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“Pollux?” Concern crossed his mother’s eyes as his mind refocused. “What’s wrong? Did something happen?”
His lips parted, but he couldn’t find the words to explain that he was a master of a plane unknown to them, a plane where resting minds got lost. He could not find the words to explain that Kassandra’s mind had just tripped in and out of that place with an unnatural swiftness akin to…death.
Fear consumed him as the very thought of that possibility shattered his mind.
The pain that erupted was an agony unlike anything he’d ever witnessed before.
“Pollux.” His mother rose and met him on the couch, cupping his face in her hand. “Honey, breathe. What’s wrong?”
“Gone.” His voice broke, rough as jagged stone. “She’s…gone.”
He could find nothing else to say. But, then, of course, he did not have to.
For a moment later, he too was gone.
Chapter 40
~~~~~~~~~~~~
I am a house of cards on a foundation built by a foolish man.
Kassandra’s brain was very incorrect—Kassandra says, narrating to herself. Myself.
Me.
I.
I am not well.
All around me, my dream world looks like broken glass. Things reach through the shattered pieces, great big fingers scraping at the corners of my mind. Oozing boxes have tumbled down around me, scattering glitter across my rolling, rippling, unstable fields. In the distance of my patchy part-day, part-night sky, floating islands with golden rivers that spill over the edges…fall.
I am not conscious.
I have no idea where I am in the waking world, but I am certain the gnawing presence against my flesh is Faerie.
“Pollux,” I whisper, desperately, into the nightmare. “Pollux, we need help.”
He doesn’t appear.
My thoughts drift, and I stare at the shining dust pouring from the cardboard caverns scattered all over the wobbling ground.
So. Many. Boxes.
So. Much. Grit.
I spent ages putting it away.
Will I ever get rid of it again?
How many more decades will it be if I ever try to put it all back? Every last grain…
Falling to my knees, I drag a box toward me and scoop handfuls of the stuff inside. It clings to my skin, flecking it in gold.
Gold.
Sand.
So…much…sand.
