Page 14 of Leda's Log

“Yes,” Dreamcatcher agreed.

“Angel and Shadow make baby fluffy teddy bears?” Sierra said hopefully.

Dreamcatcher grinned at her. “Yes, I think Shadow would like that.”

Basanti was grinning too. “I wonder what their babies would look like.”

Yeah. Those kittens would be epically huge.

“Shadow!” Dreamcatcher called out. “Come here, you raunchy tomcat!” She whistled, and Shadow trotted obediently over to her. He did look pretty reluctant to abandon his vigorous wooing of Angel, though. “Be cool, kitty cat. Be cool.”

Shadow planted himself next to her, seated upright and alert. His big, gold eyes gazed longingly across the hall at Angel.

“Sit down,” Cupid told Dreamcatcher. “They have good food here.”

How generous of her to offer Leila’s hospitality.

“It’s a good thing I got here when I did,” Dreamcatcher said as she scooped a mountain of mashed potatoes onto her plate. “If that rift had stayed open much longer, it would have ripped your castle apart from the inside.” She sprinkled peas all over thepotatoes. “But not before ejecting a ton of otherworldly creatures into this world.”

“So your powers allow you to seal rifts between dimensions,” Leila said.

Dreamcatcher nodded. “That’s right. I can also travel between this dimension and the dream dimensions. And I can communicate with the spirit animals in the dream dimensions.”

“Like Shadow.” I glanced at her shadow cat.

“Shadow, Whitney, my new friend Arvie…all of the creatures from the dream dimensions.” Dreamcatcher downed her whole glass of orange juice in one draft, then licked her lips. “And if I can convince a spirit animal to be my friend, it tags along with me on my journey.”

“Tags along with you in there?” Nero indicated one of her tattoos.

“Being in this dimension is very exhausting for them,” replied Dreamcatcher. “They rest inside my magic tattoos. And when I need their help, I can summon them.” As her hand hovered across the tattoos on her arm, they glowed in and out, one by one.

“Pretty,” Sierra cooed, her eyes wide.

“They really are, Mini Pandora,” Dreamcatcher agreed.

“How do you guys know so much about me?” I wondered.

“You are rather infamous,” Cupid told me.

My smile faded. “I had no idea my reputation transcended dimensions.”

“Oh, we’re not from another dimension,” Dreamcatcher said. “We’re from right here. From Earth.”

“You claim you’re both from Earth.” Nero’s eyes narrowed with suspicion. “And yet your powers are unlike anything we’ve ever seen before.”

“Yeah, well, we’re not like other people.” Dreamcatcher winked at him.

“Obviously,” he replied, his face blank.

Ok, so maybe Nero could ignore her flirting, but I was having a hard time doing the same. My pulse was pounding, my skin burning, and I wasreallytempted to throw her out of the massive hole she’d just made in Leila’s window, but I decided to be mature and not attack the woman who’d just saved Storm Castle.

Like he’d read my mind, Nero took my hand, entwining his fingers with mine. “Tell us about your powers,” he said as my pulse started pounding for an entirely different reason. “Were you born with them?”

“No,” Cupid said. “We were born human. We only got our powers a couple of years ago.”

“And how did you get those powers?” I asked.

“Because of you, Leda Pandora.” Cupid’s gaze locked with mine, but the look in her eyes was more resigned than accusatory.

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