“Dram!”I screamed urgently as he slid down my body to the floor.
“You killed him!”his friend yelled.
“No, I didn’t!”
“Stop this, all of you!Miss Morrigan, what did you do?”Leanna Stolbright shouted.
“Nothing, I, I—” I stuttered, but I had no real answer for her.
Stolbright came running over to where I was standing beside Dram’s collapsed body.The wizard was having what looked like a full-blown seizure, with all of us looking on helplessly.
Stolbright said something to me, maybe she’d been yelling at me to leave.I couldn’t be sure.My own blood was rushing so loudly through my veins it sounded like thunder in my ears.Before I knew what I was doing, I kneeled down.
I took Dram’s icy hand and began singing the same way I did with Jade after Mabe had accidentally siphoned some of her magic.The fade didn’t steal any of Dram’s magical stores, but he sent his system into hyper drive, overloading his senses.
“Morrigan, let go of him,” Stolbright commanded, but I ignored her with a sharp shake of my head.
I couldn’t see myself, but I must have looked frightening because everyone backed away from us.I felt all their eyes on me, the fade included, but I was too intent on what I was doing to stop.
The hallway winked out of existence as I sang my song, and somehow, I made my way inside of Dram’s head.I saw the damage the ghost had made inside Dram’s being, and shithead that he was, he didn’t deserve that.So with a song on my lips, I pulled on the magic I knew dwelled within me, even if I could not harness it on command, and I pushed it into him, healing what the ghost had done seemingly to protect me from the idiot wizard’s unwanted come ons.
“Enid?Enid!”someone yelled, but I couldn’t tell who it was with all the noise in my brain.
The repair job on Dram was costing me and when I finally turned my head, I wasn’t in the hallway anymore.Well, not really, anyway.It was like I was caught in some in between.The air around me sizzled and sparked, like static electricity, and the hair on the back of my neck and arms stood straight up.
Dram’s body looked completely transparent, like he was there, but not his physical form.My heart started to thud, and I stood up too quickly, almost toppling over.Strong hands grabbed onto my arms and when I focused, I sawhimstanding in front of me.
“You used too much, Nizhoni.Too much, too soon,” dream boy murmured, and he looked angry with me.
“Who are you?”
“You know who I am.All you have to do is remember.”
To say his answer was as frustrating as it was confusing was an understatement.But my gaze landed on Dram, slumped over on the floor, and my panic rose.
“Is he dead?”I asked, sagging but not falling because of the powerful grip he had on me.
“That one?No.But from what the old wizard told me, perhaps he should be,” dream boy growled.
“Old wizard?”
“Yes.He’s been trying to contact you, Nizhoni.You have forgotten how to listen.”
“What do you mean?He screams all the time at me, I just don’t speak ghost scream,” I mumbled.
“You hear, yes, but you don’t listen anymore.You must learn again,” dream boy said with a careful nod as if something had been decided.
I didn’t know how he got there, but of all the people I could have conjured into being, the beautiful male from my dreams would be the one I chose.And there he was, as real as me.
He tilted his head and behind him I saw the fade who’d attacked Dram to save me.His form was clearer, and he could have almost passed for living save for the fact he was floating.
“Forgive my startling you, bright one.I only meant to warn.Not everything is as it seems in Westwood.You would do well to be wary of your surroundings.Foes often appear as friends, fair lady,” he told me, his voice slightly accented and rusty from lack of use.
“Thank you,” I replied, even though I wasn’t sure what he meant.
I felt no ill will from the fade.A dozen questions sprang up in my mind, but I didn’t have the energy to speak then.Dream boy frowned, lifting me in his arms almost as soon as my legs gave out.
“Too much too soon, Nizhoni.You must rest now,” he repeated in a whisper.