Dreamweaver, page 26
The momentary distraction costed me.
The gun I held went flying as I was tackled by O. My head struck the ground, causing yellow and gray dots to burst across my vision. Everything tilted around me as O took a fistful of my hair, dragging me up by my scalp, and I screamed at the burning pain of it, clawing at his hands. To break his grip, I twisted around, pushing into him and up, snapping his wrist. He howled, and I delivered a kick to his kneecap, hardly as effective as I would have liked in my bare feet. He wobbled though, lurching back a few steps, and I sprang away to put distance between us. I searched for the fallen solargun.
“Enea!” Dayja was calling to me, but I didn’t spare her a glance. I couldn’t. I was busy struggling to reach the gun, with O clawing at me. Climbing on top of me, he elbowed me in the nose; I felt it crack with a red-hot snap. Blood flooded down my chin, spilling into my mouth, metallic and warm. I couldn’t breathe; his weight was crushing me into the ground.
Throwing a leg around him, I twisted, rolling him off. He pounced back, meeting my fist as I cracked my knuckles against his jaw.
He threw himself down against me just as a bolt sizzled through the air, right where he had been. We skidded across the loose gravel, dipping down a slope. I fought to stop my descent as the ridge loomed nearby.
O tumbled, frantically trying to brace his heels, finding no purchase. His eyes were round, terrified, and he grasped my ankle in his effort to stop, dragging me down with him.
“EN!”
Dane’s scream soared after me as we swept right over the edge, skyborne, freefalling.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Air roared around me as I spiraled.
O shot down, a sinking stone, losing his hold on me. He clawed at the air as he fell, the cragged bottom of the gorge waiting to greet him.
Inexplicably, a hot mist gathered around me, obscuring the sickening whirlwind of the world spinning uncontrollably.
And I came to a stop when I slammed into solid ground.
Not a broken bag of bones. A bit winded, but in one piece, which made absolutely no sense.
Silver grass brushed against my skin as I pushed myself up onto my hands and knees. Blood dripped from my nose, painting the grass blades. As I panted for breath, I looked up slowly, disoriented, and I found Memorykeeper inspecting me curiously from where she sat on the mouth of the well.
“You look like you have had quite an ordeal reaching this one,” she said.
“What happened?” I struggled to my feet, gingerly wiping at the blood on my face, giving up as it only smeared everywhere. “Why aren’t I dead at the bottom of the ravine?”
“Welcome to the well of air,” she told me. “Will you take the memory?”
“I thought that you said I ‘must’.”
“You do if things are to become balanced again. If the Unraveling is to be stopped. If Wretch is to be stopped. Then you must.”
“I have questions first.”
“I will answer what I can. With every memory that you enter, the stronger they become, you see. I had to break them into parts, to keep them properly hidden from those who would use my knowledge for ill.”
“What is the Unraveling?”
“The natural consequence of essence remaining unbalanced. The Unraveling is the manifestation of that misbalance, of the effects of essence control coming undone. Both Harvesting and Spinning slowly unwind. Have you ever encountered feral essence before?”
I gave a crisp laugh. “Oh, yeah, I have.”
“Then you have had a taste of what is to come if things go as Wretch wants. If essence is allowed to Unravel, it will have devastating consequences. It will unleash destruction.”
My heart hammered against my sternum. “And Soul Harvesting? What is it exactly?”
She slid her black stained nails across the stone of the well. “It is how Wretch remains alive, despite nearly three centuries passing from when he killed me. He Reaps essence from others, their very core selves, and uses it to stay alive.”
“Core selves?”
She smiled crookedly, the gesture at odds with her disheveled appearance. It made her look more human. “I’m talking about dreams, Enea. Core dreams.”
The image before me wavered, like someone was passing a hand through the surface of a pond, or a signal was weakening on a video feed. When it returned, Memorykeeper was still speaking.
“—the very center of a soul. That is what souls are. Core dreams are what an individual is, the summation of heart and mind and marrow and blood.”
“How does he Reap?”
“As you have no doubt experienced yourself, souls are unprotected from feral essence. Reaping is how Wretch abuses Harvesting. The Dichotomy that we had allowed him to both Harvest and Spin multiple types of essence, and when that very energy tears at the foundation of a life, he can then claim that soul as his own. Extending his existence.”
“Why?”
“Because he wants to make sure the Unraveling is fulfilled. He wants every soul for himself.”
A thought whispered through my head, filling me with foreboding. “How many Dichotomies has he destroyed to keep them from stopping the Unraveling?”
She didn’t flinch away from my horror. “Thirty-two pairs.”
Thirty-two.
Sixty-four people.
“And how many were able to find your Wells of Memory? How many were able to see your memories you have planted?”
“Twenty-six pairs found my first well. Fourteen pairs found this well. None made it to my final memory.”
I bent over, bracing my hands on my thighs, trying not to hurl as my stomach contracted forcibly.
“You are the first to come alone,” she said.
I spat blood from my mouth, closing my eyes.
“Will you take this memory, Dreamweaver?”
I made myself move forward as the memory tried to fall apart around me once more. I was ready for the burning heat from the ladle as I pulled it from the bucket, dripping its inky contents.
“Anoint yourself.”
I poured it over my head, letting the fluid seep down, like a baptism, or maybe an offering.
I leaned over the well.
This time, the image that filled my mind was dim, difficult to see. I could make out Memorykeeper, kneeling at Wretch’s feet. He splayed his fingers across her face, digging his nails in, drawing forth beads of blood. In his other hand, he gripped a knife, holding it to the base of her throat.
“No more meddling,” he snarled at her. “No more interfering.” Tears spilled down his cheeks.
“Don’t do this,” she pleaded, trying to break her arms free from where they were tied behind her. Her veins began to glow, a beautiful lilac at her fingertips, darkening to a dusky mauve at her shoulders.
He drew the knife across her neck.
She Harvested as he did, drawing her own essence together, Reaping it away from Wretch as her body fell lifeless at his feet. I watched her corporeal self fragment into shards. The memories separated, encasing themselves into the essence beads that she had buried deep within the earth at different locations, storing them away.
Creating Wells of Memory.
I watched as pair after pair of numerous dualities accessed the first two wells, while the third lay dormant, untouched.
“You will need to hurry,” she said inside my mind as I frantically tried to memorize what I could see. I didn’t recognize the shoreline at all. “With this second well now accessed, he will do his utmost to find you and kill you before you can reach the third. You must reach it, Dreamweaver! You must! It is the final piece.”
Before I could respond, I was wrenched from the well.
I tipped backwards as I was dropped from the air, my heels striking the ground. Stumbling, I landed hard on my right hip, my elbow cracking against a rock. The sky arching overhead was iron gray with storm clouds, and rain pelted down, turning the dirt to mud. Swearing under my breath, I tried to right myself.
I didn’t have time to before someone was crashing into me, arms clamping tight around my ribcage.
“En!” my twin sobbed, reaching up to hold my face, like she thought she was dreaming. “You’re alive!” Then she hugged me so tightly I gasped, bawling into my shoulder, unable to speak. I held her in return, shaking uncontrollably, glancing around in disbelief. I was back where I had started, at the top of the gorge. Norie was crying loudly nearby with unrestrained happiness, with Kenji patting her on the shoulder awkwardly. Venny looked drained, sagging where he sat, giving me a friendly wave as he said, "Welcome back."
I was relieved to see Aro awake and well. He stood a few paces away with his own tears dampening his face.
Dane was unconscious at his feet.
I squawked out, "What the hell?"
Aro's voice was ragged as he said, "When Owen pulled you over the cliff, I had to stop Dane from trying to go after you. I—I had to pull him back."
Cay stood next to Aro and scoffed loudly. "You had to knock him out. Dude lost his damn mind."
My jaw nearly unhinged from its sockets as I gaped. "What?"
"I told you." Aro knelt down, placing a careful hand to his grandson, his thumb tracing Dane's eyebrow. "He wouldn't forgive me." He swallowed painfully.
I stared at Dane, who slept dreamlessly, his body slack as the rain soaked him. I struggled to absorb what Aro was telling me. Given how upset Dayja was, how she had no doubt reacted to me tumbling over the edge, I’m sure it made Dane distressed as well. I mean, given what Aro had just told me, there was no doubt it had.
"Not that it isn't great that you're not dead and all," said Anessa, drawing my focus to where she sat, looking bored out of her mind, "but how are you here? You should be a pancake at the end of that one-way trip, like that creep is."
"I... I was pulled into the second well. The well of air, she called it."
That made Anessa perk with interest. "And?"
“I got some answers.” I rubbed at my head, feeling the exhaustion that seeped my energy down a drain. I looked to my torn dress and scraped a fingernail through the blood caked on my chin. “I want to get out of here before starting into all of that if that’s alright with everyone.”
Dayja held out a hand, helping me rise. “Come on, we’ll go get you cleaned up.” She took notice of my bare feet and looked around.
Cay was there the next moment, holding my boots and my brace out towards me. With a nod of gratitude, I took them from him and leaned over to put them on as Dayja steadied me.
“I’m…” Cay seemed to consider something, braced himself, then plunged on. “I’m glad you’re okay.”
I lifted an eyebrow at him, not missing the smile my sister offered to him.
“You just need someone to verbally spar with when you’re cranky,” I said with a smirk.
He tilted his head to the side, contemplating, and didn’t contradict me.
“But thanks.”
Cay nodded and, for the first time, gave me a genuine smile in return.
“He’s waking.”
Norie’s words drew me right around.
Dane’s eyelids fluttered and he hissed as he flinched, moving a hand to his head. Aro was on one knee next to him, talking to him in a low voice as Norie and Kenji stepped past, joining Venny as he headed down the embankment. Cay hauled on Anessa’s arm, towing her along with him despite her objections.
Leaving me with a little space of privacy with my family.
Dragging himself to a sitting position, Dane looked to Aro, who was on one knee before him. As Dane drew in a sharp breath, Aro simply pointed without a word, straight at me.
Dane looked and he froze, watching as I came closer uncertainly.
“I’m… um… I’m okay. Clearly. I found the second well. I think it pulled me in and when it was done, it spat me back out here, and… uh…” My words ground to a halt. Dane was scrabbled to his feet, long legs carrying him swiftly towards me. I couldn’t describe the look he wore. “I—I think that—”
He cupped his hands on either side of my face, pulled me towards him, and kissed me.
Full on, heart and soul behind it, kissed me.
In another world, Aro was chuckling as Dayja clapped, saying something about ‘finally’, but it all was a wash to me as Dane twined his arms around me, grasping at my waist, clutching desperately. I tasted tears, feeling like I was floating, caught between wonder and astonishment. When Dane finally drew back, he didn’t let go, holding me tightly to his chest. The tears were his.
“Don’t ever do that to me again,” he begged.
When I opened my eyes, Aro and Dayja were gone, presumably down the slope with the others. I wiggled, pushing Dane away, and he blinked at me.
“Hold up,” I said. “I thought—I mean, I was so certain—aren’t you and Dayja—?” I took in a deep breath, forcing myself to slow down and speak coherently. “Everyone has always said that you and Dayja were meant to get together. Are together. We were all just waiting for the two of you to make it official.”
To my complete surprise Dane started to laugh.
"Cay's right, you have lost your damn mind."
"For a while, now," he agreed.
"But—But you did it all for Dayja. Giving me a new vaporbike. Forcing your way into that apartment to keep an eye on me. Healing me for all of these years, over and over. You two cozied up all the time. All those private conversations."
"Deities above, En, is that what you thought? No, you idiot, Dayja has been subjected to consoling my misery for so long now. You were constantly pushing me away and it was killing me. Yes, I love Dayja, she's my closest friend, she's my sister, ever since we were little, but you... It's always been different with you."
"What about when we went to Delirium?" I asked. “You and Dayja seemed so… so…”
Now he was incredulous. "I was relying on Dayja to keep me from doing something stupid. I told her, very honestly, that you nearly gave me a stroke when you stepped out in—in that." He steeled himself. "Look, if I've crossed a line, I'm sorry. But you went over that cliff, and I thought you would—that you would die, and I would have never told you how I feel. I've had that thought far too many times now. And that's selfish, I know it is, but I have to tell you. I love you. I love you like crazy."
Overwhelmed. I was totally overwhelmed by what he was telling me, clutching at my chest from the funny skipping my heart was doing. "Am I dreaming?"
"You out of anyone would know the answer to that question, En."
I didn't know what to say, how to form what I was feeling into words that would do them justice.
So, I just took his hand and kissed him again, letting that do the talking for me.
Chapter Twenty-Three
We made it back to the abandoned store with the late afternoon sun drilling down on our heads. Aro was overjoyed to be reunited with Poppy Muffin. He cuddled her to his cheek, crooning to her, while Anessa gagged in the background before slinking off to change into dry clothes.
I was thrilled to take off the torn, bloodied dress and pull on something warm and comfortable—especially Dane’s sweatshirt that I had commandeered as my own. For all I cared, we could burn the dress and I would never have to look at it again. I could tell Dayja was bursting with questions for me, but to her credit she held them in, mindful of Anessa and Norie, who were busy arguing about what to ask Aro to cook for dinner with our limited supplies. We had voted to stay the night in hiding in the empty store, and I was eager to curl up and go to sleep.
First, though, I needed to tell the others about the second well.
Aro ended up ignoring both suggestions given to him and making something entirely different for all of us to share. Through bites, I told them about my experience with the second memory and the answers I had been able to get from Memorykeeper. When I told them about her warning, that I didn’t have a lot of time to reach the third well, and that no other Dichotomies had been able to reach it, everyone fell silent, a few looking at me with pure horror in their eyes.
Dane set a hand on my knee. “We need to find who the other half of your duality is. If restoring that pairing will bring about the balance that will stop the Unraveling, then that should be our priority.”
“How are we supposed to do that, though?” Venny wondered. “There are hundreds of Harvesters, hundreds of Spinners. It sounds like we don’t have the time to personally meet with every single one.”
“Nor would we want to,” Kenji pointed out, shoving his fork into his mouth. “We’re fugitives, remember? There’s bound to be other people like O out there who will only care about getting rich and won’t believe that the world is actually falling apart.”
“But they must have realized that Harvesting has suffered, right?” Dayja said. “No one can turn a blind eye to that, surely.”
Aro shook his head. “Don’t be surprised at how strong someone’s own sense of self-deceit is if the truth is too uncomfortable for them to address. If someone is frightened, then reality may become their worst enemy, their biggest nightmare.”
“People don’t realize nightmares serve a purpose,” Cay said quietly. “Sure, nightmares are far from pleasant and welcome, but they still teach you about yourself. That kind of knowledge is valuable.”
“What’s going to be the catastrophe that follows opening this well?” Anessa wanted to know. “If other dualities have opened them, then the effects must have been felt before in the past.”
“I don’t think so,” I said carefully. “Memorykeeper made it sound as if this time is different. For one thing, I’ve been accepting her memories alone. There is no duality in place. For another, she made it clear that Wretch’s objective has been to remain, to ensure that the Unraveling finishes. It’s already been rampaging for hundreds of years. Maybe it’s close to its end and that’s why these effects are happening now, so quickly.”
“It would certainly explain why Wretch is so desperate,” Venny added.
