Page 35 of In Between Darkness

“Woooahhh. Slow down there, Calloway. My dad doesn’t even talk to me, so why do you think he’s going to talk to a strange Sun girl he doesn’t know?” He grips my hands and pushes me back off him.

‘Strange’. Of course, he wouldn’t want to talk to me. Look at me - I’m a mess. My eyes drop from his gaze, and I stare down at my hands again. He touched me. How?

“You touched me. Your hand went straight through me before, but now you can feel me?”

He stares at me thoughtfully. I get the feeling he knows something.

“My guess is it’s your emotions. You need to learn to control them. Once you do that, you’ll be dream walking at will.”

I find it hard to accept this information.

“Dream walking?” I stand up to try to process what he is saying. I pace his room again. What does he mean by dream walking?

“Yes, Asha, dream walking. It’s what you’re doing now. Only you have no control.”

No control? How can I control something I didn’t even know I could do? There’s no such thing as dream walking. I’ve read almost every book on the Gods and their Gifts, but notone contains information on dream walking. I’ve heard of veil shifting but not dream walking.

“I’ve never heard of it. That doesn’t exist,” I say to him as if he’s the crazy person. He gets up and walks towards me, placing his hands on my shoulders and looks down into my eyes.

“You wouldn’t have. When your kind wants to bury something, they do it well,” he speaks through gritted teeth.

“Bury? What do you mean?” I question. “Where did you learn this?”

He kisses his teeth and looks away, as if trying to assess his surroundings. He turns back towards me and leans in close, his eyes more serious than before.

“The Sun people aren’t as they seem. The less you know, the better.” His voice is stern as his eyes search mine.

What does he mean? The Sun people don’t lie… The Gods wouldn’t allow it.

“You have to tell me what you know,” I plead with my eyes.

“Do I?” He looks at me coldly.

He obviously doesn’t do well with being told what to do. I stare back at him. He really isn’t going to tell me anything.

“Don’t speak a word of this to anyone. Dream walking. Your mother. Any of it,” he snaps, and I suddenly have more questions than before. Why won’t he tell me? This isn’t even about him. Anger starts to boil in my bones. I shake his arms off mine and grip his shirt again.

“What?! No! Tell me what you know!”

He pulls my hands off him with great ease and pushes me into the door; his right arm holding both my wrists above my head. I try to shake my hands out of his grip, but his hold is too strong. His breath is hot on my face.

How does he always get me like this?

“Don’t make me tell you again, Asha.” He tightens his grip on my wrists and my breath hitches. “You just have to trust me,” he whispers as I try to squirm out of his trap.

“How can I trust you? I barely know you.”

He loosens his grip, and I move my arms back down beside my waist.

“And yet you’re here with me again. Whatever it is, that pull from inside you. That feeling. All of it has subconsciously brought you back… to me.”

His eyes dart from left to right as if he is memorising every inch of my face. He’s right. I can’t think why I would be here. Something keeps bringing me here to him. Ever since I started at this school, Ryder has been in my thoughts.

Silence deafens us again. I feel drawn to him. Our eyes meet, and his hand reaches out to me and strokes the side of my face. I place my hand on his, my palm rough from the bandage over my burn. He takes my hand in his and strokes his thumb over the bandage.

“Another injury. Sun Sovereign is testing you.”

His blackened veins dance up his arm, and I wonder why they are like that.