Page 15 of Fallen

Alex scowled. His brain was sluggish here, everything hazy. Thoughts slipped away from him like sand through his fingers. He didn’t like it. Talking with Talon was hard enough without this added difficulty.

“You know what I mean.”

“Do I?”

Frustrated, he slapped a hand flat against Talon’s chest and pushed him away. “You can’t be here. Or I can’t be here.”

But when his hand fell from Talon’s chest, he went hazy, disappearing from sight altogether. He glimpsed bodies, blood splatters, and a scream clawed its way up his raw throat. He sucked in a sharp breath?—

And hands grabbed him, drawing his face up to meet night black eyes. “Look at me. Focus on me.”

Alex did, desperate for anything other than the nightmare that waited in the wings.

“Don’t push me away, little bird. I can’t keep your demons at bay if you resist me.”

Keep his demons at bay? “Halflings can’t dreamwalk,” Alex said, mostly to remind himself. He’d checked. He remembered going to the library.

Talon smiled like this was somehow amusing. “No, they can’t.”

“So you’re not really here. This is just a weird dream.”

“It could be both,” Talon said, his voice strangled in a way that suggested he was fighting laughter.

“No. Halflings can’t dreamwalk.”

Talon’s eyes narrowed shrewdly. “And you think I’m a halfling.”

“Yes.”

“What if I’m not?”

Slow, creeping horror slithered down his spine. Not real, not real. “What else would you be?”

Talon shrugged. “It’s your dream, little bird.”

Alex got the impression he was being teased, but that made sense for both the real Talon and this strange dream version.

Spending time with either a dream version of Talon or the real one was still better than reliving the nightmares again. He was, quite literally, the lesser of two evils, as far as Alex was concerned.

“What’s that expression? What are you thinking?” Talon asked, tilting his head like, dare he think it, a puppy.

“I’m thinking,” he sighed, “it doesn’t matter.”

“It matters to me. Tell me.”

“No, I mean, it doesn’t matter whether you’re real or not.”

Talon looked intrigued. “Oh? How so?”

“As long as you’re here, the nightmares aren’t. The—Thememoriesaren’t.”

“Ah, so you can abide my presence so long as I make it worth your while.”

Alex sighed, closing his eyes and letting his head fall back against the door. “For some reason, I’m dreaming about you. I don’t know why. But you’re better than the alternative.”

Talon hummed. He sounded very close. “It’s not the glowing endorsement I’d prefer, but it’s a start.”

“A start to what?—”

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