“Where shall we do this?” I looked between Brad and Jen. The former looked excited, the latter curious and anxious in equal measure. Jen had agreed to Brad’s suggestion that we see whether my powers extended to bringing one person into another’s dream, but now I wondered whether she was regretting it, at least a little. I knew I was—I had no idea where to even begin, and I didn’t want to disappoint Brad. But I’d promised him I’d try, so here we were.
“In the lounge room?” Jen suggested, running her hands down the front of her T shirt. She’d changed into comfortable clothes once we’d decided to give our little experiment a go. So had Brad, swapping his jeans for a pair of winter-weight pyjama pants that he’d left here.
I was still in yoga pants. Fresh ones, though.
“Your bedroom would make more sense,” I said. She blushed and I hurried to add, “Or mine. You know. Whatever.”
“It’s too early for bed,” Jen said as we filed into the lounge room. Afternoon sun streaked through the open blinds, bathing the room with slatted golden light. The door to my office was open, the doorway framing Jat’s dreamcatcher perfectly. I even had a desk sitting beneath it on the far wall, though I’d yet to save up for a computer. It was the first thing I was going to buy when I had the money. Too many customers contacted me via email, and I hated that they had to wait for a reply.
“Well, yeah.” I turned away from the office to face my boyfriend and best friend. Brad’s eyes were bright, while Jen shuffled from foot to foot. “But we aren’t planning on staying asleep. It shouldn’t take more than a few minutes to know whether it’s going to work or not. Half an hour at most.”
“If it would make Jen more comfortable, I’m happy to do it here,” Brad said, and I bit my lip to hold in the inappropriate giggle at his words. Anyone would think we were planning something a little kinky. Maybe that was why Jen was so keen to stay out of the bedroom? Was the idea of lying on a bed with the two of us that weird?
On reflection, maybe she was right.
“Okay,” I said. “But if anyone gets a crick in their neck, it’s not my fault.”
“Understood.” Brad grinned, placing his phone, wallet and keys in a neat little stack on the coffee table. Jen nodded, some of the tension easing from her shoulders.
We settled in, Brad and Jen sitting on either side of me and arranging our colourful cushions around them until they were comfortable. I leaned over Brad first, kissing his lips lightly. “Nighty night?” he said, and I nodded. Then I put him under, puffing gently on his face. His breathing slowed instantly to the even, deep rhythm of sleep.
“That’s kinda freaky to watch.” Jen looked a little pale. “I’ve never seen the process from the outside before.”
“I had a breath mint, at least, so you won’t get heinous coffee breath,” I teased, trying to lighten the mood. “And I don’t have to kiss you first.”
She rolled her eyes. “I know that, Netflix girl.”
I glanced at Brad, who was out for the count. I’d picked him to go first deliberately. “Look, are you sure you want to try this? You seem pretty wound up.”
“It’s just…” She looked down, examining a glittering ring on her pinkie finger. A rose quartz gemstone winked as she moved her hand in the sunlight, motes of dust dancing around us. “Well, I’ve never had someone other than you in my dreams. I like Brad, but this is a big deal for me. Dreams are … they can be private, you know?” She looked up at me, her eyes begging for understanding.
“Is that what you’re worried about?”
She nodded, twisting the ring around.
“Do you want me to bring you into Brad’s dream instead?”
She glanced at him, her expression thoughtful, and then shook her head. “No, it’s okay. Just…”
“I won’t let your dream take any embarrassing turns while Brad’s there.” Assuming we can even get this to work. “Scout’s honour.”
“Thanks.” She reached out to squeeze my hand. Her fingers were cool in mine. “I know it’s silly.”
“No, it’s not. I should’ve thought of it sooner. I mean, I wasn’t exactly wild about having the Morpheus in my head.”
Jen smiled weakly. “At least I know you guys.” She adjusted her ponytail so it hung beside one ear rather than down the back of her neck. Then she slid her glasses off, leaning forward to place them on the coffee table. “If your mum comes home and we’re all passed out on the couch, is she going to freak?” She fluffed the cushion behind her one last time.
“Nah, I warned her before she left for work.” I turned towards Jen, propping myself against the arm of the chair. I could see why she was a little uncomfortable. Being this close to both her and Brad felt intimate. I preferred guys—but, if I didn’t, Jen would definitely be my type. As it was, sitting between them, I felt … safe. Bolstered by their trust. “Are you ready?”
“Hit me,” Jen said, closing her eyes as I leaned over her.
“See you on the flip side.”
Within heartbeats, her slow breathing joined Brad’s, a tiny almost-snore escaping her parted lips as her head lolled to one side. We should’ve done this lying down, I thought again as I took their hands in mine. Too late now.
I closed my eyes and, breathing out in a sigh, entered Erebus.
I stepped into Jen’s dream first. She wasn’t there—my power forced a person to skip the light sleep stage when they drifted off, but didn’t usually shove them straight into active dreaming. Her proto-dream this time was of a library, with mazes of book-lined corridors lit by swinging lampshades. It might have been creepy except for the delicious smell of leather bindings, dust and, more faintly, ink, adhesive and a flowery, nutty smell that I thought might be old paper.
I made my way into the dream, winding my way through the labyrinthine corridors, farther away from the light, until I found a small side chamber. Heavy slate tiles covered the floor and the walls were of bare stone. A single window looked out onto a dark sky, studded all around with stars.
No, not stars. Dreaming minds. The raw void of Erebus.
Feeling a surge of the nervousness I’d kept hidden from Brad and Jen, I pushed the window open and leaned out. The atmosphere outside seemed warmer than the cool air of the stone-lined library halls, insulated as they were, but I knew from experience that the void’s temperature was neither warm nor cold, as if it matched the temperature of my dreaming mind. What temperature that would be, I had no idea. But it felt like a mild spring day … if the spring day was completely still, pitch black and directionless.
Okay, not that much like a mild spring day.
My power to find a dream amidst the apparent chaos of the void was tied to physical proximity. Unlike an Oneiroi, I couldn’t hop from mind to mind. But I was right beside both Brad and Jen, and I somehow knew, with absolute certainty, that the star below me and to my right, the one with the faintly greenish glow, was Brad’s mind.
Now, how do I…?
“What are you doing?” The voice came from just behind me.
I jumped, my fingernails biting into the timber windowsill and my heart leaping into my throat. “Don’t sneak up on me,” I scolded Leander even as I turned to face him. He stood in the middle of the room. His dove-grey wings seemed to fill the small space, and his clothes were, for him, unusually casual and modern: neat jeans and a collared shirt with the top two buttons undone so I could catch a glimpse of his sculpted chest. His feet were bare, as usual, which was probably why I hadn’t heard him coming. Either that or he’d just materialised in that spot.
“Sorry,” he said with a grin, not at all repentant.
“What if I’d fallen?”
“I would have caught you.” His gaze slid past me to look out on Erebus.
“Still, I’d rather not risk it, thanks.” The idea of tumbling out that window, spiralling away into nothingness, tightened my stomach. Not wanting to show it, I put my hands on my hips. “Am I in trouble? Does the Morpheus want to see me again?”
“No,” Leander said, a question in his voice. “I just saw you in Jen’s dream. Is she having nightmares again?”
“Not recently.” I eyed him. “Is that really why you’re here?”
“Well, when I saw you looking out onto the void…” He paused, his own hands going on his hips in a mirror of mine. “What? Can’t I just drop by to say hello?”
“You never have before.” I turned back to look out the window. Brad’s dream hadn’t moved—at least, not relative to our position. For all I knew, we were all spinning through space together, like an arm of the galaxy.
“Well, I also wanted to let you know we’re done with the breeder blight.”
Already? That was fast. But then I realised the odd note in Leander’s reply had been hurt, and guilt was a sudden stab in my chest. Leander had saved my bacon with Daniel’s blight three weeks before. Sure, he’d had another reason for showing up then too, but still. I took a deep breath and reminded myself that, while he had been spying on me for all those years in an effort to find my father, he had also become my friend. “Sorry,” I mumbled, not turning back to him. “I didn’t mean to be crotchety.”
“It’s alright.” Leander came to stand beside me. His left wings, the primary and the hindwing, hung down behind me. Although they didn’t touch me, I could sense their presence, like the warmth of another’s hand an inch away from your skin. “I know what a moody thing you can be sometimes,” he added.
I elbowed him in the ribs, and he chuckled. “Did Mr Peterson—Brad’s grandfather—did he wake up?” I asked.
Leander shook his head, his gaze growing distant as he regarded the void before us. “I don’t think so. I can still sense his dreaming mind. It’s … well, now the breeder blight’s gone, it’s…”
“What?” I looked up at him, surprised at how close he was. His mouth was turned down at the corners and his brows were puckered in the middle.
“His dreams are formless, like his mind has been hollowed out. I think whatever damage put him in the coma in the first place is still there. I’ve seen it before.”
“Oh,” I said quietly. Brad hadn’t been expecting miracles, but he must have hoped he’d get his grandfather back. “Do I need to clean up the muck from the blight? Otherwise he might get reinfected, right?”
“It’s taken care of.”
I nodded, feeling a surge of gratitude that I wouldn’t have to wade through a formless dreamscape, cleaning up slime. Guilt followed on gratitude’s heels and I sighed, deciding to change the subject before I got maudlin. “So the reason I’m here is that I’m conducting an experiment.”
“Oh? In Jen’s dream?” Leander raised his eyebrows, the gold flecks in his irises dancing with amusement. “Tell me more.”
“Not like that.” The tips of my ears burned with sudden embarrassment. “It was Brad’s idea, actually.”
“I’ll bet.”
“Not like that,” I repeated. “He suggested that, if I could bring him into someone else’s dream, he might be able to help me fight blights and things.”
Leander snorted. “No offence to your boyfriend, but he’s not really equipped for it.”
I shrugged. “I know. But an extra pair of hands would’ve been helpful in Daniel’s dream. We could’ve collected what we needed even faster. Let’s be honest, by the time you arrived I was pretty much a regular human myself.”
“You could never be a regular human,” Leander said, his voice gentle.
Suddenly uncomfortable, I took a half-step away from him. “I meant that—”
“I know what you mean. It’s okay.” He waved my explanation away and I relaxed.
“Besides,” I said, “maybe he could contribute some extra energy to me if I needed it. It wouldn’t be ideal, but…” I shrugged.
“It doesn’t work that way,” Leander said. “We can bring one human into another’s dreams, but it costs you energy, not the other way around.”
“Oh.” My shoulders drooped. Brad would be disappointed.
“Also,” Leander added, “I don’t think this is something you could do.”
“But you just said…?”
“That’s his dream over there, right?” He pointed to the green-tinged star, and I nodded. “To bring him over here, an Oneiroi would have to fly over there and drag him back.”
I grimaced, eying Leander’s wings with a familiar surge of jealousy. “Ah.”
“Still,” he said with a grin, “this is a great opportunity for me to meet your boyfriend and your best friend at the same time.” He placed his hands on the window frame and launched himself forward, air from his wings buffeting me as they thrust downwards, just missing my bare arms.
“Isn’t revealing your nature to a human without permission illegal?” I called after Leander. If he heard me, he gave no indication, kiting through the void towards Brad’s dream like an eagle riding a thermal. What was he playing at?
That thought was nothing compared to the sudden anxiety I felt at the idea of Leander and Brad meeting. Face to face. Was this how teenage girls felt, introducing their boyfriend to their father for the first time? Or was it more how a teenage girl felt, introducing her boyfriend to her hot, winged childhood friend?
Hot? Where the hell had that come from? Flustered, I transformed my yoga pants and shapeless T-shirt into something closer to my usual streetwear: jeans, form-fitting tee, leather boots. No way could I face this meeting in my pyjamas.