Hero Reborn (Keepers of Justice, Book 3) (18 page)

Kale and I exchange a glance. “I’m in,” he says.

I swallow. “You know we’d be risking the lives of everyone here, right? If Vlayne finds out, she’ll come after the surviving Keepers.”

“
I know. That’s why we’re going to test it on my dad.”

“What if
you can’t erase his memory?” I say. “He’ll be pissed when he wakes up.”

Kale shrugs. “At least
we’re trying.”

We lie on
our beds and Kale connects our minds. If this works, they’ll be with me all the time and will be able to see and feel everything inside the dream like they’re real. I really hope this works.

“Wait,” I say. “The only way
we can do this is if we fall asleep at the same time.”

Kale nods. “You’re right. I guess I’ll have to control us to go to sleep at
once.”

X and I
exchange a glance. He shrugs. I say, “Cool.”

I’m thrown into a black room. I land hard on my butt, on the cold, stone floor. No one’s around, other than Kale and X, who lie beside me. They sit up, rubbing their arms and heads.

“Where are we?” Kale asks.

“Your dad’s dream, I guess.”

It’s dark and spooky, with ghosts
and skeletons roaming around. Someone laughs evilly. The ghosts are closing in on us.

“What the hell is this place?” Kale says.

The laughing gets louder.

“
Boys?” a voice says from behind us. The sounds disappear. A chill passes over me. I turn around. Samson stands there. He looks around, then back at us. “What are you doing here?”

“
Hi, Dad,” Kale says. He turns to X and me. “It worked. We’re in.”

“Excuse me?” Samson says.
“How did you get here?”

The
guys and I exchange glances. What do we say?

“Oh, you know,” Kale says. “Just dropped by.”

Samson narrows his eyes. “What’s going on, Kale?”

He throws his hands
up. “Fine, Stretch can go into dreams.”

Samson
raises his eyebrows at me. “Is this true?”

“Yeah.
Sorry.”

“The
three of you need to get out of here.”

Kale steps forward. “What is this place?”

Samson gestures around at the ghosts moving toward us. “This is where I go when I sleep.”

“Oh. Freaky.”

“Concerns and fears of a leader,” Samson says. “They won’t hurt you, but you shouldn’t be here.”

“I don’t know how to leave on my own
,” I tell him. “The person usually wakes up.”

Samson
pats my shoulder. “We don’t have time to practice your new ability right now. I’ll force myself to wake up.” His face turns stern. “I don’t want the three of you invading my dream again, understood?”

“
Sure, Dad. Sorry.”

The place gets blurry. Kale shuts his eyes and
clutches the sides of his head.

A second later,
we’re flying toward the roof. We don’t crash through it—the ceiling disappears just as we’re about to hit it. We fall on the floor, and my eyes pop open. I’m back in my room. Kale and X are awake, too.

Kale shivers. “I can’t believe my dad dreams about that.”

“Yeah.” I shiver, too.

X is the only one who’s composed.
“Did you erase the memory?”

“Yep. We need to
talk to him and see if he remembers the dream.”

X and I follow
Kale down the hall toward our leaders’ bedroom.

“Hey,” I say. “If you’re able to erase your dad’s thoughts, does that mean you can read his mind? Learn all the League’s secrets?”

“Nope. I couldn’t access any of his thoughts or memories, other than the dream one. That’s why I was able to erase it.”

“Oh.”

X and I decide to stay behind the wall while Kale walks up to his parents’ room. It’d be suspicious if all three of us talk to him. We’re close enough to hear.

After clearing his throat, Kale
knocks on the door. It takes a few more before Samson says in a sleepy voice, “Yes?”

“It’s me, Dad. Can I ask you something?”

A few seconds later, Samson opens the door. “What is it?” he asks. “And what are you doing up at this hour?” He’s not mentioning the dream. Does that mean Kale was successful in erasing it?

Kale shifts
to his other foot. He examines his dad’s face, then laughs sheepishly. “Oh, I guess it was a dream.”

“What was?”

“Well, uh, we were in the Tower. Me, the guys, and you. Only us. Now I realize it really
was
a dream.”

Samson
eyes him slowly.

“
I woke the guys to see if it was real, but it wasn’t. Did you have a dream like that? Of us?”

“No, I had no such dream.”
Samson’s eyes narrow a bit. “Kale, what’s this about?” Oh, man. He’s onto him.

“So you didn’t dream about us?”
Kale asks.

“Kale…”

He backs up. “Was just a dream. Sorry for waking you up. That was really stupid—dreaming about the Tower like we’re ever going back home.” He forces a smile. “Never mind. Sorry. Go back to sleep.”

He
turns around and dashes down the hall to us.

“You think he suspects anything?” I ask.

Kale huffs as we enter our room. “Probably.”

“The important thing is that it worked,”
X says, sitting down on his bed
.
“And now we know we can enter Stealth’s dream and can erase her memory.”

“
My dad will tell my mom and she might check up on us now,” Kale says. “You know, read our minds and stuff to try to figure out what we’re up to. I’ll hide our thoughts so she won’t read what we’re doing.”

“You sure you can do that?” I ask.

“Yep. I hid everything from my mom when Stealth went undercover.”

“Oh, okay.” This is one of those times where I feel left out. I wish I was part of it, instead of being dead.

Kale touches my head and shuts his eyes. I don’t feel any different. He does the same to X. “Done.”

“I feel kind of bad,” I say. “That we did that to Samson
and that we’re keeping secrets.”

Kale sighs, plopping down next to me. “
Yeah, but we’re doing it for a good cause.”

“I know. Maybe we should tell him about it?”

X shakes his head. “If they find out we’re going into Stealth’s dream, they’ll try to stop us.”

I know he’s right. This might be our only shot at find
ing out how to tear down Vlayne’s hold on the humans.

“Are we ready?” Kale asks.

“I—guess so.”

X hasn’t said much. He must be nervous to see Stealth. “
You okay, X?” I ask.

“Fine.”

“Okay.” Kale peers at the clock. “Three in the morning. She should be sleeping.”

I hope she won’t be pissed to see us.

We lie down. I shut my eyes tight. Kale gives me a few minutes to think about Stealth before he controls us to sleep. I don’t know her, but the guys have told me a lot, and she was responsible for my resurrection. I focus on that.

We
fall down the black hole. Even though he’s been through this already, Kale has a creeped-out look on his face. I get what he feels—I’m still not over it, either. X seems indifferent, but I know he’s covering up his real feelings.
I have to remember to keep my thoughts together so we don’t get lost or fall apart. The three of us must remain together at all times. Especially Kale. Without him, we won’t be able to erase Stealth’s memories and we’ll be screwed.

We land on something hard. Lifting my head, I look around. It’s daylight. We’re on some sort of high cliff with a vast ocean below. Grass is all around us. A girl is sitting
on the ground. Long white hair like Vlayne. Stealth.

It worked.
We bypassed Vlayne’s hold and are actually in Stealth’s dream. This is so freaking amazing!

She’s dressed in a black T-shirt and shorts. She turns her head and blinks a few times. Her mouth drops.
“Ray?”

She jumps to her feet and runs into his arms. He
’s taken aback at first, but his body loosens and he holds her close, burying his face in her neck. They stay wrapped in each other for a long time. Kale and I turn away to give them some privacy.

“I love this dream,” Stealth whispers. “It feels so real. I don’t want to wake up.” She pulls off and looks at Kale and me. “Wait a second
. I never dream about Kale…and you—you must be Stretch. Why would I dream about you when I never met you?”

X strokes the side of her face. “Because
this isn’t a dream. It’s real. Stretch has a new ability. He can enter people’s dreams. I hope that’s okay with you.”

She steps out of the hug and stares at him. “What?”

“He got a new ability when he was resurrected. Entering people’s dreams and having real conversations with them.”

Stealth stares at me.

I wave. “Hi. Thanks for resurrecting me. Sorry you sacrificed yourself. You didn’t have to…” I shut up because I have no idea what I’m saying. What do you say to the person who brought you back from the dead?

She looks totally weirded out. Yeah, this is weird.

X strokes the side of her face again. “We entered your dream because we need to talk to you about something important. Is that okay?”

She closes her eyes, leaning her cheek into his hand. “Yeah. That’s okay.” Her eyes fly open. “But how are you even here? My mom…”

“Stretch can bypass telepathic blocks,” X tells her.

“Yeah,” I say. “As long as the person is having a dream, I can walk in.”

She smiles a little. “That’s kind of cool. I’m glad you’re okay, Stretch.”

“Thanks.”

X takes her hand and gives it a squeeze. “Kale will need to erase this once we’re done.”

“What?”

Kale says, “That way when your mom checks up on you, she won’t know we contacted you.”

She’s quiet for a few seconds. Kale and I shift
in place. This is the moment of truth here. No one wants to hear that some of their memories will be wiped. It’s a scary thing. If Stealth doesn’t agree with this, we’re screwed.

“I’ll only erase the dream part. I swear.”

She nods slowly. “I get it.”

“And if we ever drop by again,” X says, “We’ll have to update you all over again, since you
won’t have any memory of us coming before.”

“
That makes sense.” Stealth lowers herself onto the grass. “I’ve missed you so much, Ray.”

X joins her on the ground and tucks some strands of hair behind her ear. “Me, too,” he whispers, bringing his mouth to hers.

Kale and I step away and walk around the area. The place is pretty, with lots of greenery and flowers. The wind blows through the leaves and the water whooshes down below. I see why Stealth likes to come here. It’s very peaceful and relaxing.

“At least X gets to be with her.” Kale forces a smile. “It might not be a hundred percent real, but it feels like it.”

“Yeah. If only we can do that with Lindsay.” We don’t want to risk it because we’re pretty sure Vlayne’s monitoring her at all times, even when she sleeps. Maybe she’s hooked up to a machine that monitors brain activity. The Blades would be suspicious if there’d be a strange reading. I mean, who knows? Stealth’s different, since she’s not held prisoner.

Kale stuffs his hands in his pockets and continues down the path. I stretch my legs to catch up. “You okay?”

“Yeah. Let’s get back.”

X is telling Stealth everything from the beginning, how we were attacked and had to run away.

“Vlayne’s responsible for the attack,” Kale says.

Stealth nods. “Trust me, if I had a way to stop her, I would have.”

“And Lindsay?” Kale asks. “Do you have her?”

Stealth nods
again. “There’s a guy whose job is to keep an eye on the Keepers. He saw her leave the Tower and grabbed her. I’m sorry.”

Kale swallows hard.
“Is she…is she…”

“She’s alive
, that’s all I know.” Her eyes drop to the ground. They’re a little glassy. “I don’t know where my mom’s keeping her or what she’s doing to her. If I was able to ask around or search for the location and free her, I would, but my mom would read it in my mind before I have the chance. She threatened to torture Lindsay. She…” She bites her lip. “She showed me in my mind how she was torturing Lindsay just to prove her point. Lindsay yelled so loud…no. I can’t do it.”

Kale runs his hands down his face. His shoulders tremble. Stealth wipes the
corner of her eye. “My mom used her to break down the League’s invisible walls.” Her gaze drops to the ground again.