Cursed (Book # 3 of Hunted)

Float

"Lori."

I was floating in darkness, the air around me thick as if caught between a gaseous and liquid state.

"Lorelei, can you hear me?" The voice came from everywhere, emitting from the shining points of light scattered through the liquid night.

"I can hear you," I replied attempting to turn my head. I couldn't move, but for some reason, I wasn't entirely concerned about it. A blissful feeling of calm surrounded me. I was safe in this place.

"Where are you?" the voice was soft and masculine. It felt friendly and I was just on the verge of recognizing it.

"I'm not sure," I said. Space maybe. The little lights looked like stars. I wanted to touch one, but my arm wouldn't move. That was okay. I could come back here whenever I wanted. Maybe then I would touch a star.

"You're asleep, Lorelei. This is the place between dreams. I can't maintain this connection for long. I need to know where your body is. You aren't at home."

It dawned on me.

"Clay?" I asked. He was in my head. In my dreams. I felt like I should be upset by this blatant invasion of privacy, but I wasn't. His presence was...comforting. How could that be?

"Yes. I know it is hard to focus here, but you have to try. Tell me where you are. We are worried."

"We?" Who was we?

"We need to know where you are. Our Seers can't find you." His voice sounded far away. I wondered if they couldn't see me for the same reason I couldn't enter Keegan's house. His witch must have been very powerful.

"O'Dwyer," he whispered, his voice staticky like an old record. Had he read my mind? No...he knew everything in this place. He knew my thoughts as soon as I began to think them and I his. What an odd sensation. He wasn't speaking. There was no form to speak. No lungs to give breath, no mouth to make words.

"You don't have to look for me. I'm coming back. I'm going to the Academy," I said, my voice issuing not from my mouth but from a cluster of shining lights. I felt his happiness though the connection was fading.

"I'm glad," he said.

"I know," I replied. I wondered, though, when I was expected there. The end of August? The beginning of September?

"As soon as you are able." His voice was a far-off whisper. I didn't want him to leave. All the animosity I had felt towards him was dissolving. He was like me. Our families had been fighting side by side since the Beginning.

"Lorelei," he said—a murmur over a radio a thousand miles away. I could feel something like a disembodied hand touch the face I didn't have. The last thing I heard before the connection was severed completely were the words, "Be safe."