“What are you?”
Fian looked around before leaning closer to Kai.“A demon.A dream demon.Oh, and in case you mean my job, I’m a carver.I make things from driftwood.That means—in human terms—I am gainfully employed.Self-employed actually.I live alone, I can cook, and I don’t snore.”
Fian thought those were the most important things to know for humans.Human dreamers always complained about them when seeking dream counseling about their spouses, or so he’d heard.
Kai’s mouth had fallen open.His lips were pale.Fian didn’t like it.
“You’re a dream demon with a job.”
“Yes.”
“And you live alone.In a seashell?”
Fian frowned.“You have seen me.Do you really think I would fit into a seashell?”
Kai shrugged.He shuffled a few inches closer to Fian.“Who knows?Maybe you have giant shells in dreams.”
“We have all kinds of things in the Morpheusrealm.The dream world, I suppose you could call it.I’ll show you all of them, but I live in a real house.Well, it’s a small cottage with a studio where I work.”
Kai cackled, the noise grating.“I get it.You live in my dreams.I can only ever visit you in my dreams, so in a sense, this isn’t real.”
Fian was unprepared for the turn this conversation was taking, and that in a place as public and noisy as this mall.Someone was walking past them with a dog in their purse, and the dog was looking, those canine eyes intrusive.
I would have liked to take him somewhere, a romantic place for humans, but he wants answers.Maybe he wants certainty.Maybe he needs to know I’m nothing like the barnacle man.
Fian spoke, doing his best to mind his surroundings and talk quietly.
“Kai.This is real.Me coming here…I came because I didn’t want to be without you.You can come with me even without falling asleep.It’s yet more metaphysics, but at the base of it, magic allows me to travel between realms, and it allows me to take humans with me if I want to.I do want to take you if you’re willing to come.If you do, you’ll really need that swimsuit though, because I don’t want you to get cold.”
Kai nodded.“I don’t know what I want.No.I want to leave the fucking jam place.I want to…I want to punch…I don’t want to ever see him again.”
Kai was white as a sheet, and when Fian shifted so that he had a few suckers on the tips of his fingers, he could taste that sour fear on Kai again, hating it, hating it in ways he’d not hated anything.
“You mean that barnacle man.”
Kai nodded.
“When we are in the human realm, you can always look at me, and when you sleep, I will make sure no echoes of him haunt your dreams.This I vow to you, salt and sea grass be my witness.”He looked around.“And maybe this plant thing here.I don’t know what I should swear to in the human world.”
“We swear on something we love here.”
But I cannot swear on you!Fian thought, his heart noisy as the storm-tossed ocean.
He cleared his throat.“That is good to know.Thank you for telling me.”
Kai lifted his chin.He looked so drained of all his salt, but his eyes were clear.“I’ll help you buy a phone, and I’ll buy one for myself.That’s actually going to make me feel good.Then you can help me go get my stuff, only what I really need.I’ll check into a hotel—not in Salt Harbor.And then maybe when I sleep, you can show me around?I don’t just want to go to a place without knowing how to leave it.”
Fian gaped.“Kai.Oh, Kai.That would never…there is an agency.I will show you how to contact them.They are called the Human Liaisons Unit, and they are very strict about not harming dreamers.If you are ever unhappy or if I’m unable, they will take you to the human realm.”
“Still.I want to go to a hotel.”
Fian nodded.“Of course.Whatever you want.”
Kai let out a long breath.“Okay.I don’t know where the electronics store is.Let’s go look.”
“We’ll find it together, I’m sure.The ocean always takes you where your heart wants to be, that’s what they say.”
“No ocean here.Just concrete and tile.”
