I froze, not sure if he was awake or waking, if he’d heard me, sensed me, if he knew I was here in the same way I could feel his presence anywhere. Lightly, he cupped the back of my thigh. His thumb stroked, tickling the sensitive space behind my knee, his hand slowly climbing higher under my shorts. I let it go on a few seconds as I struggled to hear him.
“Come back to bed, Em.” His voice was low and raspy. His hand slid higher, not stopping until he reached the bottom curve of my ass cheek. Idly, he traced tender, thin lines over my prickling skin. “Too early for running.”
Definitely not awake. Definitely dreaming.
I pushed his hand away. “Leland, no. It’s me. It’s Ember. Wake up. You’re dreaming.” I cupped his face, smoothing pearls of sweat away from his skin, so cold and clammy under my fingertips. “Come on, Leland,” I begged. “Please wake up for me.”
As blood rained from his legs, I had the terrifying thought that this wasboth of ourLucid Dreams. He should be able to snap out of it.
I felt my way down to the foot of his bed to be closer to his leg wounds. Not knowing what else to do, I lifted the heavy, blood-drenched sheet, and had to bite back my cry. He was in sweatpants, but below the knee, the light-gray fabric was a bloodied, blackened mess. Blood seemed to leak through deep gashes that ran the lengths of his shins. My only thought was to wrap his legs tight to try to stop it, so I quickly imagined a towel, conjuring it, then threw it over his leg and bent to tuck it tight under him.
Leland kicked.
More than a reaction of surprise, he kicked as thoughI’ddone this to him, as if all his years fighting in magicless combat amounted to fending me off, his life dependent upon getting rid of me. It was so violent, so unexpected, I stumbled back, slipping repeatedly. I yelped as I lost my footing and felt myself falling backward. I landed on my ass, catching myself with my hands, grunting as my wrists took the impact.
Thatwoke him.
He abruptly sat up on his knees, his face pained and pale as he peered down at me, and the surrounding trail of hand and footprints smeared in his blood from my scramble.
“What are you doing?” he yelled. “I said leave me alone! I said stay in your room!”
“I — ” I choked, still on the ground, floundering in his blood. “You were screaming! I came to check you were okay.” I lifted a hand from the wetness, and a film of blood rolled down. “Why is this happening in a Lucid Dream? What is this?”
“Get out, Ember.”
“No.” His blood rose higher around me. “How do I fix it? Tell me how to fix it.”
“You can’t fix it,” Leland said. “Youcausedit. You need to leave. Right. Now.”
“What?” I shook my head. “How did I — ”
“I said,GET OUT— ”
There was a jolt.
I awoke in my room and slapped a hand between my eyes, hissing at the pain of a quarter bit drill twisting through my sinuses. Leland had ended the Lucid Dream; he’d forced me out.
Unseeing, my eyes clenched tight against the head pain, I raced down the spiral, swiping my side against the rough stone wall as I turned too fast to stop myself from colliding with it.
I reached Leland’s door and pounded. “Leland? Leland?”
No answer.
I pushed it open. I didn’t want to invade his privacy, but if the blood was real, if the dream was an extension of his reality —
His bed was neatly made, and he wasn’t in it.
* * *
I never returned to my room. I sat in the arcade, staring at his door, waiting under the skylight as the sunrise brightened from orange-gray to dull blue. Everything reminded me of him. Checking the passage to the hatch reminded me of when he offered to come with me to meet with Starvos. Looking up at the skylight reminded me of the scrying orb that he denied and denied and denied. My chair, made in Leland’s style. Most of the furniture in the arcade. Lightweight, minimal lines, a protest to history and heirlooms. His touch was all over the academy.
Four hours after I started waiting for him, Vyra, Rayne, and Skye meandered out of their rooms and found me in the same chair, refusing to move.
“Sometimes he sleeps somewhere else,” Rayne said, lightly touching my arm.
I shrugged her off. Everything I touched I drained and depleted.
“Why don’t you come with us to breakfast?” she asked.
