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“I—I can’t.” The first voices had started to seep into my mind, and I felt trapped, unable to move.
“Focus on your breathing, Lira. You must try or they will take advantage.”
The voices were getting louder, and my head was starting to hurt. I sank to my knees and put my hands to my head, trying to hold it together. Remembering what Charli told me, I focused on my breathing. Drawing in air, I imagined I could see it entering my mouth as my lungs expanded. Holding my breath for a few seconds, I let it out as slowly as I could. After doing this three more times, I felt the sharp pain in the middle of my forehead start to subside, and I was able to sit back on my heels.
“That’s it, Lira.” Charli’s voice sounded very distant now. She had warned me that she couldn’t stay in the grove forever because her spirit technically was still at the house.
I started to answer when Bruno’s face flashed into my mind. The thought of Bruno sent me bending forward, hands over my face again. A white flower started flitting through my mind, appearing from multiple directions. I grasped onto the image, but that made it worse. It was like the spirits knew I was finally paying attention, and all of a sudden, they wanted to tell me everything.
A barrage of thoughts came flooding in, and I couldn’t breathe fast enough. At the same time, Bruno’s face kept reappearing. He was holding someone’s hand and staring into the mist. The deafening silence was terrifying. What did this all mean?
At the same time, I thought I heard Trixie, Piya, and Mod arguing. Their yelling mixed in with the other voices and made my head want to split open. The sharp pain was back and even more excruciating.
I felt myself fall on my side and pulled my knees up to my chest. Tears were falling down my face, and my breath was coming in short gasps. I was lost. I wasn’t ready for this . . . I hadn’t listened to Charli.
Lira
The dream was so real that it felt like I was back in the past. I was dancing in Bruno’s arms, just as I had on our second date. After we finished our meal at Rosey’s, one of my favorite songs had come on, and I’d started swaying. Noticing this, Bruno had stood up and asked me to dance, right there in the middle of the restaurant. His arm came around me while his other hand held mine. He circled me around the tables until I was laughing, and the way he looked at me as he swung me around the room made me melt. I hadn’t smiled like that since I was little.
When the waiter came to ask us to sit down, I heard voices. They were yelling from afar. I clung to Bruno, wishing he could stay with me, here in this dream, but he just smiled at me as the voices got louder, and he melted away. The next thing I heard was Trixie.
“You shouldn’t have taken her back there! Charli warned us this would happen after the first time!” she was yelling.
“We don’t have time for warnings! She needs to find the flower. It’s the only way, and everyone knows the grove enhances her powers tenfold,” Mod said.
“But no one knows what it looks like because no one’s ever seen it before. It’s all a tale,” Piya said. “I don’t understand why we’re so hyper-focused on it.”
“You two are insufferable!” Mod screamed.
“As Piya said, we’re just not hyper-focused on the one thing no one can obtain. And besides, it’s just a myth,” Trixie said.
“It’s not!” Mod said.
“Where’s your proof, then?” Piya asked.
“I don’t have any,” Mod growled, and I felt the air in the room change.
My awareness was sharpening. I could now feel the covers over me, the soft bed underneath me, and I could smell a sweet scent wafting on the air. I opened my eyes to see I was back in my room. The sun shone through the window, illustrating a bright, beautiful, cloudless sky.
“Don’t you dare charge in there,” Trixie said, but clearly, whoever she was talking to didn’t listen because the door slammed open, and when I propped my head up, I saw Mod marching toward me.
“She’s awake,” Mod said, coming to sit next to me on the bed.
“Of course, she is,” Trixie said. “We weren’t exactly quiet.”
Mod let out a disgruntled noise and continued staring at me as Piya and Trixie entered the room. “Did you see anything?” she demanded.
“Shouldn’t we give her some time to wake up first?” Piya asked.
“We don’t have time!” Mod said, clenching her fists. “Lira, did you see anything?”
“Like what?” I whispered. My voice felt scratchy and unused. “How long was I out?”
“A couple of days,” Piya said.
“A couple of days!” Was I really out for that long? “What happened?”
“Mod said she gave you a potion to keep you from fainting in the grove. She said you lasted longer this time, but she couldn’t tell what was going on, and then you suddenly fell, clutching your head. What we don’t understand is why she didn’t go into the grove and get you out,” Piya said.
