The Children of Hypnos

[Vol. 2] Chapter 29: The Queen of Nightmares

"Coward," Emery croaked, and used Wes as a push-off to fling herself sideways, trying to get a clear shot around Klaus's side. Instead her foot hit a pile of building blocks and she crashed among plastic trucks and stuffed animals. That happy laughter filled the room again.

"Honestly, I should be more worried," Morrigan said. "The Dream is clearly about to take you and that's bad news for me, too. But you look ridiculous! Like a baby giraffe."

As she finished, the writhing ceiling flexed downward and a fully formed man dropped to the floor, a zombie villager with a pitchfork. The masked doppelgänger grabbed the man by the neck and carted him to a window, flinging him outside. Then he returned to his post.

Wes knelt beside Emery, keeping an eye on his doppelgänger, and as he helped her up, he tapped her arm three times.

Three shots. She had to make them count.

"I think the two of us can probably take the two of you," Morrigan said. "Don't you think so, Death? Especially after they just came through the entire castle..."

Death readjusted his crossed arms and made a grunt of agreement.

"If you're so sure you can take both of us," Emery said, "what are you doing wasting our time? Come out in the open if you want to fight."

A blue eye appeared over Klaus's shoulder. "Hey, dummy, I clearly have other plans in the works. All this wasn't just for you. We are self-centered, aren't we? I mean, you're for sure not getting out of the Dream alive, but we're striving for the good of all doppelgängers, not just ourselves."

"And striving for the good of all means chaining Klaus up and forcing nightmares out of him?"

"The more chaos, the better."

A hand rose and gripped Klaus's hair, pulling his head up. His eyes rolled, seeing nothing; all around them the skin was purple black. His lips were cracked and bleeding, and vomit had crusted in his stubble and down the front of the clothes he'd worn to the gala, now stained with sweat and blood. He made a terrible noise deep in his throat, not any sound of human speech but just a body trying to keep itself alive. The chains holding him rattled.

"I actually do like him," Morrigan said, gently lowering Klaus's head back to his chest. "But I wanted you to see what you're dealing with here. Marcia may be a dreamkiller now, but she'll only last so long as Pestilence doesn't get over Klaus's obsession with her."

"Stop stalling." Emery took a step forward, being careful of the toys this time.

Death moved to block her path.

"He's not going to let you get near me," Morrigan said.

Emery curled her lip. "What?" she said to Death. "Can't speak for yourself?"

"I talk when I have something to say." Hearing Wes's deep voice coming from behind that mask gave Emery chills, even though she had expected it. Wes himself hadn't looked away from his doppelgänger.

"Do you know where Famine is?" Wes asked, his voice low. Death's head turned slightly toward him. "She killed Ridley. Did you know that? She killed Ridley and then she ran from me. She could have run outside; I don't know. But there are a lot of traps in this castle. She'll only run from me if I go look for her. She'll come to you."

There was a long pause. Now two blue eyes appeared between Klaus's slumped shoulders. "What are you doing?"

Death turned fully to face Wes. "I walk past you out the door," he said. "You don't move. I'll find her."

"Agreed," Wes said.

Emery watched in incredulity as Death strode past Wes, threw open the door, and stepped out onto the snowy castle wall, where they caught just a glimpse of orange and black still in battle.

"What are you doing?" Morrigan screamed. "You're supposed to stay with me!"

With all the focus she had left in her, Emery drew her gun and fired at the exposed forehead over Klaus's limp body. Either the Dream had screwed her aim or Morrigan had gotten faster, because the bullet sheared through a veil of hair.

"Sorry, Em," Wes said. "Ridley's more important."

"You don't have to apologize to me," Emery said, and pushed him left. She stumbled to the right, circling Klaus, and fired again as Morrigan tried to climb over Klaus. That bullet caught her in the ribs and she cried aloud, but her head was down now, arched over Klaus's back.

Morrigan wasn't climbing over him, Emery realized—she was just trying to get closer to his face. Morrigan's hand was closed over his eyes, and Klaus's hands suddenly gripped his chains, his body seizing, a strangled cry emerging from him. Wes wrapped his arms around Morrigan's waist to pull her off Klaus, and when her hand came away from Klaus's face, a puff of sleeping sand came with it. Klaus's head remained up, his eyes wide open and blood red, his breath rasping in and out.

"Emery!" Wes had pulled Morrigan to the floor and was wrestling with her, getting slowly overpowered. "Shoot her, Em!"

Emery raised her gun, but the barrel wavered in her hand. Her vision split double, then triple. The Dream was picking her brain apart and eating it. Her nose began to run, but when she looked down there were spots of blood on the carpet.

Green light shone from above. The undulating ceiling sank downward and broke, drizzling away from the white folds of a ghostly dress. Klaus's gaze turned up as the Witch of the Wood materialized above him, huge and luminous. Her hair lifted as if on a breeze. She filled the entire room, making it seem taller, bigger than it was, and she looked down on Klaus with worry and sadness.

Morrigan and Wes had stopped fighting. Morrigan gazed up at the witch, a triumphant look on her face.

The witch broke Klaus's chains with a pinch of her fingers and lowered his shivering body to the floor. Then her eyes swept the room, and she found Emery, Wes, and Morrigan. Her expression melted into fury.

Morrigan's triumph evaporated.

"Balls," she said.

She tried to scramble to her feet, but the witch's hand drove into her and slammed her straight through the tower wall. The wall collapsed outward, taking part of the ceiling with it; Wes covered his head, but Emery could no longer tell where her arms were. When the witch drew her hand back inside, Morrigan was caught in her fist like a doll.

Then the witch turned to Emery. Panic sparked in the far recesses of Emery's mind, but there was no longer any link between her brain and her body.

She saw Wes running toward her.

She saw Morrigan twenty feet up, yelling at her.

She saw the other pale hand opening before her, fingers slipping around her arms and waist and legs, picking her up like she weighed nothing.

The witch turned toward the destroyed wall, reeled back, and flung Morrigan out. Morrigan vanished with a scream into the green moonlight.

The witch raised Emery next. The walls flexed. Chains appeared around the witch's arm, dragging it down. Claws grew from the floor and gripped the hem of her floating dress. Iron rods the size of Greek columns drove into the side of her head from nowhere.

"Emery!" Wes called from below. "Emery—"

The witch's free hand drove downward, and Wes's voice cut off. The chains loosened; the iron rods disappeared. The witch's fingers tightened around Emery, squeezing out her breath and grinding her bones together.

The blood shifted to her head as the Witch drew her arm back.

Then the world rushed forward and Emery was free.

(Next time: w e ' r e a l l f r e e h e r e )