pit stop on your crusade to protect the world, and your council’s mission to control the psychic realm before groups like the center can stake their claim.”
“The center would have continued to develop Dream Weaver with or without me. The Brotherhood had to stop their weapons testing. I protected you as best I could. I’m doing everything I can to help you now.”The hollowness of his argument twisted between them. “But you don’t want help, do you? In fact, you’re so gun-shy you’re willing to do whatever it takes to keep all of us away. Your stubbornness will be a death sentence if you don’t get over the Brotherhood’s involvement in what the center did to you. Keep hating me if it gets you through what we have to do next. But wake up and stop fighting by yourself, Sarah. Work with me. Trust my experience. Let me in.”
Sparks snapped in his dark gaze.
“I need Maddie, not you.” She needed anything but feeling Richard’s thoughts reaching for hers while she fought the nightmare’s call. “I’ll work through my memories with her. We’ll come up with something to tell the council tomorrow. Some way to prove Trinity’s real and worth letting the dream take me under again.”
She’d debriefed with her twin after every dream link they’d shared since coming to the Watcher’s bunker. Only this time, Maddie hadn’t been there when Sarah woke. This time, it was Richard and his unrelenting Watcher’s logic bearing down on her.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” he demanded.
“That the dream’s been in control from the start?” She shuddered. “And if I had?”
“I would have—”
“You would have told your precious council, who were already looking for a reason to put my sister and me out of our misery.”
“I would have helped you process the dream’s pull and found a way to stop it from coming for you.”
“Who said I wanted it to stop? There’s a child out there, and the center is using her. What if we’re too latealready? I couldn’t live with myself if I ignored her the way the rest of you are.”
“Without my corroboration, the council has no reason to believe anything you’re seeing in your dream. And you haven’t given me the chance to uncover the proof they need. As it stands, your psychological instability is their only concern. You wouldn’t be allowed to reengage with the nightmare now, no matter what you and Madeline uncover.”
Sarah knew she’d crossed an unforgivable line, dreaming on her own when her mind had already caused so much destruction. The reckless path she’d chosen hit home for the first time as she absorbed Richard’s intimidating stare.
“An innocent little girl is being ripped apart, the same way Maddie and I were,” she tried to explain, hating him for being her only chance to get back to Trinity. “I wouldn’t . . . I couldn’t let them hurt her, too.”
Sarah closed her eyes against the unwanted memories of her own mind at Tad Ruebens’s mercy, invading others’ thoughts, programming them, hurting strangers the way she was being hurt. Her will had slowly eroded, dying, until there’d been no light left to cling to.
The gentleness of Richard’s finger caressed her cheek, ripping her back to the present. She could handle intimidating and angry from him. But not gentle. Gentle could never happen between them again.
Except she was leaning into his touch before she could stop herself. Then into the flicker of his consciousness—into the part of him she still remembered as
Rick
. The voice from the darkness of her coma that had promisedintimacy. Closeness. Belonging. The perfection of what she’d thought she’d found called to her from their shared memories, rushing her deeper into the emotional dependency on him she’d forced herself to abandon. Everything she’d believed she and Richard could be together was still waiting for her in his touch. Everything he’d destroyed, when he sacrificed her to fulfill his duty to his
“The center would have continued to develop Dream Weaver with or without me. The Brotherhood had to stop their weapons testing. I protected you as best I could. I’m doing everything I can to help you now.”The hollowness of his argument twisted between them. “But you don’t want help, do you? In fact, you’re so gun-shy you’re willing to do whatever it takes to keep all of us away. Your stubbornness will be a death sentence if you don’t get over the Brotherhood’s involvement in what the center did to you. Keep hating me if it gets you through what we have to do next. But wake up and stop fighting by yourself, Sarah. Work with me. Trust my experience. Let me in.”
Sparks snapped in his dark gaze.
“I need Maddie, not you.” She needed anything but feeling Richard’s thoughts reaching for hers while she fought the nightmare’s call. “I’ll work through my memories with her. We’ll come up with something to tell the council tomorrow. Some way to prove Trinity’s real and worth letting the dream take me under again.”
She’d debriefed with her twin after every dream link they’d shared since coming to the Watcher’s bunker. Only this time, Maddie hadn’t been there when Sarah woke. This time, it was Richard and his unrelenting Watcher’s logic bearing down on her.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” he demanded.
“That the dream’s been in control from the start?” She shuddered. “And if I had?”
“I would have—”
“You would have told your precious council, who were already looking for a reason to put my sister and me out of our misery.”
“I would have helped you process the dream’s pull and found a way to stop it from coming for you.”
“Who said I wanted it to stop? There’s a child out there, and the center is using her. What if we’re too latealready? I couldn’t live with myself if I ignored her the way the rest of you are.”
“Without my corroboration, the council has no reason to believe anything you’re seeing in your dream. And you haven’t given me the chance to uncover the proof they need. As it stands, your psychological instability is their only concern. You wouldn’t be allowed to reengage with the nightmare now, no matter what you and Madeline uncover.”
Sarah knew she’d crossed an unforgivable line, dreaming on her own when her mind had already caused so much destruction. The reckless path she’d chosen hit home for the first time as she absorbed Richard’s intimidating stare.
“An innocent little girl is being ripped apart, the same way Maddie and I were,” she tried to explain, hating him for being her only chance to get back to Trinity. “I wouldn’t . . . I couldn’t let them hurt her, too.”
Sarah closed her eyes against the unwanted memories of her own mind at Tad Ruebens’s mercy, invading others’ thoughts, programming them, hurting strangers the way she was being hurt. Her will had slowly eroded, dying, until there’d been no light left to cling to.
The gentleness of Richard’s finger caressed her cheek, ripping her back to the present. She could handle intimidating and angry from him. But not gentle. Gentle could never happen between them again.
Except she was leaning into his touch before she could stop herself. Then into the flicker of his consciousness—into the part of him she still remembered as
Rick
. The voice from the darkness of her coma that had promisedintimacy. Closeness. Belonging. The perfection of what she’d thought she’d found called to her from their shared memories, rushing her deeper into the emotional dependency on him she’d forced herself to abandon. Everything she’d believed she and Richard could be together was still waiting for her in his touch. Everything he’d destroyed, when he sacrificed her to fulfill his duty to his
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