Charlie~~
I followed Nora from Tye's apartment to the club where I tucked myself into a booth in the back of the room and pulled the hood of my sweatshirt over my head.
When she dropped her glass and her friends gathered around her, I watched the scene unfold. I held back when she and that boy left, giving them a few minutes head start.
But now on the street, I don't see them, so I choose to head toward the nearest subway station.
I don't get far before I find them. The sight I come upon doesn't make me stop dead in my tracks. It propels me forward to Nora, to that boy. I barrel into him, knocking Nora out of his grasp.
He and I hit the asphalt, him taking the brunt of the fall. I pin him down, trying to stifle his thrashing. "Who sent you?"
He spits in my face. I narrow my eyes at him, unable to wipe his spit away or risk him getting the upper hand.
"Get off me."
Instinct tells me to turn around, check on Nora. But I clamp down on the need.
Beside the boy's head is a small white bead. In the amber street lights it shimmers like a pearl.
I drag my eyes back to him. "What are you doing with res?"
"Release him, Charlie," I hear my brother Hewn's voice say, which makes me take my eyes off the boy. Hewn and Sabine stand a dozen or so feet away. They must have just been awake for them both to be here without me noticing before now.
"Did you see what he did to Nora?" I press down on him harder.
"We've been following him all night," Sabine says. "You really ought to have noticed."
"Off, Charlie. He's mine." Hewn steps toward us. The boy looks confused if not a bit scared. "Let him go and we can talk."
Reluctantly, my muscles protesting after that fall, I obey my older brother. The boy scrambles up, looks between the three of us, and bolts.
I look over my shoulder. "Nora's gone. With a grunt I draw myself to my feet and swipe my hands together, brushing off the dirt from the parking lot. "Start talking."
"I needed a subject to test memory alteration on, and Dad gave me him." He jerks his chin in the direction in which the boy ran off. "He and Nora were friends once upon a time. That's what Dad said."
"Then how did that happen?" I motion to the wall he had Nora pinned against where more res is scattered.
"I didn't just want to change his memories. I wanted to alter his personality as well. I gave him a bit of a temper."
A bit? "Is the res his?" The drug started popping up a few months ago, its users desperate to forget they are trapped in a dream. If only for a few hours.
From what I've seen and heard, the users have always been Lucid. Dad has no idea where it came from.
"I gave it to him." Sabine crosses her arms, eyeing the res. "Hewn's subject is the best person to deal it. He could be programmed—for lack of a better word—to have certain trigger words to know when he should offer the res. And since Nora realized she's in a dream tonight, Aaron was only doing what he was designed to do."
My chest tightens. "She's lucid now?" She's always been a Lucid because of her powers, but she hasn't been lucid—aware that she's asleep.
"Haven't you been following her all night?" She gives me an incredulous look filled with the haughtiness that only Dad's eldest children can pull off.
I ignore her question and ask one of my own, "Why did you give him Res?"
Her lips stretch into a terrifying smile as Hewn says, "She's the one who created it."
My mouth gapes, but she waves her hand as if Hewn's statement means nothing. "I don't agree with everything that Dad puts Lucid through," she says. "I hope it keeps Lucid from drawing suspicion on themselves."
"They need to embrace their memories, fully understand where they are so they know how to handle their differences."
"No one wants to know they're trapped forever, Charlie."
I clench my fists, but Hewn steps in.
"Are you going to tell Dad your ward knows she's in a dream, or will we?"
"I could tell him Sabine created res and that you're helping her."
A smug smile spread across his face. "Dad will never believe you over us, and do you really want to stab two people in the back who might be able to help the girl when Dad decides to put her through the wringer?"
I frown knowing my brother is right. "I'll tell him she's asleep."
"And don't worry. We'll wake the boy and put him back in under a new name," Hewn says. "Now that he's served his purpose for Dad, he shouldn't give Nora anymore trouble."
Count those fingers just in case you're actually asleep right now.
~Mikaela