Chapter 10 #2
“Did you and Kayla date?” I asked, once she’d gathered her belongings and left the condo in a huff.
“No, why do you ask?”
“She seemed unhappy that I was staying with you instead of her.”
“Kayla is dedicated to her job. If she felt threatened, I’m sure that’s the reason.”
I doubted very much that was the reason. “Maybe you could try viewing her in a different light? She’s pretty, and obviously good at her job.”
He gave me a blank look. “View her in a different light for what purpose?”
Oh boy. “Dating her.”
The druid glanced at the door through which she’d departed. “I haven’t thought of her that way.”
“You should. I bet you have a lot in common.” If they played All Alike, they’d probably discover they were both raised by wonderful parents and had no emotional scars whatsoever. Two peas in an unimpaired pod. Lucky them.
“Differences can be healthy too,” Dr. Adam said. “Studies show that differences between romantic partners can be complementary and actually strengthen their relationship. They remain strongly connected while maintaining their individual identities.”
Vale’s ice-blue eyes flashed in my mind, and I immediately yanked down the mental curtain. Vale was not an option either. Besides, he was an insufferable demigod. Even if he was an option, our prickly bits would rub each other raw.
My vision shifted from Vale’s eyes to his broad shoulders. Suddenly rubbing each other raw didn’t seem as horrible as it sounded.
“No,” I said aloud.
Dr. Adam shot me a curious look. “Sorry?”
I cleared my throat. “Stubbed my toe.”
“Let me know if you need my healing hands. They’re available to you as soon as we finish with Ronald.”
As skilled as he was, Dr. Adam’s healing hands wouldn’t be enough to fix what ailed me.
Even if I decided to practice my emotional exercises on him, it wouldn’t end well, and then what?
We’d both be stuck on a small island, desperately trying to avoid each other for eternity.
It wouldn’t be fair if he felt the need to leave the Neighborhood for a job elsewhere, and I couldn’t leave Evermore even if I wanted to.
Dr. Adam knocked gently on Ronald’s bedroom door. “Ronald, it’s Dr. Adam and I’m back with Maya August. You remember her, don’t you? Acting director of security.”
I stood awkwardly by the doorway while the druid checked Ronald’s vitals. I focused my attention on the various framed photographs on Ronald’s dresser. I wasn’t into elves, but it was a fact universally acknowledged that young Ron was a looker.
“He traveled a lot,” I said, noting a young Ron grinning for the camera at the mouth of a volcano.
“Yes, he’s shared amazing stories. He’s been to all seven continents.”
“Impressive.” I observed the nondescript elf in the bed. I would’ve bet good money he was a homebody. My instincts had grown dull on Evermore.
“Ronald,” Dr. Adam said. “Can you hear me?”
The elf stirred. “Yes.” His reply was nearly inaudible.
“Can you open your eyes for me?”
Ronald’s eyelids fluttered open. “Only for a moment. I need to close my eyes to see her,” he murmured, his eyelids growing heavy again.
“See who?” I asked.
Slowly, he turned his head to face the stack of sketches on the bedside table. He couldn’t possibly mean his childlike drawings.
“This woman?” I held up one of the Picasso-style sketches.
“Isn’t she beautiful?” he whispered.
Sure, if you were partial to a triangle nose and an alien-shaped head. “You dream about her?”
A smile ghosted his chapped lips. “All the time.”
I thought of Bernice’s admission last night, about dream visits from her mother. Was it possible that Ronald’s dream woman was real and not a figment of his imagination?
“Ronald, do you know this woman? Have you met her in real life?”
“Leanne,” he whispered, then began to snore.
Dr. Adam looked at me. “You seem to have an idea.”
I shook the sketch. “What if he didn’t make her up? What if he only thinks he did?”
“You think he’s experiencing memory loss too?”
“No, I mean what if his dream woman is real, and she’s the one responsible for his condition?”
“Because he wants to spend all his time with her, which means he has to be asleep?”
“Something like that.” I had another theory, but I needed to test it. “If you have no objection, I’d like to enter Ronald’s subconscious.”
Dr. Adam’s mouth split into a grin, as though I’d made a joke.
“I’m serious.”
His smile faltered. “You can do that?”
“Yes.” I realized I sounded too confident and quickly tempered it. “I believe so.”
“Is this something you learned from your mage father?”
“Yes.” Gods, I hated how easy it was to lie.
“Interesting. How can I help?”
“Just watch over us both. Make sure Ronald’s vitals don’t go berserk. If they do, wake me up, even if you have to throw cold water on me.”
“I can do that.”
“It’ll be faster if I’m touching him. Is that weird?”
“You’re trying to save his life, Maya. Permission to board granted.”
I climbed into the double bed and curled beside Ronald, placing my hand on his chest, over his heart. Skin-to-skin was the fastest method. Conductive.
Entering someone’s subconscious wasn’t astral projection.
There was no dramatic fainting, no glowing silhouettes peeling out of my body.
It was closer to tuning an old radio—finding the right frequency where there’s a song instead of static.
It should be easier, knowing a pathway had already been forged by someone else.
It meant his mind was pliant and willing.
The light above us hummed.
The first step was grounding. I breathed in through my nose, counted to four, and imagined roots unfurling from my spine, threading down through chair legs, floorboards, concrete, into soil.
At first, I met resistance. Eventually, I felt the hum beneath everything: water in pipes, whirling fans, electricity zipping through copper veins.
That hum was the edge of the collective unconscious. The ocean.
Ronald was a tributary.
I tilted my awareness toward him.
There was a texture to supernatural minds. Human thoughts sparked and jittered like faulty wiring; elves were older, slower burning. His subconscious felt like a forest at dusk—layers of shadow, the scent of rain-soaked leaves, something luminous flickering far off between the trees.
His heartbeat stuttered. The forest shifted.
The trick wasn’t forcing entry. Subconscious minds had teeth. If I pushed, I could regret it—nosebleeds if I was lucky, seizures if I wasn’t. Instead, I mirrored Ronald.
I let my breathing sync to his. Let my heartbeat match the rhythm under his papery skin. When his shoulders loosened, mine loosened.
Then I saw the gate.
It was only a construct, of course. An image my power shaped out of shared psychic material. Tonight it was wrought iron, tangled with ivy, half sunk in loam. It stood at the edge of his forest, where the trees thinned.
I didn’t create whatever lay beyond the gate. That belonged to Ronald.
I pressed against the gate. It resisted, cold and rusted shut.
Fear.
Subconscious barriers were emotional alloys—shame welded to grief, regret riveted to pride. To open them, I had to supply the missing element.
“Ronald,” I said softly, eyes closed. “It’s Maya. I’m here to help you.”
The forest wind rose.
“Dr. Adam sent me. He’s watching over us both, to keep us safe.”
The gate warmed under my palm. The rust flaked away. The hinges groaned as they swung the gate open.
I spotted Ronald seated on the stump of a fallen tree. He wasn’t alone.
Unsurprisingly, the woman looked nothing like her picture. She was, in fact, stunning. A thick head of strawberry blonde hair cascaded past her shoulders. Luscious lips that didn’t appear pumped full of chemicals. Eyes that sparkled like the sea in sunlight. Small wonder Ronald was under her spell.
Those sparkling eyes turned to slits at the sight of me. “Who are you?”
“A friend of Ronald’s.”
“Leanne, this is Maya,” Ronald said, sounding stronger and healthier than his physical form suggested.
“Can I ask what you’re doing in Ronald’s mind, Leanne?”
She raised her chin a smidge. “I should ask you the same.”
“Ronald is my friend and he’s unwell. I’m trying to figure out how to help him. You?”
Hesitation rippled across her beauty-pageant-queen features. “He is my one true love.”
I looked at Ronald. “You said you made her up.”
“How else could I explain her? No one would believe me if I insisted she was real. Dr. Adam would’ve put me in a padded cell.”
“What difference would that make? You’re not getting out of bed at this point. You might as well be in a cell.”
“My poor sweet Ronnie. Is that true?” Leanne cupped his cheek in her hand. “Why didn’t you tell me? Tell me where you are, so that I can come and nurse you back to health.”
“Having you here with me like this is all I need,” Ronald said.
“How can this be enough for you?” Leanne asked. “It certainly isn’t enough for me.”
Curious. Ronald was head over heels for this woman, yet he wouldn’t disclose his whereabouts on the island.
Granted, the island was secret, and Neighbors signed an NDA when they arrived, with limited exceptions, but a man who’d fallen as hard as Ronald would throw caution to the wind—unless alarm bells signaled otherwise.
“My love says that great harm will come to him if he reveals his location, but I think it’s an excuse. I think he’s like all other men, toying with my emotions, and doesn’t truly wish to be with me.”
“No, no. I do,” Ronald said, his voice trembling with emotion.
Leanne’s nostrils flared as she fixed her gaze on me. “Are you with him right now in the real world?”
“Yes.”
“Tell me where. Give me the address so we can be together.”
“I am duty-bound not to share that information.”
Her eyes flashed fire. “You conspire against me! You want him for yourself.”
“I’m thirty-five, Leanne. I promise I have no romantic interest in Ronald.” I smiled at the elf. “No offense.”
“I’d be concerned about you if you did,” Ronald said.