Chapter 16 #2
His eyes soften, then he leans forward and presses one gentle kiss to my collarbone, completely different from the ones before.
“Best fucking dream I’ve ever had,” he murmurs against my skin.
“By the way, I talked to your subconscious.”
He leans back to look at me. “You did?”
“Yeah.” I bite my cheek against a smile. “And we’ve both come to the conclusion that we want each other.”
“Oh, do we?” The corner of his mouth tilts up.
“Yep.” I hold his gaze, and something shifts in his expression. The overwhelmed look softens into something else entirely. “I also have a new rule.”
“You made rules with my subconscious?”
“No. I want to make one with your lucid mind.”
“Okay.” He reaches up and strokes a strand of hair from my forehead. “What rule?”
“Never question that I want you.”
He hums, then lets his thumb glide over the bridge of my nose. “Rule four. Never question that I love you.”
I look at him with wide eyes, but he immediately kisses me before I can respond.
Coward.
I kiss him back anyway.
And then I feel it. A thread, coming alive in my chest, thin at first. Something that hums whenever he touches me.
My breath catches because I know this feeling. Not exactly, but enough. It’s the same feeling as the thing that pulls me toward Tessa. The thing that made me drive across the country. The thing that refused to let me leave.
Oh.
Oh.
I pull back enough to stare at him. “Nev.”
His hands settle on my waist. “What?”
“You’re my tether.”
“I don’t know what that is, baby. But I’m everything you want me to be.”
I laugh and lean back in to kiss him harder.
“How sweet.”
I freeze.
Lucien’s voice comes from behind us, and I turn to look at him. He’s standing at the edge of the cloud floor with his hands loose at his sides, watching us with something that isn’t quite a smile. His green eyes move slowly over my face, then over Nevan, then back to me.
“How long have you been here?” I ask as I get off Nevan’s lap, step in front of him, and cross my arms.
Nevan’s hands find my hips from behind, gently pushing me to the side as he stands.
“I just arrived.” A slight tilt of the head.
Nevan glances at me. “Who is this?”
“Oh, that wounds me. I spent years in your subconscious, Nevan Shaw. And you don’t even remember my face.”
“I don’t,” Nevan says, eyes flicking to me again.
“But I remember you, and all the fun we had together.” Lucien’s gaze slides to me. “I mentioned to our Lenny that I’d been feeling bored. I thought perhaps we could have a little more fun.”
“Leave,” I say flatly.
He chuckles. “No one tells me what to do. I tend to be the one doing the telling. Speaking of which, did you know your young friend has some trouble with his sleepwalking? The poor thing simply can’t control it. Just hops right out of bed and wanders.”
My blood goes cold.
He does?
A staircase grows out of the clouds beside us. It builds itself upward without stopping until the top of it disappears into nothing.
“Sometimes it’s very dangerous what he gets up to while he sleeps,” Lucien says pleasantly. “Sometimes it’s just a little walk. You never know which it will be.”
“And that is your doing?”
He shrugs one shoulder. “Who can say what the subconscious does with the things one suggests? What I can say is that Nevan’s subconscious has always been very receptive. Very open to being told what to do.” His gaze lifts past me. “Isn’t that right, young man?”
“I don’t understand what—”
“Climb the stairs, Nevan.”
“What?” His feet move.
“Nevan.” I grab his arm.
“I’m not…” His face creases in confusion. “I’m not doing this.” But his feet don’t stop. One step. Another. Onto the staircase. “I’m not doing it on purpose, Lenny. I can’t stop it.”
I turn back to Lucien. “Stop it right now.”
“You don’t do what I want.” He shrugs. “So why would I do what you want?”
Shit.
Shit, shit, shit.
I turn back and walk up the steps after Nevan, grabbing his arm with both hands and pulling, but I’m not strong enough. He’s too tall and solid, and even braced against the stairs, I can barely slow him. When I get in front of him, he steps around me, and I step back in front of him.
He steps around me again. “I can’t do anything. It’s like my body isn’t listening to me.”
Think.
I reach into the dream and spread honey across the steps like I upended a jar of it. It holds him for one second, two, his foot sticking, then he pulls free.
I look up. The staircase ends somewhere above us in the clouds.
If he walks off the edge… Is this happening only in his dream?
What is his body doing right now?
I go back down. Fast.
Lucien is still standing at the bottom, watching me with a smile, and I plant myself in front of him and ask the only question that might actually matter.
“What do you want?”
“You know what I want.”
I do.
Still, I can’t give it to him.
“Step back into elsewhere. Let Tessa do the soul contract. Stay, and they will all be left alone. I’ve said it before.
You are the reason for all of this, every bit of it.
You could be somewhere beautiful right now instead of watching him walk toward nothing.
You choose to be here, and you let them suffer for it. ”
“I can’t. I’m tethered here. To him.” My gaze flicks up to Nevan again, who’s still climbing the steps, but when it comes back to Lucien’s, he’s looking almost furious.
“It doesn’t matter if you have a tether on this side.” He scoffs. “You’re stuck in the in-between because you haven’t let go. Let go of him! He doesn’t get to do this again.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Lennon!” Nevan’s voice carries down from somewhere above us.
Not desperate. Terrified.
“I can’t stop.”
My head snaps up. He’s much higher than he was a second ago.
No.
No, that’s not possible.
I was only talking to Lucien for a minute. Maybe less, but the staircase is longer now, and Nevan is almost at the top.
“Nevan!”
His head turns toward me, but his body doesn’t. It keeps climbing.
One step.
Another.
Another.
“I can’t feel my legs anymore.” His voice breaks. “I can feel everything else, but I can’t feel my feet.”
I turn back to Lucien and grab his wrists, making him startle at the touch. “Please, don’t.” Lucien stares at me, and I hold his gaze. “Please.”
Behind us, I can hear Nevan breathing.
Fast.
Panicked.
Lucien’s jaw works. Then he shakes off my grip and looks up too. “Nevan Shaw.”
The climbing stops, and I exhale so hard it hurts.
Nevan stands on the final step, nothing but clouds in front of him.
Thank God.
Thank…
Lucien’s green eyes return to mine, and then a smile blooms on his lips, the sinister edge to it stopping me short.
“Jump.”