Page 4 of Wake the Dream

She pounded on her neighbor’s door until he dragged himself over to answer. A grumpy sylph—an air spirit with roots in ancient Greece—named Forest stared her down, his hair the color of roasted chestnuts a mess around his face.

“You know better than to come calling this late. We’ve had this same discussion at least ten times before,” he told her, scratching his neck. He yawned and his mouth went wide. “I fell asleep in front of the television again.”

“I’m sure you did.” Illaria didn’t wait for an invitation. Short enough to do it, she moved underneath his arm and set out down the hallway like she owned the place.

“She’s not here,” Forest called after her.

“I’d like to see for myself, thank you.” Illaria played with her hair, knotting the ends into a small braid, something she did when her nerves got the better of her.

Forest gently closed the door on a sigh. “Fine. Be my guest. I won’t be able to stop you anyway as we both know.”

Though he had a good foot and a half and a hundred pounds on her, everyone in town knew her to be something of a wildcat. Once Illaria set her mind to something there was little that could dissuade her. She’d use force if necessary. She had before, and ended up on the wrong side of a set of bars.

She scoured Forest’s house before running down the stairs to confront him. “Where is she?”

“I have no idea, okay? I haven’t seen Yelena for at least a week. What did you do this time?”

“I wasn’t even home,” Illaria exclaimed, rubbing her palms over her arms on a shiver. “We were supposed to have dinner tonight.”

His eyebrow rose. “Aren’t you a little late for dinner?”

“Well, yeah. I got...tied up.”

“Sure you did. Probably literally.” Forest walked to the couch and set his feet up on the coffee table, raising the volume on the television program where colorful men in short-shorts chased after an orange ball.

Illaria didn’t follow sports and didn’t understand why anyone else with half a brain would want to.

“If you’re done interrogating me, I’d like to finish watching my game. Give her a few days. Wherever she is, she’ll show up.”

Wherever she is, she’ll show up.

Normally, Illaria would agree with him. She’d always given her sister a fair amount of space and let her come back in her own way. This time, though, something was different.

Coldness sank down into her bones and kept her anchored to the earth. Dread filled her heart in such a way that she knew, sheknew, something was wrong. She didn’t need magic to figure it out.

Walking back home on shaking legs, she let the night chill seep through her skin in an echo to what she already felt. Nothing to do but wait.

Illaria slept poorly and woke to a crimson sky. A sailor’s warning.

After another search of the house and Yelena still nowhere to be found, an overwhelming feeling of loneliness overcame her, seeping into her bones like cancer. It wrapped around her heart, wrenching a soft cry from her lungs.

Where had her sister gone? She tried the cell phone again, listening to Yelena’s voicemail for the umpteenth time. She left no message this time.

Illaria staggered back until her shoulders pressed to the wall, her breath coming faster, the acrid tang of fear sharpening. Yelena was missing.Reallymissing.

This time, it wasn’t a game.

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