Chapter 24

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

PIPER

" O kay, but just don't make any sudden movements or loud sounds." Zinnia, Tuck, Astrid, and Beckett all stood with me in front of a large door. The others had returned to their meeting room to wait for whatever information we got. They'd led me through a training gym and right to this door.

"Is there some kind of skittish animal behind the door or something?" I didn't want to take another step forward before I knew what we were dealing with. "Or like a monster?"

A light giggle escaped her lips, and she shook her head. "No, nothing like that. This is kind of the brains of our operation, and she wasn't feeling well before, so I'm hoping she's back in fighting shape. But in case she isn't, we're just going to take it easy."

I nodded. "Right, got it. No speedy vampire stuff."

I glanced down at the necklace Grayson had gotten me to keep me aware of my thirst. I'd nearly forgotten about it, but even now it had a light pink hue to it, and I knew I'd need to drink soon. But when Zinnia reached up and knocked on the door, I shook my head, getting my mind back on the task at hand. My thirst could wait . . . for now. When the door slowly opened, I took a step inside and was immersed in dim lighting. The room was remarkable. Magical things were everywhere, and I had no idea where to look first.

There was an entire wall full of pendulums all swinging in the same direction. The other wall held a large map similar to the one in Zinnia's room. Books lined the walls and were strewn all over the floor. There were shelves with crystals, vials full of glowing liquids, and athames of all shapes and sizes. It was like a witch shop hidden at the back of their gym. It was also quiet here, so quiet I could feel the stillness around me. A woman with messy fire engine red hair walked out from behind a cabinet. She held a book in her hands as she read and walked at the same time. When she looked up, she startled at the sight of us standing there. She jumped and pressed the book to her chest. "What are you doing sneaking here? There is such a thing as knocking."

I wanted to tell her that we did knock, but I kept my mouth shut and let Zinnia handle this situation.

"Niche," Zinnia spoke softly as she motioned toward me, "this is Piper. She's here from The House of Shade. We've got a problem with Grayson, as you know, and we need your help."

Niche pushed her glasses up her nose and held her book to her chest. "Honestly, Zinnia, you don't have to be so gentle. I'm fine now. Just lacking some sleep. And we've been researching for hours and still haven't come across a single record of this curse I keep hearing about. We usually have records for that sort of thing, especially something as big as cursing an entire family line, which would take, pardon my language, a shit ton of power. It's very frustrating."

Her words sounded sincere, but her hands shook as she placed the book on the table in front of her. She sighed and straightened her white lab coat with quick, jerky movements. Zinnia and the others all moved to stand around the table with Niche.

I took my time moving to join them. "It's nice to meet you, Niche. And thank you for your help, even if nothing has come of it yet."

"You as well." She turned toward Zinnia. "Now what is this about? We have to keep digging. I know we'll find something. I just know it."

Just then another woman moved from behind the shelf and walked into the room. She held even more books, and when she dropped them on the table, they landed there with a loud thump. Her long dark braids streamed from the top of her head all the way down to her hips. She was exquisite with dark skin and eyes as equally dark. She wore a thick, light-gray turtleneck and dark-blue jeans.

She gave me a shy smile. "Hey." She waved. "I'm Adrienne."

"Piper." Then I remembered Zinnia had said they had the daughter of a Greek working with them. "Oh, you're the daughter of Athena?"

She gave a heavy sigh and looked away from me. "Yeaaa, Mom is . . . something else."

Touchy subject. Noted . "It's nice to meet you."

"What brings you all here?" She glanced around at the rest of us.

They all swung their gazes toward me, and I hated to admit I was slowly starting to get used to people looking at me like this. "So, we know that Grayson is cursed, but every encounter with him gets weirder. I think there's something or someone in his head, which might be part of the curse . . . I think. But I can't be sure."

"I've never heard of anything like that before." Niche set her hands back on the table in front of her. "But it's an interesting concept."

"Is there any way we can get into his head and see what's going on? Like, is there a spell for that? Something that would make me be able to see or hear his thoughts? Because if I can, we might be able to get an idea of who's doing this and how to stop it." I was a vampire, what did I know? I was just throwing out ideas. This was Evermore. Anything was possible. But if anyone knew how to do this, they would know.

Niche glanced toward Adrienne. They seemed to have a look pass between them, as if they were having a silent conversation no one else was a part of. After a moment, Niche stood up straight and pulled her glasses off. She pinched the bridge of her nose and gave a heavy sigh. "There are spells to get into someone's head, of course."

"Great, let's do that."

She shook her head. "It's not that easy, Piper. These spells are complicated because the mind is a complicated place. The person could fight the intrusion or it could break their mind. In this case, it sounds like his mind is slowly breaking already. You could make it much worse—to the point where even if you managed to trap him and get into his head, there'd be nothing left when you're done."

I sighed and placed my elbows on the table, using the support to put my head in my hands and rub at my eyes. "So, let's not do that."

Niche gave me a pat on the shoulder. "The conscious mind is a tricky place to be."

"But what if it wasn't the conscious mind we were toying with?" Adrienne chimed in with a little smirk.

Niche's eyes went wide. "You don't mean . . ."

"I do mean." Adrienne nodded.

"It's possible."

"I concur it could work. It'd be tricky but could work."

"And how about full sentences for the rest of us at the table who have no idea what you're talking about." Astrid swung her arm around, motioning to the rest of us.

Niche straightened her stance and hurried away from us, calling over her shoulder, "I've got the book for that. Adrienne, you explain."

"If we can't mess with the conscious mind, then why not the unconscious mind?" She gave a broad smile like that one question would explain it all.

I glanced at the others, and they all had the same blank look I did. "You mean like knock him out and jump in his head then?"

She shook her head. "No, not knock him out. That won't be enough. Dreams. The mind is at rest then and the unconscious mind takes over. If you slip into one of his dreams, it will not be as jarring to his brain. It'll be more like walking through clouds rather than taking a wrecking ball to a mountain."

"Okayyy, so how do we slip into his dreams? And will that tell me what we need to know?" Dreams were an odd thing. For me, they were sometimes so vivid that they appeared to be real. At other times, they were so abstract I hardly remembered them.

Niche ran around the corner and hurried back to the table. We all jumped back as she slammed a huge book down. She opened the pages, and the binding practically creaked as she thumbed through the pages.

"I know it's in here somewhere." She made a sound of frustration in the back of her throat. "Adrienne, would you please?"She slid the book across the table to her.

"Of course."Adrienne held her hand over the book and the pages flew open and flipped themselves quickly.

Zinnia sucked in a surprised breath. "Adrienne, I had no idea you could do this."

"I've been working on my powers with Niche for a while. Apparently, books are my thing." She gave a little chuckle and shrugged. "Who would've thought?"

"Do I detect a hint of sarcasm?" Beckett teased.

"My mother is Athena. What do you think?" She rolled her eyes as the pages kept flipping. When they abruptly stopped, she smiled at us. "Got it."

The book lay flat on the table, and a picture projected above it like a movie would on a screen. It glowed a dim white color, but I could see the image perfectly. It reminded me of pictures of space with the Milky Way. It was all flashing lights and shooting stars. "Dreams are the windows to the soul. We dream our fears, our deepest desires. We even see loved ones in dreams, or people we've lost. They can be flashes of nothing and long stories of lifetimes, which makes them incredibly difficult to navigate. And before you ask, no."

Am I the only one who doesn't know what she was saying no to? "No what?"

"No, you can't just jump into them with a spell. You're going to need an expert. Someone who can navigate through dreams more quickly and accurately than a spell could ever do. Someone who won't cause harm while doing so either."

Tuck gave a humorless chuckle. "And who do you think has all these skills that we need? Not who you think I think you need, right?"

When Niche and Adrienne just looked at each other, he swallowed. "Right? Guys, come on, right?"

"Why does this not sound good at all?" My eyes went from Niche to Adrienne and back again.

"Because the person you need is not a person at all." Adrienne flicked her hand, and the pages turned once more.

There on the projected image was a man with dark, navy-blue hair that had silver glitter running through it. His skin was a lighter blue that looked like he had twinkling stars as freckles. Two small, white-tipped horns stuck up from his hairline and matched the wings on his back, which were the shape of a bat's and started off darker but grew lighter at the tips. The image flickered. One second it looked like he was smiling, and in the next like he was frowning.

My brow furrowed. "Who is that?"

"You have got to be kidding me," Tuck snapped. "No, this is a bad idea."

"There is no other choice." Niche shrugged, "Well, if you don't want to break Grayson's mind, that is."

"I would very much like to not break my soulmate's mind please."

"Then you're going to need him." Adrienne motioned to the image. "You're going to need Morpheus, the most powerful dreamer there is."