“Sure, we will,” Hope said. “Thank you for your help.” She sucked in air. “What have they done to you so far?” She believed Drake’s threat that he would kill all the captured females if she didn’t obey him.
Lyrica looked at the door and then leaned in. “We have strict orders not to tell you, but fuck them. They’ve been injecting drugs into us. Mostly in our arms, but sometimes in our heads. Do you know what it could be?”
Drugs? That was the last thing Hope would’ve expected. “Maybe.” She thought through the facts but couldn’t reach a solution. “The Kurjans experimented on females by injecting Ulric’s blood into their brains and creating a sort of tumor. Then they hypnotized and trained them to kill. Are you being trained? Have you lost time?” It had all happened to Dessie, and then she’d tried to kill Garrett. But the doctors had taken the tumor from her head.
“No,” Lyrica said, rubbing the top of her head. “Did they give me a freaking tumor?”
“I don’t know,” Hope admitted. “That doesn’t make sense.”
A guard opened the door. “Move.”
“You bet.” Lyrica took the dress with her as she went.
Hope chewed her lip and then pushed the nightstand in front of the door. It wouldn’t stop anybody from entering, but at least she’d hear them come in.
Then she climbed into bed. She didn’t know if this was going to work, but she had to reach Pax. She practiced several deep breathing exercises before finally dropping into sleep. She remained dreamless for a while and then forced herself to create a dreamworld, trying to build some sort of shield around it. Then she pulled Paxton in.
He landed on the snowy white sand and rolled over to sit up, his jaw fierce. “Are you all right?”
“I am.” She rushed to him and fell to her knees, reaching for his face. “How badly are you hurt?”
He looked down at his arms. “I’m fine in the dreamworld.” He shook sand off and noted the calm blue lake. Up above, the sky shone down, warming them both. “Are you okay?” He reached for her, his gaze intense, his body still healthy in the dreamworld.
“I’m fine,” she said. “Drake told me they’re torturing you right now.”
Paxton’s leg twitched. “Don’t worry about me.” His gaze flicked away and then back. “Did you hear that I’m half Kurjan?”
“Do you believe them?”
“Yes. I’m changing, and all for the bad. But none of that matters. We have to get you to safety. Is there any way we can reach the Realm from here?”
She had to save him somehow. “From the dreamworld? No. We’re not really here, Pax,” she said. “That’s not how it works. We need a plan.”
“Our plan is to get you to safety,” Paxton said, his body jerking.
She clutched his arms. “What was that?”
“Nothing, don’t worry about it.”
Realization smacked her. “Oh my God. They’re torturing you right this second, aren’t they?”
He grinned, the look fierce. “They’re trying to bring me back awake, but I like this unconscious state.” His body jerked again. “Hope, no matter what you do, get free. I think Vero will help you. If he does, you have to go. Don’t worry about me.”
“I’m not going to leave you in Kurjan territory.”
“Yes, you are.” He grabbed her, kissed her hard, and then soft.
Conflicting emotions spun through her as she clung to him. “No, wait!”
He slowly disappeared from sight. They must have brought him back to consciousness. She pressed a fist against her mouth, trying not to cry. How in the world was she going to get him free?
She looked around the beautiful dreamworld she’d created and wished she could bring Paxton back in. Her gaze caught on the green book lying open on a dark slate rock farther down the lakeshore.
That was it. She was done playing around with this thing. She stood and stomped down the beach, willing it to stay in place. The book didn’t move. A slight wind started to rustle the pages. Maybe she was supposed to be in Kurjan territory or in the same vicinity as both Paxton and Drake to reach it. She didn’t know.
Her heart thundering, she sprinted the last several yards and leaped across the sand to land on the book. The wind rushed out of her lungs, and the bound corners cut into her skin, but she held tight and yanked it off the rock, rolling several times on the beach.
Sand coated her hair and her body, but she didn’t care. She sat up, holding tight, and then flattened the book on the sand. It shut instantly. “Oh no you don’t,” she said, keeping her hand on the leather-bound cover.
She flipped it open to see the face of a woman she didn’t recognize. Words came into focus, darkening on the page, a lot of it in Old English. She read several pages about a woman who looked a lot like her, an ancestor of some sort. The urge to read the entire tome drove her, but she didn’t have time right now if she wanted to save both Paxton and Hunter. Instead, she riffled through the thick pages, heavy with ink and illustrations, and then stopped cold at the sight of her parents as children. Janie and Zane, their images perfectly captured by an artist’s hand.
Unable to stop herself, she read about the first time they’d met. Lovingly tracing each line, she read about their romance, and their difficulties, and their final triumph. Turning the page, she saw herself as a baby. Her heartbeat started to increase. Finally.
The answers were coming.
She flipped the pages several times and found a full-page illustration of her in Kurjan territory, in that ridiculous gown she’d worn last night. She might have looked like a queen, but she looked like a furious one.
She liked that.
Then she turned the page, and it was blank. She waited for the words to appear, for the page to darken.
Nothing happened.
Wait a minute. That didn’t make sense. She flipped over several more pages and found them all blank. She carefully cracked open the book and patted it. “Come on, let’s see what’s there.” Nothing. The wind picked up and rustled the pages back and forth.
She stubbornly flipped to the current page, right after the illustration of her in the dress. Nothing formed on the page. She pounded on the book. “Why won’t you show me?” The words and illustrations, the directions she needed, didn’t appear. Tears streamed down her face. She had believed. She had truly thought once she could read the book, she would know her path. Lifting her head, she screamed to the heavens. Then she went silent, her body aching.
A form wavered next to her. She gasped and fell to the side.
Paxton came into view on his knees, his eyes blinking. “I must be unconscious again,” he murmured. “You’re still here.” His eyes widened. “You have the book.”
She stared down at the useless book, her lips trembling. “It’s blank, Pax. Everything after yesterday is just blank.” She looked up, her entire body feeling stunned.
He nodded, his eyes gleaming more silver than blue in the dreamworld. Wisdom glowed in them, along with a fierce determination. “Of course it’s blank, sweetheart. You make your own fate. She only records it.”
Chapter Thirty-Two