Find Me If You Dare (Dreamcatcher Book 2) (33 page)

I gathered her in my arms. “It was a nightmare. Just a nightmare.”

Nolan sat back on his bum, dropping his face into his palms.

I rocked Kayla, arms tight around her, trying to calm her trembling. I squeezed my eyes closed. I’d been so close to losing her. Would Richard really have killed her if I’d kept saying no? I dropped my face into her hair, afraid to let go.

For a couple minutes, the three of us sat there. I shut my thoughts off and focused on the sound of her breathing, my pulse slowing to normal as her sobs waned.

“Where are we?” she asked, pushing herself gently out of my hold. I flinched at the chill her absence left.

“The cabin’s down the mountain a little way,” I replied. “We’re safe.”

Her face scrunched. “But, how—”

“You were sleepwalking,” Nolan answered, and Kayla jumped. I rubbed her arm as the last bits of tension left her shoulders.

“Sleepwalkers don’t dream. Weavers can’t usually follow them around,” I corrected Nolan.

“Okay, Mr. Smarty Pants, but she was dreaming and walking.”

“She was in a trance.”

“Wait, what?” she interrupted us.

Bollocks. I was going to tell her the truth with a little more tact.

I sighed. “You weren’t just having a nightmare. Your dad sort of… possessed you.”

Kayla’s face took on a new shade of pale. “What did he say?” Her voice wasn’t much louder than a whisper.

I swallowed. My mouth opened to speak, but nothing came out. How could I tell Kayla I’d agreed to hand her over? Tonight, I’d saved her life, but if I didn’t show up with her tomorrow, what would happen? I’d responded before thinking it through, and though I would never let her go, I didn’t know what to do.

It was Nolan who finally answered. “He told us where to find him. He wants you. Bad.” He smirked. “But I know how he thinks. And I’ve got a plan.”

t’s wakey time,” Nolan said at the top of his lungs when we burst through the cabin’s door. “Everybody up! Rise and shine.”

Groans filled the living space, and Ivan swore from inside the bedroom when Nolan pounded the door.

“¿
Qué demonios
?
Ni siquiera por la mañana
,” Vinny said.

“No idea what you said, but uppy. We have good news,” Nolan replied.

Kayla’s angry stare burned my cheeks, but I refused to meet her eyes. She’d made it very clear that she loathed the plan. But for once, Nolan and I agreed on a brilliant idea. Anxious to get this started, but letting him run point—it
had
been his idea after all—I stayed near the front door, leaning against the wall with my arms crossed over my chest. Kayla stormed to the other side of the room.

“What’s going on?” Samantha asked, adjusting her ponytail.

“For the first time, we know where Richard’s going to be. And we’re finally going to kill him,” Nolan said.

At that, everyone perked up. Ivan and Lian stepped out of the bedroom, their eyes wide and faces bright.

“Early this morning,” Nolan continued, “Richard paid us a visit a la Kayla, and we agreed to hand her over to him tonight at sunset in Garnant, Wales.”

“What?” Bernice shouted.

Nolan held up his hands. “Now, would you wait a minute? I didn’t say we were giving in to the dark side. Richard expects Kayla, but that doesn’t mean we have to give him the real one.”

“I don’t follow,” Ivan said.

Nolan rolled his eyes.

I sighed. “Remember what Nolan said about Richard possibly turning Adelynn or Alex into Giovanni? There’s a blood spell—a cloaking spell—that turns one person into another. Nolan is going to become Kayla, and he’s the one who’s going to return with Richard.”

“And as soon as Richard figures out it’s him, he’s going to kill him,” Kayla said, her glare icy.

“We’ve already been over this,” Nolan said. “The spell will be extra strong, considering we both share—” His face paled, stopping himself short of revealing the truth about his father.

He sighed, stuffing his hands in his pockets. “Ah, what the hell. You guys might as well know. I’ll save you the sob story, but Richard’s my dad, too.”

Gasps filled the room, and a few of my friends’ faces reddened.

I stepped forward, holding up my hands. “I’ve been given no reason to not trust Nolan. In fact, I trust him with my life. For his own reasons, he wants Richard dead as much as we do. So, I beg of you to get past this or leave. I’m sticking with his plan.”

The room quieted as stares landed on Nolan and Kayla before finding one another’s. Didn’t take a genius to know the others were speaking telepathically among themselves. But while Alice made a show of not being on board with the news, no one left. I nodded for Nolan to continue.

“Anyway, when this cloaking spell is put on, it’ll be damn near impossible to come off since Kayla and I share the same blood. Pretty much only a witch as strong as Kayla could undo it,” he said.

“Or Richard,” she added, her glare frosty.

“Yeah, but it’s really not that hard to pretend to be you, sis. I’m a fantastic actor. Probably could’ve been one of those heartthrobs in some teen movie.”

I rolled my eyes. “At sunset, I’m going to take ‘Kayla’ to Richard. Nolan will go with him, and then it won’t be long before we figure out where the bloke’s hiding.”

“How are we going to track him? Richard will remove Trishna’s binding spell immediately,
amigo
,” Vinny said.

“That’s where Kayla comes in,” Nolan replied. “She’ll do something called ‘dream walking.’ Any witch or warlock with a lot of Spirit ability can, with the right spell. But it’s super dangerous. You can lose yourself in limbo, or the person whose mind you’re entering can trap your consciousness and keep you locked inside their head forever, if their magic’s stronger—which is why we’re not trying it on Richard. Kayla will dream walk with me, and I’ll tell her where Richard took me.”

“I still don’t think I’m strong enough. This is stupid! I can heal people, but I’ve never tried anything like that. I can’t do it. We have to find another way,” Kayla rambled.

“Yes, you can,” Nolan and I said simultaneously.

Before Kayla could argue, another one of the witches who’d trained with us—Ashleigh—asked, “So, what do
we
do?”

Nolan tipped his head toward me.
Your turn.

“We wait,” I said. “As soon as Kayla figures out where Nolan and Richard are, we’ll evaporate nearby and sneak in, like we’d planned. With Nolan already on the inside, we have a shot of trapping Richard. We’ll hold off the Nightmares while you Magus help Kayla get close enough to kill him.”

Murmurs filled the room, and then Lian said over the others, “It’s a good plan, and the best chance we’ve had. I’m in.”

Within seconds, the others agreed. Kayla fell into a chair with a
hmph.
I knew she’d been hoping for someone to say no.

“It’s settled, then,” Nolan said. “Tonight ‘Operation Kill the Bastard’ begins. In the meantime, who do I place an order with for a last meal?”

Kayla and Nolan spent the next several hours poring through the notes in Trishna’s spell book and practicing a few darker curses. A couple times, I had to calm her when the gold in her eyes swam, the sky darkened, and the wind rustled through the mountains like a small tornado. But by afternoon, Kayla admitted to feeling more in control of her emotions, her energy, her power.

After I handed Nolan a small dagger, he patted the top of a small bush. He let out a deep breath and passed the knife to Kayla. “Kill it.”

“What?” Kayla stepped back, her stare incredulous.

“Blood magnifies your power. That’s why dark magic is so easy to get hooked on. The more powerful the spell, the more blood you use. You’ve officially graduated from the dark spells that don’t need blood, so, let’s try. Destroying a plant is easy. Prick your finger, let your blood drip onto the leaves, and speak the spell:
Ut ego te pulvis
.”

Kayla’s fearful stare caught mine, and I nodded, my gaze unwavering though my stomach was in my knees. She could do this—we needed her to do this—and, as her anchor, I had to make damn sure she knew I’d always be here, that I’d always save her.

She swallowed, her chin trembling, and took the blade from her brother. Unsheathing it, she dug the tip into her finger until blood bubbled on her skin, like a tiny, ruby gemstone. Kayla passed the dagger to me and let the droplet fall onto the plant, placing both palms on the top of the bush. After a deep, shaky breath, she closed her eyes and spoke the spell.

Wind rustled the trees above us as lines formed in her forehead. Humidity stifled in the air, turning into large water droplets. The sky darkened. I locked my knees and held my breath.

“Give in to it, Kayla. Just a little more,” Nolan said. “That feeling of weightlessness—let yourself fall.”

“But what if I can’t stop? What if I can’t let go of the power?” Thunder cracked above us.

“I’m right here, love,” I said. “You can do this.”

Kayla’s posture straightened. With her chin high and her eyes still closed, her hands grasped the leaves. One strong, cold, gust of wind blew past us. I flung my arms out as I tipped. Lightning flashed in the gray sky, and thunder rolled through the air.

From where Kayla touched the bush, the leaves began to die. As if someone poured paint over the plant, blackness enveloped every leaf and branch until the color reached the ground. It spread through the grass around the bush in an almost-perfect circle. The wind picked up.

“Daniel, call her back,” Nolan said. I could barely hear him over the
whoosh
of the breeze.

Kayla, you did it. Time to let go. Ti amo, rosa mia.

Kayla’s grip on the leaves released, and the sky slowly brightened. When she opened her eyes, the molten gold faded from her irises. But as soon as she saw the extent of her power, her eyes filled with tears. Wrapping an arm around her shoulders, I pulled her to me and kissed the side of her head.

“You did great,” I said softly.

“I killed it,” she replied.

“You did what you had to,” Nolan interjected. “Told you it wouldn’t be easy. But, hey, you’re ready to try something a little harder. You know, like a cloaking spell.” He winked.

From behind me, Samantha, carrying a paper bag, broke the tension. “Alice left, after all. Said this was a suicide mission. We’re down to our usual gang plus Vinny, Bernice, and Ashleigh. Ten people. Are we sure this is going to work?”