26. Reed

“Imean, can you even believe it? Just the sheer possibility of her being my mate makes my heart do something weird,” I gushed, my heart pounding harder in my chest. “I’ve never felt like this before.”

Gumdrop fluttered his gills and swam closer in reply. The gentle hum of the aquarium’s magic filled the room as I prepared his dinner.

I mean, I really didn’t mean to pull Pandora into my dreamscape a few nights ago. When I arrived, she was there already, and if that wasn’t fate, I didn’t know what was.

We lacked a matebond, but we didn’t lack a connection. That had to mean something, right?

I dropped the pellets into the tank, and his tiny mouth gaped in a silent ‘o’. I couldn”t help but chuckle. ”There you go, buddy.”

As he ate his food, my tablet started to buzz. I straightened up and went over to where I’d tossed it on the bed after classes.

I drew my brows together as a haunting ache hit my chest. It was my mother, and she never called me.

“Hey, Mom,” I answered, anxiety spurring in my gut.

Her reply was a mess of garbled words, slurring together, “Your dad…magic…void…save him…see…again!”

I pressed the speaker of the tablet against my ear to listen closely, but each word I picked up on was tinged with hysteria.

“Mom, slow down. What are you talking about?” I tried to interrupt her, but she was on a complete spew of word vomit, sounding more like a drunk than the catatonic shell she”d become since Dad died. “Take a deep breath and talk to me calmly. What about Dad and a void?”

The line went dead.

“Mom?” I asked, even though I knew she couldn”t hear me. My voice echoed through the room.

My gaze connected with Gumdrop’s. He had swam to the glass and tilted his head in concern. “I have no idea what that was about.”

I called her back several times, but each call was met with a voicemail. It wasn’t until I was sure she wouldn’t pick up that I left a message. “Call me back when you can, okay? Please.”

With a heavy sigh, I trudged over to the bed, my thoughts filling with worry.

Mom had barely said more than a few sentences to me since Dad died over ten years ago, so what could’ve happened for her to contact me like that? I’d spent enough time around Hemlock to know what someone sounded like drunk out of their mind, but what had caused that? Mom didn’t drink, at least, never around me.

But my mind didn’t stay quiet when I drifted off to sleep, and when it claimed me, I ended up in my dreamscape among the purple haze that felt like home.

Charlotte. She was pushing on the edges of it now, her presence a bittersweet comfort as she insisted on coming into my space. She must’ve been waiting for me to fall asleep.

I swallowed hard and allowed her access.

Charlotte materialized in front of me.

“Hey,” I greeted her, trying to muster up a smile, but my heart wasn’t in the greeting at all.

“Reed!” Her lips puffed out into a pout as she rushed over to me, her red curls flying behind her. “I’ve missed you so much! It feels like I never see you anymore since you started that academy.” Her arms slid around my neck, but I still couldn’t hug her back like usual, and my arms stayed frozen at my sides.

The same wave of disgust coursed through me as it did last time she’d hugged me, and I recoiled, stumbling backward. “Sorry. I just, I don’t know. I don’t feel good.”

Her green eyes widened, and her lips curved into a frown. “You don’t feel good? What’s wrong?”

Not trusting myself to speak, I nodded.

“No, you’re not,” she murmured, her voice soft but not as soft as Pandora’s. Charlotte’s smooth voice missed the rasp that Pandora’s held, and it was something that I loved to hear. “We’re best friends, Reed. Talk to me.”

“I just—I can’t get Pandora out of my head,” I admitted, face heating with embarrassment. I’d talked to Charlotte about anything and everything in the past, but for some reason, it felt wrong to talk about Pandora with her. I didn’t know why.

“The noble?”

“Yes.” I felt myself smiling, and then my words just tumbled out, making me sound like a lovesick fool. “She’s beautiful and kind, and she’s captured not only my waking thoughts. I’ve even brought her here without even thinking about it. She was here already when I came last time, and it was the best thing ever. We talked.”

I could see Charlotte’s face tighten, her discomfort tangible, so I stopped myself from rambling about Pandora. “Sorry, I’m definitely rambling.”

“Why do you even care about her?” Her question was sharp.

I found myself hesitating, my mind a storm of reasons I couldn”t fully articulate, but there were a lot of them. “She”s amazing. I feel a connection to her, something I can”t explain.”

Her expression darkened. “Reed, I’ve known you for a long time, and it sounds like that noble bewitched you. Has she given you anything? Maybe she gave you a love charm or something.”

“What?” I reared back, blinking in surprise. “No, of course not! And she hasn’t given me anything.”

“Maybe she slipped something into your bag when you weren’t looking,” she insisted, her eyes wild. “There’s no way you would just fall at her feet like this.”

“Fall at her feet?” I chuckled, running a hand over my face. “Come on, Charlotte, that’s not…I mean, I like her, okay? Is that so wrong?”

“It’s wrong if she’s involved with…dark magic!” Her arms stretched out as she flapped them around in exaggeration.

“What? No,” I said, taken aback once again. “Why would you say something like that?”

She shrugged, her gaze shifting away. “I’m just saying it’s unnatural for you to be, like, obsessed with someone so quickly. Um, how’s your mom?”

“Mom?” I mumbled, furrowing my brows and trying to breathe out the anger that flushed through me at her questioning Pandora. The Fates were the reason I had started liking her so much; I knew it in my soul. “She called me today, actually.”

She looked up at me with concern and reached out to grab my arm comfortingly, an action that never bothered me so much. “What about?”

I shrugged her hand off and started walking through the cloudy haze and around the trees until I could see the galaxy in the sky and glanced up. I felt her next to me, so I didn’t bother to check if she was still there. “I don’t know. Something about Dad and a void? I just don”t know what to make of it.”

Charlotte sucked in a sharp breath before dissipating out of my dreamscape without a goodbye, something she never has done before. Her departure was as abrupt as a snuffed candle flame in the dead of night.

Alone in my safe place, I felt my soul reach out for Pandora’s, seeking the solace of her presence. But she wasn’t there, not among the dreaming, and the void her absence left was palpable.

Maybe that had been what Mom meant? That Dad left a void in her heart? That made more sense than anything else.