Nightmares and Daydreams (The Blood Falls Book 4)

I dropped to the ground beside Rever. “What just happened?” He was unconscious but warm and breathing.

Dray knelt, too. “I’ve never seen anything like it. It was the Plane, but something else.”

“Rever said he could read their minds. I think it was psychic energy.” But on a whole other level. Not even Rain had done something like that before.

Rain and Kris appeared at the same moment I thought of her. “Oh no,” she murmured, joining me on the ground. Except, unlike me, she knew what to do. She cradled his head, closed her eyes, and hummed.

“What is going on?” I asked Kris. As her Shield he should have some clue what happened.

Kris grimaced and shook his head. “It was like a power surge. Rain had just found me and we were talking when all of a sudden all the psychic energy around us was sucked away. We followed it here, to Revenge.” He placed a hand on Rain’s shoulder and squeezed it comfortingly.

“I’ve never seen psychic energy before. Not here anyway. The Convergence continues to make strange things happen.”

“It’s more than that,” Rain sighed, blinking her eyes open. “What Rever just did is ancient magic. He pulled so much psychic energy from the Plane that for a moment we could see it.”

Ancient magic. “That took incredible talent.” Rain levels of talent. “I didn’t know he had that kind of gift.”

“He doesn’t. But he did have that much pain. The psychic energy was laced with it.”

“Did it hurt him?” He had gone completely slack. If I didn’t see his chest rise and fall I would worry he was dead.

“Yes,” Rain said simply. “I got here in time to stop the degradation of his mind, and I’ve protected it so he can heal.”

“So he’ll recover?” Dray asked as his gaze skimmed the horizon.

“Yes. He should recover.”

Dray nodded. “What did he do, exactly?”

“He killed them,” Rain said simply. “The traitors he saw in his mind. He reached out to each of their minds and killed them.”

The psychic explosions had been each traitor dying. That was a terrifying kind of magic. “Oh my goodness.”

Rain grimaced. “I only learned about it recently. I found a book when we were researching. It detailed how my House used to use our gifts with an ancient magic to kill our enemies. It was so powerful that I worried it would be more harmful to use it than to hide it away, so I kept it to myself. I don’t know if Rever found the same book or the pain was just too much and unlocked the old gift deep inside his mind.”

It wouldn’t surprise me at all considering how powerfully Dray’s mind had protected him from his dragon half. I hated that Rever had to go through any of that, but I was also grateful for what he’d done.

Kris stooped down. “He won’t be fighting anymore today. I’ll take him to the cave.” He traded a long look with Rain before scooping the Gatlin male up in his arms and shifting away.

Dray kissed my cheek. “I need to explain things to the others. They’re staring at each other like they expect everyone to explode any minute.”

He was right. Everyone stood with a sword in their hands ready to fight the invisible enemy.

“It seems you were right.” Rain said as we got to our feet. “Will there be any House left untouched by traitors in the end?”

I hoped so. “I think the more important question is whether there will be anyone left standing to care.”

She winced. “The answer is here. I can feel it.”

The air on the top of Blood Falls always felt different to me. It was more electric. Closer to the Plane. But I had to admit that it felt even more energized today. As if the Plane were ready to work magic. Maybe it was a leftover from the psychic charge. I closed my eyes and tried to hear the Plane one more time.

At first all I heard was the whistling of the wind and the soft chatter of our ragtag army waiting for battle. Then, deep and low, almost imperceptible, I heard the whispers.

Yes, yes. It is time. Time. 

Together. All together. 

“The Plane says it’s time. Together. All together. Does that mean anything to you?” I kept listening. I was all for it being time. It was inevitable. But what did all together mean?

“Could be that all the realms are together and now it’s time to fight?” Rain said with a shrug.

“But the Plane has been so specific up until now. I don’t think it would waste time with generalities.” It made Dray and Gigi, it changed my Fate, and Rain’s. Each of us was tweaked to serve a specific purpose.

Oh.

“Us. It means us!” I blinked my eyes open. “It’s time for each of us to do what the Plane made us to do.” I reached out and asked everyone to join us up here where we could feel the Plane.

Kris returned first, followed by Leena and Atsila, and then finally a visibly distressed Gigi.

“I lost Ryddyck ten minutes ago. I don’t know where he is.” She sounded terrified.

“He’ll find you,” I assured her. She clutched my hand. Hard.

“He better. The damn demon made me fall for him, so he better follow through.”

I gave her a quick hug. “He has his own path to follow. It led him to you once and I believe it will lead him back to you in the end.”

But first we had to survive.

“The energy here is focused,” Rain said, holding her hands out wide. “The Plane is settling around us. We’re pieces of a puzzle and it’s time to fall into place.”

I felt drawn to the falls, which was weird because I hated being near them. It was too high. Too loud. Too cold. And no matter how many times Dray told me I couldn’t fall to my death because I would just shift to safety, I didn’t believe him.

But my feet started moving anyway.

“Yes,” Rain nodded. “Rhysa needs to stand on the very edge beside the falls.”

“Does it have to be on the very edge?” I tried dragging my toe, but it was like I was a puppet and someone else was pulling the strings. My foot lifted and took a step. Then another and another.

Rain shot me a look that made my blood run cold. “On the edge. Now. We don’t have much time. Dray, you’ll run air support once we get everyone in place. Kris, Atsila, you know what to do. Leena with me.”

“What about me?” Gigi asked.

“When the Convergence ends, you need to make sure there are no tethers in place and anyone who needs to be on our side is, and who needs to be on their side is there. Marhysa and the banshees will follow your directions. Once the Heads of House get here we will begin.”

“Why do we need them?” The invisible force pushed me right to the edge. Wind rushed up the mountain, blowing my hair everywhere, but it also made me feel a little better. Like the Plane was throwing me a bone and saying why yes it did need me right here but the wind wouldn’t let me fall.

“I need their armor,” Rain replied. “And their psychic energy. The Heads of House are focal points and the swords and armor are conduits.”

“Then shouldn’t Dray be down here?” I glanced up at his magnificent dragon form circling above us.

Rain smiled. “I need someone above me and someone below me. A simple circle won’t do. Plus, I think Bo will find that he can hold Dreadnought now.”

Bo appeared, blinking with surprise. “Um, how did I get here?”

We really were just puppets at this point. I held out Dreadnought. “I’ve been told to give this to you.” No point trying to explain that the Plane wanted him here so he was here.

Bo swallowed hard and tried to shake his head. “We talked about this being a possibility.”

“It’s not a possibility anymore. It’s what’s happening.” I shook the sword at him again. It still hummed for me, but now it hummed for him, too.

“I need Dray to fulfill his Destiny,” Rain called out. “Rhysa too. This is yours.”

Bo grimaced as he shouldered the House armor on, then reluctantly took the sword. “I’m giving this back as soon as this is over.”

But I already knew he wouldn’t. Dray’s time leading the House was over. I could feel it.

The Heads of House arrived one by one. Rain positioned Tymothy opposite me on the other side of the falls. She sent Shoshanna down to the bottom of the falls. I tried not to read too much into the way her gaze kept straying back to me.

Just like we practiced so many times, Rain and I connected to each other and then to the Plane, with Leena amplifying it all. Marhysa was up there with Dray fighting the first wave of demons and dragons. The ground shook as the droves of beings from the other realm surrounded the falls.

“So what’s the big plan?” I asked Rain. My nerves were getting the best of me and I was very over being a chosen one.

“We fight.” Rain threw her arms out wide, leaned back, and called for the Plane. It streamed in through the Heads of House and funneled through Rain like an energy tornado. Then she smacked her hands together and sent it all through me. “You are all the Houses. Their power flows through you and Dray. Use it.”

My head got hot. Really, really hot. Like all the power was feeding back inside me and if I didn’t get rid of it, I’d explode like Rever had made all those Wrens explode. So I didn’t fight it. I gave in to the instinct to burn something. Fire shot out of my fingertips and scorched the grass around the falls below.

“Holy shit.”

“Don’t stop.”

I looked up to Dray and sent the energy to him. “This shit’s powerful. Point at what you want to fry and let loose.” I watched as Dray breathed actual fire all while shooting it out of his wings at the dragons flying by him. The sky lit up like a thunderstorm and a lightshow combined. Dragons fell from the sky while demons simply incinerated.

“They’re coming!” Tymothy shouted, pointing below.

I tore my gaze from Dray in time to see an army of scaly serpent-like creatures crawling out of the water and onto the banks of the river. The same place we held picnics and spent time with our families. Even more monsters crested the mountains behind them.

I tried to use the energy like a scalpel, hurting only the demons and monsters while saving the nature around them, but it was almost impossible. The Blood Mountains wouldn’t be the same after this. Especially since the demons were catching on to us and adjusting. They got closer to Dray again and distracted him while the dragons tried to rain fire down on us.

The banshees intervened and Rain and Shoshanna were able to throw up bubbles of protection until the Dreg Army appeared a mountain away to distract them.

“Thank fuck for that,” I breathed, then winced as I saw Tymothy stiffen. His dad was there, saving us while taking the brunt of the attack. “Let him do his job,” I told Tymothy. “And let’s do ours. The faster we win, the faster he’s out of harm’s way.”

The boy nodded once and turned his attention back to the horizon. “If you hit that mountain, the rocks and debris will fall on the monsters below.”

Whatever strategy Iwan was teaching him was good. I let the power of the Houses and the Plane flow through me. I directed every bit of energy at the mountain Tymothy pointed out, until the top of it began to crumble. Boulders rolled down the mountain, sending minotaur-like creatures running for safety. But it was too late. The whole mountain came down, obliterating every monster that had been on that mountain and the valley below.

We must have been doing some pretty significant damage because the attacks on us became more frequent, but also more frantic. Disorganized. Violent. The actions of creatures who knew they were about to die.

“Incoming,” Dray said. “That dragon is carrying something.”

I watched as a dragon dove down the mountain and landed on the bank of the Blood River. Something crawled off its back.

A sorcerer.

“Not today, Satan.” I gathered up the energy until my head started to burn, then unleashed it on the sorcerer. The dragon opened its wings protecting him and breathed fire right back at me. It knocked me on my ass and broke the connection to the Plane energy.

“He’s set a tether,” Rain groaned in my mind. “Fuck.”

I scrambled back to my feet. The moment I was back in alignment the flows of power returned. As did a sudden searing pain. Dray was hurt. Badly.

I couldn’t let this dragon guardian knock me down again. If I did, it would be the end of Dray. So I set my feet firmly and hit him hard.

“It’s not enough!” I told Rain. “This sucker’s stubborn and strong. Can you give me more power?”

“This is everything.” Her anxiety was palpable. She knew as well as I did that if we didn’t kill this dragon and sorcerer then the tether would take hold. Life as we knew it would be over. The Convergence would become permanent. “Wait. I have an idea.”

The flow of power buffered a little just as the dragon shot another round of fire my way. But this time I ducked. I almost fell on my ass but managed to keep my footing. The flow of power continued its inconsistent flow.

“Shoot him now. Give it everything you have. Then get out of the way.”

The flow surged through me, as powerful as ever, and I shot it down on the dragon. It let out a ferocious growl as one of his wings went up in flames.

“Now!”

I ducked down again. The hair on my arm shot up as electricity sizzled the air. A wave of psychic energy began to form around Rain sucking me towards her. “Oh damn. She’s going to do it. She’s going to use that ancient magic!”

I was so fixated on Rain that I didn’t notice that the dragon had shot another stream of fire up the falls. Only this time it didn’t bother with me. It sent it towards Tymothy.

The boy howled with pain, rolling in the grass to put out the fire. I grabbed his armor and dragged him into the river.

Rain ignored us all. She took all the psychic energy and created a wave just like Rever had. The tentacles reached out and down. Something exploded below us. And then everything went blank. Like someone had just turned off the Plane. It was like I was human again. No feelings, no sensations, no whispers in my mind. It was all gone.

Rain sank to her knees, trembling. “Did I get them?”

“You okay?” Tymothy was a little singed, but nothing too terrible. He even had his eyebrows intact.

“Don’t worry about me. Go.”

“I’ve got him,” the Head of the House of Argo said as he stepped into the river beside us.

“I’ll be back to check on you. Your mom will kill me if I let anything happen to you.” As it was, I was pretty sure Lou wouldn’t be speaking to me for a long time. Not that I blamed her.

I pulled myself out of the rushing water and clomped up to the edge of the falls. “Oh shit.” A shiver raced down my spine. I expected to see a hurt dragon. Maybe even a dead dragon. Instead the ground was scorched and the sorcerer stood gaping. No dragon.

“What? What is it?” Rain yelled between gasps of air.

Before I could answer, Ryddyck appeared, his great wings wide and fluttering, and raised both his hands in the air. Two daggers glinted in the strange light. He brought them around the sorcerer and sliced his head cleanly from his body.

I gasped, my hands covering my mouth, and stumbled backward as Ryddyck disappeared into thin air. “I–I think you got the dragon. All I see is a big black circle where he used to be.” The sorcerer’s head rolled into the smoking grass and stopped just as its body fell forward beside it. Shoshanna laid lifeless on the bank of the river. Something else caught my eye but I couldn’t tell what it was.

“Is…is the tether intact?” Rain stumbled up beside me and gasped. “Who killed the sorcerer?”

“Ryddyck.” I spun. “Where’s Gigi?” She wasn’t among the Heads of House standing beside us, or with the group surrounding Tymothy. She must be with Ryddyck. With the sorcerer gone they would be able to remove the tether.

“She’s doing her job.”

My stomach twisted. What if she got trapped in the other realm with Ryddyck? “How…how will we know if they’re successful at severing the tether?”

Rain touched my arm, drawing my attention to her and away from my wayward thoughts. “The Convergence is ending. Once the tether is removed our realms will begin drifting apart. Time will get weird again.”

“And the sky will go back to normal?” No dreaming was weird enough, but the eternally weird sky had messed up my entire sense of time.

“Slowly, but yes. The sky will go back to normal, the dreams will return, and time will be restored.”

I tried to reach out to the Plane but still felt nothing but emptiness. “Why can’t I feel the Plane?” It was like being numb, knowing I should feel something, but not.

“It’s there. I just, uh, hurt it. A little.” She cocked her head. “But you should be able to feel something.”

I shook my head as a sense of dread filled me. “I feel nothing. Not even Dray.”

Rain stiffened. “You can’t feel him?”

I shook my head as I tried and failed yet again to feel anything at all.

“That’s not right. You and Dray aren’t just connected by the Plane. You’re also connected by Fate. If you can’t feel him…” She froze and snapped her mouth shut.

“What?” I asked, my heart already galloping straight to panic.

She swallowed hard. “The Plane is here. I don’t know why you can’t feel it.”

But that wasn’t all she was thinking. “What else?”

“What do you mean?” Her eyes darted away.

I shoved myself in her face, my heart beating so hard and fast I could hear it in my ears. “What about Dray?”

She swallowed again, but at least had the courtesy to look me in the eye. “If you can’t feel him, he might be dead.”

I went completely, stunningly blank. No thoughts, no breaths, no heartbeat. Time, for me, simply stopped. “He’s not dead. I would know if he were dead.”

Her face softened with sympathy I didn’t want or need. Dray wasn’t dead. I couldn’t see him, couldn’t feel him, but there was no other evidence. “Kris? Kris!” I yelled for Dray’s brother. “Bo?”

The brothers came running. “Are you hurt?” They asked at the exact same time.

“Can you feel Dray?” The Wrens had a little psychic ability and usually had an uncanny knowledge of where each sibling was at any time.

Bo’s gaze unfocused. “I think so. Maybe?”

Kris shook his head. “The whole Plane is garbled to me right now. I’m sorry.”

I think so and I can’t tell were good enough for me. Dray was alive. Maybe he was hurt but hurt wasn’t the same as dead. I looked to the sky but didn’t see him anywhere. The dragons and demons that remained were few and far between. The mountains around us smoldered. He could be anywhere.

Rain watched me carefully. “Rhysa, I–” The ground shook, knocking us all off balance.

Bo grabbed me before I landed on my ass. “Now what?” The ground kept shaking.

“Look!” Kris pointed at the sky.

A demon disappeared. A dragon.

“They did it,” Rain sighed. “The realms are separating.”

Sure enough the sky began to lighten and the creatures blinked away one by one. “Where is Gigi?” I scanned the meadow but neither she nor Ryddyck reappeared. I reached out again and this time I felt the faintest signs of the Plane. Gigi was close but I still couldn’t feel Dray.

“There,” Kris pointed but by the time I looked there was nothing there. “I swear I saw them. Ryddyck on the ground with Gigi beside him. There!” This time I saw the flash of their bodies closer to the falls. They blinked again and then suddenly they were beside us.

“He can’t go back,” she sobbed. “They’ll kill him for helping us.”

I suddenly realized what she was doing. “Is that how it happens? If you’re touching someone from the other realm it keeps them here?”

She nodded, crying uncontrollably. “The stronger mind picks. I pick here! Here, you damned demon!”

A roar shook the air and a dragon swooped over a mountain before diving into the trees and crashing. I felt his pain. “Dray!”

I ran part of the way before I remembered I could shift again. Why couldn’t I feel him? Even before our minds mingled, I could feel him.

My mind wouldn’t even entertain the idea that something bad might have happened. I moved in a pattern until I found where the earth had been pounded and scraped in a line that led to smoke.

“No. No, no, no…” I stumbled as I ran, my brain too scrambled and scared to allow me to shift. I probably had scrapes and cuts now. There might be blood. But I didn’t feel any of it. All that mattered was finding Dray and helping him.

We already lost so much. Maybe even Ryddyck by the looks of things. I couldn’t lose Dray, too. The disaster area grew thinner and thinner as I got closer to the smoke. Where was he? I should see the dragon by now. Wings, a tail, a body.

A scream ripped through the air that I knew instinctively was Gigi. I felt her grief in my bones. It wouldn’t be me next. It wouldn’t. Dray was here somewhere I just had to find him. When I got to the smoke all I found was a burning tree that had been broken in three places.

“Dray!” I shouted. “Dray!”

Something snapped to my left and I spun. All I saw were trees and grass. A few rocks and a boulder. Snap! And then the most beautiful sight in the world as Dray stepped around a tree holding his side. He was battered, filthy, and stumbling, but he was alive!

“Dray!” He fell to his knees when our gazes met and I shifted to his side. “I’m here.”

“I see that, love.” He threw an arm over my shoulders.

“What do you need? Where are you hurt?” I ran my hands everywhere searching for where the blood was coming from.

“I heal fast, remember? I’ll be fine. Nothing I can’t come back from.”

He leaned on me awfully hard for someone who was fine. “Sit. We won. There’s no rush.”

“I don’t want to sit.” But he stumbled again. “Okay, so I’ll sit for a minute.”

I helped him down onto a log. “It’s over. The other reality is gone and the Plane is just like it was. We did it. Thanks to Gray and Lorelei we were able to stop them.” His parents sacrificed so much, but now we got to live our lives because of it.

I was so damn grateful.

Dray laughed a little and wiped a tear from the corner of his eye. “Yeah.” He wiped his nose. Then he closed his eyes and I felt him reach out for his parents. Then he cupped my face and kissed me hard. “We won. We’re alive.”

“Yeah. We are.”

He kissed me again. “Oh, that hurts but I don’t care. Keep kissing me.”

I tried to be tender, but he wouldn’t have it. “Pain means I’m alive. I don’t mind it one bit. It won’t last long.”

“I don’t want to be the one making you feel pain.” Not now, not ever.

He smiled, his eyes raking over my face before kissing me some more. “You only make me feel good, Rhysa.”

My heart fluttered just like it had before the war. “You only make me feel good, too.”

“Tonight we have a date with a hot bath and a lot of bourbon, but after? We’re celebrating.”

“I look forward to it.” Then I froze as Rain called out for me to get back. Fast. “We need to go. Can you shift?” I took on some of his weight as he tried to stand.

“I think I can make a short jump. To the top of the falls?”

“Yes. We’ll shift together. Gigi needs us.”

Dray sagged. “Oh no. Fuck.”

We didn’t have time to grieve. Whatever was wrong was urgent. So I cupped Dray’s chin and kissed him once more. “I love you. No matter what we have to deal with next.”

He nodded a few times, then stood up tall. “I love you, too.”