“Melaina?” The voice came from behind me. I whirled, my heart leaping back into my throat—and then felt silly when I saw Jen standing there, wearing a knee-length aqua sundress covered in bright yellow flowers and looking confused. Of course she’d shown up. It was her dream. “Is it time to study?” She looked down at her empty arms. “I … seem to have lost my books.”
“We’re seeing if I can bring Brad into your dream. Remember?”
“Oh.” She rubbed her forehead, seeming to struggle through the fog of the dream, but after a moment the baffled frown fled and she gave me a sharp look. “I forgot. How strange.”
“Not that strange. You’re not a freaky lucid dreamer like me.”
“You’re not freaky,” she said. I snorted with disbelief, and she gave me a sideways grin. “Okay, maybe a tiny bit freaky.” She examined her clothes, probably checking them for suitability for guests. She gave them a tiny, approving nod before regarding her bare feet. “Can I have some shoes? These tiles are cold.”
“Sure.” Brushing her arm with my fingers so the change didn’t cost me anything, I conjured her a pair of strappy sandals the same colour as the dress. A yellow fabric sunflower adorned each one.
“You’re better than a gold credit card at the mall,” she said with a laugh, smoothing the front of her skirt.
“If only I could take this stuff out into the real world.” I sighed, turning to look back out the window. Leander had disappeared from view, presumably into the green star that was Brad’s dreaming mind. The idea made me want to squirm with discomfort. “Leander’s gone to get Brad. I can’t do it. No wings.”
“Leander?” Jen crossed to my side and peered out the window. “I’ve always wanted to see what he looks like.”
“He’s annoying,” I groused, “but kind of cute, if insects are your thing.”
She raised her eyebrows at me archly. “Worried?”
“A little,” I said. I was about to say more, but the appearance of Leander, carrying something—no, someone—across the void made the words stick in my throat. The person was a small boy with a shock of dark hair. As they came closer I saw his eyes were closed, but I knew they’d be a chocolatey brown. I’d met pre-pubescent Brad in his dreams once before. Last time it had been in a dream version of his grandmother’s house … which I’d then burned to the ground in a gas explosion. Oops.
“Is that a tiny Brad?” Jen squealed as Leander came to hover before the window.
“Yeah,” I said, pulling her back by the arm so the Oneiroi could land on the sill, ducking his head as he stepped through.
“Here.” Leander handed the sleeping child to me. I breathed a quiet sigh of relief. This would be awkward enough as it was without Brad waking in Leander’s arms. “I decided to take the miniature version.”
“Well, why wouldn’t you?” Jen stepped forward, holding out her hand for Leander to shake. “Much more portable.”
“You must be Jen.” Leander bent forward to kiss the back of her hand. “Delighted to meet you. Melaina talks about you all the time.”
“Really?” Jen’s eyes sparkled and a blush shaded her cheeks a pretty red.
“Of course. When we’re not busy fighting nightmare demons, that is.”
“Naturally. Who has time to chat mid-combat?”
Half listening to their banter, I turned, placing the sleepy child on his feet and holding him upright as he swayed, his eyelids fluttering. Brad made an impossibly cute kid. “Wake up,” I whispered, sending a surge of energy into him, imagining him fully grown and in adult clothes rather than the cartoon T-shirt and high-waisted jeans that would’ve been all the rage in the nineties. The effect was rather strange to watch; as his eyes opened to regard me, his face lost the softness of youth and he grew taller. The fabric twisted and changed into slacks and a white collared shirt. I hadn’t consciously chosen those clothes, but Brad looked hot in business attire. I staggered, unbalanced by my hands on his sides as his weight shifted.
“Steady.” Leander caught me by the elbow and gave me a bright smile. Behind him, Jen looked him up and down, examining his wings with wide eyes.
“Where are we?” Brad said sleepily, rubbing his forehead.
“Jen’s dream.”
“Jen’s…” His hands dropped to his sides, and he gave me a relieved hug. “It worked! I knew you could do it.”
“Not so much,” I said, indicating Leander with a nod and a grimace. “It turns out it is possible to bring one person into another’s dream, but only a full-blooded Oneiroi can do it. It’s a wing thing. Brad, this is Leander. Leander, this is my boyfriend, Brad.”
“Pleased to meet you.” Brad held out his free hand as Jen had done, keeping the other hooked around my waist.
Thankfully, Leander didn’t kiss Brad’s hand, just shook it. “And you.” The look the Oneiroi gave Brad was appraising, his eyes narrowed and his normally cheerful lips pressed together in a flat line.
Jen broke the awkward silence. “I thought you’d be more insect-y.”
“Insect-y?” Leander’s smile was back.
“Yeah, you know. Antennae, bug eyes—that sort of thing.”
Leander laughed. “No, we look human. For the most part.” He flexed his wings the same way another man might flex his muscles. Jen ducked as one of his hindwings brushed her shoulder.
“Shall we go somewhere with a little more space?” I said, trying to keep from laughing. “If you’re going to keep flapping those things around, we need more headroom.”
“Right you are,” Leander said, not the least bit embarrassed. “My lady?” He held out his hand to Jen. After a brief hesitation, she took it and, without another word, Leander changed her dream.
I’d expected Leander to completely rewrite the dream to something outdoorsy; he’d done that to me more than once. But he surprised me by moving us within the existing dream. We appeared in the middle of a high-ceilinged reading room. Tables stood in rows along each side of a central aisle, each with a pair of blue-shaded reading lamps angled downwards. Arched windows lined the walls, sunlight pouring through, and the ceiling above rose to a dome. I raised my eyebrows at Jen. “Awesome library.”
“Too much study, I guess,” she said with a shrug.
Brad, who’d materialised several tables down from us, crossed to my side with a glare at the Oneiroi, pulling out a chair and seating himself. Feeling daring even though there wasn’t a librarian in sight to scold me, I sat on the table beside him, my knee against his shoulder. I was sure Leander had deliberately moved Brad away from me in transit. Was he trying to make my life hard?
Jen leaned against a table and crossed her arms as she regarded Leander. “Can I ask you a question?”
“Sure.” He adopted the same casual pose as her, leaning against a table across the aisle from hers.
“Is Ikelos still alive?”
Leander stiffened, his eyes widening and his wings jerking with surprise. One of them knocked a lamp to the side. I cringed as it teetered on the edge of the table, but Leander twisted around, steadying it before it could crash to the floor.
“I take it that’s a yes?” Jen said.
“It’s a no,” Leander said, struggling to look calm even as his fingers tightened against the tabletop. “Or, rather, it’s an I don’t know. Why do you ask?”
“Melaina told us about meeting the Morpheus,” she said. Leander glanced at me and I gave him an apologetic shrug. “He seemed very interested in what happened to his brother,” Jen continued. “We think maybe he doesn’t believe Ikelos died.”
“I don’t know what the Morpheus thinks,” Leander said. “He doesn’t confide in me.”
“But you suspect we’re right, don’t you?”
“I … have wondered, yes.”
“Well, crap,” Jen muttered. Leander nodded in agreement.
“What does this mean for Melaina?” Brad asked, seeming to forget his irritation at the Oneiroi in the face of a more pressing concern. “If Ikelos is still alive, will he come after her?”
Leander’s gaze flicked to meet mine, and I read the answer in his sombre regard before he spoke it aloud. “He might.” A chill ran down my spine and I inched closer to Brad, seeking comfort in his warmth. “But he probably won’t,” Leander added hurriedly. “The exile from court came with some very specific terms—that he disappear and not make a fuss. Breeding blights obviously puts him in contravention of those. The Morpheus won’t let him roam free, not now he knows. If Ikelos has realised his brother was here, he’ll have left the city. Maybe the country. He always did prefer the Mediterranean.” He gave me a soft smile that I suspected was meant to be reassuring. But something he’d said niggled at me. After a moment, I figured it out.
“Was?”
“Pardon?” He blinked at me.
“You said ‘his brother was here’. Has the Morpheus gone already?”
Leander nodded. “But don’t worry, you won’t be alone. He left me and a few others in the area, just in case.”
Brad stood, his eyes narrowing. “What about my grandad, moth boy? He promised—”
“It’s all taken care of,” Leander interrupted. I glared at him, and he added in a softer tone, “Though I regret to inform you that your grandfather is still in a coma. It … doesn’t look good.”
“Oh.” Brad looked down the length of the reading room, blinking hard. “Excuse me.” He strode away, the sound of his shoes striking the tiled floor echoing in the empty space.
“Crap,” I murmured, standing to follow him. “I should’ve told him straight away.”
Leander caught my arm before I could follow Brad. “Can I talk to you for a second?”
“But…” I looked from my boyfriend’s retreating back, stiff with tension, to Leander’s furrowed brow. “Alright, but make it quick.”
Leander led me several tables away and then waved his hand. A shimmer appeared in the air around us, like hot air above a summer road, and both Jen and Brad froze. “I paused the dream.”
“You can do that? Freeze non-ephemera?” I stared at him. “That would’ve been useful when we were fighting those blights, you know.”
“I can’t do it for long, or when someone or something is actively resisting me,” he said. Then he took a deep breath, as if bracing for something. Uh-oh. “Remember how the Morpheus said that an Oneiroi revealing his or her nature to a human is against our laws?”
I folded my arms. “Yes. But I figured that horse has bolted, as far as Mum, Brad and Jen go. They’ve known about me for ages.” Though I did tell them about the Morpheus, and now Leander knows it. He worked for the Morpheus. Would he have to tell his ruler what I’d done? I realised I was biting my lip and forced myself to stop.
“You’re fine. You’re only half Oneiroi. Our laws don’t apply to you.”
I raised an eyebrow, wishing he’d told me that before I’d met the Morpheus—it would have saved me a lot of stress. “What about you, though? Do you have some sort of ‘Morpheus’s Hawk’ loophole?”
He shook his head, grimacing.
“Then why on earth did you stick around once I told you what I was doing?”
“Because you needed my help to bring Brad across here,” he said, his gaze sliding away from mine to the shelves behind me.
“That excuse is pretty feeble,” I said gently. “I didn’t need him here for anything important.”
“I know,” he replied, the corner of his mouth quirking in a rueful half-smile. “That’s why I’d rather not need to use it. If you do run into one of the other Oneiroi, please don’t mention that I met Brad and Jen.”
A slow grin spread across my face. “What’s in it for me?”
“Hey!” Leander’s eyes widened and he put a hand to his chest, feigning shock. “After all I’ve done for you?”
“I’m teasing. Of course I won’t tell.”
“Thank you.” He turned back to Jen and Brad, raising his hand as though to end a spell.
“Wait.” I caught his hand before he could gesture, and he turned back towards me. “Do you really think Ikelos is alive? Honestly?”
“Honestly?” He regarded me, his eyes shadowed. “Yes, I do. We’re not that easy to kill.”
Lava is easy? I swallowed hard around a sudden tightness in my throat. “And do you really believe he left the city?”
Leander shook his head. “Leaving would be the smart thing to do, but he’s always been reckless. That’s what got him into trouble in the first place. He was the younger brother but tried to take the throne.”
“Oh.” I stared down at my boots. “Well, thanks for hanging around, I guess. At the very least, there are bound to be more free-range blights that need dealing with.”
“Melaina.” The seriousness of his tone drew my gaze back to his face. “I won’t let anything happen to you. I promise.” He squeezed my hand before releasing it and turning back to the others and completing the gesture he’d been about to do. “Now go, comfort your boyfriend,” he said, his voice carefree once more.