Soulcleaver, page 5
part #2 of Dreamwalker Chronicles Series
“Right.” She nodded, trying to convince herself. “But until then, can I stay here? Just in case they decide to lock me up again?”
The hand on her back stilled, and Marshall’s body went tense. “No one will ever lock you up again, Aeyli. That I can promise you.” His voice was a low growl.
“Agreed.”
Adelle’s voice startled Aeyli. She’d been so caught up in her own drama she’d completely missed her coming into the room. Aeyli pulled away from Marshall self-consciously and took in Adelle’s tall, lean form. As usual, she looked like a fashion model, but she had changed clothes since this morning—now she was wearing the close-fitting, all-black outfit she usually wore on missions.
“We’ve registered you with the Guard.” Adelle continued. “Now that they know a new Stillbringer has appeared, they aren’t going to let her fall off their radar. You’re kind of a big deal among the higher-ups.” She gave the lack of space between Aeyli and Marshall a measured glance, and the corner of her mouth twitched as though she were repressing a smile. “And for us as well.”
Aeyli took two steps back and bumped into an ottoman. “So the Guard would notice if I went missing?”
“We would notice if you were missing first, but yes. Even if something happened to all of Team Fire, the Guard will still be here to protect you.” Marshall’s fierce tone surprised Aeyli. He was usually so calm around her.
Adelle coughed politely, and Aeyli realized she’d been staring at Marshall. She cast her eyes around the room and found a painting of the Boston Harbor to stare at instead.
“Now that we’ve cleared that up—” Adelle began.
“We’ve got a mission.” Marshall interrupted his sister. “I was coming this way to tell you about it, which is why I got here so quickly when you were triggered.” His brows drew together in concern. “I’m sorry, I know this is sudden. Will you be okay? I’ll try to make it as short as possible.”
That explained Adelle’s uniform. Aeyli’s eyes went to the darkness outside the window. It was getting pretty late. She’d usually be going to bed soon, but if Marshall was going on a mission, she might have to hold off.
Since her power had been triggered so spectacularly, Aeyli had been having intense nightmares. After her first nightmare sucked in all the norms within a mile radius, Marshall had been watching over her dreams. When she got trapped in a nightmare, he would show up and transform her dream into something pleasant.
When she’d protested, he’d told her it was his job to help her. According to him, her power made any bad dreams far more likely to turn into Nightmares—monsters capable of running rampant in the ’Scape. If Nightmares managed to escape the ’Scape, they would prey on norms until they could manifest a physical form. Once that happened, they became incredibly dangerous demons—as Sekt had proven only two weeks ago.
Marshall was planning on making her a permanent ward for her dreams to keep her subconscious fears from creating Nightmares, but his dreamwalker duties kept him so busy, he hadn’t had a chance. Until that happened, Aeyli was only supposed to sleep when Marshall did.
She gave an internal shrug and decided she could catch up on some reading while he was gone. “Not a problem. I’ve been wanting an excuse to try out the new espresso machine Clayton got last Friday.”
Marshall laughed. “Just don’t go overboard. I may be able to help you sleep, but even I’m helpless against too much caffeine. You don’t want to be awake until next week.” His eyes sparkled with mirth.
Behind her brother, Adelle mouthed, He’s lying, confirming Aeyli’s suspicion that Marshall was a great, big mother hen.
“Of course not.” She lied. The second they left, Aeyli was going straight to the kitchen to begin experimenting.
Chapter 5
Nova
The campus was on fire with all the colors of autumn, and the air was crisp. The back-to-school excitement was just starting to fade from the campus as all the coeds were beginning to realize exactly how much work was ahead of them.
The afternoon sun glinted off the end of an ebony curl that was slowly being strangled to death by nervous fingers.
“This can’t be right.” Nova’s other hand tore through the rest of the curls on her head and destroyed the half an hour of work she had put into them that morning.
“How did this happen?” she muttered to herself. “The school year just started.”
She sat down on the nearest bench and stared out at the duck pond. This sort of thing didn’t happen to her. It happened to people like the idiots currently wading into the pond courting a severe case of tetanus.
“Here ducky, ducky!” The voice of a blond boy floated over to her. He was the closest one in the group to the duck holding a frisbee. “I’ll give you some Pocky if you just . . .” Splash.
One down, Nova thought as the blond guy flailed around helplessly in the water. She watched as the duck swam tantalizingly out of reach of the would-be frisbee players who were left.
She sighed at the graded quiz in her hand. This wasn’t supposed to happen to her. She was a straight A student—had been her entire life. Apparently, now she was a straight A student taking a real math class for the first time ever, not like the Algebra 1-A and 1-B classes she managed to get enrolled in during high school.
The duck swerved away from another subgenius, causing him to trip and be completely submerged in the pond.
I bet I wouldn’t be failing Calculus if I were that duck.
She got up off the bench and put her hand to her nose to warm it up. That must be one heck of a Frisbee for them to brave the water at this time of year. She should be reveling in the weather—October was her absolute favorite month. Nothing could compare to fall in New England, but today she couldn’t summon up her usual enthusiasm for the season.
Stupid math, it ruins everything.
In all honesty, Nova knew why she was failing the class so spectacularly. Aside from not giving two petrified yak droppings about the subject, all of her focus was getting used up on her true passion, Asian languages. This year she was concentrating all of her efforts on Japanese—something that delighted her mother to no end. Her mom always regretted not raising her child in Osaka, where she herself grew up. And while she’d spoken the language around her when she was little, Nova had never become fluent in it. She was always too busy exploring the world around her to sit still long enough.
Now that she was older, she felt nostalgic for the country she never knew, so she had an incentive to do the work. She spent most of her time memorizing Kanji and practicing them, loving the way it felt to draw the sweeping lines of each character as she mastered each stroke.
Well, she was going to have to start focusing on math now if she wanted to keep her scholarship. No time like the present. She turned away from the spectacle of the pond, and as she started walking back to her dorm, she heard another loud splash. Nova smiled to herself and silently congratulated the duck for taking out its final foe.
✽✽✽
“What are you doing here?” The irritated voice of her roommate greeted her as she walked into their shared room.
“Nice to see you too, Adelle.” Nova pushed past her and sat down at her own desk with a despondent thump.
Their shared space wasn’t roomy, but it was big enough to allow two near-strangers to cohabitate peacefully enough. Unless it was she and Adelle.
The two women had yet to manage anything more than a strained tolerance of one another. She couldn’t figure out why. They had enough in common, both being in the Language Department. Adelle’s focus was on Middle Eastern languages, but they were both busting their asses in the two toughest programs in the department. It should have been something to bond over, but it wasn’t.
Adelle stayed by the door, obviously intent on heading out, but for some reason she didn’t leave like Nova expected her to. Instead she stood there, watching Nova with her unfathomable hazel eyes. Then Adelle closed the door and walked over to her side of the room and perched on the edge of her impeccably made bed.
“What are you doing here?” Adelle asked again, voice taut and looking like the answer meant a lot more to her than it did to Nova.
“I know, I’m usually in the library at this time of day, but you don’t need to be weird about it. You can’t say I was interrupting you—you were just about to leave. Feel free to resume.” Nova made a shooing motion toward the door.
Adelle didn’t respond for a moment, gazing intently at Nova. Then her entire personality shifted into something resembling tolerable. “It was nothing important. Why don’t you tell me what’s got you off your routine. That’s hardly like you, Miss Daily Planner.” She smiled vexingly.
Nova bristled. “Being well organized is one of the things that helps me study. In fact . . .” She trailed off, the wind going out of her sails as she remembered why she was in such a bad mood. Putting her head in her hands, she continued dejectedly. “If I had been better organized, this wouldn’t have happened.” She looked up and tossed the crumpled paper at Adelle, deciding that she really didn’t care what her annoying roommate thought.
Snatching it neatly out of the air, Adelle smoothed out the paper and read it, then looked up with some surprise. “You’re failing calc? Already? It hasn’t even been four weeks since the semester started. How’d this happen?”
“Apparently, I forgot how crappy I am at math. It’s been years since I took math, and I need this course to fulfill the department’s requirement.” Nova scratched at a fossilized coffee stain on her desk, feeling sheepish. “I forgot all about it, and this was the only open class that I could get into! I won’t graduate if I don’t pass.”
A reptilian smile spread over Adelle’s perfect features. “You know, I know just the person to help you with this.”
“And that would be . . .” said Nova in a voice laden with suspicion.
“Oh, no one special, just my brother.” Adele paused for effect as though she expected a reaction.
“You have a brother? Why am I not surprised that it took this long to mention it?”
Adelle’s mouth made a brief moue of disappointment before transforming back into her usual irritating scowl. “He’s a big math whiz. You should talk to him. He’s a calculus TA, so he’s used to dealing with pathetic losers throwing themselves at his mercy.”
“Gee, thanks. I feel all fuzzy inside.”
“No worries, I live to give. Now, come on.” Adelle hopped up smoothly from the bed, making it look like a well-choreographed dance move.
“Right now?” Nova boggled at the sudden and inexplicable helpfulness of her roommate after weeks of living through the Cold War: College Edition. The idea of going anywhere with her made her balk. She’d seen the movie Carrie, and since she actually liked the silk top she was wearing, she preferred it to be pig’s-blood-free.
“Yes, now, unless you want to cram your graduating semester with another math class and hope you don’t fail that one too. I wouldn’t chance it. Personally, I’d like to get at least some sleep next spring, I don’t know what your plans are.”
Nova didn’t like the idea of owing Adelle any favors, but she did need help, serious help, if she was going to graduate. And it wasn’t like Adelle was actually going to be helping her. It would be her brother doing the tutoring.
“Ow! What the hell?” Nova grabbed her suddenly throbbing shin and glared up at the evil blonde goddess masquerading as her roommate.
Apparently Nova was taking too long to decide, and Adelle thought she needed to give her a good solid kick to get her moving.
“Don’t be a baby, it was just a love tap. Now, are you going to be an embarrassment to our whole dorm and flunk a basic math course, or are you coming with me? I don’t have all day here,” Adelle asked, already knowing the answer.
“You have serious emotional problems, you know that?” Nova heaved herself up off the bed, making a big production of it. “Fine, I’m coming. I hope your brother isn’t as much of a pain in the ass as you are.”
“You have no idea.”
✽✽✽
They ended up in the library—a place Nova had become well acquainted with during her career as a student. It was an enormous brick monstrosity that towered above all the other buildings on campus. Outside, there was a long metal canopy covering the entrance to the bottom floor and an ornate fence surrounding the rest of the building.
When she first arrived on campus she thought it odd since none of the other buildings had anything like it. She mentioned it to her RA, who immediately launched into a tale about the library’s architect who had forgotten to take into account the weight of the books when designing it. Apparently, no one had discovered the flaw until the building was finished. The end result was that, occasionally, a brick would come loose and fall to the pavement. Considering the building was twenty-eight stories tall, it was a serious danger to anyone walking within twenty feet of the building, hence the canopy and fence.
Nova wasn’t sure if she believed the story, but she did notice a broken brick on the ground just past the canopy and made yet another mental note to never linger outside the library. Her brain was already giving her a hard time with this whole math business, a brick to the head was the last thing she needed.
“Don’t you need to call him first?” Nova asked. “I mean, how do you even know he’ll want to help me?” She hated the idea of barging in and expecting favors from someone she’d never met. She had more class than that.
Adelle seemed to have no such problems. “Trust me on this one. This is right up his alley.”
They walked inside, and Adelle led them to the elevator and pressed the button for the fifth floor once they were inside. Nova vaguely knew of it as the place where the hard-core students liked to hibernate in private study rooms. Nearly everyone else preferred the solidarity of the common rooms. It was louder there, but more fun.
Adelle stepped out of the elevator without a word, walked down the hall, and barged right into the closest room without knocking, letting the door slam shut behind her.
Nova didn’t know what to think. Should she follow? Should she knock? She was considering walking back to her dorm and forgetting the whole awkward situation when the door opened, and Adelle yanked her inside.
“Marshall, this is my roommate. She needs your help.”
She stepped into the poorly lit room—one of the bulbs overhead had gone out. There was a small chipped wooden table with several uncomfortable-looking, green, molded-plastic chairs crowded around it. She was already underwhelmed by the idea of spending any time in this room on purpose.
Nova’s first impression of Marshall was of a pale young man with rounded shoulders. He was obviously someone who spent a lot of time indoors, possibly on a computer. It was exactly what she would expect a calculus TA, who spent most of his time in a private study room, to look like.
Marshall stared at her blankly and a wave of dizziness passed through her. She needed to stop skipping lunch. The burned-out light overhead made a zapping sound and came back on.
She blinked at the sudden brightness and looked at Marshall again. Bad lighting definitely was not the man’s friend. Now he looked a lot more like she imagined the brother of the lovely, if heartless, Adelle should look.
He stood up suddenly, and the process seemed to take a while. His large body kept unfolding until he towered over the two women. His short, honey-brown hair had a bit of curl to it and looked bunny soft. Her fingers itched to run through it.
She realized the room had been quiet for some time as she sat and gawked at Adelle’s brother. “Um, hi, I’m Nova, your sister’s chronically math-challenged roommate. Nice to meet you.” She held out her hand.
No response.
A heartbeat passed. Then another.
He blinked. Then, as if having rebooted, he said, “Nice to meet you, too.” And gave her a warm smile that sent electrical pulses shooting through her body.
Forgetting all about the awkward moment and any reservations she might have had, she smiled back. “Do you think you can help? I’m pretty far behind at this point.”
“Well . . .” he said in a slow drawl. “I think it can’t hurt to try. I am pretty good at this sort of thing, apparently.” He shot a look at his sister.
Adelle walked over to her brother’s side and linked arms with him. “Don’t be so modest, Marshall. You and I both know that your potential is limitless here.” The way she said it sounded more like an admonishment than a compliment.
He shook his arm free and gave her a look Nova couldn’t interpret. “Thanks for the endorsement, sis. I think.”
“I don’t think you two losers need me around anymore.” Adelle said abruptly. “So if you’ll excuse me, I have an actual life to enjoy, filled with normal, attractive people to talk to.” She treated them both to a brilliant, fake smile, then turned and sauntered out of the room with a grace that left Nova feeling inadequate.
“Sorry about Adelle . . .” Marshall began, looking embarrassed
Nova stopped him. “Don’t worry, I’m used to it by now. I’ve been her roommate for a month.” She imagined he had to apologize for his sister often. The number of times she personally had apologized for Adelle’s behavior to her own friends suggested as much. “Honestly, I’m surprised she cared enough about my plight to introduce me to you.”
“She’s not so bad once you get to know her.” He looked down at the table and organized his papers absently. “So, shall we get started?”
“Okay, but I have to warn you, I really am terrible at this class.”
“Didn’t you hear my sister? I have limitless potential. I can do anything, including help you get a passing grade.”
They worked for most of the evening, and Marshall quickly proved he was a math whiz. But even more than that, he was a great teacher. He managed to take a subject, which had always left her feeling like she’d rather jam raw hotdogs in her ears than wrap her brain around its arcane rules, and make it tolerable. He broke each step down into such simple terms that even a novice like herself couldn’t help but understand. He had a true gift, and Nova was grateful to be a recipient.
