Page 54 of Monster's Melody

“They were just whispers,” I finally said.“Barely there at all.I’m not even sure they were there.Maybe I just imagined?—”

“No,” Kasi said.“One of you maybe, but not both of you.”

“Become the shadows,” Mikaela suddenly said.

We all looked at her in surprise.

“They told me to hide and then to become the shadows.Maybe because they knew I had Miki-Leopard and so we could hide in the shadows in a way Jasmine couldn’t.”

“So they told me to fight,” I concluded.

“It makes as much sense as anything,” Vorzak said.

“So theyweretrying to help,” Elliot concluded.

“They didn’t always tell me to fight, though,” I said.“Not all of them anyway.Some of them told me to yield.”

“Yield to what?”Vorzak demanded.

“Zowen, I think.They said it again in my dreams this morning.”

“What dreams?”He glared at me, obviously annoyed I hadn’t shared this with him yet.

“They’re still vague.I don’t remember them very well at all.”I shrugged.“They were just weird dreams, that’s all.”

“Except Leslie was a dream-walker,” Kasi said sharply, “and we don’t know if Zowen managed to steal her ability.Maybe he’s dream-walking inyourdreams now.”

I shuddered at the thought of it.

“So what were the dreams about?”Vorzak asked, pulling his chair closer to mine, as his snakes tightened around me, as if they could protect me with their very proximity.

“I don’t know.They were vague, full of shadows and whispers.”

“Whispers that told you to yield?”Mikaela asked.

“And to fight.They told me both.”

“Were you in the Shadow Realm in your dream?”Jahrdran asked.

“I’m not sure.I don’t think so.There were people at first, alotof people.”

“Who were they?”Kasi leaned forward.

I shrugged.“I don’t know.But they were being thrown into the shadows and just disappearing.”

“Were you dreaming about that night here at the Academy?”Mikaela asked.The look on her face was one of extreme dread.

Mikaela and her roommate, Leslie, had been the first students targeted by Lydrel Zowen, though we didn’t know about Leslie until it was way too late to save her.

Neither one of us had been present for the battle with Zowen the night he attacked students and professors at the Academy, but we were both scarred by it nonetheless.

Mikaela because he’d taken and tortured her right before attacking the Academy, and me because I’d been terrified I was about to lose my best friend.

If I’d known my mate was at risk as well, I don’t know how I would have coped.

“It wasn’t about that night,” I belatedly answered her.“It wasn’t here at the Academy at all.”I thought about it a moment.“In fact, I think it was in a lot of different places, all at the same time.That doesn’t even make sense.All I know is I didn’t recognize any of the people in the dream, though that was just the impression I got since they were flung into the shadows so quickly.”

Kasi sighed.“Please don’t tell me this means Lydrel Zowen is going to break free and storm across the realms once more, condemning millions to death.”