XXI

Odette stayed wrapped in Grayson’s arms. They hadn’t moved in hours. She was pretty sure that he was asleep and that she was serving as a human teddy bear. Every time she would shift her weight, he would only hold her tighter or pull her closer. She didn’t care.

It was probably early morning when Odette saw his door opening. It was Thorn; she could recognize his molten silver hair anywhere.

“What are you doing in here?” Odette rasped. Behind her, Grayson shifted in his sleep, his hand seeking hers out.

Thorn’s steps faltered. “W-well, this i-is a dream, m-miss!” He seemed almost cheerful, which was very strange for someone like Thorn.

Odette narrowed her eyes. “Why am I dreaming of you? I don’t remember falling asleep.”

“My m-master asked m-me to h-help y-you. H-he told me to make you … make you dream of h-him.” Thorn motioned to Grayson, who seemed too solid to be a part of some dream. “He said … he said it w-would make yo-you happy.”

She would have sat up if the supposed “dream Grayson” wasn’t holding her down. “You do understand that you can’t just come here, tell me this, and expect me to be fine with it. You can control dreams? I thought you just helped with the show?”

Thorn played with his fingers. “Err …”

Odette pushed him further. “How do I know that I’m not just making this all up in my head? Huh, Thorn? How can you prove it to me?”

She wasn’t in the mood to be nice.

She was much too numb to be nice.

“D-do you remember … the … no, master would … master wouldn’t l-like me reminding you.” Thorn started murmuring to himself. “M-master wasn’t himself … wasn’t himself. He h-hurt the miss.”

Odette squirmed forward as much as she could. “What are you whispering about?”

Thorn sputtered and spun back around. He went over to Grayson’s wall and hit his head on it repeatedly.

“Hey! Don’t do that! Just tell me what you’re talking about. Remind me about what? By ‘master,’ you mean Grayson, right? Why wasn’t he himself? What did he do?” Odette egged him on, straining to get closer to the end of the bed.

Thorn stopped his self-punishment and turned around. For the briefest of seconds, he forgot to lower his head and part of his face was visible. It was puckered and scarred horribly—but only on one side. She had to fight her instincts to not react. There was no telling what the man would do if she did.

“It’s okay, Thorn,” she said softer this time. “I want to know. Tell me, so I know that this isn’t a dream.”

“Do … y-you remember th-the nightmare you had … th-the night you c-came to m-mistress’ sleepover?” he said slowly, inching closer to her side.

Odette paused to reflect. She remembered waking up. Whatever she dreamed about made her run home—she remembered that too. Home, her throat tightened. She pushed past that and furrowed her eyebrows.

Then it came to her. How she “woke up” and walked down the hallway, only to find a hallway that wasn’t the same as the one as she had been in before. There was a door that led her to a dungeon … and in the dungeon was Thorn, who was bloody and beaten. Grayson appeared and then …

Odette clenched her jaw. “Yeah.”

“It wasn’t a—it wasn’t a dream, miss.”

Odette sat bolt upright, clutching the duvet to her chest. Where was she?

Grayson’s room.

The blue walls and the smell of his sheets gave it away. But where was he? Hadn’t he been right beside her? Maybe. The sheets were kind of wrinkled on the side that she wasn’t occupying.

“What a strange dream,” she muttered to herself, rubbing her forehead. It was daytime now, the light was shining through his blinds. Her head ached and it occurred to her that all of her medication had burned in the fire last night. What a pain. Literally.

There was a knock on the door. “Princess?” It was Grayson.

“Yeah?” The door opened soon after and he peeked inside. “You know you don’t have to knock, this is your room.”

He shrugged. “I wanted to make sure you were up. How did you sleep?”

“Fine,” Odette said with a yawn. She laid her head on his shoulder. “I was confused when I woke up, though. I didn’t know where you went.”

“Sorry about that; I had to go deal with people,” he grunted.

She shook her head. “This early in the morning?”

He ran his hand through his hair. “Unfortunately. But I’m back. I told Greer I wouldn’t be going to practice today; I have to make sure that you’re okay.”

Odette hated the words that were about to come out of her mouth. She reached for his hands and played with his fingers to distract herself from the thickness forming in her throat. “What … what about the police? Don’t I have to go to them today?”

“Do you want to?” He scooted himself against the headboard and tucked Odette’s head under his chin. His free hand played with the ends of her hair, waiting for her answer.

Odette didn’t know herself. She knew that she should but the thought of never seeing Grayson again terrified her. “I don’t know.”

“We can put it off another day,” Grayson suggested. “Wait until you’ve gathered your bearings.”

“I like that idea,” she muttered into his chest. She liked the shirt he was wearing—even though she was wearing one just like it. It was soft and it didn’t hinder his warmth. “Just another day.”

Despite Grayson’s efforts, Odette felt worse as the day progressed. It wasn’t anything he could help, though—at least, not readily. Missing her dose of medicine had brought on the mind-numbing headaches, and more than once had she nearly fainted on him. She was weak and it would only get worse the longer she was off her medicine.

“You don’t look very well, sweetheart,” Jethro commented that evening. He was in the library, looking for something that probably wasn’t a book.

Grayson stopped reading aloud—Jane Eyre—and regarded his grandfather coldly. “Way to make her feel better. If you want to help, maybe you should go out and get her some medicine instead of hoarding your money.”

Odette held up her hand weakly. “Grayson, its fine. He’s just concerned.”

Jethro rubbed his neck. He left the library—without a book—a quickly as he could.

“Don’t excuse his actions, he’s a miser. He should be helping you instead of hiding in his room and counting his money,” Grayson spat. He pinched the bridge of his nose, massaging it softly. “I wish I could help you.”

Odette closed her eyes in an attempt to quell the dizziness that she felt. “You are helping me. You’re taking care of me and comforting me.”

Grayson didn’t reply. His lips were twisted up in a snarl as he stared into the empty fireplace, deep in thought. While the mansion was freezing cold—the library, especially—he was not about to light a fire and cause Odette to have a panic attack.

“My sister will not allow me to skip rehearsal again tomorrow,” he said. “Or the show.”

“That’s okay—”

“So, you will be coming with me.” His tone didn’t leave room for her to question him. She simply had to smile and say yes. “I can’t leave you alone in this house while you’re in this condition.”

Odette opened one of her eyes to look up at him. “I’ll be fine. I don’t want to be a distraction.”

“I’ll be more distracted if you aren’t right there where I can see you.” Even though he probably shouldn’t have, he started to stroke her head. It added to the spinning sensations Odette felt but she didn’t dare tell him. “This is the clearest I’ve been able to think in a while with you right next to me.”

She hummed and held on to his pant leg, mentally willing herself to stop feeling everything. At least it was a distraction from the night before. Her hair still smelled like the smoke, something that wouldn’t leave her no matter how many times she washed it with the shampoo.

The back of her eyes burned with more tears. Odette thought she would have run out by now. They were hot, contrasting with her frozen cheeks. She didn’t know if Grayson felt them soaking his leg or not; she might be a little embarrassed if he did.

“Princess?”

Crap. Odette quickly wiped them away but it was a futile attempt. “Sorry.”

Grayson shifted slightly as he reached for something but Odette didn’t move. Something heavy covered her—a blanket in the Mages purple and blue color. “Try to rest. I promise you, you’ll have good dreams.”

That was doubtful. Every dream Odette seemed to have was a bad one. Even now, with everything that’s been going on, it would surely seep into her subconscious and dictate her dreams. When was the last time she had had a truly good dream? It must have been before she came here to Maine. She couldn’t think of one while she was living in Sunwick Grove.

Odette allowed herself to relax, ignoring the pain in her head. It felt like forever until she actually went to sleep. Maybe it was because Grayson kept staring at her.

“You’re here again,” Odette said.

She didn’t know where she was, maybe on the grounds around the mansion. It was sunny, but it wasn’t hot. Perhaps this was what it looked like in the spring time? She was sitting in the shade of a large tree with a white sundress on—which was a really bad idea because she could stain the dress if she wasn’t careful. But it was a dream. Logic didn’t matter.

“Y-yes, miss,” Thorn stammered. He had hid himself behind a tree.

Suddenly, there was a weight on her legs. She looked down to see another “dream Grayson.”

“I’m sorry, but I don’t really remember the last time that we talked,” Odette added, stroking “dream Grayson’s” hair absentmindedly. “I just remember that we did. And you told me something.”

Thorn’s head bobbed as he nodded. “Th-that tends to h-happen. This i-is st-still … still a dream, miss. Conversations w-will fade. Don’t worry.”

Odette could spy him through the branches. Why did he try and hide? What was so horrible that he couldn’t come out and face her like a normal person? Hadn’t she seen it all already? Maybe she hadn’t. Maybe there was more to him that he wanted to keep hidden.

“So, why are you here?” she asked him. “I remember you said that you … influenced dreams, right? Is that kind of like hypnotism?”

The scene shifted and, while they were still outdoors, they were now in a garden. Odette sat on a stone bench in front of a small pond with little swans floating inside. The shift made her head swirl uncomfortably but she shook it away. It was only a dream. She couldn’t afford to be dizzy in her dreams like she did in her real life.

Thorn had his back to her. He inspected the flowers that grew on the lush green bushes before him with great interest. “N-not exactly. I-I must enter … enter your mind. I c-can control th-them outside u-u-usually, but I-I must t-talk to-to you, miss.”

She frowned. “I don’t understand. Why not come talk to me in the real world instead of in my head? And how can you even do that? Are you magical like the twins?”

Thorn’s shoulders went rigid. “N-not exactly. I-it is v-very c-complicated … complicated, miss, this family that you have joined. They … they participate in-in very d-dark things. Things that someone … someone as p-p-pure as you sh-should not be n-near to.”

Odette huffed and turned away from the man. Her irritation was reaching its very limit. These people … they would never understand her. “You can’t say cryptic things like that and not expect me to ask more. I’m not ‘pure’ either; no one is ‘pure.’ That means that someone is without sin and that is impossible because we are humans.”

The girl wrapped her hand around the nearest rose and ripped it from its bush. The thorns instantly tore at her skin but the wound did not hurt and the blood dripped down onto the dress. Odette discarded the rose, not caring for it.

“M-miss, your hand!” Thorn whirled around—as though he sensed it—and rushed to her side. All thoughts of concealing his face flew out the window. Odette was left to see the full horror of it all.

He obviously wasn’t born with it, they were man-made wounds carved into his flesh … even worse, his eye. Memories of seeing it before poured into her head and she shuddered. She pulled her bloody hand from him and forced him to look up at her.

His hair fell away so she could examine the damage. His right eye had it worst—with a long scar running through it. It ran from the top of his forehead to the bottom of his nose. The left side of his face was horribly disfigured. His one good blue eye begged her to let go and filled to the brim with tears.

“Who did this to you?” she breathed, her eyes focused on his one good eye.

Thorn kept his lips sealed. He looked like he was waiting for something … pain, maybe? Did he think she would hit him?

“I’m not going to hurt you, I want to help,” Odette begged, “in any way I can.”

The man shook his head. “You would … would n-n-not understand.”

“Then explain to me. I probably won’t remember this anyway if that’s what you’re worried about. If I do, though, I want to help you.” She wanted to let go of him but she knew that, as soon as she did, he would bolt.

Thorn was wailing, fat tear drops falling from his one good eye. It was pathetic but Odette felt bad for him. “I-I-I … I can’t!”

The girl released his chin with a huff. Her blood covered him like war paint; he, however, didn’t seem to be in a hurry to wipe it away. She wasn’t sure he even knew it was there.

“Fine. Don’t tell me. Keep giving me vague bits of information in hopes that I somehow chain it all together. Do I have to come out and say that I’m a pretty dense person and need you to smack the information full force in my face?” Odette held up her hands. “But if you can’t tell me, that’s fine.”

Thorn seemed so confused. His blubbering had begun to die down, but it became more like a confused crying. Odette wondered if she had actually gotten through him. She could kind of see why Grayson and Greer were so annoyed with him when she first met him. All he did was stutter and cry.

“O-okay … I-I must, then, i-if you … if you really n-need me to,” Thorn murmured to himself. He reminded her of a child even though he had to have been in his twenties. “I-I am the source o-of m-my masters’ powers.”

Odette blinked rapidly. What? Him? How?

The man continued on. “S-Seven years ago … Master Jethro f-found a book. A da-dangerous book that … that should have not been given t-to humans at all. He l-learned a way to en-enslave a holy creature … and that is what I am. An angel who must serve the Mages family until the e-end of time. B-But, because I am here, I am c-considered fallen.” Large crocodile tears welled up in his good eye and spilled down his cheeks.

The hairs on Odette’s arms stood on end. Thorn, the man whom she thought to be the world’s largest crybaby, could not have been an angel. And Jethro? A dangerous book? The man was old, yes, but he didn’t seem to be crazy enough to try occult things.

“That’s impossible,” she whispered.

“It’s true!” Thorn insisted. “I-I can change my form but th-this is th-the one I am b-bound to. I-I helped m-master look over … look over you at night. Even be-before you k-knew my masters, I-I was gi-given the task t-to see wh-who the new family was.”

Her mouth tasted sour. Something had been watching her. It didn’t make her feel better knowing that the thing that had been there was the stuttering angel. What good could that have done? Not that she believed his story.

“Impossible,” she said to herself. She was on autopilot, feeling far too detached from this situation. She should be screaming or running. He thought he was an angel—that had to make him certifiable. And the part where he said Grayson was involved in something that he shouldn’t be. Was this it? Was this slavery? Were angels technically an oppressed race? Her head hurt thinking about it.

“I-it isn’t, though. Yo-you just need to … need to be involved in some d-dark things,” Thorn said. He looked like he was trying to be helpful with an almost dopey smile but it only served to creep her out more.

She could see her hands shaking before she felt it. “What kind of dark stuff?”

Did she really want to know? Oh, she really hoped that she would forget everything when she woke up. Her nerves were already shot, she didn’t need this.

Thorn could see her apprehension and frowned. “Black m-magic. The occult.”

Odette felt strangely relieved at this. For some reason, she believed that it would be something so much worse. The occult … and then, the surreality of the situation hit her. She was actually considering what he said—no, not even him, but a dream version of him. Something her mind made up! She couldn’t help but laugh. How could she believe anything that he said? How could she know that she wasn’t making it all up in her mind, no matter how real the dream might have felt or the strange things that seemed like they might be true?

She closed her eyes. “This is just a dream.”

Really, she wasn’t sure anymore. It felt real but not at the same time. In her mind, she felt so disconnected from reality. The place, however, was too vivid and she couldn’t control what came next. She was at the mercy of a dream-invading angel … or was she? It was starting to hurt her head even worse, thinking about the endless possibilities of it.

“This is just a dream,” she said again, firmly this time. “And I’m going to wake up now.”

Thorn’s figure swirled like it was being sucked through a whirlpool. The entire landscape drained through him and it was macabre. It was as though the world was being eaten or sucked of its life. Color went first, then all distinguishable shapes. Things were twisting and morphing; things that looked like faces of monsters or of nightmares surrounded her, and yet she stayed the same.

Odette was left floating in an endless twisting vortex. She clamped her hands over her head in an attempt to still it all but nothing worked. She wasn’t in control. The spinning didn’t even stop when she was in her own bed. The sheets were twisted up around her feet, restricting her movement, and sweat poured from every pore in her body.

Odette let out an involuntary moan of pain, clawing at the bed covers to get herself in a semi-comfortable position, but nothing was stopping the spinning. Her breaths came out in short, deep pants. She needed something—a doctor, preferably. Someone who could make it stop.

If it didn’t stop, Odette was nearly positive that she would begin to retch.

In the midst of all the agonizing spinning, she could feel pain bubble up behind her eyes and in her chest. Her heart was fluttering uncomfortably, clenching up every few seconds. Her muscles weakened and, one by one, her fingers were forcibly relaxed. The ever familiar feeling of being trapped inside of her body was nothing short of terrifying. Seconds later, her eyes rolled back into her head and she lost consciousness.

“NOT LEAVING HER!”

“YOU’LL HAVE TO AT SOME POINT! THERE’S NOTHING YOU CAN DO FOR THIS GIRL, GRAYS! ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!”

Something shattered violently. It was enough to wake Odette up from her episode, and she felt surprisingly normal aside from the crippling exhaustion that sank deep into her bones and the soreness of her muscles.

She opened one eye and peeked to see that she was still in that all white guest room. She must have been in the same position as when she fainted but she didn’t really know.

At the foot of the bed were the fuming twins. Grayson must have been the one to throw the thing that shattered because there was a glass lamp in pieces on the wall by Greer. The female twin hadn’t flinched.

“SHUT YOUR MOUTH, YOU GOOD-FOR-NOTHING! WHAT HAVE YOU EVER DONE TO HELP HER?! HOW AM I ANY WORSE THAN YOU WHO HAS TRIED TO KILL HER?!” Grayson roared. He looked like—at any second—he might throw something else.

He was terrifying. Odette had never seen him this angry, not even after both of her ER visits. He was emitting a raw power that made her want to hide underneath the covers. Or the bed. She was just glad his anger wasn’t directed at her.

Greer scoffed, her voice lowering to an icy hiss. “Don’t even get me started on that one, little brother.”

Odette shuffled back on the bed to avoid any further fire but that only drew their attention to her. They looked so similar with their live-wire blue eyes and wild expressions. She felt like the defenseless lamb in the den of two lions.

Grayson was the first one to break. He rushed to her side and drew her into his arms.

“Oh princess,” he muttered into her hair. His rough petting of her hair didn’t bother her too much but she pulled away from him all the same.

“Grayson, be at practice or else.” Greer tossed her hair over her shoulder and stormed out of the room.

Odette didn’t miss how he glared at Greer. He seemed unstable, a little too unstable for her to deal with. Still, she laid a comforting hand on his.

“How are you feeling?” he asked quietly. It was a stark contrast to his mood a moment ago.

“I feel fine. I’m tired but I’m fine.”

Grayson pursed his lips and shook his head. “I woke up because I knew something was wrong. I came in here and you were having a seizure? I didn’t know that you even had those.”

“I didn’t know either.” Odette felt like her mouth had gone dry. “It had always been a possibility but it’s never happened until now.”

“You’re getting worse?”

Odette didn’t know the answer to that. She shrugged her shoulders. The silence in the room seemed deafening.

He swore loudly, tugging on his hair. “I don’t know what to do, I’m sorry. I can’t leave you in this house by yourself, though. It’s not safe. Are you—are you well enough to go out today?”

“I’ll do whatever you need me to.” Odette glanced down at the clothing she was wearing. It was all his—a regular shirt and flannel pants. Those weren’t exactly something she would be comfortable going out in eighty-eight-degree weather. “Um … do you have anything else I can wear?”

Odette wasn’t certain where he got the dress—it was very possible that he could have raided his sister’s closet but it didn’t look like something that Greer would wear. Greer tended to stick to purples and blues and the dress was ivory and was not bold or flashy in any way.

Grayson pulled them into the parking lot of the Tent of Mystery a little too aggressively. Odette was thankful that he had loaned her a pair of his sunglasses to not only block out the sun but help hide her reactions to his angry driving.

The lot was empty aside from Greer’s car and it seemed unnatural. The last time that she had been there it was packed. Seeing it so empty was unsettling. With all of the buzz and people gone, it felt less mystical and more haunted. The tent’s pentagram was ever watchful on the grounds.

Grayson held back the tent’s velvety fabric for Odette to pass through. “You don’t have to do anything while we’re here. You can just sit in the seats for the time being. Later, you can come back to my dressing room and rest if you need to.”

She nodded, glancing back at him. “Okay, thanks.”

“Just don’t wander off,” he added.

Greer was on the stage, the harsh white lights pointing directly at her as she threw knives at a target. They connected with several thunks, all of them circling around the bull’s eye.

She turned her head briefly to show that she had indeed seen the pair come in while twirling the last knife in her fingers.

“Hello, Odette,” she greeted. She pulled her arm back and flicked her wrist, letting the weapon whizz through the air and hit the center of the target. “How has my dear brother been treating you?”

Odette swallowed thickly, making sure that she kept a distance between the two of them. The girl descended from the stairs, her heels stomping on the floor with purpose. She was dressed for the show later that evening, minus her skirt. Grayson, however, was not.

“I wasn’t certain you’d show,” Greer said to her brother. Her tone was even but her eyes were icy.

He didn’t react. “I’m here.”

Odette held onto his arm, hiding half of herself behind his body. She didn’t like the anger that was building up in between the two of them. It was as if, any second, a spark would be lit and they would explode, tearing one another to shreds. She almost couldn’t believe it; she had never seen such animosity between either of them before.

“You’re also late,” she enunciated, jabbing her finger in his chest. “You can’t use her as an excuse either. Just get up there.”

Grayson waited until she was out of his face before he did anything else. He placed Odette in a seat towards the middle. He kissed her softly, slowly. Odette knew it was to anger his sister more.

“Grayson! Now!” Greer demanded.

The boy dragged himself back, keeping his lips connected with hers as long as he could. “This won’t take long,” he assured.