchen sink.” He laughed. “That’s Graham for bring food and lots of it.”

  “Party in the yard? Junk food? Please say there will be buckets of junk food.”

  “Looks like it. Let’s go raid the kitchen. We’ll grab a couple of bottles from Dad’s bar on the way.”

  As Allie pilfered the kitchen for anything that didn’t look like it belonged on the list of Naeemah-approved foods, she saw a glimmer of Graham pacing nervously across the yard, waiting for them to arrive.


  “Wait.” Allie handed Aidan a bag of cookies. “Um … I think this might be an important thing for Graham tonight.”

  “What do you mean?” Aidan asked as they headed down the hall toward the yard, arms loaded down with everything they could carry.

  “Let’s just say if Graham were to make an … announcement, would you be prepared for that?”

  “What kind of announcement? Could you be more vague—oh!” Aidan stopped and looked at her. “Well, it’s about time.”

  When they arrived at the yard, Chloe and Graham were busy putting drinks in an ice chest while Sasha set up chairs around the bonfire blazing bright under the growing darkness.

  “Great, you’re all here.” Graham had all the food they could steal spread out on a table with pizzas and cold beers for everyone.

  “We should do this more often,” Aidan said, digging into his pizza.

  “Hello, food. How I’ve missed you. Would anyone judge me too harshly if I dipped my cheese pizza in the nacho cheese sauce?” Allie asked, eyeing the bubbling cheesy goo perched on a hot stone by the fire.

  “Ew. That’s gross, Allie.” Chloe laughed.

  “I don’t care, it sounds delicious. I’m doin’ it.”

  As Allie reached for the cheese dip, Graham cleared his throat and shifted nervously.

  Allie gave him her best “you-can-do-it” smile and sat back, letting him take his time to get to the reason they were all there.

  “How about a toast?” Graham said.

  “Go for it, little dude.” Aidan gave him a pat on the shoulder.

  “I know we’ve all been preoccupied with our own shit lately. We’re all dealing with issues. We all miss Quinn and everything is just messed up these days. But I love you guys and I miss this.” He raised his beer for a toast.

  “Here, here,” Aidan said.

  “And I’m gay, by the way. But I’m pretty sure none of you have a problem with that, so … let’s drink to that.” Graham smiled and tapped his beer bottle with Aidan’s.

  “Cheers to that.” Allie beamed at him, knowing it was a huge relief to have that behind him now.

  “He would be proud of you,” Sasha said softly.

  “I miss my brother.” Graham nodded, staring at the label on his bottle. “I feel like … making it official like that means I’m moving on without him.”

  “He wouldn’t want any of us to stop living,” Allie said. “No matter what happens, no matter where he is, Quinn wants us to go on living. To be happy. We can do that and not feel guilty because we are doing everything we can to bring him home.”

  “Well said.” Aidan lifted his bottle and took a drink.

  Allie’s mind swirled with colors and images as she fell into a vision. The night was dark and moonless. She couldn’t see her own feet as she stumbled along the steep path leading down to the beach. The only sound that reached her ears was the crunching of the fall leaves beneath her feet and the occasional hoot of an owl in the trees. She felt a complete absence of fear this time. Nothing here could hurt her. Nothing could scare her because it was just Allie and the darkness.

  It was boring. She could smell the fires, but saw no flames. It was like the cold blackness of the void she experienced in the final moments of her Awakening. But this time all her other senses were alive.

  Focus on the important details and discard the rest.…

  “Clearly sight isn’t important tonight,” she whispered softly into the darkness. “Why can’t there ever be a flashing neon sign that just says, ‘Allie, your vision means you’ll eat chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast.’”

  As she trudged ahead, she tried to focus on each sense individually. The night air was crisp and cold—like the night before the first snowfall. If she could see, she knew her breath would come out in a steady puff of white fog. She listened to the waves lapping at the shore, but something was off. “I’m nowhere near Kelleys Island.”

  She turned toward the lake with a frown. Her sense of direction was completely skewed. Allie gazed up at the distant stars, looking for the familiar constellations and the North star, hoping to get a better sense of where she was. With her head tilted to the sky, Allie turned until the world righted, and she faced north.

  She was somewhere just to the south of Niagara or Buffalo. Wherever she was, it was in the middle of freaking nowhere. Allie stepped onto a well-worn path along the beach––the faint light of the stars illuminating the way. She followed the path behind the little cottage where it turned sharply to rise along the sloped dunes to the apple orchard secreted away in the middle of the huge forest. A big red barn sat nestled among the apple trees. The cloying scent of the fruit threatened to make her nauseous. She’d spent so much time in the orchard lately she wasn’t sure she could ever stomach the sight of an apple again.

  She could sense the fires and chaos just out of reach beyond the shadows. She wasn’t bothered by the horrors of being right in the thick of it anymore. Without the fear, she could focus and examine the mundane details carefully. This vision was important. She didn’t know how. She still didn’t know what any of it meant, but it was time she figured out what her gift was trying to tell her.

  As she continued along the path across the orchard and through the woods again, Allie made her way back into the clearing, near the gates. The blood red moon burst from behind the clouds and flooded the sloping lawn with light. A rambling old mansion rested atop a distant hill with miles of green lawns and gardens surrounding it. Allie could feel the heat of the fires drawing in closer. She couldn’t see the flames, but she could smell the smoke. As she approached the house, her vision blurred and she saw red. Everything was red. The green lawn was bathed in blood and her vision blurred and cleared until she was back among her friends beside the bonfire.

  You okay? What was that? Aidan asked.

  A vision. I’ve never had a waking one quite that long before. It’s usually over pretty quickly and it never makes much sense.

  Something terrible would happen at that house. She just didn’t know what it could possibly be.

  Any idea what this one means?

  No idea.

  You’ve never actually been there, have you?

  Where? You recognized the place?

  Yeah, that was Imogen and Lucien’s house up near Buffalo.

  Her visions had officially struck way too close to home now.

  ~~~

  CHAPTER

  TWENTY-SIX

  “Allie, I just don’t think there’s enough to go on,” Liam said.

  “I know. I’m sorry. I just wish this all wasn’t so hard to decipher.” Allie paced the length of her room. All she could really tell him was that she had a bad feeling something terrible was going to happen at Imogen and Lucien’s house at some point in the nondescript future. He was right. There was nothing she could do to prepare for such a vague possibility from the visions and dreams she didn’t fully understand yet. There was something she was missing. Some small piece of the puzzle she hadn’t figured out yet.

  “Allie, don’t apologize. You are young and you’re human. We are not perfect, nor infallible. All you can do is to keep doing what you’ve been doing. You’re making so much progress, little one. I’m proud of you. You’re handling your dreams all on your own now.”

  “Thanks, Liam.” But Allie had an overwhelming sense of urgency about these dreams. She didn’t figure it out soon enough last year when she first started dreaming of the caves. She never wanted to make that mistake again. The next time she dreamed of the orchard, she had to look for the details she was missing.

  ~~~

  The stench of overripe apples made Allie gag.

  God I hate apples. She could feel the cool breeze wash across her face and the grass tickling her cheek where she lay in the orchard. After what felt like hours of searching, she'd come up with nothing.

  “Wake up, we have work to do,” a familiar voice said. “You need my help this time.”

  “No, that can’t be righ
t,” Allie muttered.

  “Up!”

  “So much nope. I’m going to lay here, pretending I haven’t lost my mind.”

  “Get. Up.”

  Allie cracked her eyes opened and closed them again quickly. “Jeez. I’m talking to myself now. Literally, talking to myself.”

  “Come on, I figured it out and there isn't much time left now. You have to put your face on the game, sister.”

  “I think you mean ‘put my game face on.’” Allie groaned as she reluctantly got to her feet.

  “That’s what I said.”

  “How can my subconscious gift be such a dork?” Allie stared at the identical version of herself looking blankly back at her. “Please tell me my hair doesn’t look like that?”

  “Shut up and let’s do this,” gift-Allie said. Her face was so serious and pale, the real Allie knew this was not going to be good. After weeks of dreaming about this place, something significant might finally happen now.

  “Show me.”

  “Come on. And pay attention. We only get to do this once.”

  “I can’t be that bossy,” Allie muttered as she followed herself through the orchard and along the well-worn path to the big house on the hill.

  “Come on, keep up.”

  “I’m coming.” Allie hurried to match her gift’s faster stride. Clearly this was important.

  Or clearly, I have finally cracked and I’m on my way to the loony bin.

  “No jokes, funny girl. This is serious. Pay attention.”

  “What are you, a mind reader?” Allie snapped.

  The withering glare she gave herself could have cut glass.

  “Right, that was totally dumb. Don’t tell anyone I said that. So what are we looking for?”

  “We’re eavesdropping.” Gift-Allie sank into a crouch as they approached the back of the house. She slipped up to the patio door and crept inside.

  Allie heard familiar voices coming from the living room.

  “Can they actually see us? Couldn’t we just walk in and take a seat and see what’s up?”

  “Oh, right.” The shock on gift-Allie’s face was rather insulting.

  “Oh come on, let’s just do this.” Allie stood and walked across the empty kitchen to the living room at the front of the house where Gregg and Naeemah sat in conference with Imogen, Lucien, Aide, and Hélène. Allie and her gift sat on the couch beside Naeemah and watched.