"Where's Lizbeth?" Daniela rasped, almost crying with gratitude when Evan plucked a plastic cup of water from the side table and handed it to her. She sipped the cool liquid, her raw throat feeling a bit better. "I saw her . . . in my dreams . . ."
"She's gone. Somewhere in the dreamlands," Niamh said-and Daniela felt a deep worry in her heart.
"What aren't you telling me?" She wanted them to give her all the bad news at once. Otherwise, it would just draw out the pain.
"The world has changed . . ." Niamh paused. "Your coven mate Lizbeth brought magic back into the world through her dreams."
"But humanity's not taking it very well," Evan added.
Daniela's heart sank. She couldn't help but feel responsible. She was the idiot who'd trusted Desmond Delay-that traitor-and unwittingly sold out her blood sisters to him. In her defense, she really had been in the dark. But ignorance was not an excuse. She, of all people-a fucking empath-should've known better. Maybe if she'd been smarter, she'd have controlled Lizbeth better and worked out a way to share the dream gradually . . . to manipulate the flow of information and allow humanity time to process it properly. Everyone was highly aware that human beings were bad at dealing with the unknown. Humans loved to shoot first and ask questions later.
Weeks before the insanity had begun-before Lyse had even left Athens, Georgia, and come home to look after a dying Eleanora-Devandra had drawn a tarot spread that intimated there was a Judas among the Echo Park coven.
The spread had been a simple one:
The World
The Magician
The Hierophant
The Devil
The Fool
No one knew who The Fool belonged to, but it turned out to be Daniela's card. She was the Judas-
As if something hot and blazing had been conjured into life by her thoughts, Daniela saw orangey-red flames flare up in her peripheral vision. When she turned her head, she saw that Niamh's body had been engulfed in flame.
"You're on fire," Daniela said, as she stared at Niamh-though it had only taken her a moment to realize that Niamh wasn't on fire. Her aura was burning so bright.
"What're you talking about?" Niamh said, her eyes wide and scared.
"Your aura, it's burning up."
And I'm terrified of what all that anger would do to me if I ever touched you, Daniela thought.
Niamh closed her eyes and took a deep breath. The orange-red glow instantly began to fade away.
"Better?" Niamh asked, opening her eyes.
Daniela nodded.
"I've never . . . I couldn't see auras before," Daniela said.
"It's the magic returning to our world," Evan replied. "It's making everyone's powers manifest in new ways." He turned to Daniela. "You're an empath, so why shouldn't you start seeing auras, or at least some kind of visual manifestation of the emotions you feel when you touch someone."
She felt herself nodding. What Evan said made sense-the gray and orangey-red changes in Niamh's aura had to be manifestations of Niamh's sadness and anger. If the negative emotions she felt from Niamh could hurt her, she wondered, would the positive ones-like love or joy-act in the opposite way? She wanted to try her theory out, but there was so much else to discuss, so many things that she needed to know. And she was already worn out from this minor interaction with Niamh and Evan. In fact, her eyes were already starting to close.
"Daniela?" she heard Evan say, but she didn't answer. She was already drifting to sleep . . . and out of their reality.
• • •
"Hi, Daniela," Lizbeth said. "You're in the dreamlands. Sort of."
Her friend sat in front of her, cross-legged on the floor, her long russet hair tied back in a loose braid. She was wearing a white shift dress that exposed her thin arms and delicate shoulders, but Daniela was not deceived by the delicate image Lizbeth presented. The Dream Keeper was anything but fragile. She was imbued with so much power that Daniela could see it sparking off the teenager's body in streaks of shining gold.
"You brought me here," Daniela said, realizing-after the fact-that the pain in her throat was gone. She looked down and saw that she was in a matching shift dress to Lizbeth's, her own short hair a frazzled purple-and-pink rat's nest.
They were sitting in a room that was the color of bone. It wasn't a place Daniela had ever been before, and the coldness that emanated from the space, the crisp emptiness that filled the room, made her shiver.
"I did bring you here," Lizbeth said. "I wanted you to know that Dev's girls are here with me and Eleanora and Hessika. They're safe for now, but they can't stay forever."