Ru sat on her sofa in lotus pose, attempting to connect with her inner-self. She’d always made fun of her sister, Danielle, when she talked about her yoga, but after she’d returned from the coffee shop, she’d begun to contemplate everything Cutter had said. As she graded stacks of papers and lesson planned for the next few weeks, the back of her mind was running through the possibilities of everything he had disclosed. If Cutter and Nat were able to take on a spirit form and somehow jump into her dreams, shouldn’t she be able to do the same thing? Of course, thinking that she could would mean she bought into Cutter’s fanciful stories about her origins, and even though she wasn’t quite sure she accepted any of it, how else could she explain the fact that he knew what she’d dreamt the night before? She hadn’t called him and recounted the vivid dream, after all.So, with the lights dimmed, and the sun setting,

Her phone was ringing. Why did it seem that the only way she could wake up on the weekend anymore was from someone barging into her brain—either literally or through the use of her ringtone—to blast her out of sleep?She looked at the clock on her nightstand and saw that it was past 10:00 and wondered why she’d slept so long. After she’d come back from the store, she’d fallen asleep watching Netflix with Piper and hauled herself to bed before midnight. She hadn’t had any vivid dreams, not that she remembered anyway. With a loud exhale, she picked up her phone, fairly certain whoever was calling would be sent to voicemail before she could answer now anyway. When she saw it was an unknown number, she thought all the more reason not to hurry. Somehow, she managed to accept the call before it transferred to her messages. Falling backward onto the pillow, expecting either a recording or a sales call, she mumbled, “Hel

“Thank you, so much,”  Kyle said, his face sincere. “I think you’ve really calmed my sister down.”“Really, it’s no problem,” Ru said, happy to finally be alone with the handsome stranger, even if it was just for a few minutes.“I could tell she was nervous when she ate the whole pint of ice cream in one sitting. She never does that.” Kyle laughed, his eyes crinkling around the edges.“You’re kidding?” Ru said. “Who does that? I still have most of mine in the freezer!” She hoped she made it clear she was being silly, and when he laughed even more, she joined in.“Well, anyway, thank you. It’s really hard being out here all alone. She had a lot of friends back home, and she almost didn’t take the job because she was afraid she’d miss them too much. It’s great that she’s alr

Ru sat on the couch in lotus position, her hands on her knees, frustrated beyond all understanding. “Why isn’t this working?” she whispered aloud. Not only was she unable to get anywhere close to freeing her spirit from her body and jumping into other realms, as Cutter had explained it, she couldn’t get the blue light to come back to her hands either. She’d been trying that one for a couple of days. Once again, she gave up in frustration.It was past 11:00, and that meant she was going to bed late, which was never a good idea on a Sunday. She just wished she could figure out how she’d manage to make the lights appear the last time, but she’d been asleep then. If she could do it when her brain was dead to the world, why couldn’t she do it when she was really trying to?Realizing she’d likely need some sort of training from Cutter, she decided to call it a night. She made sure the door

Ivy wandered through a dream full of creepy clowns, feeling her way through on residual emotion only. She knew a Reaper had gone this way, had sensed him, but she wasn’t exactly sure which way he’d gone. It was like stalking a wild animal, and while they could be unpredictable, one of her talents was tracking, and Ivy had a feeling she was closing in on this one.As she neared the edge of reality, she made another leap, fairly certain this one would do the trick, and found herself standing in a bedroom. Across the room, near the door, a tall shadow filled the expanse, reaching almost to the ceiling fan. He was dressed all in black and carried his scythe, clearly here on a mission. A young man slept in the bed between them.The second he realized she was there, his eyes grew large. Ivy recognized him even with his hood up, but when he pushed it back to gain a better look at her, she saw the jagged scar that marked his right c