Chapter 9 Sky #2
“He’s making sure Scotty’s set for the morning. He’ll be joining us from now on,” Elyse said with a satisfied smile.
I grinned back. King had been right. No one was angry at me, and things would be alright.
I waited until Chance joined us, managing to keep myself from looking around as I heard the sounds of Jetty and King in another part of the yard.
This was training time, not the lusting hour, and we all had a job to do.
Well, except Jetty. He was just a loyal best friend, willing to go that extra mile for whatever King needed.
He did the same for Chance. After my best friend’s loser of an ex, he deserved the adoring attentiveness that he received from Jetty. Everyone deserved that, and it was satisfying seeing both of us receive it from the men we’d found.
We went through a yoga routine, then Elyse guided us in meditation. “That was wonderful, dear,” Gran said. “I think it’s time for us to impart some of our wisdom.”
I cleared my throat. “Can I tell you about what happened in the Dream-veil last night first?” I lowered my gaze to the ground. “It was upsetting.”
“Of course,” Chance blurted, then looked at our two mentors. “Can’t he?”
“Please do. I have a feeling it will tie in nicely with where we wanted to begin this morning.”
So I did. I told them everything, explaining in as much detail as I could what we saw and heard. They took me seriously enough that no one snickered when I mimicked the voice, nor did they tease me that we beat a path out of there.
Elyse’s eyes were as misty as Chance’s were wide by the time I finished. Gran nodded, sighing. “That was—let’s start with Elyse and my magical abilities.”
“After you,” Elyse said, bowing her head to Gran reverentially.
Gran’s spine straightened, causing her to look more spry and youthful than she had since I met her. The powerful voice that came out of her was deeper, full of depth like Carli’s had been yesterday at Witch’s Brew, and everything inside of me sat up and took notice.
“I am Rosie Porter. High Priestess from the Nightwell line, wife of Lee Porter, Dreamwalker. I am a prophetess, a medium, an alchemist, and a tether. No gift is more, no gift is less, but all are part of the whole of who I am. Who I was created to be. My purpose in this realm and beyond.”
Elyse hummed, then picked up immediately, but her voice was softer, gentler, more soothing than I’d ever heard it before.
“I am Elyse Chancellor. Clairvoyant and guide. I can see the gifts in others, communicate with the dead in different degrees than my son. Like Chance, I am a Green witch, giving me a natural affinity with gardens and herbs.” She looked over to him.
“Something we will develop further in you, my son.”
He tried biting back a smile, but his excitement was so contagious that spontaneous laughter broke out among our little group.
Elyse turned to me. “Sky, the first time I met you, I knew you were destined for so much. Auras don’t lie, and yours is breathtaking. And I was so thrilled for Chance to have his soul mate—and so young.”
Chance and I gasped. Elyse giggled. “No. Sorry. Your platonic soulmate. You’re a perfect complement to each other, two pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.”
“Bookends, if you will,” Gran added.
Elyse nodded her head, clapping her hands together happily in one loud smack. “Perfection. I didn’t know if you’d unlock Chance’s memories and restore him to his gifts or vice versa, but I knew that being brought together meant that you’d find your ways.”
Gran closed her eyes and hummed. “Beautiful.” She opened them and fixed her disconcerting gaze on mine.
“I owe you an explanation. My Lee and King couldn’t dreamwalk without tethers.
There are too many things in the Dream-veil, too many temptations to hunt down or those who’d want to capture or hurt them. ”
“Like evil spirits?” Chance asked, scooting closer to me. His presence warmed against the fear slithering down my spine.
“No, dear. Like other.”
“Other?” we asked in unison.
“The monsters they warn about aren’t ghosts, and they’re real,” she said ominously.
“Like vampires?” I asked at the same time Chance questioned the reality of shifters.
Elyse’s laughter tinkled. “They’re not other. They’re part of our natural world.”
“Natural world?” Chance asked, tone edged with disbelief. “You consider shifters and vampires natural?”
Elyse patted her son’s leg. “Of course, dear. They’re very much part of this world.”
“Uh, what determines that?” I asked.
“Well, for one,” Gran said. “They can’t go into the Dream-veil, unlike the ones who reside there.
Things like wraiths, shades, or echoes. These things can slip in and out of the Dream-veil, but only to be seen.
They can do no harm on this side, however, they can do all kinds of things inside one’s sleep.
Drive them mad or push them to do unspeakable things. ”
I shivered, fighting the urge to tuck in next to Chance like we’d done many nights when one of us was scared or upset. “And so when we’re in the Dream-veil, they can what? Attack King?”
She nodded gravely. “They’ll do anything in their power to keep him from returning.
And you can’t go there without him. You can’t go back to find him once he’s lost. He’s the guide.
You’re the tether. You anchor the two of you between this side and that.
But there’s more. When dealing with other, some things can only be seen with magic.
He cannot kill that which he cannot see.
Some things can only be extinguished with magic.
King doesn’t, nor will he ever have, the types of abilities you have. ”
“Abilities that are much the same as Chance’s here on this side, if I’ve understood correctly,” Elyse said.
“Mhm. Much of your training will be the same. You’ll just do it in two different realms. Isn’t that a beautiful thing?”
Giving up the pretense, Chance and I leaned into each other heavily, gripping hands tightly. To be as awesome as my bestie was badass. To face these things Gran spoke of? Terrifying.