The Nightmare Inflictor Read Online Free Page A

that are open to any creature while the council is pickier. Maybe I’ll ask them about places I could go when I can leave the compound.
    Robin’s room is the second door on the right and I don’t hover in the hallway because the guest apartments are so crowded. I don’t want anyone to see me stalking. She’s fast asleep at the desk, with her head resting on her arms, as if she had been trying to work through the night, but just couldn’t resist her dreams.
    Tucked under her arms are a few hand-written pages with what looks like a speech, probably for the council, and I force myself to look away from the slanted cursive. I bring my fingers to her temples and the world shifts.
    I’m standing in a dry field outside of a blue painted barn. It’s old and abandoned, and a forest creeps up behind it, growing closer to swallow the barn in time. Laughter sounds out nearby and I lower my feet to the dry brush and it blackens under my touch. The blue sky overhead darkens as gray thunderclouds roll in and lightning strikes a power line in the distance, sending a thousand bright sparks to the ground.
    “Oh, no, Johnny! We need to find cover!” A feminine voice yells.
    My lips curl into a smile when the taste of apple floods my mouth as Robin’s fear circles me in a breeze. I stomp toward the barn and enter through the broken door. Dust and cobwebs cover the walls and beams, and the broken ladder that is supposed to lead to the open attic space hangs crookedly against a cracked tractor tire.
    I lurk next to the opening of the barn. Within a few seconds, rain pelts down and turns the soft dirt into mud. Robin rushes in with a boy on her heels and they stop a few feet away from me. They laugh before hugging each other, and I glide closer, blocking the exit to the door. They’re so lost in each other’s company, they don’t notice me closing in on them.
    I reach and grab the boy’s wet T-shirt. He stumbles backward and I wrap my arms around him. He explodes into a cloud of black dream dust and Robin screams as I suck in a breath of her crumbling nightmare. Her startled eyes look like two round, blue pools and her black hair is slicked against her cheeks.
    She stumbles back and looks for a way to get around me. Sticky web materializes on the entrance to the barn, blocking her in, and she jerks her head back and forth, frantically searching for a way out. She screams again as she turns toward the broken ladder. Picking up a piece of it, she swings it at the web, but nothing happens.
    Her wild eyes line with fear as I stalk her, forcing her back. Her arm brushes the giant spider web and she yanks it away, but instead of breaking free, it grows and tangles around her until she can no longer run. I lurk closer and smile, licking my lips as the barn’s roof cracks and the ground shakes, and then I reach out and cup her tear-stained face. She screams as she explodes into dream dust and I consume the rest of her nightmare.
    I’m out of her head in seconds and I rush into the hall. My father greets me when I open the door, but instead of letting him hug me, I dash past him and out of the apartment building. I don’t want to look at him right now. I need to be alone with my guilt.
     

7. AGAINST MY WISHES
     
     
     
     
     
     
    “Dmitri is leaving tomorrow,” Alyssa says. “The council wants him to escort the enchantresses to Arizona.”
    I pull my hair back in a ponytail. “I thought I’d at least get a couple more days. I really hate the council sometimes. It’s like they don’t want me to ever see my dad.”
    “It’s not that. Dmitri is just really great at his job. The council trusts him more than anyone.” I watch in my mirror as Alyssa folds her legs under her on my bed. She pulls the damp towel from her head and tosses it on the floor.
    I sigh. “I wish he wasn’t sometimes.”
    Alyssa frowns. “People would die if he wasn’t.”
    I swivel in my chair to look at her face to face. “No, he’d have a different