Page 72 of Into Darkness (Night Prowler 6)
A rush of cold wind tossed Lu’s hair into her eyes. She felt a change in the air, a sense of pressure, a gathering and a girding up, as if the sky and field and the earth itself tensed in expectation. Then in the sky above the black hills appeared two spots of brilliant, glinting white, moving fast as falling stars.
What is that?
Young Grandfather turned, scanning the horizon. His face cleared. Ah. Your sister is on a Dreamwalk, too.
I don’t understand. What’s happening? How is this possible?
Her confusion was met with a gentle smile. All you seek can be found in this way. Focus your mind. Open your spirit. And look. Remember, there’s nothing that can elude you here. You knew this as a child. You must relearn it as a grown woman.
Lu watched the spots of white grow closer, and closer still. But they weren’t spots at all; they had wings and tails and long, elegant necks . . .
They were dragons.
She recognized Honor, lithe and swift. But the dragon beside her was, if possible, even more beautiful. Large and magnificent, its wingspan was enormous, its power undeniable. They soared nearer, gloriously pearlescent in the sunlight, then passed overhead with monstrous grace, the drafts of their wing beats flattening the grain. They didn’t look down or seem to notice her, and Lu watched with an ache in her heart as they flew away, growing smaller until they disappeared altogether.
Is that . . .
Yes, answered young Grandfather. You’re touching the edges of Honor’s Dream. Tonight she visits your mother.
Why did she never visit me? All the years we were separated, I only Dreamt of . . .
Young Grandfather smiled at her again. Dreamwalkers go where their souls are called, to the places—and people—most dear to them. Your sister tried to visit you many times, but you wouldn’t allow her in.
Lu was swamped with regret. How many years she’d thrown away, hiding, when all she had to do was open herself and she would’ve found the sister she’d never known. The sister who’d tried, over and over, to come in.
I’ve wasted so much time.
Time doesn’t exist here, little dragon.
A thought made Lu frown. I never knew Magnus, before he rescued me in New Vienna. Why would I Dream of him, and not someone else? Why would I visit him, of all the people in the world?
She turned and looked at young Grandfather, so tall and straight, his smile so gentle. The soul seeks its mate. Its journey isn’t complete until it finds its missing half that will make it whole.
Soul mates? No—that’s not possible. Soul mates don’t exist.
He laughed his silent laugh again, his eyes laughing along with him. Everything with a name exists.
I don’t believe it!
Unlike Tinkerbell, true love doesn’t need you to believe in it in order to exist. His eyes twinkled mischievously. Neither do dragons.
Lu stood unmoving in the silent field of dream wheat, gazing at the dream man, feeling all her dream emotions exactly as if she were awake. Her logical mind fought his words, but they affected her, for all her effort to remain untouched. There was only one, tiny problem.
He doesn’t want me, Grandfather. We can’t be two halves of a whole if one of the halves doesn’t like the other one.
He reached out and laid a hand on her shoulder. It was warm, so strangely concrete and real. Are men so different where you’re from?
Her dream blush was real, too. She looked into the distance, watching the wheat ripple and flow. I don’t have much experience in that department.
Young Grandfather patted her shoulder consolingly. A piece of advice, then: Listen to a man most carefully when he’s silent. Words can lie, but silence always speaks from the heart.
The hand on her shoulder that had felt so real suddenly lightened, its grip less firm. Lu looked over at young Grandfather, and for a moment he shimmered and went translucent, then solidified again.
It’s time for me to go, little dragon.
Go? Go where?
He looked past her, into the field, and Lu followed his gaze. There in the distance stood a woman. Dark-haired and lovely, dressed in an old-fashioned gown, she held the hand of a young child. They were smiling at him. Waiting.
