Hero Reborn (Keepers of Justice, Book 3) (17 page)

“
And it happened more than once,” I continue. “For the past few days, I dreamed about her. And just now, she told me she dreamed about me, too. They were exactly the same. Dudes, I’m telling you. I went inside her dream.” I sit up as something hits me. “I must be going into my parents’ dreams, too. I can’t ask them about it, since they’re not here, but if I went into Furball’s then I must have gone into theirs.” That means they’re alive.

X rubs his chin. “You’ve never done it before?”

“Nope.”

“Hmm. I think your resurrection gave you a new power.”

“What?”

Kale lifts an eyebrow. “Seriously?”

X shrugs. “This started happening to him once he came back from the dead.” He turns to me. “I think you got a new power.”

“Yeah,” Kale says. “It’s like you were reborn. So you got a new ability.”

My legs slope down the bed and to the floor. “Man, why did I have to get such a dumb one? I shouldn’t go into people’s dreams. It’s not right.”

Kale says, “You need to be blocked. Maybe Furball can try to block you out. Or maybe you can learn to control it or something.”

“Yeah, I should probably talk to her about it. It’s not right to keep something like this from her.”

Kale nods. “But not now. She’s
sleeping.”

“And I should probably talk to Samson and Cindy about it.”

X waves his hand. “They have too much going on to worry about this right now.”

I guess he’s right. I don’t want to bother them with my useless ability.

“Do you want to test it?” Kale asks.

“Okay.
How?”

“Go into my dream.”

Um…do I really wanna know what my best friend dreams about? “You sure that’s a good idea?”

He shrugs. “You want to
make sure you really can go into dreams or not?” He points his thumb to X. “Unless you’d rather go into his dream.”

I look at X, who’s got his arms crossed as he stares at the wall. A chill passes down my back just thinking about it. “No…I think I’d have nightmares going to into X’s dreams. No offense, dude.”

X rolls his shoulders. “I don’t blame you.”

“
Okay, let’s do this.” Kale turns to X. “You okay?”

He waves his hand. “Go ahead. I’ll wait.”

Kale looks at me. “How does it work? Maybe you need to think of the person before you fall asleep. Were you thinking about Furball?”

My stomach feels funny. “Yeah. I thi
nk about her, like, every night.”

Kale’s eyebrows furrow. “Hmm. So why are you entering her dream
s
now
?”

“No, I think he’s always been entering,
” X says. “But you’ve never actually been…active in the dreams, have you, Stretch? Made your own decisions?”

“I don’t know.”

“You didn’t tell her where we were staying when we were at your parents’ house,” X continues. “I think in those dreams you had more of a passive role and Furball controlled you because it was her dream. Maybe your power is getting stronger and you can decide what to say or do in the dreams.”

He might be
right about that. In all the previous dreams, I felt
part
of it. But the one with Furball in the alley, I felt like I was talking to her on my own. Like I was in control.

“Makes sense,” I say. “Okay, I’m ready.
I’m going to go to sleep thinking about you.” Kale bursts out laughing. I shove him. “It’s not like I
want
to do it. Besides, it was your idea, dude. Not mine.”

He’s still laughing. “Okay. I’m ready. Wait. Make sure I’m asleep before you come in. It won’t work if you fall asleep when I don’t.”

“Okay.”

Kale and I lie down. X
slips down to the floor. “See ya later, X,” Kale says.

“Have fun.”

***

I fall
through the black hole. Shouts are below. Looking down, I see fire, like an explosion’s going on. I’m right on top of it and feel the heat touching the bottom of my feet.

“Kale?” I yell. “You here?”

The shouting gets louder. I’m dropping toward the fire. Oh, crap! If I don’t move I’m going to get fried. But I can’t move. My legs wiggle and thrash around. I close my eyes. Something went wrong. Maybe I’m not in Kale’s dream. Maybe I’m going to die again.

I land hard on the ground, which is on the roof of
a building. I don’t feel the pain on my butt, though, I feel the flames. They’re, like, less than a foot away. I scamper back. It’s not really a fire—it’s a person. A girl. She’s floating in the air. Arms and legs are spread out. The fire is coming out of her.

It’s Lindsay. Her explosion.

Is this what Kale dreams about? He told me Lindsay was so close to blowing up four months ago. It was such a scary moment in his life.

Kale’s right beneath her, his hand stretched up. “Lindsay,” he says. “Fight it. Fight it with all your might.”

She doesn’t seem to hear him, only shouts out in pain.

“You can do it, Lindsay,” I call, n
ot sure she’ll hear me, either.

“Stretch.” Kale’s voice is high-pitched. “Do something. She’s gonna—she’s gonna die!”

I’m frozen. Got no clue what to say or do. But I’ll try. I step closer to Lindsay. The fire is so powerful I’m sure it’ll melt my face. I fly back.

“I love you, Lindsay,” Kale says. “I care about you so much. You have so many people who care.”

I raise my hand. “I care!”

“Fight it. Take control,” Kale urges.

“I can’t!” She yells so loud I get deaf for a second. The fire’s expanding, getting more intense.

Oh, no. She’s gonna—

I jump on top of Kale and we crash to the ground. My body stretches out to protect him.

Her shout
s are really loud now, like she’s being torn from the inside. I lower my head to the ground. This is it.

Another screech and I feel myself tumble in the air. Kale’s hand is clutched tightly
around my arm as we’re shot toward space. The explosion is so strong that we’re zooming fast. I can’t see anything around me, only fire.

We’re spinning and tumbling like we’re
on a roller coaster. Sounds come from Earth…it’s like an earthquake times a hundred. I’ve never heard anything like it. Earth’s exploding. That’s all I know, and when I’m done spinning, I actually see it. Fragments of our planet are dispersed all over space. The spot where Earth was is empty. It’s really…it’s really gone.

Kale’s eyes bug out of their sockets. His face is white, probably the same shade as mine.
I can hardly breathe. Why did we survive?

Right, it’s Kale
’s dream. They never make sense.

We’re floating around in space. Sweeping our hands around like we’re treadi
ng in water.

Kale grabs his head. “It’s gone. She…she blew it up. Oh
, man. I can’t believe I failed.”

“Kale—” I reach to pat his shoulder, but he slaps me off.

“Why did they send me on this assignment? Why me? Clearly I can’t do anything right!”

“Kale—”

“Everyone’s dead!” He whips his head around the area. “Why are we alive? What the hell?!” He’s yelling and muttering and moving around so fast.

I reach for his arm again. He slams his palm against my chest, shoving me so hard I roll like a ball. I don’t know where I’m going, only that I’m getting fa
rther and farther away from him.

“SCREW THIS!” he yells from the distance.

I’m still tumbling. All I see is black, but it’s getting fuzzy. The shouts from Kale grow fainter and fainter.

My eyes shoot open. The first thing I see is X on the floor, leaning on the wall,
his head drooping. Kale’s staring ahead, his mouth and eyes wide. His gaze slowly moves to me. “Did you see that?” His voice is hoarse.

X shifts on the floor. “You
guys okay?”

Kale and I exchange a glance. He scans his body. It’s trembling. “F-fine. Stretch?”

“I’m okay. Freaked, but okay.”

“What happened?” X asks. “Did you enter his dream?”

I turn to Kale. “Lindsay?”

He nods.

X’s eyebrows scrunch. “What about her?”

Kale’s too shaken up to talk about it. I am, too, but probably not as much as him. I tell X everything. Kale’s body seems to relax a bit, but he’s
still whiter than his T-shirt.

The room gets silent.

I pat Kale’s arm. “It’s okay. Was just a dream. Sorry I saw that.”

He doesn’t say anything.

“Was this the first time you dreamed of this?” X asks.

He shakes his head. Breathes in
and out. “I dream about her explosion all the time, but she’s never actually destroyed Earth.” He looks from me to X. “You think it means she’ll blow up again?”

“I don’t think so
,” X says. “I’m pretty sure it was just a dream.” He gives him a small, encouraging smile.

Kale
twists his mouth. “Yeah, probably.” His gaze goes to me. “So now we know for sure that you can enter dreams.”

“I don’t want it,” I say. “It makes me feel dirty. Dreams are, like, the most private things ever. I can’t just drop by whenever I want
.”

“No one blames you,” X says. “Like any power, you’ll need to control it.”

“Yeah, and I’ll tell Furball about it tomorrow and hopefully she won’t hate me.”

“
She’d never hate you.”

I hope so.

We climb into our beds to get some sleep. I roll onto my stomach, my left side, then my right. I crush my pillow under my head. Nothing’s working. Kale and X are shifting in their beds, too. I guess there’s so much going on that none of us can fall asleep.

Kale sits up.
“Okay, guys. We’ve
got
to figure out a way to remove Vlayne’s hold on the humans.”

“Yeah,” I say. “
Interrogating that Blade was a bust. If only we had someone working undercover in the…oh, dude. Stealth!”

“What?” they both say.

I bounce on my bed and turn on the light. “Maybe I can enter her dream and ask her where the Blades’ headquarters is. Assuming she wants to help…”

X’s
jaw clenches and his eyes fill with pain. But he shakes it off. “It seems that when you talk to the person whose dream you’re in, they’re fully aware and can respond. Like you’re having a real conversation. That must be how Furball knew to come here.”

“And it felt like a real convo for me, too,” Kale says.

“So if Stretch were to enter Stealth’s dream,” X says. “She’d be fully aware and tell us their location.” He gets up and paces. “There’s just one problem. Vlayne has a hold on Stealth’s mind. You wouldn’t be able to get in.”

Oh
, yeah. My shoulders droop.

Kale jumps up. “
No, no. I had a telepathic block on my mind. Stretch passed through it.”

We
all gape at each other.

“
Are you saying…you’re saying I can bypass telepathic blocks? Maybe telepathic blocks don’t work when you sleep.”

“They work all right.”

We stare at each other.

“I…”
I swallow. “I changed my mind. I don’t want to go into Stealth’s dream. Don’t want Vlayne to catch me.”

Kale frowns.

“There’s another thing we need to consider,” X says. “Kale, when you woke up you remembered clearly what happened in your dream about Lindsay. You remembered Stretch was there. Furball remembers clearly, too, or else she wouldn’t be here.”

“So Stealth will remember her dream, and
Vlayne will read it in her mind. We can’t risk our lives or Stealth’s.” Kale’s body sags. But then it perks up and he smiles mischievously. “Unless I erase her thoughts before she wakes up.”

“What?!”
I sputter.

“If I can telepathically connect us all, maybe we can come with
you, Stretch, when you enter Stealth’s dream. That way, she’ll see X and trust us. And when you feel you’re about to be thrown out, I’ll erase the dream from her mind, which would erase the conversation. Vlayne wouldn’t read it.”

“
Good idea,” X says.

I stare at them. I can’t believe they’re seriously considering this. “You know we’ve got no proof this will work.”

Kale shrugs. “We’ll practice on my dad.”

“Right. Like Samson will let us do this
.”

X crosses his arms over his chest. “The normies are
going to get worse and worse. I don’t think he has many options. But you’re right. He won’t let us get involved. We do it without telling him. We’ll go into his dream and Kale will erase his memory of it. Then we’ll wake him up and ask him if he had a dream about us. If he doesn’t, that means the memory is gone.” His eyes get dark. “I’m willing to risk my life to protect the humans. It’s what my mother wanted. She risked her life for it. So will I.”