The Divide Read online

  Contents

  Copyright

  Praise for The Dreamer

  Title

  Dedication

  Prologue

  Quote

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Epilogue

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  The Divide

  Copyright © 2015 E.J. Mellow

  Kindle Edition

  All rights reserved.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons living or dead, is entirely coincidental. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical article and reviews. Making or distributing electronic copies of this book constitutes copyright infringement and could subject the infringer to criminal and civil liability.

  Published by Four Eyed Owl, Village Station PO Box #204, New York, NY 10014

  Editing by Julia McCarthy

  Editing & Copy Editing by Dori Harrell

  Cover Design by E.J. Mellow

  Cover Photography by Dmitry Laudin

  ISBN 978-0-9962114-2-0

  Praise for The Dreamer

  “Lyrical, vibrant, imaginative. EJ Mellow's striking, original voice will draw you into a mesmerizing world.”

  - Emma Raveling, Author of the Ondine Quartet

  “E.J. Mellow's world-building skills are breathtaking!”

  - Cassandra Reads A Lot

  “A new voice in NA that I can't wait to hear more of.”

  - Will Read For Feels

  “This book has counted toward my most anticipated reads this year. It has fully lived up to my expectations!”

  - The Reading Nook NZ

  “This book totally kept me coming back for more.”

  - Awesome Book Assesment

  For those who don't think they can,

  but will.

  Prologue

  HE LEANED AGAINST the wall, studying the bare table before him. The surface was white, smooth, and looked entirely uncomfortable. How would it feel to wake up on such a thing? He couldn’t imagine it being pleasant, but then she’d dealt with worse than lying on a cold surface. Frowning, he wondered if she was scared to come here or if she was entirely fearless as she closed her dark eyes—eyes that he’d seen burn with determination—only to open them to an unknown beginning.

  Staying perfectly still, he was unable to look at anything but the emptiness. How long had he been waiting? How long had he been trained to the same fixture? The answer didn’t matter. He would never miss this. He promised her he’d be here, promised he’d never let anything happen to her. A promise he failed to keep with someone else.

  “Dev, you can wait outside,” said a soft feminine voice. “You don’t need to stand around counting the seconds. I’m sure you have responsibilities you are neglecting.”

  “If I leave, I would be neglecting my greatest responsibility,” Dev said evenly.

  Elena sat on the other side of the room, a small smile touching her features. She wore the traditional white robe of the Vigil elders, and her posture was straight but relaxed. Her composure was something that always, ironically, unnerved him.

  “Does she return these feelings?”

  At her disruptive question, Dev snatched his eyes away from his target and latched on to another. She regarded him collectedly, like she did all things, with an expression that suggested she had seen into his future, flickered through his past, and held his current desires, wondering how much he might know of them.

  He stayed silent, both unwilling and unsure how to answer.

  “I must speak freely,” she went on. “I am both happy and saddened by your situation.”

  His brows pinched in. “What do you mean?”

  She tilted her head curiously, looking straight into his soul, and he did his best to seem calm, to not show how her ominous eyes affected him. Terra only knew how her guards dealt with being around her so much.

  “I see your path as one that forks. As to which road you follow, that is still to be determined.”

  Dev breathed out a laugh. “Aren’t most things in life still to be determined?”

  “Perhaps for some.”

  “Well then, is it safe to assume the cliché that one of these roads is happy and the other sad?” he asked, quickly growing tired of this vague game of prophecies.

  “That all depends.”

  “On what?”

  She regarded him evenly. “On her.” She paused for a moment. “And on you.”

  “Me?”

  She nodded.

  “How?”

  Elena smoothed a nonexistent wrinkle from her dress. “I think the more important question is whether your heart is willing to sacrifice again to find out?”

  Dev’s stomach tightened, and he dropped his eyes back to the empty table. Memories he’d buried deep within the ocean of time suddenly gasped for the surface, but he smothered them quickly. A shiver of past regret clicked down his spine. But that’s all it was now, the past, and it could no longer bar him from having a future. Is your heart willing to sacrifice again?

  He swallowed. “Was it ever willing?”

  Elena stayed silent, allowing his question to echo through the room, and after a moment, Dev went back to staring at nothing and waiting for everything.

  What I want to do is travel deep and deeper into the dreamlands,

  to find that place that I know is waiting for me here.

  My home.

  —Charles De Lint

  — 1 —

  THE WORLD IS dark, as it always is, and the sky seems to spin on an axis as millions of shooting stars dance across its abyss. With hands gripped tight, I attempt to race them forward. My eyes tear as cool night air slaps across my face and filters through my hair, sending it flapping out behind me—a flag in the wind. My feet sway left and then right as they dangle above a city of sleepless souls, my body barreling ahead at the whim of a predetermined path set by a zipline. With my heart pounding in my ears and my stomach tightening where my throat should be, I prepare for the rapidly approaching landing. It looms in the distance, getting larger as I shrink, the buildings around me reclaiming their majestic height and returning me to my human one. The glowing bulls-eye in the center of the square platform pulses blue, a beacon telling me to come home, and all too quickly I’m touching down, ending my flight. Retracting my Arcus from the line, my legs wobble for a second, reacquainting t
hemselves with something solid beneath them before they are moving forward again, continuing to follow the man who’s been leading the way. He hardly spares me a glance as he nods to the zipline’s attendant and descends the stairs to the street. Tucking my Arcus back into baton shape, I drop it into the quiver strapped to my back and hurry to catch up.

  Hitting the street, we follow the soft blue glow emanating from evenly patterned lampposts, my footsteps quiet against the pavement. This, of course, is from no grace of mine—the boots I wear are constructed to muffle sounds.

  Gazing from building to building, I take in the strange mixture of old and new in which this section of the city is styled. As if the architects suddenly stopped in their construction, skipped a century of design, and began building again in mostly modern material. Brick facades rest next to smooth white walls, Victorian light fixtures are positioned evenly down concrete sidewalks, and wrought iron fences are placed in front of all-glass buildings. What should probably appear like a hodgepodge of forms surprisingly blends together rather well.

  I step to the side as a man on a bicycle passes by, and in the process I almost collide with another on a skateboard, the streets holding their usual constant hum. Straightening my black T-shirt and pants, I resist looking up to what I know will be more civilians careening above on lines, where I just was.

  I still can’t believe I’m here.

  After falling asleep in an alien white room, in the back of a closet, in a spiritual bookstore in New York City (yes, this is all true), I awoke only moments ago in another brightly sterile room.

  It’s the first time I’m here knowing Terra is indeed real. That everything around me exists in another dimension, not a figment of my imagination or the creation of a dream.

  Fiddling with the pockets on my pants, I glance up to another form that greeted me upon my arrival, a man who still walks a few steps ahead. His confident, graceful strides glide silently over our path, and the quiver on his back hardly moves against his broad shoulders as it blends in with the rest of his black attire. As much as I’m enjoying the view from behind, it’s the color I know rests in his gaze that I find myself craving. My guide is one of Terra’s inhabitants, a Nocturna, and one of the first people I met here. He’s part of a race I’ve learned are the watchers of the Dreamers, the caretakers of our sleeping minds, and so far a person who takes up a large portion of my thoughts, both good and bad.

  We haven’t spoken since before traveling the ziplines, and I would ask how much longer until our destination, but I’m enjoying the silence. Using this time to reacquaint myself with the city. Something tells me he knew I would need this.

  Eventually we turn down a small street and make our way through the entrance of a more modern apartment building, where we quickly ascend a few flights in an elevator. My skin buzzes with each second I stand alone beside him, and I keep myself from being dramatic by thanking God as the doors finally open, granting me a sense of escape.

  After a few more steps down a dark hallway, he leads us to an apartment at the end. Pausing, he grasps the door handle and turns to face me, finally giving me what I was hungering for all those minutes ago. With my heart ricocheting in my chest, I look into his unnatural blue eyes and dangerously handsome face, seeing the smile tug at the corner of his mouth. “Welcome home, Molly,” Dev says as he pushes open the door.

  Everything is the same as the last time I was here. The interior is sparse of any real décor, but simple in off-white and gray coloring, and the familiar large beige couches sit in the lower portion of the living room. The warm light of the fireplace mixes with the cold blue-white of the fixtures around the apartment, fixtures that burn with the energy of the Dreamers, the Navitas.

  Dev walks toward me while removing the strap across his chest and indicates that I should do the same. “Where are Tim and Aveline?” I ask, handing him my quiver before searching for the roommates who share this space with him.

  “Tim is at City Hall, and Aveline is somewhere of equal unimportance, I’m sure,” Dev says casually as he places our equipment away.

  I’m not exactly positive what Tim is to these two, except a sort of father figure. Aveline is Dev’s Nocturna partner. Not in a romantic sense, but his companion in their duties here in Terra. All inhabitants of Terra train for combat, Vigil included, but not every Nocturna decides to become a warrior and guard the land’s borders as Dev, Aveline, and Tim do. Others filter into the various duties required in the city, including helping to monitor human dreams to spot potential developments for new technology and advancements in society.

  “Let me show you your room.” Dev is suddenly by my side and places his hand on my back to guide me forward.

  I swallow, forcing away the shivers that threaten to course down my body from the contact. I was hoping something would have changed when I met with Dev again. That a brotherly affection would have taken hold between us once my boyfriend, Jared, and my relationship was more cemented.

  I barely hold in a snort from my naivety.

  Dev’s body next to mine is like being near a giant magnet, specifically one that’s annoyingly good looking and radiates confidence, self-composure, and desires that are usually found in dark, dangerous places.

  I’ve never met anyone like him, and all that he is intrigues a part of me I never thought existed. So as happy as I am with Jared, I can’t ignore what Dev does to me, though that’s exactly what I’m going to try really freakin’ hard to do.

  After passing closed door after closed door—with me wondering if Dev’s quarters are nearby—we stop at the end of the hall. I peek into a room much like one I’d expect to find in this apartment––simple and clean. It has the same wooden floors as the rest of the place, a white modern dresser on one end with a circular mirror above, two decent-sized windows on the adjacent walls, which are lined with sheer white drapes, and a plain queen bed resting in the center. There are a few unembellished lamp fixtures around the room, as well as a ceiling light that swirls with the Navitas and casts the area in a low blue glow. It gives off a cold warmth that’s surprisingly comforting.

  “This is one of our extra bedrooms,” Dev explains as I walk in. “Mine is just across the hall.” The suggestiveness in his voice isn’t lost on me, and I refuse to turn and catch the smile that I know matches his tone.

  The thought of Dev so near to where I’ll be sleeping has my stomach in a fluster, but I play it off like it’s the most unimportant news in the world. “Why do you guys have beds when you don’t need to sleep?” I run my hand over the pristine white comforter.

  Dev gives me a look like I can’t seriously be asking that question. When I stay silent, waiting on his response, his mouth twitches from suppressing a grin. “Beds can be used for things other than sleep.”

  Oh.

  Oh!

  I can’t help it. I go crimson.

  “Don’t tell me you just use them to sleep?” He raises a brow. “That would be…disappointing to find out. Actually”—he scans my body with no shame—“that would be rather interesting.”

  I shoot him a glare. “You are disgusting.”

  “I can be a lot of things, Molly.” He leans against the doorframe, the corner of his mouth inching up. “Especially in this room.”

  Oh Lord.

  “Very mature.” I eye roll. “Now please, if you’re quite done…” I step up and give him a light shove toward the exit “I’d like to have some privacy while I settle in. Let me know when it’s time to train.”

  His smile widens at my annoyance. “I’ll be back to bring you down. If you end up taking a nap, try not to dream about me too much,” he says with a wink before I shut the door in his face, which does nothing to block the sound of his chuckle as he walks away.

  If this is how it’s going to be the whole time I’m here, I might not make it.

  Slouching on the bed, I think about everything that’s happened to me up until this point, and how here I sit in a dimension that is connected to my own li
ke the very nerves that run through my body.

  I can still see the white room at the spiritual bookstore Rae led me to, the one way to enter Terra where my actual body stays sleeping for days so I can train here uninterrupted. It will be weird returning to my day job. Even when I’m unsure of the things I’ll be doing here, I know they will feel much more important than what I do at the marketing firm back on Earth. Well, I don’t think anyone can really argue that, given that I’m basically meant to save all mankind from a possible world war. Yeah, a smidgen more important, I’d say. I still have no clue how one Dreamer is meant to make a difference in helping ease the growing number of Metus, which feed off of the corruption of human minds.

  Lying back with a sigh, I study the swirling light above my head, my thoughts drifting with the rhythm of the liquid that fills it. Thinking about what lies ahead, I can’t help flying back to the past, to the moment of recently closing my eyes in my world and feeling my body shift away, searching for another place.

  —∞—

  There was much of nothing as I waited in the abyss. I could sense my restlessness to open my eyes and begin, to accept my role as the Dreamer and embark on learning my abilities and powers. But my body resisted, taking forever to catch up with my thoughts and keeping me in blackness.

  Eventually the void began to take shape, and I sensed my surroundings—a cool surface against my back, a bright light under my lids, a hand against my own, and the whisper of voices.

  Blinking my eyes open, my heart stuttered at the figure before me, and a grin formed on my lips. Constant day-old scruff, buzzed raven hair, and piercing eyes all rested in an otherworldly handsome face hovering above mine.

  “Hi,” I said after a moment of us staring at the other.