Page 60 of See You in Your Dreams

“Hey,” I reply.

We stare at each other for one heartbeat, two, before he finally breaks our linked gazes, clearing his throat. “Well, come on. You’re late enough as it is.”

“Sorry it took me so long,” I sigh, following him up the stairs and into his room. He shuts the door behind me as I plop into his desk chair. Onyx wanders over from where she’d been batting at a toy under his bed, and I obligingly scratch behind her good ear. “My house was a shit show.”

Ash shrugs and sits on the edge of his bed facing me. “It’s fine.” A grimace mars his sharp features. “It’s not like Greta’s going anywhere anyway.”

I frown, furrowing my brow. “Hey, stop that. We need to stay positive, remember? It’s only been a week.”

“You sound like Alexis.”

“Good.” I fix him with a faint grin. “That means I’m doing it right.”

He snorts and shakes his head, but I can tell he’s trying to take my words to heart. I’m glad—with what we’re about to do, the more positive his frame of mind, the better.

“Things seem good with your aunt,” I note, recalling their brief interaction downstairs. “You looked like you’re getting along.”

“I guess.” He hesitates, reaching up to scrub a hand through his messy hair. “She’s been a lot nicer than I expected for someone who suddenly had a teenager foisted upon them, especially one they didn’t give two shits about before. I might actually miss her when I leave.”

He says it jokingly, but that doesn’t stop the pang that reverberates through my chest at the reminder of graduation and all the unknowns that come after.

You’ve got plenty of other things to worry about first,I chide myself. Forcing my mind back into the present, I turn and search his desk, hefting up the folder of dreamwalking research when I find it.

“So, did you actually read all of it this time?”

“I did…though most of it sounds like bullshit.”

I chuckle. “It probably is. Still, you never know—maybe something in it will prove useful.”

“Maybe.”

Whatever tension had faded when he saw me is back now full force, hunching his back and drawing in his shoulders. Setting the folder on the desk, I rise and approach until I’m standing right in front of him. Reaching down, I cradle his head in my hands and pull it against my stomach.

“You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to,” I say, stroking the back of his neck. “You already did more than anyone elsecould have to save her. No one would blame you for stopping here or waiting to practice another night instead.”

He’s silent for a moment, his breaths gusting against my shirt. “Iwould blame me,” he says at last. He shifts, rubbing his cheek against my belly. “I felt so useless when I visited her dream—so out of my depth. I had no idea what the hell I was supposed to do or how to help. I might still loathe my ability, but if practicing how to control it gives me a better chance to help Greta someday, then I’ve got to do it.”

My hands tighten in his hair as I tip his head up so I can see his face. Leaning down, I press a tender kiss against his lips. Ash’s breath catches as he returns the kiss with a desperate sort of need.

“I think it’s really brave what you’re doing,” I murmur when we part. I rest my forehead against his. “I may not know exactly what happened when you were younger, but I know it must have been pretty rough.”

Ash exhales, his heavy breath gusting against my shirt. His fingers find my arm, stroking lightly over my skin and spreading heat in their wake.

“I think I’m finally ready to talk about it.” His voice comes out barely a whisper. “If…if you want.”

My heartbeat quickens. “You don’t have to. You don’t owe me anything.”

“I know.” His fingers play absently with the hairs on my arm. “But I want to. I…I think it’s long past time I did.”

I take a seat on the bed beside him, stroking the back of his hand while he visibly gathers himself. Onyx jumps up to join us, sprawling lazily between our laps. Sudden apprehension grips me when Ash’s emerald eyes lock onto mine. I’m certain that whatever I’m about to hear will be rough to process. Still, if it helps Ash to get it off his chest, then I’m here for him.

“You already know some of it,” he begins, his voice shaky. “I was around five or six when I realized I could control my own dreams and decide what happened in them. My parents didn’t believe me at first. They thought I just had an overactive imagination. Then when I was eight, I visited them in their dreams for the first time. They believed me after that.”

He snorts a strained laugh. I keep quiet, though I grip his hand tighter in mine to signal my support. Shooting me a grateful smile, he continues.

“I took them on all sorts of wild adventures with me. As I got older, I learned how to shape their dreams to fit their requests. For a while, everything was perfect. Then when I was eleven, Dad got sick. The doctors gave him a few months at best. That’s when I first realized how easy it is to turn a dream into a nightmare.”

He puffs out a breath, bowing his head. “I…I tried to make things easier on him. To give him wonderful dreams that would make him forget what was happening. I thought Mom, Dad, and me could still pretend to be a regular family awhile longer. But my dreams grew dark. All my fear and anger and sadness bled into what I created and played off his own. My power didn’t kill him—but it certainly made everything worse right up until the end.”