I looked up at where the ceiling should have been but saw dark clouds with streaks of purple lightning. She was struggling to build this world. A part of her wanted to build something different, but she was in desperate need of normal. Something she knew.
She grinned at me and a pink sequined corset appeared around my chest. “There, that should keep the guards at bay,” she said with a cheeky grin.
I bit my tongue to keep from saying something overly snarly at the girl. I wasn’t here to fight with her. I was trying to learn more about her, to understand a girl that would die tomorrow.
“What’s your name?” I asked, ignoring her attempt to annoy me.
“Rose. What’s yours?” She moved the basket, not paying as much attention to me now that I was “properly dressed”.
“Sebastian. Why did you try to catch me tonight?”
“The fire in your eyes. My parents had a fire like that, but nobody else does. I wanted to know what was different about you.”
Her parents were both magical? Then she wasn’t a half-breed. She absolutely needed to be brought to the Dark Court to find out exactly what she was.
“I’m half fairy,” I said, not needing to hide the truth. She’d wake up tomorrow with barely any memory of this anyway. Worst case scenario, she’d wake up tomorrow, remember it, and then I’d kill her. Maybe a little truth before she died would be better for her.
“Uh huh. And I’m a freaking unicorn. Try again, Tinkerbell.” She put one of the cantaloupes in the basket and moved on to the lettuce.
“You might be. Can you tell me about your parents?”
“Why?” She turned around and looked me up and down, and I could tell that she was doing a lot more than taking in my slacks and sequined corset.
“I didn’t create you. But you’re here. I create my dreams. All of them. So, how in the hell are you here, Tinkerbell? And why are you asking about my parents?”
I blinked. No one acted like this when I dream walked. Well, almost no one. “I’m visiting your dream. Like I said, I’m half-fairy. I need to get to know you.”
She smiled. “Oh right. Almost forgot your wings, Tinkerbell. Don’t worry, they match your outfit, and I’m sure they’ll help you visit other people’s dreams like the magical creeper you are.” A pair of cheap costume wings appeared on my back, and I tried to pull them off me, but they were attached to the corset.
I gritted my teeth. The corset had been funny. This was a little much.
“When did your parents die?”
“My dad died in a car accident when I was six, and my mom died almost a year later.” She smiled as she said it.
“I think you need to go, Tinkerbell.” She looked up at the clouds that had grown larger with more frequent purple lightning. “It’s about to get bad in here.”
I ran my hand through my hair, and was about to say that I wasn’t worried, but then I found myself laying on the roof of the sorority house. I reached out to test my tether to Rose and found that it had been cut.
I’d never had a tether cut before. I didn’t even think that someone could cut my tether other than an incubus or succubus who was stronger than me. How could an untrained twenty-one year old do it?
I tried to reset my tether but found that it wouldn’t stick. I could find no purchase in the twisting, writhing ball of magic within Rose.
The original thought was to learn about the girl so that someone would remember her, but now that I’d met her, I knew that I couldn’t get any closer. She was too different, too unique. If I found out any more about her, I’d never be able to go through with killing her.
I sighed. Tomorrow, she would have to die. There was no other option. What a waste.
Chapter 5
Rose
That dream had been weird. And who was Tinkerbell? I giggled a little thinking about him in a sequined corset and pink wings. Then I remembered the bit of chest hair that had crested the top of it and how much I’d wanted to run my hands through it. That was almost weirder than him being there. I never wanted to talk to men. Much less touch them.
Those eyes, though. I kept thinking back on them. I never thought I’d see anyone else with eyes on fire like that. But had I even seen them? Was I so nostalgic over being reminded of my parents that I was making up people with their eyes?
He hadn’t actually been at the club. We’d all looked for him. Why had I seen his reflection in the mirror? Was I going absolutely batshit crazy?
There were just so many things happening that were completely impossible. Either there was someone playing an incredible series of practical jokes on me or I was losing it.
It all seemed so real, so impossibly real. I could ignore any one of the bizarre oddities. People had weird dreams. They saw strange things when they’d been drinking. But that night in the alley? How could I possibly have escaped that?
“Ugh!” I muttered as I walked down the street to the bus stop. “It’s no use thinking about it. Even if I’m going crazy, there’s not a lot I can do about it.”
I shook my head and took a deep breath. “I guess I’ll just go buy some lunch and try to forget about it all like a normal, not batshit crazy person would do.”
I sat down on the bench at the bus stop and noticed a woman for the first time.
