Page 28

I knew that as soon as I went home the spell would break and my life would go back to being a train wreck of epic proportions.

I closed my eyes, soaked up the sun, and just enjoyed the moment. Bliss.

I wished I’d had a journal or something where I could write down all my thoughts and hopes and dreams like every other stupid teenager out there in the big, bad world. But alas, it wasn’t safe to keep something like that in my house, not where Vivian could find it. And I really had no other place to keep something like that safe. Besides, how would I pay for it? Stealing wasn’t really my thing, though sometimes it was sadly necessary.

I couldn’t even have a notebook, forget about nice things.

Something gently brushed my cheek, and my eyes flew wide open. My breath caught in my throat and a bright, happy smile spread across my face.

A beautiful, delicate yellow butterfly landed on my nose. Its wings fluttered softly, and I longed to reach up and run my finger along its thin wing but dared not to for fear of injuring it.

I looked up to see hundreds of them floating in the air above me, just gently coasting on the breeze.

I felt tears prick the backs of my eyes at the sight. I didn’t think I’d ever seen a sight so beautiful before.

It was then I realized what this was—a dream. It was all just a dream. A beautiful, lovely dream but terrible all at the same time. It was terrible because it made me feel stupid and sad for having believed for one second that it could have been real.

My life didn’t contain peace, even for a moment.

My life didn’t contain this level of beauty, even for a second.

I closed my eyes, and when I opened them again, the butterflies were gone and the park was starting to get dark.

Darkness was creeping in at the edges of my vision, and it left me feeling slightly ill inside. Something was very, very wrong here, I just didn’t know what.

For some reason, I knew my dreams were supposed to be a safe space for me, the only place I knew to be entirely safe these days. Someone important to me had gone out of their way to make it so.

Someone…

I saw dark, shoulder-length hair and beautiful, soulful dark eyes.

Tyson.

Yes, Tyson Alexander.

He was my best friend. My lover. Well, one of them. I had several.

That was right, I remembered. Vivian was dead and my life had drastically changed for the better. And Tyson, he’d made me something precious. My dreamcatcher was why this was supposed to now be my safe space.

“Ariel…” My name was whispered urgently along the breeze.

The sky turned black and smoky fog filled the park, covering the play area and the wood chips.

Unease slithered down my spine. Something about this whole thing wasn’t right. I just couldn’t understand why. I couldn’t hold onto my thoughts long enough to figure out what the hell was going on here.

It was almost as if the fog from the playground was creeping into my mind and muddling everything up.

“Ariel Kimber… let me in.”

Isat up in my bed and sucked in a shuddering breath. “No, no, no.”

I wrapped my arms around myself and held on tightly.

This was not right, damn it. Nothing about this was right and it was making me feel sick.

I looked up at the dreamcatcher hanging down from the ceiling. It had protected me all this time and kept me safe, so it shouldn’t be failing me now.

I understood what had been happening in my dream. I was what the guys had called a dream walker, and I had the ability to visit other people’s dreams. It also left my own more open and susceptible for other dream walkers to invade my dreams.