CHAPTER 203

The memories were few and far between and she was certain that Tink didn't remember them at all. But maybe, deep down, it was something that the goblin felt, and it explained why she always seemed to have Kisa's back, even when the two of them were at odds with each other. Maybe those memories could never be recovered, but as they ran down the street, all Kisa could think about was how much fun it would be to make new ones.

She laughed along with her friend.

Mike opened his eyes. He was lying in his bed with Tink wrapped around his feet. The ceiling up above had somehow become a dome-shaped skylight, allowing him a perfect view of the stars as they swirled about in the night sky of the Dreamscape.

Sleep in the Dreamscape was an enigma for him. Despite knowing that he was asleep, he still became tired after a while and allowed himself to crash on his bed. He didn't actually have dreams while he was here, but instead entered a meditative state where he simply floated somewhere warm and comforting, alone with his own thoughts.

He had asked Lily about it once, but she had simply shrugged. Apparently there were some things about the Dreamscape that even she wasn't entirely sure of.

Somewhere in the distance, somebody was singing. He sat up and walked to the window, rubbing large chunks of sand out of his eyes. Down in the backyard, he could see Naia dancing around in her fountain, her movements slowed down to a crawl. It wasn't the first time he had seen such an anomaly after waking up, and he often wondered what happened to this place when he was in a state of faux sleep.

Out in the gardens behind his home, he saw a figure glowing beneath the light of the moon. He realized that he was watching the faerie queen, and when he opened the window, he also realized that it was her voice that he was hearing.

Curious, he climbed onto the window sill and then slid out, landing softly on the hard ground. He walked down the path, through the back gate, and then kept his distance as he watched the queen move about. He didn't understand any of the words of her song, but he felt a tremendous sense of loss in her melody that moved him nearly to tears.

Deciding that it was probably better to leave her alone with whatever haunted her, he turned to go back toward the house and jumped when the queen appeared in front of him, her eyes wild and fangs bared.

"Are you following me?" she asked, her voice too loud for his ears.

"I heard you singing," he confessed. "I was curious is all, this is my head, you know. Don't worry, I was going back to the house to give you some privacy."

Her features softened, and she held up her hands. "Wait. Don't go, not yet."

Mike hesitated, wondering if he should really be alone with her so far away from the safety of his home. Then again, he also felt like the queen had ample opportunities to ruin his slumber and hadn't taken them. Resigning himself to whatever happened next, he nodded at her.

"Okay, I won't." He didn't dare say anything else, for he had no idea what the queen actually wanted from him.

"Tell me about the house." The queen turned her back on him and started walking away. "I'm curious what your plans are for it."

"My plans?" He followed a few steps behind her, his brow furrowed in concentration. It was sometimes hard to access his own thoughts in any logical order while he was dreaming, and this seemed to be one of those times. "Well, we've got a room on the third floor that's locked off, I would love to get inside there. Depending on what it is, we could use the extra bedroom, but that all depends on Quetzalli. I keep thinking someone else will show up any day now, so would like to be prepared with a bed and some furniture. Poor Kisa was just sleeping in random rooms for the longest—"

"Don't toy with me, Caretaker. I want to know your long term plans."

"Oh. Um..." He wasn't entirely certain how to answer. "Honestly, I wouldn't mind figuring out a better defense system. I hate that our protection is based on a magical sundial. Abella is great to have as backup, but the number of times I've had to fix my house has gotten kind of old. Tink has been spending forever fixing the electrical system, so maybe some sort of modern upgrades?"

"Ugh. I thought maybe you were playing dumb with me, but I can see from inside your head that you have no idea what I'm even talking about." She turned to face him, her cape flaring dramatically behind her. "I mean the Great Game. What are you planning to do to win it?"

Mike stared at her for several moments, his thoughts suddenly bogged down. He could feel her now, probing his mind for answers, and the sensation wasn't pleasant at all.

"Gods. You really have no idea, do you?" The queen's expression became one of astonishment. "You've amassed so much power already, yet you don't even know the stakes for which you are playing."

"Nope." He shrugged, more than a little embarrassed. "The shadow mentioned a game once, and I sometimes have visions where I see a chessboard with pieces I can move, but I really haven't thought about it much past that. Actually, my dream training was an attempt to help me connect with the house, maybe ask it what it wants from me."

"You want to know what the house wants from you?" She blinked in disbelief. "Shouldn't that be the other way around? Don't you want anything from the house?"

"Well, maybe a little peace and quiet. I don't really think of it as my house, rather it belongs to everybody who lives there." He turned to look at the silhouette of the house in the darkness. "I guess maybe if we're being very honest with each other, it's already given me what I want. Somewhere to belong and a family that loves me."

"I can't believe it," she muttered. "You are aware that the house holds massive amounts of magical power within its walls, yes?"