The Children of Hypnos

[Vol. 2] Chapter 30: Sorry

Wes began petting Coop so he didn't grab a chair and break it. "The witch threw her," he said, though he'd already told this part at least three times. "It threw Morrigan first, then it threw Emery. There was only darkness outside the tower."

"She's not dead," Aldrich said.

"How do you know?"

He moved to sit beside Wes, then reached into the breast pocket of his shirt and removed two small figures. Little people with black hair and blue eyes and clothes in bright primary colors that rolled in the palm of his hand. One looked like Emery, one like Edgar.

"I made these for them when they were born. When they were both old enough, I taught them how to color them with dreamforms. The colors are the first permanent dreamforms either of them made, before even armor or weapons. If the figure ever loses its color...well."

If the dreamer died, the dreamforms went with them.

Dean Ashworth replaced the figures in his pocket. "The witch wouldn't have been able to throw her out of Edgar's dream. If I had to guess, I would say she's still there."

"She can't make her own gateways, though," Wes said. "And the Dream was getting to her."

Dean Ashworth looked away, then looked back. "We'll send a search team after her, but I have to prepare you for the worst. If she and her doppelgänger were both thrown, there's a chance she's been taken. If Morrigan doesn't get to her, the Dream very well might. Even the strongest dreamhunters can only resist the Dream for so long before it envelops them. She'll stay alive there indefinitely, but bringing her back will mean returning her memories of who she is and helping her fight her way free, and that's much more difficult." He paused. "Her grandmother was lost to the Dream shortly after Emery's father was born."

"Who's going in after her, then?" Wes asked.

"I would go myself, but I'm afraid seeing me would only drive her deeper into the Dream." Dean Ashworth sighed. "Edgar would be the most potent if she does need that reminder, but he's too young and too fragile to be risked like that."

"What about her parents?"

Aldrich met Wes's gaze over the rims of glasses. "I received word from the State that Liam and Zoya have disappeared. No one is sure of their whereabouts."

"Doesn't the State keep something to tell them if dreamkillers have died? Like you with the figurines?"

"It does," said Aldrich.

"So the State knows they're not dead."

"It does."

"They deserted?"

"They wouldn't desert their post unless their children were in trouble, and the State would never allow that information to reach them."

"They were captured."

"Liam Ashworth and Zoya Volkova would not be captured by an enemy."

"So then where—" Wes trailed off. Aldrich hadn't blinked.

They wouldn't be captured by an enemy. Only by someone they thought was an ally. Maybe someone who gave them orders.

"That's why they haven't come back?"

"Nothing else would keep them from Emery and Edgar. There's a reason they were sent to the other side of the world. The only enemies of the State are doppelgängers and bonds between dreamhunters."

Wes's hand stilled on Coop's back. "You knew that, and you still let Emery think she was alone. You tried to have us put through dream death."

"I voted against it at the trial," Aldrich said. "But I can't offer any excuses for my actions. I've made many mistakes in my life. These past months have been the worst of them. I'll do what I can to bring Emery back, but I can't promise anything."

Wes went back to stroking Coop; the raccoon stretched his body so far he almost rolled off Wes's lap, and Wes had to gather him up and hold him close. He didn't want to listen to any more. He just wanted to sleep—sleep forever without dreaming, and forget everything he had ever seen.

"I am sorry about your sister," Dean Ashworth said. His voice sounded far away, and Wes didn't look up. "If she returns to you, you should advise her to avoid Fenhallow. She should probably leave the Sleeping City entirely. Any Hypnos State employee who encounters a fused doppelgänger is required to kill it. Again, Wes—I'm sorry. I'm sorry you had to live through any of this. I'm sorry any of it happened."

Wes heard Emery in the back of his head, sharp and scathing: If you're so sorry, you should have done something when it mattered.

But she wasn't there to say it, and he could no longer open his mouth. He sat in silence until Aldrich Ashworth strode to the door. Before he walked out, Aldrich said, "I doubt there will be a trial this time. Mr. Warwick's witch is currently floating above a parking garage downtown. It seems wherever she goes, the veil between the waking world and the Dream thins out, and it becomes easier for nightmares to come through. Not to mention his doppelgänger is loose as well. There will be changes to Fenhallow and the city soon, and punishing you and Ms. Montgomery is low on the State's priorities."

Wes sat alone for a while, then tucked Coop back into his duffel bag and left the building. No one tried to stop him.

Outside, the campus was quiet beneath a light snowfall. It was night, and in the distance, Van Der Gelt Tower was a purple beacon downtown. Wes stood at the top of the administration building steps and looked around at the buildings coated in frost, the statue of Iltani and Fabian Fenhallow, the trees and shrubs hidden beneath the white, and he was reminded of Emery's dream. Moscow at night in the snow, the palace and its statues. Emery had always seemed less guarded when it snowed. Softer.

Emery wasn't dead. Neither was Ridley, in some way. And Death was out there too, waiting for him.

He still had work to do.

The End

Until the Beginning