Convoke

Chapter 50

That night, Tom dreamt that a demon, one that had striking similarities to Ezra, burned his family pub to the ground, and not all his family members made it out alive.

He woke himself up by yelling for his mother. Startled and trembling, he sat up, breathing hard with tears steaming down his face. Another set of hands clutched him, but Tom was too stuck on the dream to relax. He yelped and jumped out of bed, almost crashing to the ground as the duvet tangled around his legs.

Ezra turned on the bedside lamp as Tom pinned himself to his bookshelves, wide eyed and clutching at the wood with trembling hands.

"Hey, it's okay," Ezra soothed, warily standing in front of him with hovering hands, too worried to touch him. "What happened? Was it a bad dream?"

Tom blinked until the dream clouded in his eyes, and his bedroom came into focus. "B-Bad dream," he stuttered, reaching out to touch fingers with Ezra's hovering hands. "Really bad dream."

Ezra closed the space between them and held him until the tears had a chance to dry in Tom's frantic eyes.

Ezra soon guided him back to bed and sat with him until Tom was ready to talk about it. Ezra listened with a frown that deepened with the longer he talked.

"You thought it was me in the dream?" Ezra asked.

"No. I knew it wasn't you, but it was almost you. I don't know if that makes sense. It felt like you, which is why this dream was so disturbing. And my mum . . . "

Ezra rubbed his shoulder. "Your dad is sleeping peacefully down the hall. Do you know how I know that?" Tom looked up into his big brown eyes. "Because I can just about hear him snoring."

Tom smiled, which lightened the heavy load on his chest. "Whenever I dream of demons, it's always the same. They always destroy a place I love. It always hurts as if they have actually done it. I can see how locals who already don't get on with demons would suddenly be very wary of them after dreams like that."

Ezra's hand froze against Tom's shoulder. His frown returned, deeper than before. "Do you notice a pattern with your dreams?"

"I've just said-"

"No, I mean . . . do you always have bad dreams when you've been near an angel?"

Tom frowned too. "Not always. Or maybe I can't always remember the bad ones."

"Othrowan was in your room, and you have a nightmare that same night. Do you think it's coincidence?"

"It could be."

"But what if it's not?"

They stared at each other, trying to see the truth in each other's eyes.

"It's him," Ezra said boldly. "It has to be him."

After everything Othrowan had done to Ezra, Tom could believe that the old angel was responsible for at least some of the violence against demons. "How do we find out?"

"We question him."

"And what if he denies it?"

"I'll get the truth out of him."

Tom shook his head. "Be careful, Ezra. Don't do anything you'll regret."

"I won't. I have you to think about now. I won't risk what we have."

Tom snuggled into his side. The dream was far back in his thoughts, and his heart had calmed. "Good."

Ezra kissed his temple and held him tightly. "Get some sleep."

Tom slept roughly for the rest of the night. He didn't have nightmares, but he woke to see nearly every hour until dawn.

Ezra wanted to question Othrowan right away, and Tom wondered if they should console with Kie and the other demons. But Ezra was determined to get to the bottom of what was causing Tom so much terror in the night.