Page 61 of Wicked Thirst
“I’ve been working on my powers with Niche for a while. Apparently, books are my thing.” She gave a little chuckle and shrugged. “Who would’ve thought?”
“Do I detect a hint of sarcasm?” Beckett teased.
“My mother is Athena. What do you think?” She rolled her eyes as the pages kept flipping. When they abruptly stopped, she smiled at us. “Got it.”
The book lay flat on the table, and a picture projected above it like a movie would on a screen. It glowed a dim white color, but I could see the image perfectly. It reminded me of pictures of space with the Milky Way. It was all flashing lights and shooting stars. “Dreams are the windows to the soul. We dream our fears, our deepest desires. We even see loved ones in dreams, or people we’ve lost. They can be flashes of nothing and long stories of lifetimes, which makes them incredibly difficult to navigate. And before you ask, no.”
Am I the only one who doesn’t know what she was saying no to? “No what?”
“No, you can’t just jump into them with a spell. You’re going to need an expert. Someone who can navigate through dreams more quickly and accurately than a spell could ever do. Someone who won’t cause harm while doing so either.”
Tuck gave a humorless chuckle. “And who do you think has all these skills that we need? Not who you think I think you need, right?”
When Niche and Adrienne just looked at each other, he swallowed. “Right? Guys, come on, right?”
“Why does this not sound good at all?” My eyes went from Niche to Adrienne and back again.
“Because the person you need is not a person at all.” Adrienne flicked her hand, and the pages turned once more.
There on the projected image was a man with dark, navy-blue hair that had silver glitter running through it. His skin was a lighter blue that looked like he had twinkling stars as freckles. Two small, white-tipped horns stuck up from his hairline and matched the wings on his back, which were the shape of a bat’s and started off darker but grew lighter at the tips. The image flickered. One second it looked like he was smiling, and in the next like he was frowning.
My brow furrowed. “Who is that?”
“You have got to be kidding me,” Tuck snapped. “No, this is a bad idea.”
“There is no other choice.” Niche shrugged, “Well, if you don’t want to break Grayson’s mind, that is.”
“I would very much like to not break my soulmate’s mind please.”
“Then you’re going to need him.” Adrienne motioned to the image. “You’re going to need Morpheus, the most powerful dreamer there is.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
PIPER
“You have got to be shitting me.” I stood outside a warehouse in the middle of nowhere. The outside was covered in simple tan, metal panels with grooves in them. There were no windows and the only doors were a set of glass double doors in the front that had black paper over the windows. But that wasn’t the most alarming part of this whole thing. A huge sign sat on the top of the building with bright-red block letters that read, ‘Sleep Matters!’
“I shit you not.” Tuck sighed. “He’s a bit eccentric.”
“Aren’t all the Greeks?” Astrid rolled her eyes. “At least in my experience they all are.”
“And temperamental, and touchy, and think they’re just the greatest at everything,” Zinnia grumbled.
“So, this is gonna just be greattttt.” I took a step forward, and the others all filled in behind me as Beckett closed our portal.
The parking lot was empty. At this time of day I wondered if the warehouse would already be closed.I reached for the door, yanked it open, and stepped into a waiting room—a very, very small waiting room. The chairs were old and broken down with ripped vinyl and chipped wooden arms. The carpet was torn and worn in different spots. I walked up to the window where a receptionist sat flipping through a magazine. She didn’t bother to look up at me as I approached her.
“Umm, excuse me?”
“Yeah?” She flipped the page and chewed her gum loudly.
“We’re here to see,” I lowered my voice, “Morpheus.”
She pointed toward the waiting room. “You don’t have an appointment, so you’ll have to wait.”
I didn’t want to sit in those miserable chairs. “How long is the wait?”
“Until I say so.” She popped her gum and flipped another page.
