"Naomi, behind you!" I exclaim as Dylan suddenly slumps over, his eyes shut. I catch him before he hits the floor, and I carefully push him back into the chair.
Naomi flares her black wings, and surges into the air and banks hard, slamming into the person who snuck up on us, and she picks them up and carries them over to us.
She drops them a couple feet above the floor and then I help Naomi get in her chair again, and then, it happens. The pain that was splitting my head apart just moments before vanishes and is replaced by this constant thump-thump, thump-thump, thump-thump, thump-thump. I blink and look at Naomi, then the person she dropped.
I see a girl with long, black hair framing her dark brown face, freckles lining her cheeks and neck. She smiles at us, her blue eyes shining. "Hello, I'm so sorry to scare you like that."
My head suddenly pulses. My vision darkens at the edges and I stumble a little, my heartbeat slamming against my ribs hard. I look at Dylan, wondering if that is him that I am feeling .... but is this how that would feel?
"Who are you?" Naomi asks.
"I'm no one," she says. "My name is Moia."
"Moia, nice to meet you," I say. "I'm Autumn."
Her eyes flick to Dylan and then back to me. She opens and closes her mouth, as if deciding against asking about him. Instead, she opts for something else.
"Is there anything you need help with?" Moia asks.
"No, we're just finishing this ritual," says Naomi.
Moia nods. "What is it?"
"It's personal," I say.
"Oh. Okay."
"Why are you here? How did you get in here?"
I turn around as Freya steps into the porch. She looks at Moia.
"I'm Moia. I need to tell you something. But I guess it will have to wait until after your ritual is complete."
"Uh, okay. Come in here, with me," Freya says.
Moia follows her into the house and Naomi looks at me. "You can wake him up."
I hold my arm out towards Dylan, and she shakes her head.
"Use your link, that is what you are feeling right now. You do feel it, don't you?"
I nod. I reach through the link and connect with his mind. And when I do, I'm thrown into his dream.
The sky is black and gray, the thick clouds clustered together in the sky make it harder to see. I start to walk, moving down a sidewalk of Illyrica, in the downtown area. I sense him. I can feel him. I walk towards where I feel his heartbeat.
Dylan sits in an alleyway. It is as I approach him that I realize he is surrounded by people. They swarm around him, and I count at least five of them. They are all armed, and they are closing in.
"No!" I cry out. The sky blacknes and inky shadows embrace me, and then explode from my body with so much force that it is similar to sneezing. Like my body took a screen shot.
Dylan gasps as the darkness engulfs his enemies, and I run between them, holding my hand out to him. The second he touches my fingertips, I feel a rush of power and a surge of warmth that floods me as I wake up.
Dylan looks at me. "Thanks for waking me up. That sucked."
"What were you dreaming about?" Naomi asks.
"These people were attacking me," he says. "I couldn't get to Autumn, I was trying to reach her before that happened. Wait. What is that thumping I'm feeling?"
"That is her heartbeat, Dylan," Naomi says.
Dylan looks at me. "That is ... it worked?"
Naomi nods. "Yes, yes it did."