Chapter Twelve
My eyes blink open, confused at the image in front of me.
I furrow my eyebrows and stare in disbelief.
I see a person staring back at me, equally startled.
His black hair is slightly ruffled from being slept on.
His hands rub his dark eyes hard as if the imposer will suddenly disappear from his view.
He is caressed up to his waist in black bed sheets; his torso is bare.
I watch as his muscles flex and his jaw tightens.
“Asha, how did you even get in here?” his raspy voice questions as he pushes himself up towards his headboard and further away from me. His ink-veined arm lifts up, and he runs his hand through his hair, pulling at it slightly. I feel like I am in a trance and struggle to find the words to say…
“Ryder?”
My vision adjusts to the view, and I can feel myself start to panic.
My eyes shoot around the room, taking in the surroundings.
My knuckles tense and wrap around the black satin sheets.
I am sitting on his bed? His walls are a dark charcoal grey, and his wooden floors creak under my toes.
He has a large sword above his headboard on display, and his room is neat and pristine; there is not a speck of dust around, and no personal items on display.
It feels cold and dark. He looks up at me with frustration.
“What are you doing here?” His brow line is deeply furrowed.
“Ummmm…” I pause for a moment. “Where exactly is here?”
“You’re in my dorm room, Asha, I know I called you a stalker, but this is taking the piss.” He grabs the white shirt draped over his bedside table and covers himself up.
“What?! How did I get here?” A cold shiver runs down my spine as I realise I am in Moon Castle. I stand up and begin to pace around the room trying to make sense of this, the floorboards groaning with each step I take.
“Funny, I was thinking the same thing.” He walks towards me. “If you wanted to see me again, you should’ve just said so.” A small smirk tugs at his lips.
“I shouldn’t be here,” my voice shakes as panic starts to set in. “If they find me here, they’ll kill me.”
“Or they’ll just do me for attempted kidnapping.” He shrugs nonchalantly. My body tenses, and my feet stop pacing.
“You?!” I point at him. The dots slowly adding up in my mind. “You put the newspaper article in my bra.”
“Watch where you’re pointing your finger.” His words sting as he attempts to swipe my finger out of his face, but somehow failing to make contact. I see his hand meet mine, but I don’t feel anything. His hand just sinks through my skin as if I am made up of air.
“What the?!” His eyes screw onto mine and his eyebrows furrow again.
I look up at him for answers, but he seems just as puzzled as I am. I reach out to touch him, and the same thing happens again; my hand goes straight through him like flour through a sieve.
“A- A- Am I dead?” Water wells in my eyes, but I plug the tears and stare down at my hands. They look real. I wiggle my toes. I can feel the floor beneath my feet. He looks at me, reading the situation to a tee.
“No. Not dead.” He bites his lip.
“How can you be so sure?! Your hand just went straight through mine,” I whine, panic still racing up and down my body.
“Relax…” He rubs his chin in thought. “I think this is one of your crazy dreams again.” He looks in awe at me as if he is looking at a rare diamond.
“Relax? How do you expect me to relax? I’m in Moon territory AGAIN?!” I raise my voice and drop my head into my hands.
“Your mind is in Moon territory. If I’m right, your body is still in your dorm room.”
I stare at him in shock. Surely, he’s not right. I can’t be here and there at the same time.
“At least you’re not dead,” he jokes and retreats back to his bed, patting the space beside him, beckoning me to come sit. I accept his invitation and sit down next to him.
“I just don’t understand any of this.” My sentence sounds more like a cry for help. I fiddle with my fingers in my lap and silence enfolds us for a moment. He turns to look at me, his bed creaking with the motion.
“Was that your mum in the photo?” his voice softens as he looks at me for answers.
“Yes. I never met her; she died having me.” My head drops as I stare into my hands. “I never knew about the kidnapping… It just doesn’t add up. Why would my father not tell me this?”
I lift my head, and my eyes meet his.
“She looked just like you.” A sincere smile forms on his face.
I lock eyes with his briefly, then drop my head back down to my fingers in my lap.
Another pause. Silence surrounds us, but not in an uncomfortable way.
I never thought a Moon could make me feel so safe. So many thoughts race around my head.
“Why did you give me that article?” I question, studying his face, waiting for his reply.
“I told you I did some digging. I knew I’d seen your face before.
” His jaw flexes. “All Moons know about Luca Thorncroft. They made an example out of him, killed him for his crimes… They said that he murdered her.” His eyes narrow.
“But she must’ve survived because she had you.
” He looks at me for answers, but I am a blank canvas. This doesn’t make any sense.
He continues, “My father was Luca’s best friend. He never believed that he was capable of doing something like that.” I watch his body tense as he speaks about his father.
“Your father knew him?” My eyes widen. “I need to talk to him.”
I turn to him, grabbing his t-shirt. How come I can touch him now?
“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 not one 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.
“Not Sun Sovereign, just Alex,” I mutter, surrendering to his soft grip.
“I hope you gave him a run for his money.” His eyes sparkle in the dim light.
“Yeah, something like that.” I look down at my bandaged hand again and then back up to his face. “You said I should trust you, right?” I read his features for a moment, wondering if I should continue.
“What is it?”
I pause again, contemplating whether to tell him. His stare doesn’t drop from my eyes.
“Don’t leave me waiting, Calloway.”
I let out a sigh.
“It’s nothing…” I look down. I don’t know whether I can trust him. He pulls my chin up, so I’m looking at him again.
“It’s not nothing; what is it?” he asks, his face softening again.
Oh, what the hell. I have to tell someone what’s going on with me. He already knows more than anyone else. And he’s a Moon, what’s the worst he can do?
It’s not like he can tell anyone he’s been talking to a Sun.
“Something happened earlier with Alex.” I pause again, trying to choose my words. “He used his Gifts on me. I guess he was mad about when I hurt him in combat.”
I gesture to my hand. “My hand started glowing, and then I was pushed back by something. A force… Then he went up in flames.”
Ryder looks confused, like he can’t process what I’m saying.
“I think I did it to him. I think I set him on fire.”
I look up at him and can clearly see him fighting back the urge to laugh. I send him a serious glare, and he regains composure. “It’s not funny; I’m serious,” I add, trying to get him to grasp the intensity of the situation.
He acknowledges my worry and rests his hand on my shoulder.
“But you haven’t got your Gifts yet,” he replies matter-of-factly, but there’s intrigue in his eyes.
“I know. I can’t explain it. But the way he looked at me… he was terrified.” I can tell he knows I am telling the truth now because he has that faraway look in his eyes.
“So, you can dream walk and set people on fire. Anything else I should know about?” His mouth turns into a smirk. He’s always trying to make jokes at the worst times.
“I’m serious. What do I do?” I ask, frustrated at his response.
“Do nothing.” He pauses, then catches eyes with mine. “How long until you get your Gifts?”
“Three days,” I state.
He expects me to do nothing? I don’t think I can take this much longer.
“I can’t just sit around and do nothing. What if someone else gets hurt? Someone I care about?” My mind immediately thinks about Nala. I can’t have her mixed up in this.
“Don’t worry about that. Alex was hurting you, right?” he snaps me out of my thoughts. I nod my head in agreement.
“Yes, but-”
“It seems to me that it was a fight-or-flight response,” he says, cutting me off. “As long as you keep your head down and don’t piss anyone off, no one should get hurt.”
That may be harder than it sounds.
“But how do you know for sure?”
A noise reaches us from down the hallway; our heads snap in its direction.
“You said you wanted to trust me,” his voice is a whisper. “You have to get out of here.”
He takes my hand and leads me back to his bed. He sits down and pulls me with him.
“I don’t know how I got here, let alone how to get out of here.”
I watch as he thinks for a minute.
“When you were pulled out last time, how did you do it?” he asks, facing me.
“I suppose I was startled. You looked back at me when I wasn’t expecting it,” I reply, hoping that my answer will help me get back.
“Great. Harness that feeling,” he says with hope in his eyes. “You can do it.”
I nod at him and shut my eyes. I think back to the dream from before. Seeing Ryder’s face and reaching out to touch it, his head snapping in my direction. I feel the pull. Like gravity. And suddenly, I am in my bed again.