Asleep

54 In Love With You

Nora~~

Through the windows of the hunting lodge—Charlie assures me there is no hunting—the jungle is less than an arm's length away. A breeze causes the branches to sway, bringing them into the lodge for a lazy moment, leaves rustling as the wind brushes through them.

People mill about dressed in khaki and linen and talking to one another, drinking beers and wines, playing chess. They act so human; it's hard to believe they're hardly more than animatronics.

The air isn't humid like I was expecting, nor is it too hot. The great wide blades of the fans spinning in slow circles provide more of a breeze than they should.

Charlie perches in front of the closest window, his back to me and arms resting on the sill. The floor creaks as I walk across it to join him. I keep to one side of the window. Even then there's barely more than a few inches between our arms. They may as well be touching for how much I tense up.

"How's Tye?" he asks.

"It's getting harder and harder to convince him that Radia would never leave us." I haven't shown Tye anymore of my abilities. I should, but after his reaction, I worry I'll push him too far, and he'll run away. "I haven't told him that I've seen you. I should though, now that I know you're not awful like I thought you were." Drumming my fingers on the sill, I wince at my words. "You two were something like friends. It's only right I clear things up."

"You were right though. I am awful."

I want to nudge him to reassure him he doesn't scare me, but that would place my skin up against his, so I hold myself back. "You're not. You gave my friend company when you hardly knew her. Have you . . .?"

"Yes."

I gave Charlie the message to pass on, hoping Radia would be able to understand I meant I found Raymond.

"She said that she'll always believe in you. But that you"—he tilts his neck, stretching it out until it cracks, and keeps his eyes on the jungle where a leopard stalks out of the bushes—"have to give up on seeing her again. She said it's the only way you'll be able to live."

My mouth goes dry, and I dig my nails into the wooden sill. She wants me to give up on her? Am I supposed to give up on all of my friends? Aaron, Radia . . . Tye. Are they really impossible to save?

The leopard sniffs the air and looks our way. It blinks, its body rising and falling as it breathes.

"What's bothering you?" I ask.

"I did something bad."

The leopard turns, slinking back into the bushes.

"My dad told me his plans for you. He wants you to be the next master dreamer."

"Master dreamer?" Those words snatch my breath away, and I can hardly get the words out. Since I shouldn't know what that is, I'm forced to hear the horror of that role again, this time from Charlie's lips. It doesn't get any less grim when he tells it, and now this is supposed to be my fate?

"This is because he thinks I'm a Class One?"

He wets his lips. "Yes. But he's been interested in knowing if being Lucid is a trait passed down from a parent. I . . . When I heard about his plan for you—another Class One—I was horrified. I snapped and—and said that I was shocked he wasn't interested in knowing whether your children would be Lucid."

Children. Babies. No one uses those words in Somnia. Teenager, yes. But no one should even know what calling us children means. "And?"

"He . . . he wants to test it. I'm so sorry, Nora." He grips the windowsill. "I should have just stayed quiet."