He looked so alone, sitting on a downed tree in the middle of a forest of them. I could feel his pain, his sorrow. Once again, it was as if I was floating just above him. I wanted to reach out and run my fingers through his hair, hug him close. Comfort him somehow. I didn’t know what was wrong, but I hated watching him hurt like he was.
He sighed, leaning forward and placing his forearms on his knees. Closing his eyes, he bowed his head. “I will find you. I promise.” The words were a vow. A promise. I found myself wanting to know more. Find who? Who was missing? I wanted to help him. I reached out to touch that silky looking dark hair that was calling to me, when he stiffened. Yanking my hand back quickly, I froze when he growled, “What are you doing here?”
Thinking he was talking to me, that he somehow knew I was there like last time, I was trying to figure out how to reply when I heard a soft, sweet voice say, “Gavin sent me to find you. We’re training in twenty minutes.”
A girl emerged from the wooded area, walking over to sit beside him. She was petite, with short, dark curls surrounding wide eyes full of compassion. A twinge of jealousy pierced my heart, but I pushed it aside. Whoever this girl was, the boy wasn’t moving toward her. He wasn’t reaching for her hand, and didn’t seem to even want her there.
“I’m busy.”
She laughed, a breezy, twinkling sound that filled the air. “I can see that.”
He shrugged, raising his head, his emerald eyes seeming to look right through me.
When he stayed silent, the girl whispered, “You need to train. How else will you ever get strong enough to go find her?”
Her. That one word was like a knife to my heart. He was looking for a girl. One who wasn’t me. Gritting my teeth, I pushed the pain aside. I was being stupid. How did I even know what was happening was real? That he was real? He could just be someone I made up. A product of my overactive imagination. But something told me it wasn’t just a dream.
“It’s been so long,” the boy rasped in agony, slamming a hand down on the log. “How do I know she’s even still alive? They killed my parents! They took her! There wasn’t anything I could do about it.”
The girl placed a gentle hand on his arm, ignoring him when he tried to pull away. “We are going to find your sister, Eben. I promise.”
Eben. His name was Eben. Just knowing that made everything seem so much more real. I’d never heard the name before, and it definitely wasn’t one I would have made up on my own. I liked it.
He stood, striding three short steps away before stopping, his back to the girl. “I’ll be there in a few minutes.” When she rose and went to leave, he called out, “Brielle.”
“Yes?”
“Thank you.” He paused, “You’re a good friend.”
Her face lit up, but all she said was, “So are you,” before slipping away into the trees.
All was quiet for a moment, then he growled lowly, “I know you’re here. I can feel you.”
I froze. Obviously, he was talking to me now.
Turning, he looked my way, but I knew he couldn’t actually see me. “Who are you?”
Unsure what to do, I stayed silent.
“You don’t feel evil to me.” Bracing his legs apart, he crossed his arms over his chest and cocked his head to the side. He was so beautiful. “I have no idea how you are here, or why you are. But, just so you know, if you mean to harm any of my friends, I will kill you.”
I smiled, floating a little closer to where he stood. There was no doubt in my mind that he would follow through with his threat if I harmed one of his people, but I liked that about him. He was strong, protective, and still in so much pain.
“What’s her name?” I whispered, before I could stop myself.
His eyes began to glow, the dark green bleeding into a golden color before turning back. I gasped in shock, but didn’t move, entranced by the way they shone.
“Whose name?” he demanded, his hand going to his sword.
He’d heard me. I was surprised. For some reason, I was thinking he wouldn’t be able to hear anything I said, the way he couldn’t see me.
“Your sister’s.” I don’t know why it was so important that he tell me. I just felt an overwhelming desire to help him if I could. “What’s her name? Why is she missing?”
“What’s your name?” he growled. When I didn’t reply, he bared his teeth at me, and I was surprised to see small fangs. “A name for a name.”
Something held me back from giving him my real name. As much as I wanted to, something told me now wasn’t the time, but I didn’t want to lie to him, either. Finally, I settled on the nickname Trey always called me. “Bel.”
“Bel?”
“Yes, my name is Bel.”
His eyes narrowed in my direction, and he demanded, “Short for what?”
No, he wasn’t getting that information. I wasn’t ready to share it just yet. “I gave you my name, now give me hers.”
“Why can’t I see you?”
I hesitated before replying, “I’m not sure. This is all new to me.”
“What is?” he asked in confusion.
“These… dreams.”
“Dreams?”
“I don’t know what else to call them,” I whispered, suddenly unsure of myself. Would he think I was crazy? Was I?
“Are you telling me you connect with people in your dreams?”
I heard the disbelief in his voice and didn’t blame him. I was still trying to come to terms with it myself. “Yes.”
He frowned, lost in thought for a moment, before he finally said, “You’re dreaming, but I’m not.”
Skye had been awake when I somehow connected to her, too, I realized. A dream to me, reality to them.
“Can you do this when you are awake?”
“I’ve never tried,” I admitted. Suddenly, he began to fade away in front of me. Reaching toward him, I cried out his name. I wasn’t ready to leave yet. I wanted to talk more with him, wanted to see if I could feel him if I actually did touch him.
“Bel! What’s happening?”
“I don’t know,” I whispered, fighting to stay with him. “I’m losing you.”
“Bel!”
“I’ll be back,” I promised, praying he heard me.
“Tillie,” he called out, rushing forward, as if trying to find me. “Her name is Tillie. Tillie Blackborn.” I watched him shake his head as he looked around. “And… I’m talking to thin air. I must be going crazy.”
It was the last thing I heard before I lost the connection.
I felt the hand on my arm, shaking me, and I sat up quickly, clutching the dagger from under my pillow in my right hand.
“Bel, stop, it’s just me.”
I heard Trey’s voice, but my mind was back with Eben still, in the middle of a forest of trees, wishing I could reach out and touch him. His sister was missing. Tillie. The need to help him find her was pushing at me.
“I have to help him,” I whispered, my gaze finally focusing on Trey’s. “He’s in so much pain.”
I hadn’t meant to let that slip. No one knew about my dreams involving Eben. I kept them to myself, not knowing if they were just that. Dreams.
“Who?” Trey asked, his eyes full of concern. “Who do we need to help?”
We, not you. That was one thing I loved about my cousin. He was always there for me, no matter what. All he knew was that I needed to help someone, and he was right there with me.
Shaking my head, I sighed, letting the dagger drop to the bed beside me as I slid up and rested against the headboard. “Eben.” His name left my lips on a sigh, my eyes glistening with tears as I remembered how much he was suffering right now.
“Who’s Eben?”
I glanced over to where my dad and Skye were sitting at a table in front of a window, the drapes pulled tightly shut. Light leaked in through the dark curtains, but it didn’t seem to bother me so much anymore. I was getting used to being out in the sun, and the original discomfort I felt was almost gone. Closing my eyes, I rubbed my hand over my face, wishing I could slip back into that dream. Back to Eben.
“Bellame?”
Sighing, I opened my eyes and glanced back over at Dad, knowing he wasn’t going to let it go. Now, I was going to have to share Eben with all of them. “He’s just a boy I’ve been dreaming about.”
“Ohhhh,” Skye said, her eyes widening as a smile crossed her lips. “Is he cute?”
“Is he cute?” Trey said incredulously, shaking his head at her. “She just said the guy needs help, Skye, and you want to know if he’s cute?”
Skye blushed in embarrassment, then glared at my cousin. “Shut up, Trey.”
I laughed. I couldn’t help it. After everything she’d been through, Skye still wasn’t afraid to stand up for herself.
“It’s okay, guys. Really. Eben isn’t in any trouble right now.”
“But you said he is in pain,” Dad said in confusion. “If he’s hurting, we need to find him.”
“He’s not the one we need to find.” He wasn’t, his sister was.
“I think you better explain, Daughter.”
“I don’t even know if he’s real, Dad.” I didn’t, but I strongly suspected he was.
“Only one way to find out,” Trey said, walking over to collect his laptop from where it was charging on an end table. My cousin was a computer nerd. He loved the things. If anyone could find out information on what was going on with Eben, he could.
Sighing again, I flipped back the covers and slid from the bed. “Look, there really isn’t much to tell. I’ve connected with him somehow in my dreams. I don’t know much, except that his sister, Tillie, is missing. He’s hurting because he can’t find her. I want to help him.”
“What’s his last name?” Trey asked, watching me closely, fingers posed over the keyboard as he waited.
I paused, thinking back to our conversation. “Blackborn. He said his sister’s name is Tillie Blackborn.”
“How old are they?”
“I’m not sure. He looks about my age. I think his sister is younger, but I really don’t know.”
“Do you know where they’re from? Their parents’ names?’
His fingers were already flying across the keyboard as he went hunting for information.
“No, I don’t really know anything else except what I’ve told you.”
Trey nodded, but didn’t answer. He was so focused on what he was doing, I decided I had time for a shower. Grabbing my bag, I left the room, my thoughts on Eben and his sister. I had so many questions. What had happened to them? Where were their parents? Where was Eben now? Where was his sister?
I had my answers to a few of those questions when I walked out of the bathroom fifteen minutes later. Dad, Skye, and Trey were all sitting at the table, looking at the laptop screen. Skye’s gaze rose to meet mine, and I caught my breath at the horror in her eyes.
“What is it?” I whispered, dropping my bag to the floor and crossing the room to them.
There on the computer screen was a picture of Eben. He was younger, with short hair and a scrawnier build, but it was definitely him. He was real. Slowly, I reached out and traced a finger over his features. “He’s real.”
“So is Tillie,” Trey said quietly, “and she’s been missing for over three years now.”
“What happened?”
“They say it was a home invasion,” Dad inserted, leaning back in his chair. “A robbery gone wrong. Eben’s parents were killed and his ten-year-old sister taken.”
“Kidnapped?”
“Yeah, but they have no idea by who,” Trey said, flipping the computer back around to face him. I wanted to protest but stopped myself. They didn’t need to know how hooked I was by Eben Blackborn already. It was no one’s business but my own. “Looks like they tried following the trail for a while, but it went cold.”
“And they just stopped looking for her?” I demanded, anger flooding me at the thought of the scared, young girl out there somewhere.
Trey turned the computer back to me, and there was Tillie Blackborn, the spitting image of her brother, except with longer hair and more petite features. I picked up the laptop and walked over to sit on one of the beds. It only took me a few minutes to skim through the tiny article. There wasn’t much there. The house was broken into around midnight, Jacob and Amy Blackborn were murdered, Eben was shot and left for dead, and little Tillie was kidnapped. I skipped to the next open tab on Trey’s computer, and then the next, following Eben’s life in the paper, until there were no more. Eben made it through surgery and survived. He was placed in foster care until he went missing a couple of years later. The police followed a few leads on Tillie, but seemed to give up when nothing panned out and she was never found.
“Do you know where Eben is now?” I asked, clicking on the first tab and staring at his face, so much younger, but just as sad.
“No, but I haven’t had a chance to look too closely into it,” Trey said, rising from his chair. “Unfortunately, we don’t really have time right now either. We need to get to the Braxton’s before the sun goes down and the Lexingtons show up. I still don’t trust them.”
“Me neither,” Dad agreed, also standing. “I know this boy is important to you, Bellame, but we need to stick with our plan.”
“We have a plan?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Yes,” he said, walking to the door. “We need to figure out if we can trust the Lexingtons enough to fight with them by our side, we need to train together if we decide that we can, and then we need to find the prince and your grandparents and rescue them. After that, we can see about finding Eben and Tillie.”
Training… that one word brought me up short. “Training,” I whispered softly.
“What?” Dad turned back toward me, cocking his head to the side as he waited for me to continue.
“Eben was training. This girl, she came to get him because it was time to train. She said someone named Gavin sent her.”
Dad stared at me in silence for a moment before a slow smile crossed his lips. “Well, my daughter, that answers one of our questions for now.”
“It does?”
“Yep. I believe your Eben is right here in Angel’s Pass somewhere.”
“You’re kidding,” I breathed, my hand going to my throat in surprise. “He’s here?”
“If Gavin is training him, and it’s the same Gavin that I think it is, then yes, he’s right here. It also might explain how you’ve become tied to him somehow.”
“Who’s Gavin?” I whispered, knowing the answer was going to rock my soul. I was right.
“Gavin Jackson. He’s your grandfather.”