Page 68 of His Wicked Charm

“It’s not my key. It’s yours. Maybe you have a connection to it.”

“The key is not calling to me to find it,” Lilah retorted flatly. “I would know if I had some connection to it.”

He shrugged. “Maybe. But there’s a reason you started sleepwalking again when you returned to this house.”

“The house is making me walk in my sleep? It has some kind of power over me? You sound like Aunt Vesta.”

“Maybe she has a point. What if there is a force at work here that we don’t recognize? Or don’t understand?” He reached out and took her hands, saying seriously, “Don’t dismiss what I’m about to tell you. I’ll swear on anything you want that I’m not playing a bizarre jest. I’m serious.”

“Very well.” Lilah regarded him warily.

“That room last night in the tower—I recognized it.”

“What? How could you—” Lilah’s chest tightened.

“I’ve dreamed about it. Many times.”

“I don’t understand. You’d never seen it before. How could you dream about it?”

“Exactly... How did I know what it looked like? Why did I dream about it?”

She frowned. “Are you sure? Sometimes I’ll feel as if I’ve had a dream before, but I can’t remember when. I think it’s just some trick of the mind.”

“This is no trick of the mind. I’ve dreamed about that room. Ask Alex when he returns. I’ve described it to him. I had it the night before he got married and several times before that. Because of the clocks and the...the feeling of panic, I dismissed it as nerves. I assumed I was worried about being late, doing something wrong and spoiling Alex’s wedding ceremony.”

“That’s understandable. When you walked into the tower, you saw a room full of clocks, and it reminded you of the one in your dream.”

“It didn’t remind me of it. It was the room in my dream. The walls were all curved. There were clocks on the walls and in cabinets. I saw that window, that desk. The only thing different was the staircase. In my dream, there was no way out.”

“But, Con...”

He quirked an eyebrow. “Do you think I’m lying?”

“No! No, I don’t, but... There must be some explanation.”

“I’m sure there is. But not the rational, cut-and-dried explanation you would accept. I think I was meant to see it.”

Lilah grimaced. “Meant by whom?”

“Or what.”

“You think the house reached out to you? That it has some power? Or maybe one of Aunt Vesta’s buried strands of energy sent a message to you?”

“I don’t know. What I do know is that it happened, and I can’t find any logical, scientific explanation for it. So I think we must consider that it may have been something more. Lilah, however much you want to discount it, the people in my family sometimes have dreams that are...significant, for want of a better word. Reed dreamed that Anna was in danger, and she was. Kyria had dreams about an ancient ceremony even though she knew nothing about it.”

Lilah shook her head. The knot in her chest grew bigger.

“Lilah...you know my sister Olivia. She wouldn’t make such things up. Yet she will tell you that she saw ghosts at Stephen’s home. She dreamed about them. Saw what had happened to them. And Megan—you couldn’t ask for anyone more skeptical than a journalist. But she and Theo saw each other in a dream, a mutual dream, ten years before they met. So I have to believe that my recurring dream about the Clock Room means something.”

“You told me that you didn’t have any of the talents that the others in your family seem to.”

“I’ve always thought so. But now, I’m beginning to wonder. I spent a lot of time thinking last night as I was sitting there, waiting for you to leave your room.”

“You mean while you were spying on me.”

Con ignored her interjection. “You aren’t going to distract me. I thought about our conversation in the maze a few days ago. I made a joke about it, but I’m beginning to wonder if I actually have an ability.”

“You’re saying you are a human compass?” Lilah began to chuckle.