Dream Killers - Complete Season 1 (The Dream Killers Book 3) Read online

  Bo didn’t have his hat on, his blond hair hanging limp in the still air. His razor-sharp gaze held me as he took another step toward me and stopped.

  I swallowed. “Bo.”

  He crossed his arms over his chest. “River.”

  Where should I start?

  “You have something that belongs to me, River.”

  Well, I guess I could start there. “Right. I actually need to talk to you about that.”

  He narrowed his eyes.

  “You’re killing dreams, and with that, you’re killing dreamers.”

  “They’re discarded dreams.”

  I clamped lips shut and tipped my head to the side.

  He raised his chin.

  At least he was giving me a chance. “This sea—” I gestured behind me. “—is filled with dreams that are still alive. Dreams don’t get forgotten.”

  “You’ve never been a dreamer, boy. So you don’t know. Dreams are forgotten all the time.”

  “Right, I guess, but no. Not really. Your dreams changed. They didn’t die.”

  He dropped his gaze, his lips pursed. “Not all of us.”

  What did I know about dreamers? “Well, those dreams out there, that’s the hope of all the dreamers in all the universes this one touches.”

  He kept his chin lowered as he looked at me through his eyelashes. “It’s one sea, boy.”

  “Not . . . really.” I had no idea how to explain it.

  “I take it you got answers.”

  I nodded. “I’d really like to talk to you about what I learned. I don’t—” I’d never had a family. I knew what that was because I watched your dreams, but I’d never had one of my own. “I don’t know what to do. I could use some help.”

  The corners of his lips turned in and up. He gestured to the rest of the crew to leave. He walked toward his cabin.

  I followed. Nothing had changed. Everything was exactly as I remembered it. I heard the door close.

  Rough hands grabbed my shoulders. Bo wrestled me into a hug.

  I let out a pent-up breath and returned the gesture.

  He clapped me on the back three times and withdrew, raking his hand down his face. “You scared the shit out of me, River. Where the hell have you been?”

  “The bottom of the ocean in the city of the guardians.”

  He face twisted in a thick frown. He went to the table in the back and fetched some bread. “You didn’t drown? You can breathe underwater?” He stopped and turned to me. “You’re not wet.”

  I looked down at myself. Huh. I wasn’t.

  “How is it that I fished you out of the drink and you’re not wet?”

  “It’s . . . well, it’s a bit complicated.”

  “Un-complicate it for me.”

  I pulled out a chair and sat.

  He placed a hunk of bread in front of me.

  “Okay, well, first off, the sea isn’t water. Its dreams. So there’s no reason for me to be unable to breathe. There’s nothing to breathe through.”

  “I’ve lost good men to the sea, boy. They drowned.”

  I shrugged with wide hands. “I don’t know. But those aren’t waters. They’re dreams—real, living dreams.”

  He pulled out the chair opposite me and sat down with a thump. “I’ve spent all these years thinking they were dead. Like us.”

  I broke off a piece of bread and rolled it around in my fingers. What wasn’t hard as a rock crumbled.

  “You were gone for weeks, months. How did you survive?”

  “I was gone for a few hours.”

  He narrowed his eyes, his crow’s feet deepening. “We’ve been called on three times by different ships that needed power.”

  I wasn’t sure how that had anything to do with the passing of time.

  He gave me a you’re-so-stupid expression. “We don’t abuse the power we take. We make it last as long as possible. We usually get a call every month or so. We’ve had three.”

  That still didn’t mean anything. “Time doesn’t work the same here as it does on Earth. It doesn’t move forwards at a steady pace.”

  “Like hell it doesn’t.”

  I spread my hands. “It really doesn’t. It moves frontward, backward, and sideways.”

  He rubbed his eyebrow with his middle finger.

  “The Sea of Dreams is a huge vortex of time and space.”

  “So now you’re a rocket scientist.”

  I settled my weight on my elbows. “Think about it, Bo. You’re able to go anywhere in Dreamland. All you have to do is think about a place—follow the call—and you can get there.”

  “They’re mostly people like us.” He gestured to the room at large.

  “But not always. You were able to find Rulak.”

  Bo drummed his fingers on the table. “What are you saying?”

  I leaned in. “I’m saying that if you can figure out how the sea works, you could go anywhere—to any dreamplane, the Nightmare Realm, even the dream web.”

  “Dream web.” He pulled back. “What’s that?”

  I stretched, pushing back into my chair. “It’s what holds this universe together. But what’s important is that on the sea, you can travel through space and time.”

  “I thought only wormholes could do that.”

  I didn’t know anything about that. “Not here. Here, you can on your ship.”

  “That’s what you learned in the entire time you’ve been gone.”

  I pursed my lips and nodded.

  “In the entire three months you’ve been gone.”

  “The half a day I’ve been gone. Bo, you wouldn’t believe what I’ve seen. What I’ve learned.”

  He let out a long sigh.

  “I know what I am.”

  “And what’s that?”

  I couldn’t believe I was about to say it out loud. “A man of dreams.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “Dreamland gave birth to me. I didn’t come from a set of parents, or from Earth. I came from the sea herself.”

  He was still for a long moment. “What happened on Cable’s boat? Why did you run?”

  I swallowed. “I felt the dreamer die. Bo, it was like I was him.”

  He bit the inside of his lip.

  “I don’t know. I, uh, I watched him dream, then I saw it go backwards and then—then there was nothing. No hope. No dreams. No aspirations. Life became suffocating, a dead end. And then? He killed himself. That’s when the motor stopped.”

  Bo frowned. “The motor stopped when the dreamer killed himself?”

  “Yeah.”

  He hung his head and raked his dirty hands in his hair. “I always wondered why some dreams kept a motor running and some didn’t. Now, I know.”

  I tore out some of the bread that was still reasonably soft and shoved it in my mouth.

  “Do you know how many people I’ve killed?”

  We’d never discussed his life before he’d arrived here.

  “With the dream net. I’ve killed dozens of them over the years. Do you know what people do with suicides back home? Some of them aren’t allowed to be buried with their families. Their friends and families are left behind. The people who end their own lives are considered cowards.”

  “Well, it does seem a bit drastic.” Except that I’d experienced what that dreamer had felt, like my heart had been ripped from my chest and shredded. If something like that happened to me, would I be strong enough to suffer through it? I’d like to say I would, but how did I know?

  His hand thumped the table. “What do I do with the other night wanderers?”

  I grimaced.

  “I protect them, River. I keep them safe.”

  “There’s got to be another way. There’s a reason Dreamland brought you here.”

  “We failed.”

  I didn’t have any answers for him.

  “Why are you back?”

  I ran my forefinger and thumb along my bottom lip. “I didn’t know where else to go.”

&nbs
p; “I see something else in your eyes. A purpose.”

  I lifted my head, my gaze meeting his.

  “I know what having a purpose means, River. I protect the wanderers. You’ve got that same gleam in your eye. What did you find? Who are you protecting?”

  I shifted in my chair. “I found the graveyard of dreams.”

  Bo didn’t react.

  “They’re actually a bunch of dead dreamplanes, but, Bo.”

  His hand twitched.

  “There were dreamers left behind. The ones I found were dead, but it’s possible there are other dreamers—kids who were left behind when their dreamplanes were murdered.”

  “Murdered?”

  I looked away, recalling Grandmother Willow’s twisted corpse. Yes. Murdered. “I need to go back, see if there are any dreamers that survived.”

  “And how do we get there?”

  I smiled. “By bringing night to Dreamland.”

  STANDING ON THE quarterdeck behind Bo, I hoped I could pull this off. I retraced my memories, the feel of what Wadji had done. I could do this. Sure. Yeah. I could totally do this.

  It was a little daunting thinking about taking an entire ship through Place. Sasha had struggled to take a single wagon through it, and here I was daring to take an entire ship.

  I needed to stop psyching myself out. Like the book in the library, size didn’t matter. Right. Size didn’t matter.

  Bo turned to me, his hand on the wheel. “You okay?”

  Did I appear as green as I felt? I nodded.

  “You’re the one who wanted to do this.”

  “You know that moment you’ve been planning for, and then it’s suddenly there, and you’re left wondering if you can do it?”

  He bowed his head with a grin. He took my shoulder, giving it a good squeeze. “Look, Riv, allow yourself some room to fail. It’s how you learn. Trust me. We’ll work this out.”

  Right. I cleared my throat and focused on what Wadji had done, trying to recreate his steps.

  But it was like trying to touch a shark through glass. I could see it. I just couldn’t touch it.

  Dang it! I clenched my hands into fists and paced away.

  Bo snagged my arm. “Hey.”

  Why couldn’t I do this? Wasn’t I a man of dreams, whatever that meant? I could feel Dreamland, how the sea was connected to everything. I could practically reach out and touch her. She was more real than the air I breathed.

  “Hey!” He cupped the back of my neck with his hand and brought his face to mine. His blue eyes captured my gaze, strong and resolute. “I told you to allow yourself to fail. Explain to me what you attempted to do, and we’ll see how you can work around it.”

  I closed my eyes.

  He let go of me.

  I took a step toward the wheel. “Okay. Well, the last time, Wadji took me.”

  “Who’s that?”

  “He’s a man of dreams, too, only he’s ancient. He’s a sea dragon.”

  “The blue sea dragon?”

  I raised my eyebrows. “You know about him?”

  “Know about him? River, he’s like bloody Triton out here. So don’t get so ruddy pissed off because you attempted to replicate what he did and failed. He’s powerful. The most powerful person I’ve ever seen.”

  What if I needed Wadji to do this? What if I couldn’t do this on my own, wasn’t powerful enough, didn’t understand how Dreamland worked well enough?

  “Okay. So, River. What did he do?”

  “He—” I couldn’t describe it. It had all been in the heart. He’d followed a path only his emotions could follow.

  Bo watched my hands as they flailed through my thoughts. He looked toward the sky, and bit the side of his bottom lip. “Okay, well, then how about you—” He jabbed his middle finger into his chest and then flung it outwards, flicking it as if he were shooing me away.

  I had no idea what he was trying to say.

  “What’s calling you? Are you chasing something out there because you think you should, or do you have a greater purpose?”

  “I saw the burned bones of two dreamers. They were kids. Not even teens yet.”

  “Those are words, River. What does that mean to you?”

  What did that mean to me? They were two nameless dreamers. I’d never met them. Didn’t know them. They could be anyone.

  They’re dead, River. Bess’s voice filled me with the kind of sorrow I’d never experienced before. I’d never lost anyone I’d loved. I’d never loved. Sure. I had a best friend, and I guess you could say I loved him, but he was very much alive and safe in the caravan.

  Bess knew what it was like to love someone—a child—with all of her being, with her every breath. Then to have that child—her children—taken from her, stripped away, never to hold them again. My arms ached. My heart constricted so hard I didn’t know if it would re-inflate. The air in my lungs felt like acid. My soul—

  It shreds you, River. Loving someone this much, the way a parent loves her children, it can shred the soul.

  But mine wasn’t. I didn’t love these kids. Sure, I felt bad they were gone.

  Who will care for them, River? They died here, alone, terrified. No one protected them in the safest place I’ve ever known. No one saved them.

  My blood boiled under my skin. It was true I’d never loved another person before in my entire life. I didn’t even know if I was capable of it, but I could protect them.

  Dreamland is safe, River. The power of her conviction was overwhelming. It’s the safest place I know, the only safe place I had growing up.

  And someone—children who couldn’t protect themselves—had died in the safest place in all the known universes.

  I recalled the face of that one dreamer, Rose. She’d been unable to play, to go out, and to have fun. She’d needed a place to live, to experience, to run and play. Had she been the one to create all this?

  Was she Dreamland?

  Something clicked inside my mind. I had the connection I needed.

  Bo nodded. “There you go. All I need is a heading.”

  He was about to get a whole new perspective on what a heading could really be. “Do you know how to follow Place?”

  His expression was dry as he looked at me through the corner of his eye. “Is that Dreamlander speak because that’s one language I’ve never been able to master.”

  I closed my eyes. If I’d been awakened early to “save them,” then maybe I’d discovered who. The dreamers, the planes that Dreamlanders forgot. The dustmen. The nightmares. The people Dreamland had brought here to protect.

  A pop hit my eardrums, like I was ascending in altitude. A hushed murmur filled the air of the ship. I hadn’t even realized the crew was so noisy until they all stopped talking.

  I opened my eyes and looked up.

  Stars.

  “Now, isn’t that a sight.” Bo took off his hat and shook his head. “A night sky in the land of eternal daylight.”

  Where were the dreamplanes? I saw the stars. Where was Dreamland? This wasn’t going to work if we couldn’t find the graveyard.

  Bo turned to me with a grin. “I’ve always wanted to sail using the stars as a guide. I’ve read about it in books. Best way to navigate.” He returned his attention to the sky. “But since I found this ship, I’ve never seen a single star.”

  I closed my eyes and focused. The night sky was nice, but not what I needed. I took in a deep breath. I needed to see Dreamland.

  Oh’s and aw’s rose in the air like the fourth of July. I opened my eyes and smiled in relief. Sprawled out above us was the glowing city without end. It sparkled in every color known to man.

  “What is that?” Bo’s voice was breathy.

  “Dreamland.” It felt good to be able to show him something he’d never seen before. “You see those towers?”

  He nodded, shook his head, and nodded again.

  “Each level of each tower is a different dreamplane with a different dustman.” I touched the wheel, following th
e tug of one of the dreamplanes in particular. “See that one?”

  The plane that came into focus was blue, like everything was underwater, like an aquarium. Young dreamers swam through the waters, their short hair billowing around them in wispy clouds of blondes and browns. They followed brightly colored fish. Their laughter bubbled over me even though I had no way of hearing it.

  Do you feel that? Bess asked.

  I did. Her heart flinched and reached out at the same time as the laughter touched her. Her arms ached to hold them, to protect them, to keep them safe.

  Another emotional tug similar to Bess’ reached out to me. Dustman Tamara. So, maybe this was how a dustman was chosen. Would I see a plane in a few years with Bess’ name on it?

  Not likely. Do you feel that?

  Hope. Dustman Tamara was ripe with it. It shot off her like light from a sun.

  That’s the one thing I don’t have anymore.

  But you dream. I frowned.

  Barely.

  She didn’t say anything else.

  Bo threw his head back and laughed. “This is amazing, River. I never thought I’d see anything like this in all my life.”

  That wasn’t what needed our help, though. I searched with my soul for the lost dreamplanes, the dying ones. The night sky shifted. The bright lights of Dreamland dimmed, shooting off to the right. Darkness filled our sky. The stars peeked out.

  There they were, like twisted, dangling dead galaxies.

  “What—” Bo didn’t finish that question.

  “I call it the graveyard. And this is where we need to go. You want to save someone, help them? This is where we need to start.”

  Bo’s nostrils flared as he looked at me. Clenching his jaw, he grabbed the wheel and nodded. “Then to the graveyard we go. Drop sail!”

  I DIDN’T UNDERSTAND why we would drop sail when there wasn’t any wind.

  Except that as soon as those sails dropped, a great big wind filled them. With his hands on the wheel, the waves rose, carrying us higher and higher into the sky, the graveyard growing closer.

  “Which one do you want to try first?” Bo shouted.

  I grabbed hold of the post sticking out of the deck, and fought to remain upright. Any of them. Really. It didn’t matter as long as we didn’t end up dead. I raised an arm and pointed to the closest one.