Was he talking to us? Did he know we were here? Could he hear us? I knew the baby had sensed our presence, but this was next level. Was he a Dreamwalker, too?
“Stooopid…boy. Duuumb…human. Uselessss… Noooo one wants yooooou. Noooooo…one loooooooves yooooou.”
“We’re not leaving,” I called out. “Let us help you. Do you know where it is?”
The air itself seemed to shove against us, sending Sky and I both flying backward, landing on our butts. Sky gripped his familiar to his chest. The psychopomp growled deep in his chest, his little body vibrating with his displeasure.
My boyfriend rolled up onto his knees next to me while the cruel voice echoed around us, continuously mocking the huddled figure, slinging one insult after another. “What do we do?”
“I don’t know,” I admitted grimly. “How do we fight something we can’t see?”
“And why can’t we see it?” he shrieked, voice trembling with fear instead of his usual excitement when we were in the veil.
Sitting up next to him, I swallowed. “I…I don’t know, but I don’t think…”
His eyes glistened with tears. “We can’t help, can we?”
“Not now. Not like this. We don’t know enough. We’re not prepared enough.”
Sadly, he nodded. “Patchy, home.”
Chapter 9
Sky
I woke with a start,back in my bed. King jolted awake behind me, pulling me close. “What the fuck was that?” he asked harshly in my ear, panting like we’d run a marathon.
“I don’t know.” My mind swirled with the images, the poor figure huddled on the ground, and that voice. Holy God, that voice. What was that? I’d never heard anything so cruel. And we’d bailed. We’d left that poor man.
“I…wow. I think…I think we failed, Sky.”
Gulping, I rolled over and pushed into him, burying my head in his chest, unsure what to say. Was this my fault? After Pops had disappeared with Beau from the Witch’s Brew yesterday, Chance had hopped up and said he wanted to head back home and witness the reunion. Gran had sighed and admitted that was probably best. I’d assumed because Lee had left, she’d wanted to, too.
But Elyse, my mentor’s lips had tightened with disapproving irritation. They’d asked us there for a reason, and she was less than thrilled that our little meeting had been disrupted. At the time, I’d been upset that she was upset, but not much more than that. Now, I wondered. The god or whoever it was hadused Carli’s voice for a reason, but we’d abandoned ship for the brother-sister, afterlife reunion.
“Sky?” King asked, rubbing my back. “Are you okay?”
“No.” I sniffed, fighting tears. I’d been so wrapped up in this—us—and the Dream-veil that somewhere along the way I’d stopped thinking about how the things we were doing, what Chance did on his property, how Elyse had traveled around her whole life helping spirits pass on, all of it, was really about helping those souls. And King and I had been given abilities I didn’t even know existed to render aid to people—living, breathing, walking humans—to not be tortured in their own homes. I sucked.
“All I cared about was giving Patchy a name and having picnics in our sleep since we weren’t spending the night together and watching you learn to wield a sword. What’s wrong with me?”
“Sky,” he breathed out.
“No.” I sat up, batting back the moisture in my eyes. “And even my cousin. I’ve let him down so much. I was so pumped to spend time with him. To be in the same room. Be able to see each other’s faces outside of a phone or computer screen, and still I let everything else distract me. And he’s so confused by everyone’s behavior, and I’ve snickered about that instead of really being here for him.
“And he deserves better than that, King. His relationship with his parents is even worse than the semblance of family that I have with my parents. It sucks. I’m his family. Me.” I thumped my chest. “But I’ve let him down. He probably feels more alone now than he did on tour. At least there he has his assistants, and the band, and his fans.” I sniffed through the last of my tirade.
King rolled over and onto his knees, cradling my face in his hands and tipping my head up to meet his eyes. I saw no anger or disappointment, only compassion and affection, which helped.Then the strained disappointment from Elyse’s every expression today superimposed itself across his handsome face, and I lost the battle of clamping down the tears.
“Sky,” he tried again.
“And Elyse hates me,” I wailed.
Snorting, he pulled me into his arms. “Baby, listen to me. First off, Elyse could never hate you.”
“But—”
“No,” he said, cutting me off. “Elyse loves you. She treats you like another son. If she’s frustrated with you at all, it’s because she wants you to be all that you can be. She wants both you and Chance to use your gifts and thrive.”
