Chapter 26

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

PIPER

M orpheus hovered over me. "Lie still, vampire."

I was in a twin-sized bed with a thin sheet pulled up to my hips and a single pillow behind my head. The sheets were crisp and clean compared to how dirty I felt after the events of the day. I tried to make my body as still as I could, but I was nervous. It was one thing to swing a sword at some demons, it was entirely another to jump into someone's head and not know how it was going to go. I didn't want to hurt him any further, but if this was how I was going to help him, then so be it.

"You know I have a name. It's Piper. My name is Piper. You don't see me calling you by your description. Like, take me into Grayson's mind, powerful dream person."

Morpheus chuckled as he hopped into the bed right across from mine. He had it lined up so our heads were almost touching. He gave a heavy sigh, and I could hear the springs creaking as he got himself settled in. "This is going to be jarring. But then it'll be fine, and I'll get you where you need to be."

"Great." I nodded and glanced at the others standing on the other side of the glass wall. I forced a reassuring smile, but it felt shaky like my insides. Walking into the unknown wasn't something I liked doing. I loved knowing where I was and what I was doing. I loved having a perfect plan. But this was not perfect. This was exploratory surgery to find a problem no one knew the cause of. I gave them a small wave, then closed my eyes and sucked in a deep breath.

Morpheus tilted his head back, looking at me upside down. "Oh yeah, one more thing I forgot to mention. If you die in his dreams, you'll die in real life."

"Wa—" One minute I was in that room, and the next I was free falling. I felt my muscles twitch and bounce as my stomach flew up into my throat. I was in a swan dive off a cliff with clouds soaring by me.

A scream ripped up my throat, and suddenly Morpheus was next to me, gliding around me in slow circles. He held his arms out and smirked at his wings. "When I have my wing feather sweaters on, don't I look like a member of The Fallen? I'm going to apply to join them. I think my skills are valuable."

My arms pinwheeled and I thought I might throw up. The ground was speeding toward me, and I didn't know how to stop from smacking right into it. "Morpheus!"

"What? You don't think I would fit in?" He twirled around me with his giant bat wings spinning like a ballerina. "I think they're pretty great. I mean, the feathers could stick better."

I was only feet away from hitting the ground and dying in Grayson's dream. "Morpheus!"

"Ugh. Fineeeee." He rolled his eyes and snapped his fingers. A glowing tube rose up from below me and opened. It was bright like neon lights or fiber optics. I dropped into the tube, and it caught me in a curve. I slid through it, riding my momentum like a waterslide without the water to ride on. My stomach twisted and turned with each curve. The lights flashed as I passed, and they made me even dizzier. I pressed my hand over my mouth as I slid in the tube, trying not to vomit. It curved upward and I shot out of the end like a cannon.

I thought I was going to soar through the air like a bullet, but instead I came to halt. I was floating but had no control over what direction I moved in or how. My legs slowly went over my head and my hair flopped over my face. Morpheus put his hands behind his head like he was floating in a pool. "It's a great time, right?"

"Can you please?" I tried to right myself but only ended up spinning farther away from him. "Just get me there."

"See why I don't like vampires? So boring. I'll come back for you when I'm done."

"Wait what?" He snapped his fingers, and I landed in a dark tunnel with a light at the end of it. It was smooth and looked to get smaller at the end. I spun in a circle."Morpheus! Where am I?"

No answer.

"No, I won't be doing that." The voice was a whispered echo down the hall, and it was so familiar that I ran headlong toward it.

"Gray, I'm here!" There was no answer, only my own words echoing back at me.

There was another murmuring voice, but I couldn't make out the words. I ran faster and came out at the end of the tunnel into a wide-open space shrouded in fog. Grayson stood with his back to me, and I sucked in a sharp breath. This wasn't the crazed vampire I'd seen earlier. No, this was the Grayson I knew and loved. He wore a simple white T-shirt and dark pants. Yet he didn't turn to me. He didn't seem to even hear me.

I stood still, not knowing what I would find. "Gray?"

He turned to face me, but he looked right through me. "Piper?"

"I'm here." I was so close I could reach out and touch him, but he couldn't see me. When I tried to touch him, my hand came up against a barrier surrounding him. It was cold and jelly-like. I tried to call on my blood magic to see if I could break through, but this was his dream and I had no power here.

The voice murmured again, and Grayson shook his head. "I bloody well will not."

I closed my eyes, trying to hear what he heard or see who he was talking to. Slowly it came into tune like trying to find the right station on the radio. There it was, this voice that did not match Grayson's at all. This voice was deeper and even smoother than Grayson's. It was so enticing, like a whispered suggestion I couldn't say no to. I found my entire body relaxing as I listened. I imagined this would be like the moment before being hypnotized, like walking into a haze but wanting to be there.

"Do this one little thing for me." The words were so smooth I felt my limbs go heavy as they relaxed.

Grayson pressed his hands to the sides of his head and pulled at his hair. "LIES!"

"Return my Dracinda to me." He sounded like he smirked as he spoke. "And I will free you to return to your life."

I sucked in a sharp breath. Who was this Dracinda? And who was this voice with enough power to free Grayson from this hell? I wanted to yell that he would do it, that he would do anything to be free, but there was no yelling out to a voice I wasn't meant to hear. How could I answer for him? There was more murmuring and I lost the voice's words for a second. I knew he was talking to Gray in that enticing voice, yet I couldn't make it out.

Grayson shook his head. "Titus would never."

Why? Why wouldn't he take the deal? I wanted him back so badly it hurt. I reached out to him, trying to move closer, wanting to wrap my arms around him. But I couldn't move. I was trapped here just yearning for a moment of clarity with him. Here he was lucid, here he was himself, here he was perfect. If I could just get to him and make him see me, I could tell him not to lose hope and that we were all working on it. He just had to hold on a bit longer.

"Grayson, please." A ball formed in my throat, and I fought the urge to cry.

His head snapped up. "Piper, are you there?"

He took a step toward me, and for a moment I swore he looked me in the eye. I stared at those deep mahogany depths, feeling grief take a hold deep in my chest. We were so close yet so far from each other. "I'm here."

"Where, love?" He spun in a circle, searching me out once more, but we were divided by some kind of force. I couldn't help but think how ironic it was that we'd just gotten each other only to be torn apart again.So close yet so far would soon become our motto.

A hand wrapped around my upper arm and squeezed. "Come on. We have to go." Morpheus' skin looked paler than before, and he pressed a fist to his mouth.

I jerked my arm, but his grip was too tight. "No, it's not enough time."

"It's never enough, cupcake." Before I could argue, we were moving again, soaring through the world at a blinding speed.

"What the hell? Go back." I tried to fight, but I was not in control of this ride.

He shook his head. "Can't."

I opened my mouth to say something else, but he just narrowed his eyes at me and snapped his fingers. With that one snap, I sat straight up in bed, shooting up so fast I made myself dizzy. I kicked my legs over the side and turned to face Morpheus. "How dare you!?"

He hunched over the side of his bed and vomited all over the floor. "I couldn't."

The door to the room flew open as Zinnia, Tuck, Astrid, and Beckett raced into the room. Beckett chuckled as he leaned over Morpheus. "How was your trip through Maze land?"

Morpheus gagged and hunched over, trying to suck in a breath. "Never." He heaved. "Ever." He gagged. "Again."

Tucker raised his eyebrows. "That bad?"

"Chaos." He waved us away as he flopped back on the bed out of breath and sweating. "Utter chaos."

"Serves you right." Even Astrid couldn't hide her amusement.

"Be gone with you." His words sounded like a threat, but the fact he still hadn't moved and his body quaked with each breath he took made me think he couldn't do anything at this very moment.

"Poor Maze," I whispered as I rose to my feet and threw the sheet back on the tiny bed with all the annoyance I felt.

"Poor Maze?" Morpheus swung his gaze toward me. "No, poor me."

"Like she said, serves you right." Zinnia hooked her arm with mine. "Did you get what we need?"

I wasn't sure, but I got a strong dose of my soulmate for far too short of a time. "I don't know, but I got a name, and I think that's something we can start with. If I had more time, then I might've gotten further, but dreamwalker here showed up and pulled me out."

"You've been gone for some time." Astrid wrinkled her nose at Morpheus as he groaned and curled into the fetal position.

"How long?" Panic assailed my body. Please don't let it be too long.

Zinnia hesitated. "Two days.

"WHAT? Atlas will be?—"

"Awake." Tucker finished for me. "My sources tell me he's awake. We have to go now."

"Good. Now leave me here to die with this madness." Morpheus threw his arm over his face with all the drama of a 1950's actress.

"Greeks can't die . . . can they?" I couldn't remember if anyone had told me that little fact or not.

"No." Tucker turned for the door. "But one can dream."

"I can hear you, asshole," Morpheus bellowed, yet still he didn't get out of the bed.

"I meant for you to hear me, prick," Tuck called back.

The rest of us followed him out, leaving Morpheus to groan and recover on his own. "You love me, really"

Tuck looked to the sky and groaned. "No, no I really don't."

Zinnia still hadn't dropped my arm. "Now, tell me, what do we need?"

"I really hate to say it, but I think I need Kylian."