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“How could I trust you? Your sole purpose is to destroy me.”
“I’m not who you think I am.”
“Who are you, then? What’s your name?” I already knew it, and I was beginning to understand what I’d gotten myself into, but I needed to hear him say it out loud.
“Valentine Morningstar. But I’m not… the Valentine you probably know. I’m not your father.”
Fuck. I stepped through the open gate and let him lead me to the patio, where we sat at a wooden table. He pulled out a bell, rang it three times, and a pixie appeared out of nowhere. He ordered her to bring us coffee. My heart ached when I realized the pixie looked just like Corri. He’d just called her from the Blank. I kept my mouth shut, though. This was not my Corri.
“Mila,” he said, staring at me over the rim of his cup. “Mila.”
“I realize this is a dream, but I’ve never dreamed like this before. I’ll ask again: is this the future?” He shook his head. “The past?” He shook his head again. “Oh, for God’s sake, what is it, then?”
“You really don’t know? You’re a traveler and you don’t know?”
“Traveler?”
“Jumper. Dream traveler. Your kind is known by many names.”
I chuckled stupidly. He stayed serious.
“Dream traveler… My kind…”
“Mila, this is a parallel universe. There are thousands of universes, and not all of them are accessible through trees, heavenly stairways, canyons, and rocks. In fact, most aren’t. Most are completely hidden from view, and only few people with rare abilities can access them. As far as I can tell, you’re one of these rare people. You can jump through the simple process of dreaming, and you can be in two places at the same time. You’re here, in the flesh, but you’re also in your bed, asleep. Personally, I’m not a traveler, but I’ve met a few, and they told me how it works.”
“This is insane…” I could barely form words, let alone speak them. “This is… No one told us about this. No one at Grim Reaper Academy, not one professor… N-no. This isn’t happening. It’s just a dream that will prove totally nonsensical when I woke up. If I’ll remember it at all…”
He shook his head. “You came here for a reason.”
“Look, dude… I don’t know what I’m doing. I didn’t choose this place, I didn’t…”
“Dream travelers choose their destinations instinctively.”
“What is a parallel universe, anyway?” PU. That was what PU stood for. Parallel Universe. The Valentine Morningstar in my world was just like me – a traveler.
He shrugged. “It’s exactly what the name says. A dimension parallel to yours. The same people, the same events… but slightly different. Time can be different, too. For instance, I know for a fact that I’m older than your father.”
“You know him?!” I jumped to my feet. The two cups of coffee clinked on their tiny plates when my knees hit the table by mistake. “You’ve met him?”
“He was the first traveler I came in contact with.”
“Oh my God!” I ran my hands through my long, tangled blue hair. This was it. This was the breakthrough. This was the last piece of the puzzle. I sat back down, placing my hands square on the table. “Tell me everything. You… you don’t know him. You don’t know how evil he is. I’m in danger because of him. We all are.”
“Who’s we?”
“The students of Grim Reaper Academy. Wait. Don’t you have an Academy here? Aren’t you a Grim Reaper?”
He sighed deeply. Suddenly, he seemed very sad.
“Grim Reaper Academy exists in this universe, too. And I used to be one of the twenty-two Grim Reapers a long, long time ago.”
“What happened?”
“I retired before my time was up. I retired when… I lost you and your mother.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
What. The actual. Fuck. My brain was glitching.
