“Straight to it.” Bas opened the file and began to sort through the newspaper clippings and printouts from various websites.
He didn’t hear someone come in with tea, but at some point in his perusing of the papers, a cup and saucer were placed in front of him. Each piece of paper in the folder told a similar story. People had been complaining of nightmares and then insomnia. They began hallucinating while they were awake. Speaking of a shadow man. And then they would fall into a coma and waste away.
“I want to know your thoughts,” Kenna said, toying with a pen.
“And there’s no chance that it has natural causes like a virus?” Bas asked. He needed more time to read through them properly.
“Ruled out. Doctors can’t figure it out because they are all healthy. Nothing I can see links these people. Not even a book club. The only link is that they started happening in Dublin at the same time Taranis fixed magic,” Kenna replied.
Bas looked up from the printed pages. “Something woke up.”
“That’s my guess. I just don’t know what, and I don’t have time to look into it. It’s beyond my realm of understanding, but it’s in yours. I swear every day I wake up, this world is weirder.” Kenna tossed the pen on her desk. “You find out what it is and how I can kill it, and it’ll stop eating people’s dreams.”
Bas spilled his tea. “What did you say?”
“Read the articles, Basset. All the victims have claimed something—this shadow man was trying to eat their dreams. Why? What is it?”
Bas put down his tea. “I think I know who its next victim is.” Bas got up and gathered the folder back together. “I gotta go.”
“Happy hunting!” Kenna called behind him.
Bas pulled out his phone and hit Bridget’s number. It rang out, and so he did it again. He made it down the stairs, through the parking lot, and jumped in the Audi.
“I’m at work—” Bridget answered.
“Don’t dream!”
“What?”
“Don’t dream. Don’t go in the astral. Don’t even daydream for fun until I find you.”
“Don’t tell me what to do.”
“I’m not fucking around, Bridget. Please just trust me. That thing in your dreams is after you,” Bas argued
There was a long pause. “Okay, I’m not really at work today. It’s my day off. Want to tell me what this is all about?” Bridget asked.
“Can you come to me at Temple Bar? It would be better if I showed you,” Bas replied. He held his breath as the silence on the other end of the line stretched out.
“Text me the address,” Bridget said and hung up.
Bas shot it through to her before ringing Valentine. His brother answered in a disgruntled voice, “What?”
“Change the wards. We are about to have a guest.”
9
Bridget walked through the grounds of St. Audoen’s and wondered if she was about to make a huge mistake. Whatever had happened that morning had gotten Bas upset, and she hated it. That surprised her because she usually didn’t care about other people’s feelings. She had her own to deal with.
Bridget checked the address for the hundredth time and started her walk again. Had she gone past it? She didn’t want to have to ring Bas to come and find her. That would be embarrassing.
“I’m an adult and totally capable of finding a house,” she muttered under her breath.
Bridget tried to tell herself she wouldn’t have bothered with this meeting at all if not for the disturbing presence she had sensed hovering around the borders of Bas’s ward.
She had sketched it under her bed the night before with much skepticism. It hadn’t glowed with magical fire or anything once she had drawn it. She hadn’t felt any different when she had curled up under the blankets. It wasn’t until she hadbeen dreaming and felt the same creepy shadow presence being repelled that she knew it had worked.
A gate appeared before her in the old stone wall, and Bridget let out a yip of surprise. She had walked past that part of the street twice and could have sworn that there was nothing there. Her hand tingled as she pushed open the gate and stepped onto a stone path.
