Nightmares and Daydreams (The Blood Falls Book 4)

Ryddyck wasn’t from here. And I don’t mean Blood Falls. Ryddyck wasn’t from our Plane of Existence. At least, that’s the best we could tell. He could touch the Plane, just like we could, but he wasn’t one of us. Gigi said his blood wasn’t like anything she’d ever seen. A mix of samhain and…something else. But based on his knowledge of things none of us knew about the Ancient War and what was to come next, it was pretty clear that somehow, someway, Ryddyck wasn’t from here.

I found him watching the training taking place in the yard. He stood against the rail, hands in his jeans pockets, his light brown hair flipping in the wind.

“Hey Ryddyck.”

He blink-twitched, his eyes coming into focus and a partial smile softening his features. Ryddyck was a distinctive looking male. On the leaner side with a long face and a strong body. “Rhysa of the House of Axl who lives at the House of Wren. How are you today?”

He always had a funny way of putting things, saying the quiet parts out loud. As the heir to the House of Axl, I should be there, rebuilding my house, or maybe some could argue my loyalties lay with my mother’s house, and I should be spending more of my time and energy at the House of Nala. Regardless of all of that, I was here, at the House of Wren, and everyone else could jump in a lake. Preferably an ice cold one.

“I’m well. Do you have some time to talk? Privately?”

He didn’t look back at the yard that had just held all his attention. I was now his sole focus. It was as if there weren’t two dozen males and females sweating and fighting a few feet away. “Is here private enough or would you prefer a quiet room somewhere?”

Dray looked particularly delicious all glistening and shirtless. He had a practice sword in his hands and was in the process of showing Leena some sort of spin move. The porch was private enough, but distracting. Very distracting. “Let’s use Dray’s office.” Situated on the second floor, it was at the very center of the house. It was also quiet and someplace no one went unless summoned.

I didn’t sit at his desk. Instead Ryddyck and I sat in the two chairs that faced his desk.

“Is something the matter?” He blink-twitched again. It was like he was always trying to get the world to come into focus.

Maybe he was.

“Tell me about the dreams. The ones with Gigi. When did they start?”

Ryddyck also had the uncanny ability to be perfectly still. Like, still as a statue. A really weird statue. “They have always been. For as long as I can remember.”

“And how long is that? Any idea?” Ryddyck knew the strangest things sometimes, and not the most basic at others. It was infuriating and drove Gigi, in particular, up a wall.

“No.”

“This is going to sound weird but go with me. Do you think they are really dreams?”

He blink-twitched. “They were. Yes. Yes, they were. Because I was there and she was here and it was Destiny pulling us to each other. But now Destiny is here and things have changed.”

My blood went cold even though I mostly expected him to say something along those lines. “Destiny… is here?”

“You know it. You’ve felt it. Why do you all work so hard to ignore what you know? Curious.”

Well if that wasn’t a painful truth bomb I didn’t know what was. Since joining the samhain world I learned over and over how much they prided themselves on being better than humans, but in this, they were as vulnerable as the humans I grew up with. No one wanted a war. No one wanted our Plane of Existence to be in trouble. And so they pushed aside whatever made them uncomfortable. They ignored the truth right in front of them even though it didn’t change anything. Destiny was coming whether we liked it or not.

“Yeah. Okay. I know everything is happening soon and way too fast. What does that have to do with the dreams?”

He blink-twitched and sat forward, leaning on his forearms. “Nothing will be as you knew it. It will be as it was before the Dark Times.” He held his hands up and passed the fingers of one hand through the other. “You see?”

I absolutely fucking did not see. “I don’t understand. How was it before the Dark Times?” And how the hell did he know?

He shrugged. “I don’t know. Things come to me when you ask me questions but I don’t know them before.”

Interesting. I needed to ask him more questions. “Your hands. What does that symbolize?”

He looked at his fingers as if he’d never seen them before, let alone used them as a visual a few moments ago. “Oh. Umm… well, let’s see. For you there is awake and asleep, yes?” He nodded to himself and didn’t wait for me to answer. “That is how consciousness works in this reality. But this is only one reality.”

“So it’s different where you’re from?”

“Yes. And no. We are also different since the Dark Times.”

“So you had Dark Times too? Are they the same?”

“Yes.”

Now we were getting somewhere! “Is that the Ancient War? You guys and us?”

Ryddyck shook his head slowly. “What you have forgotten is much more than that.”

Fuck. I needed to stay on topic. “So before the Dark Times…consciousness…was different. For everyone?”

He nodded, his eyes blank like they got when he could see things I couldn’t.

I moved my fingers like he had, trying to understand. “Our consciousness is awake and asleep, asleep is where we dream, but it will be as it was. Which means…” Oh shit. “Are our conscious states changing?”

He squinted. “I will say yes because it is what you will understand.”

Sometimes I really wanted to strangle Ryddyck. I understood why Gigi was so frustrated all the time. I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Let’s cut the chase. Is Gigi in danger?”

“We’re all in danger.”

Fucking hell! “Yes, I know that. I mean in her dreams. Is she dreaming? Where are you two going when you sleep at night?”

He grunted, then blink-twitched. “She thinks she is dreaming, yes, but only because she doesn’t understand anything else. The fabric is shredding and the veil is thin. Where we go in our sleep is not dreams.”

“And me?”

A few thousand thoughts flashed through his eyes without voicing a single one. “You are the opposite of us. Gigi and I met in our dreams. We are learning this next step. You and Dray linked while awake. The dreaming—which isn’t dreaming—is what you are experiencing now.”

Did that mean I would be as exhausted as Gigi soon? “She’s not getting the rest she needs. Can you help her?”

I could tell by his frown that he already tried. He shook his head sadly. “Do you have any advice for me? I want to help her, but she resists…everything. She loves you and you love her. What should I do differently?”

Make some sense? But I couldn’t tell him that. So instead I sighed. “She’s never going to trust you until you start telling her the truth. Gigi is the most whimsical, open, trusting person I’ve ever known. She loves hard and fast. Around you she’s a closed up clam shell. She’s scared. And until you can change that?” His head bobbed as he nodded. “Until you can change that she’s going to keep you right where you are. Safely away from her.”

“Away is dangerous. We are meant to be a team. It is why I am here.”

I slapped my knees as I stood up, looking down at the mysterious male. “Well then, I suggest you figure out a way to get her to trust you. No trust means no team.”