“If you’re the one sucking—stealing my dreams, then you know the rest. You know what happens, in the end. You can tell us, so we can stop it.”

“I’m afraid not. I selected the bits and pieces I took rather intentionally.”

“Why don’t you want us to know what happens? If we know the rest of the dream, maybe we can stop it from happening.”

“It seems you know too much already, not that I understand it completely myself.”

“Stop talking in riddles for once. You keep saying I can protect Lena, that I have power. Why don’t you tell me what the hell is really going on, Mr. Ravenwood, because I’m tired, and I’m sick of being jerked around.”

“I can’t tell you what I don’t know, son. You’re a bit of a mystery.”

“I’m not your son.”

“Melchizedek Ravenwood!” Amma’s voice rang out like a bell.

Macon started losing his composure.

“How dare you come into this house without my permission!” She was standing in her bathrobe holding a long rope of beads. If I didn’t know better I’d have thought it was a necklace. Amma shook the beaded charm angrily in her fist. “We have an agreement. This house is off-limits. You find somewhere else to do your dirty business.”

“It’s not that simple, Amarie. The boy is seeing things in his dreams, things that are dangerous for both of them.”

Amma’s eyes were wild. “Are you feedin’ offa my boy? Is that what you’re sayin’? Is that supposed to make me feel better?”

“Calm down. Don’t be so literal. I am merely doing what is necessary to protect them both.”

“I know what you do and what you are, Melchizedek, and you will deal with the Devil in due time. Don’t you bring that evil into my house.”

“I made a choice long ago, Amarie. I’ve fought what I was destined to be. I fight it every night of my life. But I am not Dark, not as long as I have the child to concern me.”

“Doesn’t change what you are. That’s not a choice you get to make.”

Macon’s eyes narrowed. It was clear that the bargain between the two of them was a delicate one, and he had jeopardized it by coming here. How many times? I didn’t even know.

“Why don’t you just tell me what happens at the end of the dream? I have a right to know. It’s my dream.”

“It’s a powerful dream, a disturbing dream, and Lena doesn’t need to see it. She’s not ready to see it, and you two are so inexplicably connected. She sees what you see. So you can understand why I had to take it.”

The rage welled up inside me. I was so angry, angrier than when Mrs. Lincoln stood up and lied about Lena at the Disciplinary Committee meeting, angrier then when I found the pages and pages of scribble in my father’s study.

“No. I don’t understand. If you know something that can help her, why won’t you tell us? Or just stop using your Jedi mind tricks on me and my dreams and let me see it for myself?”

“I am only trying to protect her. I love Lena, and I would never—”

“—I know, I’ve heard it. You’d never do anything to hurt her. What you forgot to say is that you won’t do anything to help her, either.”

His jaw tightened. Now he was the one who was angry; I knew how to recognize it now. But he didn’t break character, not even for a minute. “I am trying to protect her, Ethan, and you as well. I know you care for Lena, and you do offer her some sort of protection, but there are things you don’t see right now, things that are beyond any of our control. One day you will understand. You and Lena are just too different.”

A Species Apart. Just like the other Ethan wrote to Genevieve. I understood all right. Nothing had changed in over a hundred years.

His eyes softened. I thought maybe he pitied me, but it was something else. “Ultimately, it will be your burden to bear. It’s always the Mortal who bears it. Trust me, I know.”

“I don’t trust you and you’re wrong. We aren’t too different.”

“Mortals. I envy you. You think you can change things. Stop the universe. Undo what was done long before you came along. You are such beautiful creatures.” He was talking to me, but it didn’t feel like he was talking about me anymore. “I apologize for the intrusion. I’ll leave you to your sleep.”

“Just stay out of my room, Mr. Ravenwood. And out of my head.”

He turned toward the door, which surprised me. I expected him to leave the way he had arrived.

“One more thing. Does Lena know what you are?”

He smiled. “Of course. We have no secrets between us.”

I didn’t smile back. There were more than a few secrets between them, even if this wasn’t one of them, and both Macon and I knew it.

He turned away from me with a swirl of his overcoat, and was gone.

Just like that.

2.05

The Battle of Honey Hill

The next morning, I woke up with a pounding headache. I did not, as so often happens in stories, think that the whole thing had never happened. I did not believe that Macon Ravenwood appearing and disappearing in my bedroom the night before had been a dream. Every morning for months after my mom’s accident, I had woken up believing it had all been a bad dream. I would never make that mistake again.

This time around, I knew if it seemed like everything had changed, it was because it had. If it seemed like things were getting weirder and weirder, it was because they were. If it seemed like Lena and I were running out of time, it was because we were.