Grey Haven (Book 1: The Dreamer Chronicles)

The dream on the other side of the door was almost idyllic. Almost.

In front of me was a large lake. The water was green, and brilliantly colorful flowers bloomed along its banks in tidy designs. On the other side of the lake was a stone maze. The walls of the maze were as tall as a two-story building, imposing and resolute. The sky was a peaceful blue. Somewhere behind me birds caroled. Beyond the maze was a building. It was difficult to make out details because the maze went on for two miles, maybe farther.

I turned in a circle, searching for more details in the dream. The most noticeable thing was the aura that clung to it. It wasn’t only the power of a shade, but a feeling of two equal forces fighting for dominance. This wasn’t a junk dream. It came with an owner, but I had never been in a dream that felt so alive, so conflicted. Carrie stared at the building, twirling her knives absently, while Dana reloaded her pistols in cool detachment.

“We should split up,” Dana said.

“That’s a bad idea,” Carrie retorted.

“The maze is too large,” Dana said. “If we split up, chances are that one of us will reach the shade before the others die.”

“If the shade is even here,” Tommy said.

“It’s definitely here,” I said.

“I don’t need the committee’s approval,” Dana said, scowling. “I’ll do what I think is best.” She stomped down the gentle slope toward the entrance of the maze, pistols raised defensively.

Carrie, Tommy, and I shared a reluctantly questioning look. “I’ll go with her,” Carrie gave in first.

“You think that’s best?” I asked.

“I won’t hurt her,” Carrie said. She sheathed her knives and pulled out her shotgun. She cocked it, and an eyebrow lifted in cool sarcasm. “Much.” She waved goodbye and ran over to Dana before she disappeared behind the walls of the maze. Dana accepted Carrie’s choice silently. They entered the maze cautiously but together.

“I would pay a lot of money to see that conversation,” Tommy said.

“If they even talk to each other,” I said.

“There’s that,” Tommy agreed.

“Carrie would win in a fight though.”

Tommy raised his fist for me to bump in agreement, which I did, and he looked once more over the expanse of the maze.

“Ready?” I asked.

“Course,” Tommy said brightly. “I was-”

“If you say you were born ready I will hit you,” I interjected.

He grinned mockingly, fluidly pulled his bow off his shoulder, and marched forward. I trailed after him with a roll of my eyes.

As soon as I stepped inside the maze, the brightness of the blue sky dimmed, hidden behind brown vines that arched overhead. It was easy to feel overwhelmed, but Tommy’s presence kept me grounded. He was quietly capable, calm even in the middle of a dream owned by a major shade.

It made me realize a truth I had been building towards since the grey. There was more to Tommy’s dreaming than he had let on. He wasn’t the clumsy clown he had led us the believe he was. I just didn’t know why he had let us think he was.

“Can I ask you a question?” I asked Tommy as we turned in the opposite direction Dana and Carrie had gone.

“Since when have you had to check?” Tommy retorted.

“Since you won’t like it,” I said.

He thought about it. “Okay.”

“Have you been lying?” I asked.

His face went carefully neutral. “About what in particular?”

“The fact that you have to check which lie I mean is concerning, Tommy,” I pointed out.

Tommy grinned unrepentantly and waited for me to ask my question.

“You’re obviously better at fighting than you let on,” I said. “You always have injuries or a story of how close you came to death, but your ability, the fights you’ve won so far…It doesn’t add up.”

Tommy sighed. “I may have stretched my lack of abilities a little…for entertainment purposes, you understand.”

“Why?” I asked, wanting a genuine answer.

“I’ve, uh, been fighting some pretty difficult shades and well…”

“You were afraid that it would make us jealous,” I said, understanding. “You’re more advanced in our training than we are, and you didn’t want us to resent you for it. Which I wouldn’t, you know. I don’t care about all that stuff.”

Tommy’s expression was sheepish, repentant at my reminder. “Don’t tell Carrie,” he said.

“I won’t, but she won’t care either,” I said. I thought about it. “No, she’ll be pretty competitive about it, but she loves you. She’s not gonna hate you for being awesome. Okay?”

“Thanks, Jules,” he said.

“Sure.” We paused as we came to a turn in the maze and looked around the corner. The path was empty. “I’ll have to remember how good a liar you are,” I added.

“Mad?” he asked nervously.

“Nah,” I said.

He grinned happily, and we continued through the too quiet maze.

It wasn’t until we were in the center of the maze, and an hour into backtracking, running into walls – literally in Tommy’s case – and too many switchbacks to count, when we encountered something beyond silence. The smell was the first sign that crawlers were near. The second was the low hissing. Tommy and I stopped and pressed our bodies against the wall of the maze. After a few signals to ensure we were on the same page, we silently crept to where our wall intersected with another and peeked around the corner.

The maze opened out into a grassy, manicured lawn. A new part of the maze started three hundred yards away. There was a pool of crystalline water in the center of the lawn, and the water reflected the blue sky.

A woman had her feet dangling in the water, while another had her eyes closed against the sun. They wore ankle-length dresses and no shoes. The woman with her feet in the water had black hair, while the other had blonde. Beside them, five crawlers frolicked in the green grass. Beyond the vision of calm, and the continuation of the maze, the building loomed larger. We were nearly there.

I gestured at Tommy, signaling him to take the woman on the left. He nodded, raising his bow. I leaned Ben’s sword against the wall of the maze and pulled my crossbow off my shoulder. I chambered an arrow, popped around the corner, and pulled the trigger.

It froze mid-flight.

Beside it, Tommy’s froze as well. “Uh-oh,” he said.

“We have guests, sister,” the black-haired woman said dryly.

“Archery enthusiasts, no less,” the blonde woman replied lazily.

“Who was the last archer to visit?” the black-haired woman asked.

“That Roman boy. It was ages ago,” her sister replied in a bored voice.

I picked up Ben’s sword. I held it low, as I had been trained, and quietly freaked out. A lot.

“A sword fighter as well,” the black-haired woman replied, mockingly.

“Mmm-hmmm,” her sister agreed.

“What is it you come for?” the black-haired woman asked.

I hesitated, taken aback. They weren’t typical shades, but I didn’t know how else to define them outside of the power they radiated. I looked at Tommy for help, wanting to know if he understood what was happening. He shrugged at my unasked question. He was advanced in fighting, not whatever this was.

“My school has been attacked by a shade,” I said cautiously. “I’ve come to kill it.”

“She is confident,” the black-haired woman said.

“And foolish,” the blonde woman said. “She is arrogant to assume her role in this.”

“She is also brave to take on a burden she knows is deadly,” the black-haired woman said.

“Bravery won’t see her task accomplished. The other one who asked us here is proof of that.”

“The other had less control over her arrival here,” the black-haired woman said.

“But infinitely more talent,” her sister replied.

“Perhaps talent is not needed. Perhaps foolishness will do what talent cannot. Daringness sometimes matters more than ability,” the black-haired woman said.

“I see your point,” the blonde woman said. “But what if this one is possessed by our prisoner? What if she opens a door out?”

“The boy on the other side will kill her,” the black-haired woman said with a shrug. “You know he is capable of it.”

The blonde woman made a sound of agreement and assessed me. “I’m afraid I don’t see what you see, sister, but maybe you’re right. I’ve grown bored of this garden. I wish to go home.”

“We are agreed then?” the black-haired woman asked.

“Yes,” the blonde woman said.

The black-haired woman smiled at us. “You may pass.”

I stared at the women in confusion. “Who are you?” I asked.

The sisters broke into laughter. It bounced around the lawn in a melody of delight, splendor, and knowledge. The crawlers stopped playing to stare at them adoringly.

“We are what we are, when we are,” the black-haired woman said. “Now go. Your fight is waiting. I wish you well.”

As she spoke, our arrows dropped out of the air. Tommy bent down to retrieve them, while I kept my eyes trained on the women and the crawlers. He stowed them away in his quiver, and we edged around the pond and the women before they could change their minds. They watched us go with amusement on their faces.

When we were on the other side of the clearing and hidden inside the maze, Tommy let out an explosive breath. “What the hell was that?” he asked.

“Something terrifying,” I said.

“You think the major shade is going to be so…” He left it hanging, but I knew what he meant. He wanted to know if it was going to be impossible to fight the shade. I thought it likely, but I didn’t want to pull his hope out from under him.

“Let’s just keep moving,” I said.

“Right…” Tommy agreed slowly, clearly reading between the lines of my non-answer.

It took us another hour to reach the edge of the maze. In that hour, the world returned to silence. There were no mysterious women or surprisingly calm crawlers, just the feeling of rampant, impending doom.

The maze let out to a large, metal gate. It was nearly identical to Grey Haven’s. The gate was closed, and a heavy lock kept us from the other side. Beyond the gate was a rope bridge that crossed a chasm and a castle. It had hard angles, steeply slanted roofs, and ugly gargoyles that protected the dark rock the building was built on. It screamed scary times ahead. Similar gargoyles were on the top of the gate.

Tommy peered through the gates, taking it all in. “Do you ever get the feeling you’re not wanted?” he asked.

“Well, I do now,” I said.

“What do you say we go get some food instead?” he asked. “I could go for Italian. They’ll probably have brownies at the restaurant. You can buy me one.”

I laughed and pulled my lock picks out of my pocket. “Maybe later.”

“I’ll hold you to that,” he replied.

With Tommy standing guard, I picked the lock and pulled the heavy chain away from the gate, dropping it at my feet. Tommy pushed the gate open with a tremulous smile. “Ladies first,” he said.

“Thanks,” I said.

I had to cross over large, loose rocks to reach the rope bridge. Below the bridge was unending darkness. The bridge was motionless but decrepit, frayed, and missing pieces in places.

“Probably a bad idea to fall,” I said dryly.

“Oh man,” Tommy complained, peering down at the darkness.

“Don’t slip,” I added.

I put one foot on the bridge, testing it. The wood groaned in protest, but it didn’t break away or otherwise disintegrate. I took a deep breath and risked putting my full weight on the bridge. It swayed a little, but it didn’t give out. Not trusting that the stability would last, I crossed as quickly as possible. Tommy crossed slower, less fearful of falling, eyes on the sights beyond me.

Directly in front of us was a broad staircase made of stone. The double doors at the end of them were made of glass and revealed an interior that consisted of a red marble floor and large white columns. Two columns were directly in front of the glass doors. Beyond those columns was a large, vaulted room.

Glass stairs were in the middle of the room, and next to the stairs was a seven-foot-tall glass box. It was black and cloudy, and unlike the doors, it was impossible to see through. It was the only thing in the room that didn’t belong. I wasn’t sure if it was a trick by the shade or something else. There was only one way to find out and that was to go inside.

Tommy and I cautiously moved up the stairs, and through the doors together, headed for the box in silent agreement. Nothing jumped out at us, but there was a pervasive feeling of being watched, like the shade was studying us, waiting. It knew we were here.

We reached the box and still no shade appeared out of the darkness. I tentatively touched the sword against the dark glass, curious if the shade was hidden inside. The dark glass glowed with a blue light, there was a hum of energy, then I was knocked off my feet. I scrambled up, my hand groping for the sword that had clattered a foot away. My body raced with the lingering feeling of electricity as I pointed the sword at the box again, prepared for an attack.

“Are you okay?” Tommy asked, caught between concern and amusement.

“Peachy,” I said.

I leaned forward to look at the box without touching it. I had the feeling that if I tried to destroy the box, the electricity would become a lot deadlier. It wasn’t a risk worth taking. It wasn’t the shade. No, the shade was still watching, waiting.

“I don’t understand,” I said, slowly.

“What?” Tommy replied.

“If the shade can trap most of the school in the dreamworld the way it did, if it’s that powerful, why hasn’t it left this dream to come fight us? Why hasn’t it ended it? Why stay here and wait for us?”

“I am trapped here,” a female voice said from the top of the stairs.

Tommy and I pointed our weapons up, bodies tensing for a fight. The woman tutted and started down the steps in a slow, graceful saunter. She was the most gorgeous woman I had ever seen. Her features were surreally perfect, a blending of everything that was pleasing. She wore a blue dress with gold around the trim and high heels. Her hair flowed down to her waist in gentle waves. She had her hands clasped in front of her, as if she had been waiting for us and was disappointed in how long it had taken us to get to her. She carried none of the usual feelings I associated with shades around her. She was more like the two women we had encountered in the maze.

“You’re trapped here?” Tommy repeated, voice raspy. I glanced over at him. He looked more like a lovesick puppy than he did a trained dreamer. My eyes narrowed suspiciously.

“For a crime I didn’t commit,” the woman said.

“We should…We should help her,” Tommy told me.

“What was the crime?” I asked the woman.

“That’s hardly important,” she dismissed.

“Uh, yeah, it is,” I said.

She took her eyes off Tommy and stared at me. It was then I felt the full brunt of her power. It urged me to let go my concerns, to be free, to listen to what she had to say. My mind rebelled against the urge. It argued that listening to her was death. It wasn’t natural.

I took a step back and raised my crossbow.

The woman cocked her head to the side, surprised. “Bastian warned me about you. I have to say, I didn’t believe him.”

So, she was the shade controlling things, then. She was the one I would have to kill to set the others free.

I released an arrow. As soon as it was in the air, I dropped it and took up Ben’s sword. I raced toward the woman, even as the arrow flew. Just as I reached her, she disappeared, taking the arrow with her. My sword cut through air, missing her by inches. I spun around, searching for her. As I did, I spotted Tommy. His eyes were glazed, and his lips moved as though he were having a silent conversation.

“Tommy?” I called.

He blinked a couple of times at me, mimicking the guardian I had saved. Then, in one swift motion, he raised his bow, knocking an arrow mechanically. I swore and dove to the ground as he released the string. The arrow clattered to the floor behind me, having grazed the top of my head. I rolled to my feet, and he placed another arrow against the string with lightning speed. I knew that he was a distraction, a way to keep me away from the shade, but I had no options. I had to put Tommy down so that he couldn’t hurt me, and I wouldn’t have to kill him. It would limit my help, but I would rather him be unconscious than dead.

He raised his bow again and pointed it at me. He blinked a couple more times, as if he was fighting the shade’s compulsions, but it wasn’t enough. He fired a second arrow. I shifted to the left and felt the arrow graze my neck. A thin trail of blood marked where the arrow had touched my skin.

I lashed out with my sword and hit his bow. It flew out of his hands and landed on the floor near the black box. He retaliated by knocking me off my feet with a quick kick to the knees. I hit the ground but swept a leg out across his ankles. He fell and rolled, hands reaching for me.

An elbow to his face delayed him long enough for me to roll to my feet a foot from the black box. He jumped up, expression bleak and full of violence. He stepped forward and I kicked him in the chest. His eyes widened in alarm as he stumbled back into the box. It lit up with a blue light, more violently than before, and Tommy’s body shook with the force of the electricity. The color died down and he hit the floor limply. Terrified, I rushed to him and checked his pulse, hoping that my plan to subdue him hadn’t gone too far. It was steady and strong. Unconscious, then.

My exhale was shaky with relief.

I stood and searched the room for the shade. I wasn’t certain that following her was the best plan – she could lead me into any number of traps – but I didn’t know what else to do. I had to face her, even if it killed me. I had to try. I had come too far to give up.

In the middle of my step, the shade appeared in front of me. She was smiling. It was not comforting. “Julie…” she said warmly. “What are you doing here? Why is it so important you kill me? What have I done to you? You’ve never belonged anywhere. Even at Grey Haven. Places have always been temporary, transient. You’ve never settled because you’ve thought there is no such thing as home. You’re wrong, Julie. Home does exist. I can give you that home. I can see to it that you have a place that is yours.”

I let out a small chuckle of disbelief, my resolve weakening. Her words held more power than they had before. She had found something I had always craved, a weakness she could exploit.

She waved a hand and the massive structure changed.

A warm living room filled with pastels and sunlight appeared around me. I was standing next to a sofa that held Carrie and Tommy. They were laughing and joking around. The house was different from the clone homes of Grey Haven. It had touches of my personality, proof that I had decided to stay. It was the home I had always wanted. The shade stepped around a large chair, the smile still on her face, but it seemed warmer now, more honest.

“There are no rules, no classes, no obligations here. You are free to live your life according to what you want. You can have your friends…You can have your lover.”

Sully stepped out from behind the woman. He had one of his rare full smiles on his face. There were no secrets in his eyes, nothing that separated us. We weren’t uncertain about where our relationship was headed. We were truly a couple.

I felt the warmth of her words trying to burrow into my head. They urged me to give in, to allow myself to belong. The woman stepped closer. As she did, I forgot that she was a shade. She was the bringer of warmth; she was someone who could change my life forever.

“You don’t have to keep punishing yourself for the things you couldn’t prevent,” the woman said, taking a step closer. “You don’t have to keep running from the pain and the abuse and the people who took your choice from you. Nothing here will ever harm you…”

She took another step closer. She reached out her hand, to put it on my arm in a gesture of comfort. Before her hand connected with my skin, I realized Carrie and Tommy were watching us expectantly. Overwhelming lust darkened their eyes. The shock of seeing such animalistic emotion on their faces forced me to take a step backward.

With the step came clarity. There was no such thing as a perfect home. Nothing would ever look so picture perfect – not for me. Too, an idea of a place wasn’t nearly as important as my friends. They were the only home I needed, and I could carry my love of them anywhere. The woman’s eyes narrowed as I stepped away from her.

“No,” I said, shaking my head. “You’re lying.”

The vision of the perfect home fell away with a clatter, the vaulted room returning. The woman’s smile disappeared just as quickly.

“What do you want?” I asked. “Why are you doing this?”

“I want out of this prison,” she said, words harsh as she looked around the castle with distaste. Her eyes refocused on me. “If you won’t open the door for me willingly, I will make you.”

I shrugged. “You’ll try.”

Her smile was slow to dawn. I gripped my sword tighter and waited for her to attack me. Instead, the castle walls dropped away, rattling the ground and throwing up dust. The roof disappeared, and the sky darkened, but my focus wasn’t there. It was on the shade.

Her body was changing. She went from a little taller than I was to over fifteen-feet tall in a matter of thirty seconds. As she grew, her human features changed into something reptilian. The pop of bone against the sudden silence was as unsettling as the scales that erupted over her face and body.

When the change was complete, she had a narrow face, sleek, scaly body, and large claws that could easily cut me in half. Her scales were shiny and the same color as the red floor I was standing on. Her eyes were a pale shade of yellow. When the change was done, she stretched out large wings with a triumphant roar. My jaw dropped

The shade had changed into a dragon.

That…was not good.

It opened its mouth and a stream fire blasted toward me. I ran for my life.