Page 111 of The Unweaver

He ran a hand through his tousled hair. “Prophecies are self-fulfilling.”

“If you believe that, why are you bothering with me? Or Teddy?”

“I don’t believe in prophecies, but I do believe in precaution. I’ve looked into every mage with a twin. Including you. I’d written you off as human years ago. I applaud your efforts.”

“Thanks. Creep. What does the prophecy mean? That I’ll kill you?”

“I’m not sure,” he said. “I am sure, however, that I don’t like how excited you sound at the prospect. Need I remindyouof our Binding Agreement? Kill me, kill yourself.”

She gave him a considering look. “Tempting. Wait. Is that why you agreed so quickly? Because of this prophecy?”

The bastard shrugged. “I wanted you to trust me. A Binding Agreement seemed the most efficient means.”

“Of course you had an ulterior motive.” He had tied those threads of prophecy in a tight knot around her throat, all right. Remembering another Chronomancer’s fateful words, she ventured, “Say, did Moriarty ever… mention me to you?”

Bane grew very still. “Why?”

She squirmed under his sharp scrutiny. “I may have communed with him. Briefly. I asked him what your weakness was, and he said... I would be. Then he handed me his Portal Key.”

His face drained of color. “You’re just telling me this now? Jesus, I thought you stole the key off his corpse.”

“I did not steal! Well, I didn’t stealthat. You’re missing the point. The Death Realm is incorporeal. Handing me that key should’ve been impossible.”

An impossibility that had changed her life. Only that key unlocked the door to the Realmwalker. Without it, she never would’ve made it inside his club, let alone his office or his spare bedroom. She’d still be doing Mother’s favors and playing ragtime for the Starlite’s junkies. At the moment, though, she wondered if the key hadn’t changed her life for the worse.

His expression was appropriately mortified. “Moriarty insisted on moving the business to London, even though he hated the English more than I do. Said I’d find what I was looking for here.”

“That’s not ominous at all.” She pulled the covers closer and tried to collect her thoughts, but they were like live wires, shooting sparks into darkness. “Speaking of disturbing visions of the future… Do you think Master Ghose is connected to this Oneiromancer?”

“What’s left of Ghose is in another Realm which I’ve made damn sure he stays in. Besides, not even a demon, let alone a mage, could exert their affinities like that through the veil between Realms.”

“Then how is the Oneiromancer getting into our dreams?”

“The veil is thinnest around the Dream Realm. Even humans and dogs can dream, after all.” His head shot up. Bane fixed her with a wild-eyed stare. Springing to his feet, he paced the length of the bedroom in rapid strides. “The veil is thinnest aroundallof the Dream Realm. Jesus fuckin’ Christ, this Oneiromancer is hiding more than their presence.”

Cora worried her bottom lip, struggling to keep up with his leaping thoughts and furious pacing.

“The cemetery attackers,” he muttered. “Verek after taking that tonic on the porch. They acted like they were in a trance.” Turning on his heel, his gaze pierced her through the darkness. “Or sleepwalking.”

A shiver washed over her. “Their eyes were moving back and forth under their lids, like they were in a deep sleep. But… how? Can Oneiromancers induce sleep? How can they control people outside the Dream Realm?”

“The potion Durbec drugged you with wasn’t for sleeping, but sleepwalking. A fuckin’ sleepwalking potion. That’s how the Oneiromancer is doing it. Durbec’s potion makes the sleepwalkers and the dream mage puppeteers them. The human attackers, Verek, probably Durbec—drugged by his own bloody potion—and who knows how many others are under this Oneiromancer’s compulsion.”

Her thoughts churned with a bone-deep disquiet. “Durbec’s sleeping alibi for smuggling and murder wasn’t a lie, then. Could the girl Durbec sold the sleepwalking potion and Oracle Ruby to be another puppet? How can we possibly find Teddy’s spirit vessel or the Oneiromancer if all their puppets suffer a convenient case of amnesia?”

He paced with renewed vigor. “This is bad, Cora.”

“How bad? On a scale from one to we’re fucked.”

“We’re fucked. Are you familiar with dream feeding?”

She slumped back on the bed. “Not particularly.”

“Same principle as death feeding, but the victims are temporarily unconscious as opposed to permanently. The more dreamers, the more dream energy to feed upon, and this Oneiromancer has been fuckin’ feasting. They likely started on the humans in the cemetery and moved onto bigger prey like Verek when they stored up enough energy. They’ll be even more powerful by the time we find them.”

“Well.” She bent her head in defeat. “Shit.”

Finding the Oneiromancer, let alone retrieving Teddy’s spirit vessel and stopping them, felt impossible now. Finding what they sought, however, might draw them into the open.

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