Asleep

63 I Need to Do This

Charlie~~

Nora watches as a parrot flies from one branch to another. "Your menageries never cease to amaze me."

Feeling myself blushing, I turn so she can't see. "I'm sorry about earlier—how I got with Avery."

"If I'd known she was your sister, I would have given you a heads up."

"I know."

One of the few beams of light that manage to break through the canopy shines across her cheeks and the tip of her nose. It may be nighttime in Somnia, but here it's always close to dusk.

"I can get us as close to the room as possible, but you should all remain outside to hold off anyone who appears since you can't use your powers inside the room. Once my dad realizes it's us, he'll wake me up first and then you." Raymond taught us all how to wake the master dreamer. If I'm woken up, there's a chance someone else can take over.

The moment Dad's alerted, he'll drop whatever he's doing, asleep or not.

"What if we did it differently?"

I lean back against a tree, waiting for her to continue.

"What if you rift Avery and Ricky into a separate part of the headquarters? They could act as a distraction, buy us some more time."

"But then it would only be you holding off anyone who tries to get into the room."

"Then I'll be the one to wake the master dreamer. You can hold them off. You're more at ease with your powers than me." She throws out her hands. "I mean, look at this place."

"The idea has merit." If I was able to teach her how to deactivate that fabricated reality, then I would be able to use my powers uninhibited.

"I was thinking we could use the void as a place to trap any of your dad's employees, though you'd have to be touching them to do that."

"If they end up getting close enough, it would work."

She toes the dirt with her shoe. "Also, the three of us have been practicing with conjuring."

Leaves crunch under me as I walk toward her. "Create a pit in the ground."

"And destroy your creation?"

"I can fix it."

She gives me an odd look before closing her eyes.

"Try it with your eyes open. Just imagine a hole opening up, the leaves and dirt falling inside."

She takes a deep breath, and I stand behind her in the case the hole doesn't appear where it should.

There's a tremor in the ground, and the leaves tremble as the dirt sinks, falling away. The hole that emerges spreads, growing wider.

Nora takes a step back and bumps into me. The hole stops expanding. "Depending on what plan we go with, if you want to drop my dad's employees into holes, you won't hear any objections from me." I imagine the ground how it was, and the earth fills itself in.

Nora faces me but doesn't meet my eyes. "About what Avery said earlier—"

"You don't have—"

"No, I do. She asked me about you the night I had dinner with you. She knew I had worked for you and asked if I thought you'd help. I didn't think you would, and I did say that I didn't trust you."

"I know you haven't."

"Those first weeks in Somnia you were one of the few people who I thought I could trust. When I was taken, I felt betrayed because I did trust you."

Each of her words are like a needle pricking my skin. Not a punch to the gut, but uncomfortable.

"You really don't have to go on."

"Trusting people has never been something I can just do. It takes time for me." She takes my hands. "Charlie, I trust you. More than anyone else I know."

My heart stutters. "To be fair, you don't know that many people."

Ducking her head, she shakes it. "I know it's taken me awhile."

I squeeze her hands. "I shouldn't have gotten angry at you earlier that you hadn't told me about working with Lucid. Especially when I'm the one my dad calls on to find Lucid."

She frees her hands from mine and without a word wraps her arms around me. She's warmth and freedom and softness.

I close my own arms around her, my heart thundering. Knowing she most likely can hear it, my heart pounds harder, much to my chagrin.

"I do like you, Charlie," she murmurs into my shirt. I still, even as my heart races on. "When Avery asked me, I didn't want to admit I ever did care about you." Her shoulder rubs against my chest as she shifts. "Especially not after what was said before I left your house that night."

Leaning back, I place my hands on her head so we can look at each other. I try holding back a chuckle. "You mean about not wanting to ravish each other?"

She looks to the side. "Something like that." Color stains her cheeks.

"Nora."

She draws her eyes back to mine.

"Are you saying you want to ravish me?" I raise my eyebrows and smirk, clamping down on a laugh.

"I never said that," she grounds out.

I rub my thumb over her cheek. "I don't know what's going to happen to us if we fail, if our memories will be altered, but while I'm sure my memories and feelings are still my own, I—

I need to do this."

I lean down, brushing my lips against hers. She stiffens, and I pull away, my face hovering right above hers.

She hesitates before she grips my shirt and pulls my lips to hers.

I tangle my hands in her hair, deepening the kiss. A soft moan slips past her lips, and she pulls away, my shirt still bunched in her hands.

"If this is how you treat all the people you welcome to Somnia, this might not be such a bad place."

I laugh, tracing the side of her face with my fingers. "You mean the gift baskets weren't enough?"

"I wouldn't know. I never got one." She kisses me again, her hands sliding around to my back.

My phone rings. I let out a groan and pull it from my pocket to silence it but hesitate when I see it's Tye.

"Answer it," she says, taking a step back. It takes everything in me not to curse him.

I hold the phone to my ear. "Hello?"

"Hey," he sounds anxious. "Can I come by your house to talk? It's about the file."

"Yeah. When?"

"I can be there in twenty minutes."

I glance at Nora running her hands through her hair, trying to undo the knots my fingers left behind. I wet my lips. "I'll see you then."

I end the call and hold out my hand, trying to ignore the tension in the air. "So I offered to give Tye his memories back."

So that happened.