I step out into a carpeted hallway. This one seems to go the full length of the Main House. I walk down it, looking both ways at every door.
Halfway down the hall, there’s a rectangular slip of paper taped to one of the doors. It says “Shikoba & June” in calligraphy. I continue down the hall, checking the other doors. None of them are marked. I go back to the door with the paper on it and knock.
After a moment, the door opens, Shikoba standing in the doorway. His long hair, which is usually back in a ponytail, is loose and messy around his face, and he’s wearing a thin red robe that reveals his bare legs, thick with dark hair.
“Chrys, how may I help you?” he says.
“I’m looking for Li,” I say. “I have an update.”
He nods and points down the hall, away from the staircase. “She’s probably in her room down there. Last one on the left.”
“Thanks.” I turn to leave but then I turn back. “Who’s June?”
“My wife. She maintains this pocket universe. Haven’t you heard about her?”
I think back to when I first walked through the forest to come here. “Oh, yeah. I think Valeria mentioned her. How does she do it? It must take a lot of concentration to maintain.”
“Yes, that’s why she stays asleep.”
“Like all the time?”
“Yes.”
“Does she dream?”
He shrugs. “I’m going to go back to bed now.”
Before I can say anything more, he closes the door softly.
Adrien, and now Valeria. How is that man choosing his targets? If he targets June next, what would happen to the pocket universe?
I hurry down the hall to the last door on the left and knock.
Li opens the door. She’s wearing a white tank top and light blue jeans, like she was just about to head out.
“Just who I wanted to see,” she says with a smile. “Come in.”
She walks into her room. I follow and close the door. Her room is a small square with just a queen-sized bed, a dark wooden dresser and a vanity table. She sits on the edge of her bed, which is neatly made, gesturing for me to sit on the small stool at the vanity table.
“Any news?” she asks.
“Yes.” I sit down on the stool. “My friend emailed me back. She says that man is being held hostage there by his brother Carl, who has him hooked up to a laptop and also claims he has a scanner that can detect the gifted. She wasn’t able to find out if he’s gifted or not. But Valeria and I are pretty sure he is, and we’re pretty sure he’s the cause of Adrien’s death and what happened to Valeria.”
Li’s brows furrow. “Not to be frank but Valeria did that to herself.”
“Sort of. She says she did it in a dream and she woke up to find it really happened. And she said she remembers in Adrien’s last dream, he was killed. Pushed by that man off a cliff and never woke up from it.”
Li’s eyes open wide. “The gift of dreams. I’ve heard of it before. I don’t know who the current owner is, but I’ve read about a woman who used to have it. She was a psychologist who tried to treat her patients through their dreams.”
I’ve never come across that in my research and I want to hear more about it, but I put that aside in my mind. “Well, this guy isn’t trying to help us with his gift. He’s trying to hurt us. We’re lucky he didn’t kill Valeria too.”
“I don’t think anyone else will die. Based on what happened with Valeria, my guess is they’re trying to neutralize us. Killing us doesn’t kill the gift—it just transfers it. But if you can find a way to block the gift…”
“What about people like me? You think they’ll get us to cut our hands off?”
She sighs. “It’s possible. Maybe we should try to keep everyone up tonight.”
“What about June?”
“She—”
Li gasps and clutches her head. She cries out in pain and falls to the floor, curling up in a ball, holding her head.
I rush over to her, letting go of Remington’s envelope so it falls to the floor. “Li, what’s wrong?”
She cries out again and squirms on the floor. She takes loud, shallow breaths.
I grab her shoulders, trying to make her stay still. “Li, what’s happening? Should I-should I get you some medicine or something?”
“A gift,” she gasps between breaths, “it’s been removed.”
“What are you talking about?”
She stops squirming suddenly and her breathing deepens a bit, but she’s still clutching her head with eyes closed and her voice is strained. “From circulation—it’s been removed.”
“What gift? How?”
“I don’t know, but it-it shouldn’t be possible. I’m the only one who can do that.”
She opens her eyes, meeting my gaze, and takes a shaky breath.
“Chrys,” she says shakily, “you’re touching me.”
I jerk my hands away from her shoulders. My stomach sinks as I realize I had been touching her bare skin with my bare hands. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m—”
“Don’t apologize.” She sits up slowly and rubs her temples. “Can’t you see you’re in control? Stop being afraid.”
I clasp my hands together tightly in my lap.
She stops rubbing her temples. “I’m taking you off the investigation. Your second task is done.”
“But what about going into town?”
“You don’t have to anymore.”
“But I kind of wanted to go.”
“Wouldn’t you rather do your third task first?”
“What is it? Do I have to do it now?”
“It’s a confrontation of your past. And no, you don’t have to do it now. You don’t ever have to do it. But when you’re ready, go to Shikoba and he’ll explain what you have to do.”
“And what happens if I can’t do the task?”
She shrugs. “Then you’re not ready to have your gift removed. You can keep trying though, until you succeed.”
My heart is
