Page 15 of Lost

Knock! Knock! Knock!Someone was banging on my door.

My door? Wait. I’m in the stables with Persephone. Are they banging on mystalldoor?

I lifted my head. Dark—it was really,reallydark. How could it be that dark in the stables?

Knock! Knock! Knock!

“Okay, okay! I’m coming!” I said.

I said? But I didn’t say anything.

A light clicked on and I jumped in shock.

I wasn’t in the stables. I was in the dorm. In my old room, but it only kinda looked like my old room. My stuff was there, but the twin bed on the other side of the room was empty. Stevie Rae was nowhere. None of her stuff was there, either. It was like she didn’t exist.

Knock! Knock! Knock!

“Hey, I’m getting dressed! Sheesh! Hang on!”

I watched a version of myself pull on jeans and a black-and-gold Broken Arrow Tigers sweatshirt.

What the hell?

I felt super dizzy and sick, and then my confusion started to clear when I saw that my body was almost completely transparent, and I was hovering a little above the bed.

Then I got it!Ohhh, I’m asleep. This is a dream—a dream about fledgling me.Which actually made sense. I mean, I was so stressed out that I was hiding in the barn, napping with my horse, pretty much wishing I was a carefree fledgling. No big surprise I was dreaming that I was a fledgling again.

OnlyIwasn’t the fledgling. I was the observer of me, the fledgling.

Okay, so, fine. Dreams are freaky. I looked around the semifamiliar room as “Zoey” hurried to the door.If Kalona shows up—again—I’m waking up this time. Right away.

Dream Zoey paused in front of the little mirror over the sink and tried to smooth back her bed head, and I got my first good look at her face.

Wait, that’s wrong. This fledgling Zoey has a regular Mark, like all the other fledglings.

But, again, I rationalized that that wasn’t a big deal. I mean, if I was dreaming about escaping stress by being a fledgling, I definitely didn’t want to be the only fledgling with a colored-in Mark. Again.

Dream Zoey opened the door a crack. I saw her body jerk in surprise, and then she stepped back so that she could open the door all the way—to reveal Neferet standing in the hallway.

“Ah, hell! Run! This is a sucky dream!” I shouted.

But Dream Z didn’t hear me—neither did smarmy Dream Neferet.

“High Priestess! Hello. I, um, would you like to come in?” Dream Zoey asked lamely.

“No! Don’t let her into your room!”But, again, neither of them heard me.

“Oh, no, my dear. I am sorry to wake you, as the sun hasn’t quite set yet, but I’m afraid you have a rather distraught visitor,” said Dream Neferet with sickeningly fake niceness.

“F off, Neferet!”I yelled. Of course they didn’t hear me, so I sighed and waited to see what dream weirdness would happen next—and I seriously reconsidered my anticussing stance.

“A distraught visitor? I’m sorry, High Priestess, but I don’t understand.”

“It’s your stepfather. He’s rather…” Neferet paused and grimaced in obvious dislike, “insistent that you speak with him. He mentioned something about your immortal soul.”

“Oh, ugh! Him,” Dream me said, and I echoed the thought.Just tell her to tell him to go away and never come back!

But Dream Zoey seemed younger and nicer than me—or maybe just younger and more naïve. “Okay, I’ll talk to him.”