Chapter 10 King
King
After I left the manor to drive to work, I stopped at the boardwalk.
Maybe I should’ve brought Sky with me, but he’d been so shaken up that I wasn’t sure it was a good idea.
In fact, he was so preoccupied with his own perceived failure that I was pretty sure he’d forgotten how conscious the dreamer was of our presence in his haunting.
I hadn’t been able to get it off my mind, so here I was.
Going back to the same spot to hop the railing as I’d taken Sky last night, I easily cleared it and crept toward the tunnel.
Luckily, I’d had the foresight to bring a flashlight.
Even with the sun shining overhead, if the man from last night was still here, he’d be too far into the tunnel for much natural light.
After walking for a few minutes, sweeping my light back and forth from one side to the other, I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt I’d passed the spot we’d been in last night without finding a soul.
Turning to go back the other direction, I moved slower, keeping the light focused on the side of the tunnel where the homeless man had been, hoping to find anything to prove that he’d been here in the real world as much as the veil.
Finding nothing, my shoulders sagged. It wasn’t only that I’d wanted to see if he remembered anything from his dream or me and Sky, but I’d wanted to see if he needed anything.
Food, money, maybe I could even get him a job with one of Jetty’s construction crews if he was interested.
I hated the idea of this guy being under attack in his sleep, alone, with nowhere to go during the day, either.
“Good morning, Kingston,” Malcolm said, coming into my office. “How are you?”
Firing up my computer, I smiled at my boss.
Malcolm Everett offered me this job right out of high school.
I’d been shocked. Working for the township in any capacity was an awesome job to land without further education or an in with someone who’d give a personal recommendation.
I’d always appreciated that he’d given me, not just an opportunity for a job, but a career.
“I’m alright.”
He frowned. “Is something worrying you? You’re looking a little stressed this morning.”
If only he knew, but I kept my smile pasted on my face. “No. Everything’s fine. Just, you know, I didn’t sleep that well.”
That wasn’t a lie. Generally, I still slept pretty good, even when we dreamwalked.
It was like my body got its required rest while my spirit went where it was needed.
I’d certainly been getting more shut-eye since I stopped avoiding sleep when my dreams were freaking me out before I had Sky by my side.
Last night had been different. Feeling the weight of our failure, Sky and I had talked until morning.
By the time Jetty came down for our morning fencing lesson, I’d already taken a walk down to the pond to greet the ghosts I’d come to consider friends.
Since Jetty was my closest friend, it had taken him exactly five seconds to realize something was wrong, so instead of fencing or Tai Chi—which both kind of seemed like a waste of time last night—I’d confessed what a horrific night it had turned out to be.
Not the time before and after sleep when Sky and I talked, though.
Those conversations were probably the most real we’d been with each other so far, and they’d meant a lot.
Getting to go deeper, share my fears and burdens, and hear some of his was…
nice. I felt more connected to him now than any shared crescent moon birthmark had made me feel.
That mark might mean we were destined, but it was bearing our souls to each other that made me feel more like the possibility of us being in this thing together for the long haul was possible.
Malcolm hummed. “I think you’re ready.”
Startled at his phrasing, I stopped clicking on emails and looked up at him, paying attention to how intense he looked.
We’d known each other for years, and I’d never seen him this serious before.
An older man in his sixties with salt-n-pepper hair and a pouch around the middle, he was generally affable, directing our small staff in a friendly but absent kind of way.
There were times he disappeared for hours at a time, but none of us thought too much of it.
Who the hell knew what all of his job responsibilities were?
When at work, I clicked off my tasks quickly and efficiently, to the best of my ability, so beyond meetings and reviews, we didn’t have too much to talk about.
“Uh, for what, sir?”
“Come along,” he said, then walked out of my office, giving me no choice but to follow.
We walked down the short hall, into his office, then into the adjoining conference room.
I’d noticed the extra door in there before, figuring it was a utility closet or something, so I wasn’t all that surprised when he opened it and there were shelves of cleaning supplies, a mop in a bucket, and a broom hanging on the wall.
Malcolm stepped into the small space, then turned and beckoned me forward when I hovered outside. “Come on.”
What and why would two grown men—me at six and a half feet, him much shorter but bulkier—go into a small square room of janitorial supplies? “Uh.”
Showing the first signs of impatience, he frowned. “Come on. We don’t have all day.”
“Uh, okay.” I stepped in. It wasn’t like this was the weirdest thing that I’d done before. Hell, it wasn’t the strangest thing in the last twenty-four hours.
Malcolm stared at me hard. “Aren’t you going to shut the door?”
“Shut the… yeah, sure.” Reaching behind me, I pulled it closed, expecting it to be awkward as fuck being squashed in this little box of a room with my boss, but…
The back wall glowed softly like a pale blue nightlight as Malcolm pressed his palm onto it.
“What the…?”
He grinned at me over his shoulder. “Cool, right?” Then he gave a little push, and the wall just…disappeared. Honest to the deities of old, vanished. Poof. Gone.
“How did you…? Wait. What?” My brain felt scrambled. Had someone slipped something in my coffee this morning? Or maybe yesterday? First, Sky and I were confronted with a bodyless voice, and now this? What was next? Did I even want to know?
“Come on, then.” Malcolm stepped out and turned right, so I obediently followed.
Before us was what looked like a never-ending hallway. One that made no sense given the size of the historic house our office was located in. We hadn’t gone downstairs or walked up any, for that matter, so where did this even exist?
Malcolm walked quickly down toward the end, and I followed, looking all around me.
The walls, ceiling, and floors were all white, but there were no lights that I could see.
How was this area lit up with no lights?
I kept tilting my head up to check the ceiling, expecting to see recessed lighting of some kind, but nope.
After what had to have been a ten-minute walk, I finally saw the end of the hall, and there was nothing there.
Like absolutely nothing. Like the inside of the closet, it looked like any other wall.
Malcolm continued toward it without a word to me, and I was helpless but to follow him.
What kind of new mindfuck had I been pulled into?
Had I fallen asleep at my desk, and maybe I was in his dream? Was that even possible?
When we reached the end, he pointed at the spot directly beside him.
“Stand there.” I did, and he laid both hands against the bare, unblemished wall.
It didn’t glow at his touch until he began to chant, “Secrets hidden that I hide. Ancestors and all your pride. I seek to check, I seek to guide. Let me in where you reside.”
Nothing happened the first couple of times he said it, but after the third time, a door appeared. A big, thick, brown, wood-slatted door like in movies set in another time, another world, in palaces of old. “Ahh.” Malcolm patted the door. “Hello, old friend.”
Did he mean the door? Was it sentient? That went right out the window when Malcolm reached into his pocket and pulled out an old-fashioned, brass skeleton key with the head of a…
well, skeleton. He slid it into the keyhole and turned it.
The whirling sounds of gears rolling and clicking into place echoed down the hall before a final click.
“Yes, now, this is good.” Malcolm stepped back and pointed at the ornate gold and ebony handle. “Go on, then.”
Cautiously, I came up alongside him and, with an unsteady hand, pushed it down. Next to me, he hummed, somehow sounding both somber and happy at the same time. My heart raced—not with anticipation or fear—but a knowing that my life was taking another unexpected turn.
Glancing back down at the hallway we’d just traversed, I knew it was true.
The not-a-door, this place that couldn’t possibly exist in the building our offices were housed, the brass key…
all of it. All other, just like Sky and my dreamwalking, my gran’s gifts, Chance’s, and Elyse’s.
All of us different. All of us knowing things the average person didn’t.
And now that list included Malcolm with whatever was behind this door.
“Go ahead, Kingston. Open the door,” Malcolm whispered.
Blowing out a breath, I held on to the small handle like it could support my weight, and I stepped in.
As I wandered around, inhaling the scent of paper and ink and…
as I drew in a deeper breath, Malcolm chuckled.
The candlelight sconces on the walls flared to life as I shuffled into the room, illuminating short rustic wood bookshelves and cabinets lining the walls, stuffed with books.
So many books. Some were even stacked on the ground with the spines turned out so you could see them.
And were those…scrolls? There were. Baskets of rolled parchment sealed with twine or the press of a seal. The scent of magic.