“You’ll let me try?”
“Of course.”
Sam fell quiet and I was reminded of his request to tell him about the Dream Walker. “He’s very powerful, more powerful than all the others who have come after me,” I said quietly.
Sam’s movements stilled and his head cocked to one side, so I knew he was listening. “He calls me ‘little one’ and says I belong with him… in Hell.”
Sam catapulted away from me and began to pace. I shot him a worried look and lapsed into silence.
Go on, he urged.
“He pulled me into Hell.” I paused, realizing that Hell was exactly where I had been. I just hadn’t realized it until I said the words out loud. “He showed me his castle. When I didn’t swoon all over it, he became very angry… angrier than anyone I’ve ever seen. The others are scared of him… it’s almost like he rules them.”
Sam stopped pacing and stood with his back to me, staring out the window into the night. He said nothing as I told him about what I saw when I was there and gave him a description of the man we call the Dream Walker. He barely moved at all throughout my descriptions and my stomach flipped a little at the dark mood I could feel beginning to cloak him.
“He wants the scroll and demanded that I give it to him. Sometimes he seems amused when I tell him no; other times he gets angry and screams.”
I fell silent for a few minutes. Sam still said nothing and just stared out into the dark yard. Surely, he didn’t need any other details? I did not want to talk about my dreams anymore and I didn’t think he wanted to hear any more. Tentatively, I approached Sam and laid a hand at his side. His T-shirt was soft and worn against my skin. “Sam?”
“I hate…” he murmured very low.
“What?” I turned my body slightly, trying to wedge just a portion of myself between him and the window.
“I hate that I couldn’t protect you from him.” He didn’t look at me when he spoke the words.
“I don’t blame you.”
“I want to kill him.” His voice was so low I had to strain to hear.
My heart began to thud slow and heavy.
“To rip him apart and scatter the pieces.”
I remembered the power and control that the Dream Walker exuded and knew deep down that this wasn’t an ordinary demon—he was something more. Something that Sam might never have had to encounter before. It scared me to the bone. How angry would this demon be when Sam broke the thread into my mind? What would his punishment be?
A small sound caught in the back of my throat and I swallowed it, pushing down the panic. Sam turned his head and looked at me, eyes wild and golden. “Let’s do this.” His gaze shifted to the bed.
“I don’t want to,” I blurted.
He sighed, but his voice was hard when he spoke. “We have to try, Hev.”
“Maybe the Dream Walker will go away when we don’t have the Treasure Map anymore.”
“Maybe he’ll be angry and punish you.”
I tried not to react to Sam’s harsh words outwardly, but inside, I was shattering.
Sam’s shoulders slumped and he sighed and hauled me against him. His chin rubbed against the top of my head as he spoke. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to be an ass. But we have to get this thing out of your head.”
He was right and I knew it. I pulled away and climbed into the bed. Sam stood, watching me with a haunted look in his eyes. I lifted the blankets in silent invitation. He was beside me in seconds.
“I’m never going to be able to sleep,” I told him.
He brushed a kiss along my hairline and forehead while his hand came up to rub slow circles across my back. “I’ll wake you when it’s over.”
“What are you going to do anyway?” I asked around a yawn. It amazed me that his touch was able to calm me this way.
“Protect you,” he murmured. His deep, raspy voice vibrated my ear.
Just like that, I fell asleep.
Sam
I stared up at the ceiling, frustration welling up inside me. How the hell was I going to get into Heven’s mind, find the thread the Dream Walker used, and destroy it? Earlier, Airis had been so busy trying to conceal Heven from her father that she didn’t stop to answer any of my questions. She just flung “use your Mindbond” at me and that was all. I snorted, not that I was that surprised. Airis wasn’t much help at all for anything these days. I wanted to be Heven’s guardian; the job filled me with purpose and pride. I knew that it wasn’t going to be easy, but I couldn’t help but feel like Airis was just using me as a means to an end. As someone to protect her asset and that she didn’t really care about how I went about it.
I brushed the thought away. It didn’t matter what Airis thought of me. What mattered is that I was supposed to be protecting Heven, and right now, there was a demon—a Dream Walker—in her head that was causing her pain.
Hate churned inside me. I felt the darkness that was part of the hellhound rising up, trying to take control. I wasn’t lying when I said I wanted to rip him apart. I hadn’t felt this violent since I faced off with China for the last time. The time I killed her.
Just like I would kill the Dream Walker.
But I had to figure out how to get to him first. I had to figure out how to sever the hold that he had on Heven’s mind.
Carefully, I slid my shoulder out from beneath her head and rolled to the side, looking down at her sleeping face. Blond hair fell over her forehead and I brushed it away, noting that even in sleep, she did not look relaxed. I’m going to fix this. I told her. If I hadn’t insisted she learn to swim, that demon wouldn’t have gotten a hold of her at all.
But that wasn’t true. This would have happened one way or another. I had a feeling that I wouldn’t have been able to stop this. The hound in me has been restless, unsettled, knowing that there are undercurrents at play that we didn’t understand. Knowing that there is a charade somehow going on around us—I just haven’t been able to see past it. Not yet anyway.
But before I stripped away the charade, I had to first tear away the thread that was left in Heven’s mind. I looked back at her sleeping face. She had been through so much that I didn’t have the heart to tell her I had no clue how to get that thing out of her mind. She depended on me, trusted me.
I blew out a breath and forced my body to relax. Being angry and hateful wasn’t going to help me get to sleep or even get into her mind. The Mindbond gave me a great deal of access to her, but I didn’t think the bond we shared would allow me to walk straight into her mind.