Ceredes
She fidgets in her sleep. The sun has barely tipped the trees at the back of campus when her breathing speeds up, her eyes moving rapidly beneath her lids.
I close my eyes and test this new, open connection between us. Kyte and Jeren are already there. Perhaps because they are also asleep? I don’t know.
“What’s going on?” I try to see ahead of me, but it’s foggy, my link to Lana going in and out like a staticky comms.
“She’s dreaming about her mother.” Kyte rubs his temples. “About her childhood.”
“That’s not good.” Jeren steps into the mist but is quickly rebuffed. “I’m shut out.”
“We all are.” Kyte peers into the swirling white and gray.
I do, too, trying to find her. “It’s a nightmare.” The fog clears only a little, and I find myself in a rudimentary kitchen with an angry woman. Lana’s mother, her teeth bared, her face drawn and full of rage.
“I would’veneverhad a daughter like you. Never!” She throws something, a pot maybe, and the child Lana shrieks when it hits her.
I try to reach for the child, but then she’s gone in a wisp of fog.
“Wait.” Kyte pulls me back.
“We should wake her,” Jeren says.
“No.” Kyte rubs his temples. “I think this might be important. Just a feeling I have.”
The scene comes back, the child Lana on the floor crying. Even my stalwart heart begins to break, and I fight the urge to interrupt the dream again, to pull the child away from her monstrous mother.
“Pathetic. They told me you’d be strong. But look at you. Look at you! Cowering and crying. Can’t even pass kindergarten because you still talk like them.” She grabs a steaming pot from the stove and advances on Lana who rolls into a ball, her hands covering her head. “I should’ve given you away or donesomethingother than keep you.” She threatens with the steaming pot.
Lana shrieks in terror.
Then the dream fades and in its place, Commander Warverian appears. He glares at Lana, his mech eye glowing red as he pierces her with it. A red laser blast right through her heart as she screams.
“Now!” Kyte claps his hands, and a thunderous sound makes the nightmare tremble, shred, and fade away.
We all open our eyes at the same time.
Lana turns and clutches me close as Jeren and Kyte huddle around us. “You were there. I could see you, but I couldn’t get out of the dream.” She shivers.
“We’ve got you,” Jeren coos.
“I’ve had nightmares before, but those were … different. More real.” She looks up at me, her eyes glistening. “Do you think the circle did something to me? Changed my brain or something? Is that dumb?”
“No.” Kyte reaches up and pushes her hair from her forehead, then farther up. “I think the circle definitely changed you. All of you. Not just your brain.”
She winces at his touch, then reaches up to feel what he’s doing. “Holy shit. Are those—”
“Horns.” Kyte grins and rises to his knees to inspect them.
“I have horns?” She gasps. “Oh my god!” She scrambles from the bed, pushing Jeren and Kyte aside with amusing ease, then rushes into the bathroom. Her squeal is like an energy blade in my ear.
“I have golden horns! On myhead!”
Kyte follows her. “They’re perfect.”
“Why do I havehorns? And they grew overnight? How? What is even happening?”
Jeren and I exchange a smirk, and I climb out of bed and stretch, then follow her into the bathroom. It’s plain, white tile and a basic shower and toilet, but it’s better than sharing with the other cadets. And, best of all, there’s a separate tub. The thought of Lana in the water while I scrub her clean sends a jolt of heat to my pants, and I clear my throat.
