Wicked Encounters (The Wicked Series: Season 1)

Fourteen

He turns to me with wide eyes as dark as the night sky. Several seconds pass as he looks me over and his teeth retract into his gums. "I did. It was so real. I could taste..." He blows out a puff of air and combs his fingers through his hair.

My heart pounds against my ribcage. "You could taste what?"

If he says my blood...

"I...It was just a dream, Cordelia."

"Tell me. I need to know."

"Your blood. I swear I could taste your blood."

"Zeus strike me down," I say in awe.

"Why? What were you dreaming about?" he asks, his cool demeanor slipping.

I turn to face him and pull my legs underneath me, clasping my hands in my lap. "You. Tasting my blood. Right here in this bed."

He tilts his head to the side, and I've never felt so scrutinized in my entire life. With the caution of approaching a feral beast, he asks, "What are you, Cordelia?"

I shake my head, confusion clouding my already sleepy brain. "What? What are you talking about?"

"What. Are. You?" he asks again, turning and mirroring my position, looking deep into my eyes as though he is going to find the answers he's looking for within.

"I don't know what you mean," I say, swallowing and biting my lip so hard I nearly draw blood. "I'm a human. What—what else would I be?"

Ignoring my question, he asks another of his own. "Has something like this ever happened to you before? Where you have the exact same dream as someone else?"

His intensity and raw concern give me pause, and I take his question seriously. I think back over my life, and the times when I've shared my dreams with others. "Ya know, actually now that I think of it, yes. My dreams have always been very vivid. I remember them every night, and that was always strange according to my friends. And when they would talk about the dreams they did remember, sometimes I'd realize...I'd had the same dream. It freaked them out when I would tell them, so I eventually stopped. And I pushed the notion out of my head. And now that you mention it...I remember it like it was yesterday." Something cold prickles over my skin, and I feel uneasy. "Elias, what's going on?"

He forges on, bypassing my concern. "And did anything in those dreams ever come to fruition? Like if you punched someone, did they have a bruise the next morning?"

I crinkle my nose and shake my head. "I don't tend to have violent dreams. But this one time, I dreamed that I painted my friend Maddy's nails bright pink. She loved goth style, so it was out of the norm for her. But sure enough, she showed up to school the next day with pink nails. It was a wild coincidence."

"It wasn't a coincidence." He runs his hand down his face and when he looks at me again, his severe expression sends a chill down my spine. "You're a Dreamwalker, Cordelia."

My blood turns to ice in my veins as I soak in his words. "I'm sorry. A what?"

"A Dreamwalker. You control your dreams, and the dreams of others. You can travel between the states of consciousness, thus sharing what's in your brain with someone else. And you can make things happen. Whatever you wish can come to pass," he says, and I can barely hear him for the buzzing in my ears.

"But...I'm just a human. I've never—I didn't even know there was truly such a thing as a supernatural creature until I got to this island, and now you're telling me I am one?"

"Yes. That's exactly what I'm telling you. Well, you're probably half-Dreamwalker, half-human." He pauses for a moment and then says, "The other night...when you didn't sleep well, and you told me about it at breakfast. You dreamt of me, did you not?"