Page 23 of Demon of Dreams

“Right. Of course. Yeah, no problem.” Ash nodded repeatedly. “Totally no problem.” He turned to me and smiled. “I’ll see you soon, Cory.”

I wanted to tell him to stay, but I was so tired my mouth wouldn’t move when I told it to. Ash was out the door and down the hallway before I’d even formulated my sentence. The man in the suit watched him leave, then flicked his right hand in a smooth gesture. The door shut itself with a creak and a click.

That woke me back up in a hurry.

The man turned to me, and that hint of a smile appeared on his lips again. I followed his gaze down to my lap, where my hands were now gripping the blanket. I flexed them, letting go, but they began to shake, and I decided gripping the blankets was better than obvious shuddering.

The man hadn’t done anything threatening, but he clearly made Ash nervous. And since my mind was still stumbling over the idea of a magic university, I wasn’t exactly calmed by the fact that he could apparently move objects with his mind.

As if to rub that in, he gestured again, and a heavy wooden chair floated away from the desk and came to land next to the bed with a softthunk. The man sat down and studied me. I felt like a butterfly pinned to a board.

“Who are you?” My words came out breathily, but at least I didn’t stumble over them. I was rather proud of that, all things considered.

“My name is Isaac Mansur. I’m the Dean here at Vesperwood.”

The words were simple, but freighted with power. Or maybe it wasn’t the words, but the man himself. Every move he made was understated, and yet he projected a sense of coiled danger, like a leopard on the verge of pouncing.

As if she could sense the presence of a larger predator, the tabby uncurled herself from my side and leapt into Dean Mansur’s lap. He scratched around her ears, and she rubbed her face against his suit jacket before jumping to the floor and sauntering into the shadows.

“It’s, uh, nice to meet you?” I felt absurd, but I couldn’t think of anything else to say.

“Meetagain,” he corrected me. “We met once before, when you first arrived here.”

He paused and waited for that to sink in. My eyes widened. His voice. Of course. His voice was the same one I’d heard when I’d collapsed by the steps in the snow.

I flushed. I was ashamed that he’d seen me like that. Ashamed that anyone had.

“Right.” My cheeks were hot. “I guess I should say thank you, then. For taking care of me.”

The dean waved my thanks away. “What else would I do, after the trouble I took to bring you here?”

“The…trouble? What do you mean, to bring me here?”

He waved his hand again. “What matters is what you do now that you’ve joined us. I meant what I said, Cory. You are in danger. And timeisrunning short. You need to learn to control your powers. The sooner, the better. For you and everyone else.”

“Mypowers?”

“Yes.” He held my gaze. “I understand that this is all very new, but I’m afraid we don’t have time to coddle you as you adjust. Vesperwood Academy is a university for the study of the paranormal, by both humans and supernatural beings. That latter category includes you.”

“But I don’t understand!” I protested. “Ash told me what Vesperwood is, but he didn’t say what I’m doing here, just that I shouldn’t leave. And now you come in saying I need to learn to control my powers, but nobody’s actually explained anything. And I’ve been unconscious for an entire day! I have a life back home, you know. I can’t just uproot it and stay here because you people say I should. Besides which, I don’t even know what Iam. How the hell am I supposed to control my supposed powers when no one’s told me what my powers are?”

I sounded like a child throwing a temper tantrum, but I couldn’t help it. I was confused and scared and oddly tired, considering I’d just spent an entire day sleeping. I didn’t have the mental or physical energy to make sense of things. If I needed someone to talk to me like I was a kid, well, that was what I needed. So there.

Dean Mansur watched me, his face expressionless. His eyes were dark and liquid, but there was something unsettling about them. I didn’t want to know what lurked in their depths. Finally, he nodded.

“I see we have our work cut out for us.”

He leaned back in his chair and crossed his legs at the knee, his right hand idly rolling the top of his cane against his thigh. It was polished gold and carved with a tangle of vines and stars.

“Let’s begin at the beginning. You uprooted your life the minute you left home and set out to find us, Cory.”

I opened my mouth to object, but he held up a hand to forestall me.

“I know you may not enjoy hearing that, but it’s true. And young Ash is quite right. You do need to stay, now that you’re here. For how long, I don’t know,” he added, seeming to sense my question. “But long enough. I will deliver a letter to whomever you request to inform them of your safety, but I won’t let you leave until I’m certain you can handle yourself.”

He paused, waiting to see if I was going to interrupt again. When I didn’t, he continued.

“As for what you are, you are an incubus. Had you truly not figured that out by now?”

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