Exit Light Read online

  Tovah Connelly would rather be asleep than awake. Since her accident, she’s become a shaper in the dream world, the Ephemeros, where she can manipulate places and people with just a thought. Tovah’s friends there, Ben and Spider, encourage Tovah to develop her skills, but the one ability she doesn’t want is to control the dreams of others—it’s a power she’s wary of, and a responsibility she’s not ready for.

  Nobody can sleep all the time, though—not if they want a waking life that bears a semblance of normalcy. And Tovah’s waking life is vastly different from her dream life: she’s rebuilding and regaining her sanity after nearly losing it in the accident’s aftermath.

  But when nightmares begin rocking the Ephemeros, Tovah’s two worlds begin to collide. As those she cares about are threatened, Tovah may discover that the one responsibility she doesn’t want is the only defense she has.

  Dear Reader,

  Thank you for purchasing this Carina Press launch title. During our journey these past months to acquire manuscripts, develop relationships with authors and build the Carina Press catalog, we’ve been working to fulfill the mission “Where no great story goes untold.”

  If you’d asked me what I’d be doing a year ago, I never would have conceived I’d be working with the brilliant team behind Harlequin’s digital program to bring you a new and exciting digital-first imprint. I have long been a fan of Harlequin books, authors and staff and that’s why I’m so pleased to be sharing these first Carina Press launch titles with you.

  At Carina Press, we’re committed to bringing readers great voices and great stories, and we hope you’ll find these books as compelling as we do. In this first month, you’ll find a broad range of genres that showcase our promise to Carina Press fans to publish a diversity of content. In the coming months, we’ll add additional genres and continue to bring you a wide range of stories we believe will keep you coming back for more.

  We love to hear from readers, and you can e-mail us your thoughts, comments and questions to [email protected] You can also interact with Carina Press staff and authors on our blog, Twitter stream and Facebook fan page.

  Happy reading!

  ~Angela James

  Executive Editor, Carina Press

  www.carinapress.com

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  Exit Light

  Megan Hart

  This book could not have been written without the support of my family, friends and critique partners. Thanks to everyone who believed in it, and me.

  In dreams, anything is possible.

  Contents

  Copyright

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  About the Author

  Chapter One

  A crowd ripples just like the ocean, if it’s got a force pushing against it. Tonight, here and now, Tovah Connelly intended to be that force. She concentrated, drawing strength from the myriad individual consciousnesses surrounding her. From one she plucked the beat of a song while another provided the taste of a tropical drink, sharp in the back of her throat. From yet another she drew the feeling of silk, a dress, hanging short upon her thighs.

  Around her, the club grew brick by brick, created from the mingled desires of many but woven together from the force of her will. That was the way things worked here in the Ephemeros, the land of dreams. The landscape bent to the individual will of those who knew how to shape it. Some were skilled with it. Others, like Tovah, had only just discovered their abilities to move and shape the world they entered when they slept. And still others, less fortunate, would never know how to shift their bodies or mold the terrain to suit them. They would never know that in dreams, they could control the world.

  Now she pushed outward with her will, seeking what she needed from the sleepers around her who wanted, needed, but couldn’t shape this for themselves. The walls formed, and the floor. A bar. A DJ, spinning tunes she didn’t need to know to enjoy. Tovah opened herself to the ever-constant push and pull of desire and, like a conductor, took the jumbled mass of notes and made them into a symphony.

  It would be easy to lose herself in it. Even now she felt the tug of another’s will upon her, urging her body to shift and change to fit someone else’s vision. She shielded herself from it, turning the tug into a push of her own and using it to create another slew of small details to bring realism to this scene.

  “Hey, hey.” The voice pricked her ears even above the writhing, pounding music surrounding her, and Tovah turned.

  She didn’t see him at first, shrouded as he was in shadow. The darkness rippled the same way the crowd had when she teased it with her will. Spider, the size of a large cat and striped with bands of crimson and gold, flicked his mandibles at her. He pulled the darkness back around him, his will stronger than hers, and she moved forward so as not to lose sight of him.

  “Spider, how do you expect me to learn if you keep balking me?”

  “How do you expect to learn if you’re never pushed?” Spider’s feet clicked on the tile floor. The crowd parted around them as he backed up, and Tovah followed.

  The current of mingled desires flowed around her, tendrils reaching out to caress as she passed, but she ignored them. She followed Spider out of the club and onto the grass, a place where even an arachnid the size of a household pet would feel more comfortable. She didn’t want to lose the club and so kept the doorway fixed behind her. The Ephemeros never stayed the same unless it was held in place by desire. She could talk to Spider and hold the door, but she had to be careful not to get distracted or else anything could shift. It was a balancing act, one she was only slowly learning how to perform.

  Spider squatted in a tuft of purple grass. His coloring had changed, now banding his round, hairy abdomen with green and silver. A lamppost of filigreed iron slid out of the mist and highlighted a circle of earth around him. Tovah didn’t think spiders could preen, but this one did.

  “Very nice,” she said.

  “Thanks.” Spider smoothed one jointed leg over his head and set of eight wee ruby eyes. “How you doing?”

  A Goodfellas spider. Tovah laughed. “I’m fine, Spider. How are you?”

  He bounced lightly on eight legs, his colors swirling again before settling into a pattern of mottled blues and greens. “Fine. Fine. You been practicing?”

  Tovah looked at the lamppost, which became an old-fashioned gaslight under the subtle pressure of her will. “A little.”

  It wasn’t a lie. She did, sometimes, spend her time in the Ephemeros practicing the complicated task of building and destroying worlds. Just not as often as Spider thought she