Page 103 of Ex Somnis

He chuckles. “No one tells me what to do. I tend to be the one doing the telling. Speaking of which, did you know your young friend has some trouble with his sleepwalking? The poor thing simply can’t control it. Just hops right out of bed and wanders.”

My blood goes cold.

He does?

A staircase grows out of the clouds beside us. It builds itself upward without stopping until the top of it disappears into nothing.

“Sometimes it’s very dangerous what he gets up to while he sleeps,” Lucien says pleasantly. “Sometimes it’s just a little walk. You never know which it will be.”

“And that is your doing?”

He shrugs one shoulder. “Who can say what the subconscious does with the things one suggests? What I can say is that Nevan’s subconscious has always been very receptive. Very open to being told what to do.” His gaze lifts past me. “Isn’t that right, young man?”

“I don’t understand what⁠—”

“Climb the stairs, Nevan.”

“What?” His feet move.

“Nevan.” I grab his arm.

“I’m not…” His face creases in confusion. “I’m not doing this.” But his feet don’t stop. One step. Another. Onto the staircase. “I’m not doing it on purpose, Lenny. I can’t stop it.”

I turn back to Lucien. “Stop it right now.”

“You don’t do what I want.” He shrugs. “So why would I do what you want?”

Shit.

Shit, shit, shit.

I turn back and walk up the steps after Nevan, grabbing his arm with both hands and pulling, but I’m not strong enough. He’s too tall and solid, and even braced against the stairs, I can barely slow him. When I get in front of him, he steps around me, and I step back in front of him.

He steps around me again. “I can’t do anything. It’s like my body isn’t listening to me.”

Think.

I reach into the dream and spread honey across the steps like I upended a jar of it. It holds him for one second, two, his foot sticking, then he pulls free.

I look up. The staircase ends somewhere above us in the clouds.

If he walks off the edge… Is this happening only in his dream?

What is his body doing right now?

I go back down. Fast.

Lucien is still standing at the bottom, watching me with a smile, and I plant myself in front of him and ask the only question that might actually matter.

“What do you want?”

“You know what I want.”

I do.

Still, I can’t give it to him.

“Step back into elsewhere. Let Tessa do the soul contract. Stay, and they will all be left alone. I’ve said it before. You are the reason for all of this, every bit of it. You could be somewhere beautiful right now instead of watching him walk toward nothing. You choose to be here, and you let them suffer for it.”