Our magic united together in anexcited aura of frenetic energy. His closeness made me dizzy, his scent had melightheaded and the warmth of his skin against mine felt as though my soul wasstrangely complete. I could never have left that moment and it wouldn’t havebeen enough.

Kiran tipped my chin up so that Ilooked directly into his eyes. Leaving his fingers firmly on my chin, and withhis other hand on the small of my back pulling me tighter to him, his lipsfound mine in glorious connection. Time stopped moving forward and the worldstopped spinning and for the seconds my mouth was connected to his, I feltutter bliss.

“Eden!” Avalon screamed through thebeautiful perfection of my dream, ripping me out of it in a most unpleasantway. “Eden!” he shouted again fully shaking me out of any sweet memoriesremaining.

“What?” I shouted back, groggy anddisoriented.

“Wake up!” he said again loudly,too loudly.

“Why?” my voice was hoarse andscratchy and I could not get past confusion.

“Ummm….” Avalon struggled for areason. “I need your help.”

“What? With what? Can’t it wait?” Iturned over in bed, burying my face into my large feather pillows.

“Yeah, I guess,” he started toleave my room, but then burst through the door again. “No, it can’t wait. Comeon, get out of bed,” he ripped the comforter off of me, leaving me freezing andpissed off.

“Avalon! Get a life!” I yelled,fully awake and fully angry.

“Come on,” he pleaded, not theleast dismayed by my irate tone.

“What could you possibly need helpwith?” I asked, rubbing my eyes to make my alarm clock clear: 3:00 AM.

“Will you please help me pack?” hesounded like a little boy and I couldn’t help but feel pity for him.

“Do you really need help? Can’t thiswait until tomorrow?” I sat up and pulled my knees to my chest. My teeth werechattering and my entire body had goose bumps.

“Yes, I really need help. And no,it can’t wait, I leave tomorrow,” he said the magic words. My eyes popped openand I was suddenly very awake.

He left tomorrow? That wasimpossible. But then again, tomorrow was the last day of mid-terms. Everyoneelse had already been long gone. The teachers hadn’t been there all week andseveral students had been missing as well. One student in particular hadn’tbeen at school since our fight in the stadium.

If Avalon left tomorrow that meantI had run out of time. Lilly’s trial was only thirty six hours away and I hadin no way been successful in my quest to rescue her. So far I was a failure. Icrawled out of bed and grabbed a sweatshirt before following Avalon to hisroom.

“You can’t be so careless whenyou’re asleep. Geez, Eden,” Avalon whined as we entered his room. At one timeyou could see the floor of the guest room, but that was before it officiallybecame Avalon’s. Clothes and shoes and who knows what else littered every inchfrom wall to wall.

“What do you mean?” I askedgroggily, rubbing my eyes again. I did my best to bring the room into focus,but I was still fighting sleep.

“I can’t save you every time youfall asleep. I need to sleep too!” Avalon was his characteristic dramatic self,but I had no idea what he was talking about.

“Save me? I don’t need you to saveme. Especially when I am sleeping,” I touched my fingers to my lips rememberingthe sweet and intimate moment I shared with Kiran just before I was awoken. Oursouls mingled as one, and our magic melding to form one powerful stream ofunbreakable force; in my dreams we were meant solely for each other. “Um, untilyou can keep him out, you for sure do need me to save you.” Avalon rolled hiseyes and then walked over to his closet to dig out a black duffle bag.

“What do you mean keep him out?” mythroat closed and my blood turned hot with nervous energy. It was notpossible…. but then so many things I had assumed were impossible had proven mewrong.

“Out of your head. I mean you do agood enough job during the day, but come on. Really? No one wants to monitor that garbage,” he threw the duffle bagon the bed and started gathering random items off of the ground.

“Avalon I don’t know what you’retalking about!” I raised my voice impatiently and stomped my foot like a child.I was wide awake now.

“What? Are you telling me thatAmory didn’t warn you?” Avalon’s face turned white as he spun around and gaveme his full attention.

“No. Now explain,” I demanded, armscrossed, glowering at Avalon like it was his fault.

“Kiran can Dream Walk. That wasn’tjust a dream you were having, that was real,” Avalon spoke softly and slowly.

“What do you mean real?” I shriekedand then slunk down on the bed next to Avalon. We wore the same facialexpression and our faces were the same color of white.

“He’s a Medium. They have the powerto call you out while you’re sleeping. Your body stays where it is, but yourmind goes to a place of their choosing. You are fully conscious, fully awake,and you should be fully aware. That is if you know what’s happening to you,” hefinished quietly.

“So that place Kiran takes me to,is a real place? He is really there, he is really….” I couldn’t finish mysentence, embarrassed to say out loud the memories I had thought were onlyvivid dreams.

“Well, kind of. It’s a place he hascreated for you at least. But yes, he is there, not physically but mentally.”

“Oh dear,” I slouched lower,realizing I might have been sending mixed signals. Or was I receiving mixedsignals? Now that I had to take into play not only our physical interaction butnow our metaphysical interactions I felt more confused than ever. The last timeI was with Kiran he yelled at me and then stormed off; however if you count thedream I just had it was our most intimate moment so far. I missed human boys.

“So you didn’t know this entiretime that it was real?” when I shook my head negatively, he began to flipthrough my memories. I let him, since I was as nervous as he was to findsomething I might have said that not only implicated him, but the entireResistance. “From now on you have got to be more careful. You should be strongenough to protect your mind from him,” Avalon said exasperatedly, but thenbreathed a sigh of relief when he didn’t find anything incriminating.

“He was definitely trying to getinformation out of me,” I remembered the questions he asked about my identityand cringed; thankful I was as clueless as he was.

“That’s not all he was trying toget out of you,” Avalon mumbled under his breath. My face turned bright red,and I covered it quickly with my hands.

“I didn’t know it was real,” Idefended myself. “I thought it was a dream!”

“Hmmm…. I wonder why Amory nevertold you. That stuff can be dangerous,” Avalon’s face had returned to hisnormal color and he bit his thumb nail in deep thought.

“What do you mean dangerous?” Iasked as Avalon stood up and began to rummage through clothes and shoes,looking for items to toss into his bag.

“Well you experienced how realeverything felt. I mean that is your consciousness. Can you imagine if hecalled you out and meant you harm? Think about it, he could create anyscenario; he could create the inner most circle of hell if he wanted. And youwillingly went, without the slightest hesitation.”

I pouted my lip, ready to defendKiran, but decided against it. The reality was he could have created anything,but instead of my own personal hell, he created the most beautiful place I hadever seen or been. And maybe I did go willingly, but I was never disappointed.Kiran was not the bad guy Avalon saw him as.

“It wouldn’t be the first time,”Avalon finished his thought and then sniffed several shirts before deciding ifthey made the bag, or returned to the floor.

“What do you mean?” my ears perkedup, and a slow creeping sensation of jealousy made its way up my spine. IfKiran pulled this trick with every girl, I was going to be pissed.

“I mean with Mediums in general.”Avalon shook his head as he simultaneously felt my jealousy. I relaxed and thenfelt foolish. There was no reason to feel jealous, he wasn’t mine or anything,and in fact he was betrothed to another girl. “Remember that. But before, whenthe Monarchy took over, I guess they used their power of Dream Walk to tortureall kinds of people. That’s how the first Immortals died,” his voice was sadbut reverent and it was his turn to emote his pain on to me.