The Weight of Dreams

By Molly Lavenza

I never wanted to see the future, but dreams are impossible to control.

Stunned by Declan's revelations about my identity, I can't help but follow his lead into a realm of beauty and promise unlike anything I had ever imagined. What I don't know, however, might not just hurt me, but lead us both to our deaths.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Molly Lavenza
• Release date: Jul 10, 2020
• ISBN: 9780463501955

Molly Lavenza

Molly Lavenza is a student at Kent State University. She loves her home state of Ohio, her cats, little sister, and her boyfriend, whose dark, curly hair and obsession with Converse sneakers was the inspiration for Declan, the hero in The Changeling Covenant.

Book preview

Chapter One

Declan’s words struck me like a death blow.

She’ll kill us both now.

The first time I heard them, I was in his arms, covered in chocolate soft-serve ice cream, unsure when or if the vision of us in the vibrant, lush meadow would be fulfilled.

No.

I wasn’t ready. It was too soon.

He held his hand out, stepping towards me in an offer to pull me to my feet again. The utter defeat in his voice had brought me to my knees, and I wasn’t sure if I could rise again, not with the way his icy blue eyes faltered in his efforts to look into mine.

What if he was right, and all his determined efforts to bring me to Faerie were in vain?

Hot tears trailed down my cheeks, the once dry skin now soft and smooth since our transition to the realm in which I was born and had always belonged.

From my position down amidst the sweetly scented grass, I could see that his scruffy, worn Converse were no longer a faded ivory but smeared with pale brown and greenish yellow smudges from all the running we had been doing since entering this realm.

I had no idea how my own discount store moccasins had fared during our journey, but for once in my life, after a long day my feet and legs didn’t hurt. They weren’t aching or throbbing; they weren’t even on my radar.

Usually at this time of day, back home in Ohio, I would be taking a nap, wrapped around my body pillow in bed like a little girl.

Here in Faerie, where time ran differently in a way neither Declan nor I understood, I should have felt out of place, a fish out of water, unlike the beast we had just encountered on the bridge over the lake.

But I didn’t. Everything about me was comfortable, carefree, calm - except, of course, during our interactions with the lux, or was it luxes? Had it been the same one each time, or did they all look the same?

The list of answers I had been searching for all day was only growing, and every time I learned something to satisfy one question another question arose. Physically, I had never felt more alive and aware, but emotionally, the calm I had finally discovered was shattered by the hopelessness in Declan’s eyes.

Hopelessness?

I took his hand and used his weight to pull myself so we were eye to eye. For the first time in my life, I had strength to offer someone else.

Strength to offer the boy who came into another realm to rescue me. Spent over seventeen years searching for me. How could I possibly show him what his sacrifice of time and effort meant?

His lips were warm and soft and while I had no idea what I was doing, he fell into the kiss as I captured them with my own. All I knew of kisses came from TV shows and books, and from my friend Corrie’s complaints about boys at school who were slobbery.

Declan was definitely not slobbery.

I hadn’t been tentative or gentle when I kissed him, but he grabbed me by the shoulders and pulled me closer, deepening the kiss before I knew what was happening. If a lux or worse, this nebulous she would have appeared, we would have been easy prey.

All I felt and knew was Declan, and I knew in my heart that his experience mirrored mine. If I could show him that even though I didn’t really understand much of what was happening to us in Faerie, I believed in him, maybe it would bring his own faith in his purpose back.

After all, I was his purpose, and returning me to where he had continued to say was my rightful place - wherever that was - his aim. If he needed more time to explain, I had plenty of that now we were in Faerie and I was bound to him to guide me.

A rustle in the tall grass that surrounded us made us hold each other tighter as we broke the kiss, but as soon as our lips were apart he kissed me again, quickly but gently. I had hoped to see a smile, even a small one, when he was serious and quiet for a few moments before he spoke.

We aren’t alone. In Faerie, no one is.

It wasn’t what I hoped to hear, not after that kiss, but he didn’t look sad anymore, or defeated. Back on track, and refusing to give up, was more like it, and exactly what I had been going for when I accepted his hand and decided to take matters into my own.

As romantic as fairies seemed in the human world, my experience in Faerie so far had led me to realize that here, beauty was in a delicate balance with danger, and a mistake on the part of a newcomer, whether or not she was a true creature of the realm, could make the difference between life and death.

Run.

Declan’s single word was a breathless growl, and he jerked me forwards as he turned away, holding my hand tight. I wasn’t sure if my shoes were even still on my feet, and at the pace we were going, they wouldn’t have lasted anyway.

My hair, newly golden and flowing behind me weightlessly, caught on a tree branch as we left the open meadow and headed into a wooded area. I yanked on it as Declan continued to pull me, and finally tore a chunk of it from my head with the fierceness of both of our efforts.

I’m sorry, but we can’t stop. We can’t . . .

His apology was lost in an otherworldly groan that started out low and deep behind us, and I was tempted to slow down and look to see what could possibly make such an unholy sound. It was sudden and ominous, like the roar of an unimaginable mythical beast, and from the way the sound grew with my every step, it was following us at a mortifying pace.

Don’t look back, Declan called, his own face still forward as he quickened his pace, dragging me with him. Please, Hope, don’t you dare look back.

My decision to trust him led me to keep my mouth shut and my eyes on the back of Declan’s head instead of giving in to my morbid curiosity by checking out what was happening behind us. The groaning grew louder, its pitch varied as if it was trying to speak. Whatever it was saying, it wasn’t good, not for us, or anyone or anything else close by.

But how far could it follow?

It wasn’t a question that was going to help me keep up with Declan, but I couldn’t help wondering. I pushed myself to focus on the boy in front of me, his determination that was faltering only moments before, revived by my impulsive kiss, inspiring me in turn.

I slipped a little, the leaves underneath my feet piling up as we moved farther into the forest, and suddenly the roar was against my back, a hot wind breathy and moist against my neck.

Before I could even scream, the ground beneath me shuddered and Declan jerked my arm.

Don’t slow down!

His voice had shifted from determined to desperate, and as I struggled to keep my feet moving over the forest floor, I felt the earth behind me slipping away. How much longer until there was nothing underneath me at all?

Declan! I screamed, reaching out to grab at his arm, hoping that any extra leverage I could gain by holding on to him with both hands would help me escape the gap that was opening up not only behind me, but only a few steps behind.

He yanked hard again and my hand faltered in the air, my efforts hindered by his movement.

Keep going!

His voice was distant now as the groaning noise rushed over my head. I closed my eyes against the heat I could actually see in waves through the air in front of my face, bringing a rush of heat to my skin.

The packed leaves no longer cushioned my steps, and my feet swung in the empty space, pedaling as if I was attempting to ride a bike, a skill I had never been able to master growing up. Falling as I did back then, but with no parents to hold up the shiny pink bicycle they had bought me to inspire my efforts, I grasped Declan’s hand as tightly as I could.

He called my name and I saw his face, his beautiful, icy eyes wide open with terror, for a brief moment before I fell, alone and afraid, into the abyss.

Chapter Two

A h, the dreamseer has arrived. Alive and well, too.

I hadn’t fallen far, but hard enough to land uncomfortably on my butt so that the well from a masculine, amused voice annoyed me. Certain that the voice didn’t belong to Declan, I wondered if he had somehow followed me into what I had feared was a dark pit, but had ended up somewhere else.

Anything was possible at this point.

There was definitely another man close by, one who was already getting on my nerves.

Blinking into the bright sunlight, I lifted a hand to shield my eyes and glared in the direction of the voice. Whoever it was, he sounded quite pleased with himself.

If she doesn’t know that you’re here, she will soon, and what a show that will be!

The haughty laughter that followed his statement made me wrinkle my nose. Who was this guy, and why was he interested in me? And who was this she everyone kept talking about?

First things first, I reminded myself, rocking forward onto my heels and rising to face the shadowy figure in front of me.

His height was impossible . . . like one of those classic anime characters with huge boxy shoulders and way out of proportion lengthy legs. Maybe it was just the angle of my vision, or maybe, like the lux, he wasn’t human at all.

Were there any humans in Faerie?

Where is Declan?

Before I could ask this creature anything else, Declan was first and foremost in my mind. This had been the strangest, most exciting day of my entire life, and it was all because of him. Whatever else was going on, I wanted and needed to be with him for the long haul.

He might have lost his memories, but he had a handle on the lay of the land in Faerie, and I had no clue where to go next. If I could even go anywhere with this guy looming over me.

I don’t have any need of him, and from this point on, neither do you, he sneered, his self-assurance practically oozing from his lips as he spoke.

I narrowed my eyes and looked around, surprised and confused at the overbearing amount of floral landscape surrounding us. A wide pathway lined with vines of leaves and flowers, it was nothing like I had imagined encountering during my brief fall into darkness moments earlier.

Why so shy? I know not everyone in the human realm is so quiet.

My attention fell back to him, and I stepped closer, slowly and carefully. He hadn’t tried to hurt me yet, but the way his voice crooned with sarcasm, I was certain he wasn’t as genial as he was pretending to be.

Reviews for The Weight of Dreams

[Jewelry Bonney · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This story is interesting. I love the characters. It would be wonderful if you will write some more. I want you to know, there is a competition happening right now till the end of May on the NovelStar app, I hope you can consider joining. If you have more stories like this, you can also publish them there just email the editors [e-mail], [e-mail] [e-mail].