Page 102 of Catching My Dreams

She hadn’t escaped by breaking through the barrier. She’d taken herself right to wherever Brett was hiding out.

“You shouldn’t be here.”

The voice came from behind her, and Ella spun around to find Brett leaning against a garish orange TV unit. She stumbled back until the back of her knees hit the bed.

“We can finally agree on something,” she replied. Her lungs still felt too tight, and if her heart beat any faster, she was sure it would stop beating altogether. She edged her way around the side of the bed, putting it between her and Brett. “But before I go, I want you to answer a question.”

“I’ll tell you anything you want to know.”

Ella shuddered at the softness in his voice. She would have preferred anger. “How are you visiting my dreams?”

Brett’s eyes flared, and his relaxed posture stiffened. “How did you figure it out?” he asked after a beat of silence.

Ella gulped. She hadn’t known it for sure, and his confirmation was enough to have bile rising in her throat. It was violating enough that he’d been watching her while she was awake, but to know that he’d been invading her dreams as well…She didn’t think any amount of therapy would help her sleep easy after finding that out.

She took another step away from him. “You’ve always been a common feature in my nightmares, but lately, they’ve been feeling too real.”

“Nightmares?” he asked with a frown. “Is that what they are to you?”

Ella ground her teeth together, ignoring the pain in her tender jaw. “You didn’t answer my question. How are you doing it?”

He let out a disappointed sigh. “The spell I drew on your forehead when you came for Asher lets me access your dream plane.”

What he was describing was much closer to the definition of dreamwalking than what she could do. To be able to walk into someone else’s dreams was something she’d thought was a myth, a story. Perhaps based on powers similar to hers, but she’d never imagined Brett could do anything like it.

“But you never finished drawing the symbol,” she argued, her mind scrambling to remember. “Riley stabbed you before you could complete the spell.”

“I finished it,” he said with a shake of his head. He almost looked apologetic, but that was ridiculous. He didn’t regret doing it. He only regretted getting caught.

“So what?” she asked, her voice cracking as she pulled her hands through her hair. “You weren’t having any luck with me when I was conscious, so you decided taking advantage of me in my dreams would be easier?”

“No,” he argued, taking a step forward.

Ella flinched and stumbled back. Brett lifted his hands to show he didn’t mean her any harm. She didn’t believe him.

“I just wanted to speak to you. I knew Noah and your friend Asher had your mind all twisted, and it was my only chance to make you remember what you’ve forgotten.”

“I didn’t forget anything,” Ella bit out. “And I came to my own conclusions about you without Noah or Asher’s help.”

“That’s not true,” he countered.

“Let me be clear,” Ella said, her voice made of steel despite the shaking of her hands. “I don’t want to be with you, Brett. I want nothing to do with you. All I want is for you to leave me alone.”

“You don’t mean that,” he replied, a sheen entering his eyes as he shook his head vigorously.

“I do,” she insisted. “I mean it, Brett. I will never want to be with you.”

“No,” he snapped, his face twisting into an ugly expression and his hands coming up to tug at his hair. “That’s not true.”

Ella glared, putting all her fury into the look. “I will never love you. I hate you, and I always will.”

“No,” he roared, and he started toward her.

Ella scrambled back, her eyes closing despite every instinct telling her she needed to keep them open. She focused on her bedroom, on Archie, and almost immediately, she felt the pull that told her she’d traveled elsewhere.

She didn’t reopen her eyes immediately, afraid that if she did, she’d find she hadn’t moved from Brett’s motel room. She only opened them when Archie’s bark broke through the silence. The yap grounded her, telling her she was where she needed to be.

Ella opened her eyes to find Archie standing at the end of the bed, looking right at her spiritual form and wagging his tail. She didn’t give herself any time to marvel at that fact before she was focusing on her physical body, willing herself to return to it.

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