Dreamscape (8 page)

Seth spins away and is through the barrier before I can
blink. Daegan paces the line of fire, his eyes harboring a hatred that burns
from the depths of his core.

“Do your worst,” he says, picking up his arm.

No blood oozes from the wound. His insides are as black as
his soul.

Seth’s presence registers before he spins to face me. His
eyes eat me up, making me jump to my feet and backtrack toward my room. So much
emotion lingers in his gaze, my belly clenches and my heart stammers.

I inch away from him, but instead of coming after me, he
turns back to Daegan. “With so much on the line, I shall do my best.” He walks
toward the wall opposite his bed and a doorway emerges. He’s gone and back
before I can make it through my door.

He holds a flashing orb, pressing something on the side.
The thing beeps. “Give my regards to Rhea.”

Daegan frowns and his bright eyes find mine. I’m caught in
them for a moment, but Seth blocks my view, tossing the ball through the
flames.

The hordes of Erobos morph into ravens, all but the leader,
who takes the form of a falcon. One piercing cry makes it to me before the
charge goes off and the image flickers away into nothing but orange flame.

Seth turns around, his eyes intent on me. Sweat makes his
skin glisten and mats his blond hair to his head.

When he takes a step forward, a squeak races up my throat.
His blue eyes hold a savage edge. I slam the door shut and lock it, stepping
away

“Amelia,” he says. “We need to talk.”

“Go away!” I yell through the door.

“No,” he says. “We
will
discuss this.”

I twist the knob, but it doesn’t budge. What in damnation
is going on? Whose house is this anyway?

I pound on the door, yet I make sure my voice is level.
“Amelia, I need to speak to you.”

“Go away,” she says again. Her voice is so full of fear it
surrounds me.

Although it is nearly impossible, I manage to stay calm,
despite the Erobos darkness I battle to expel. It will do me no good to make
her fear me more than she already does. “I’m going to speak with you one way or
another, so you might as well open the door.”

“Leave me alone. You’re a liar! I don’t want to talk.”

I grit my teeth and try to swallow my rage. “Amelia, I’m
giving you to the count of three.”

She huffs, which only manages to infuriate me further. I
bypass my counting and charge through her door; it shatters on impact.

When she jumps from the bed, I make myself stay put. My
body ignites from one look at her. My being here is not the best idea right
now, but I cannot make myself leave.

Luckily, the terror in her eyes quells my fervor. As it
should be, she recoils away from me, backing toward the bathroom.

Calm down. I have to calm down. Daegan’s influence still
has not left me completely.

I close my eyes and pinch the bridge of my nose. “How did
you get into my room?” I ask. My voice is harsher than I want it to be.

She laughs, and it takes quite a lot of effort not to
throttle her. When she finally gives me an answer, it’s not what I expect. “All
I did was ask the door to open, and you’re acting like I just committed grand
theft auto!”

I cross the distance between us in less time than she can
make it into the bathroom. I don’t want to have to crash through another door,
so I stop her. I expect her to scream when I grab her shoulder. She doesn’t.

Her eyes ice over before she looks from my face to my hand.
“Let go of me, you freak!”

“Freak, am I? I’ve been called many things in my time, but
freak has never been one of them.”

“Well, bully for you.”

“Amelia.”

She stares me down. “Seth.”

What I want to do right now is crash my lips against hers
just to prove she’s still here, she’s real. I stop myself when I am a few
inches away. She stares at me, bristling, but nothing she does will keep me
from hearing the feral beat of her heart and the tension in her breath. “I need
you to understand something very important.” I take her to the door and thrust
a finger toward the flames. “I am not the worst thing out there. Within my
realm, you are safe, but the moment you crossed into the Dreamscape, you were
targeted. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

She sneers at me. When she yanks on her arm, I let her go.
For now. “All I want is to go ho…” Her words die and she grits her teeth. “I
just want out of here, okay?”

“No.”

“No?”

“You heard me.”

“Yeah, but I thought you might be reasonable. I don’t even
know where we are. I don’t know what’s going on between you and that guy and
those…things. I don’t really even care. It’s not my fight. Just let me go, and
we’ll pretend this never happened.”

“But it has happened. You belong to me now.”

She shakes her head, her face taking on a pallor that
highlights her trepidation. When she steps away from me, I’m reminded of how
much she fears me, despite her bluster. As tasty as it is, her fear is not what
I desire. It is not what I need.

If she will only give me a chance to show her, to explain,
she will want to be here—I know it in my blood.

Her back is pressed to the wall, and she looks like she is
going to either kick me or pass out.

“Please listen to me,” I coax, taking a step back. “I
promise to give you answers, and I’m sorry for upsetting you, but you don’t
know how much danger you were just in?”

Her expression morphs into pure desperation. “The only
danger I need to worry about is you! You got me into this. Just let me go!”

I lower my head, not able to take the panic in her eyes. “I
cannot. You need to accept this.” The truth is I need her to accept me.

Seth wants me to accept this. What does that even mean?

Am I supposed to just give in? Am I supposed accept that
other guy too? He was pure wrongness wrapped up in a pretty shell.

Speaking of pretty shells…Seth scares me more than I want
to admit. It’s not that I think he would physically harm me. I’m more worried
about keeping my wits.

A chill slithers down my spine, but I keep my cool. I’m
waiting him out. I haven’t said anything to his demand that I accept this life
because there’s really nothing to say.

He sits down on my bed, and I can’t quite believe how good
he looks there.

Man, I wish he was ugly.

He smiles at me knowingly, so I figuratively wipe the drool
from my mouth. I’m so stupid sometimes it kills me. When he motions for me to
sit beside him, I scoff and slide down the wall to the floor, stretching my
legs out in front of me.

His voice is soothing after being stuck here alone. Even
though it wasn’t that long, it might as well have been days. “I know you still aren’t
ready to accept the inexplicable things you’ve seen here,” he says, “yet how
many times will you have to see before you believe?”

I make like I’m picking something out of my teeth. “It’s no
longer a matter of accepting this reality. It’s about my survival. That
guy…those
things
. I can’t even wrap my head around what they are.”

He shoves his fingers through his hair and takes a deep
breath. “I had hoped to delay your introduction to the Erobos, even prevent it,
but the minute you walked through that barrier, you took away most of our
options.”

My back stiffens. “So now this is my fault?” I ask,
mustering up the courage to look at him again. He sits there, still, with that
knowing gleam in his eyes. What he thinks he knows about me, I’ll probably
never find out; even still, I’m determined to prove him wrong. “Mind telling me
how any of this is my fault?
You
brought me here. I don’t want to stay.
I’d say this is your fault.”

He shrugs. “Does it matter? Now that the Erobos know about
you, they will not stop looking for you again. Once they find you they will
attack,” he says, his voice guarded. When my eyes bulge out of my head, he
waves me off. “With one impetuous move you have changed the course for many
people.”

I pull my knees to my chest and try to find an angle where
he is wrong. “Look,” I say, my patience transparent at this point. “The truth
is, I didn’t believe you. I’m sorry for messing up your plans, but I hardly
think what I did could ruin your world.”

His blue eyes narrow at me and for a moment I’m lost in
those volatile depths. “It is your world I fight for, Amelia. Do you think
there is a single crevice you could hide in where Daegan wouldn’t find you?
You’re deluding yourself. And here I thought you wanted the truth,” he says,
making a sliver of fear shoot through my heart. There has to be a way out of
this.

I glance at his dog, who just peeked into the room, to
distract myself. “I do.”

He cocks his head, his blue eyes dancing with fire. “Would
it surprise you to learn my entire team has been waiting for you? Would it
surprise you to know I had planned on showing you everything and now I cannot
risk taking you back into the Dreamscape for fear we will be ambushed on sight?
Would it surprise you to know you have more to do with this plan than you
remember?”

“I don’t know what the heck you’re talking about,” I say,
darkness overwhelming me.

“That is because you do not listen, because you are too
impetuous and refuse to see truth where it lies. I wanted to show you something
important, but now I am not sure how I can. The complications are endless now.”

I steel my resolve again and grit my teeth. “If I’m so much
trouble, just let me go.”

“I’ve already told you I have no way of granting that
request, even if I wanted to, which I do not.” His head shakes, but he tilts it
back and smiles. “You are such an insistent one. Where would you go if I could
let you out of here, assuming Daegan didn’t accost you the minute you passed
through the barrier?”

I smirk at him, pushing thoughts of darkness and Erobos out
of my mind. “I’d find a place.”

He chuffs out a laugh. “With Roberto?”

I nearly gag, partly because that’s just gross and partly
because I hate that he knows about my friend. “You’re sick.”

He leans against the pillows, twisting a smile at me.
“Maybe, but I’m offering you more than you’ve ever had in your life.”

I glance at the wads of cash littering the floor, and so
does he. There’s more than enough dough for Roberto’s restaurant he always
talked about opening. I only wish I had a way to give it to him. “Yeah,
everything except my freedom.”

“If there were any other way, I would—” Seth shakes his
head. “No. I’m not going to lie to you. Every so often I am able to break free
of my prison. I’ve learned to use the very limited time I have wisely. This
time, I came for you. I’ve been waiting years to have you here with me, and I
will do everything in my power to keep you here for a very, very long time.”

My throat seizes on a choke. I can’t breathe for a second,
but I recover before he can reach me. “I don’t think I want to know the depths
of sickdom you’ve sunken to. Just figure out a way to let me go.”

His voice dips low. “Don’t you want to know why I chose
you? Don’t you want to know why Daegan wants you, would kill to get you?
Please, just listen to me. After I have finished, you may choose to believe
what you will, but until then I ask you to keep an open mind.”

I don’t want to care about Seth or his war. I don’t want to
get involved in something that could end my life, and I don’t want to be
curious. But I am, and as much as I’d like to deny it, it’s sort of nice to be
wanted.

My lips press together, and I nod. “I’ll keep an open mind,
but I want to know it all. Don’t lie to me anymore.”

Lie to Amelia? I have not set out to lie to her at all, yet
her very demeanor tells me she does not trust me. She will in time.

“We should talk. I have much to explain and to show you. We
might be more comfortable in my room, unless you’d like to lie here next to
me?”

Her eyes dart to the door while her fingers curl into the
carpet. I want more than anything to set her at ease. Unfortunately, she will
not have an easy life with me. My mind spins with the reality of the situation.
I can hardly believe how one simple act could change the course I must take.
Her training will be difficult and even then I do not know if I will ever dare
send her into the Dreamscape.

Daegan couldn’t have been clearer in his purpose. If Volos
is after Amelia, she is truly special. Rhea’s golden eyes form in my memory.
She was extraordinary, but she was not Sibylline. I am still not certain where
Amelia’s bloodline originated, which complicates my decision even further.
Hopefully Kelsby has found the source of her gift.

Finally, she looks up. Her intense expression could mean
many things, but I choose to believe she has accepted her role. Her voice is
infused with a steady calm her expression belies. “I’m ready…to hear it all.”

I nod and offer her a hand. To my surprise, she accepts.
The tips of my fingers tingle from her touch, but I release her once she is
stable. I had hoped to have years to train her, yet now, there is no telling
how long we will have.

Once we are back in my quarters, I take my chair, watching
Amelia drape herself over the couch. At any other moment, I would want to be
near her, but not now.

Now is the time for truth. It is time for me to persuade
her that she was already in this fight years ago.

Astonishingly, she stretches out, pulling a pillow behind
her head and rolling to her side, facing me. She focuses on the firewall, her gaze
growing distant after only a moment of staring. In all the excitement, I have
failed to release the flames.

I get lost for a time in the flickering barrier as well.
“It took many years of daily practice for me to learn to command them.”

“Years?” she asks, skepticism punctuating her question.

I laugh. “Some of us have to work for that which comes
naturally to you.”

“I wouldn’t say any of this is natural.”

“Not for some,” I agree.

She frowns. “Who is Volos?”

“The simple answer? The creator of the Netherworld. Volos,
in essence, made connections between worlds and realms where none existed,
making our job much easier. He was once our greatest ally and leader. It was
when he opened the world the Eros occupied that our reality shifted to
critical.”

Amelia glances at the flames again. “What are Eros?”

“They are the shattered remains of one being that was
cursed and eventually transformed from substance into energy.”

“Why was the
being
cursed?”

“Eros has many legends that have found their way into the
Netherworld. He was a being of great power, capable of great mischief that
eventually got him into trouble.”

Her eyes light with a curious spark. “What legends are you
talking about? Come to think about it, the name does sound a bit familiar.”

“It should. Eros is love.”

“But love isn’t dark.”

“It can be, if jealousy slithers into it.”

“So who cursed him?”

“His wife.”

A slight frown puckers her brows. “What’d he do?”

“Eros was known for creating havoc between the gods.”

“Like Greek gods?”

“Doesn’t matter what you call them. They are the same
beings. They are responsible for much that has happened to your world. They are
also the reason Oneiroi were sent to protect humans.”

“Who sent you?”

“I still haven’t told you what Eros did to deserve his
curse.”

“Don’t want to tell me, huh?”

“We don’t remember. Our memory before this world was erased
when we came here.”

“But how do you know what happened to Eros?”

“Interaction with humans and other species through the
Dreamscape and Netherworld.”

“This is too complicated. I’m never going to remember all
this stuff.”

I smile at her. “You shall remember this.” She rolls her
eyes, but doesn’t comment further. “Eros fell in love with a mortal.”