Revealed (Unbound, Book 5)

Chapter Thirty-Two

"Ugh..." I rolled over and blinked, happy to feel a numbness where my emotions had been on overload. "Ugh." I put my hand to my forehead to find equilibrium when my surroundings started to spin. Closing my eyes, I groaned. "Where am I?"

"The hallway," Islene said, and I blinked again to see her standing by my side. "I moved you out of the bedroom when you passed out. Well, after you cooled down and I could touch you, I moved you in case you woke up and burned the house down."

"Ugh." I wanted to say that wouldn't happen, but the words would be a lie and died on my tongue. Instead, I said, "I'm sorry, I... That must have scared you."

"No." Islene shook her head.

"What? Why?" I struggled to sit up, my entire body sore from the effort. Onyx appeared at my side and shoved her wet nose under my chin until I scratched between her ears. Still, she whined when I exclaimed, "I was scared! If I hadn't passed out, I really could have burned the house down."

"Okay, the fact that you have an affinity for fire may have made me nervous, but only for a minute," she said, then hunched down, resting her forearms on her knees once she was at my level. "The situation didn't scare me at all."

"Situation? I lost control, Islene!"

"Nora—"

"That's everything I fear!"

"Listen to me."

I exhaled. "What?"

"I reacted exactly like you did the first time I had a vision while awake. It will get easier."

I swear, my heart stopped beating. Just for a second. A cold sweat chilled my body, and I licked my too-dry lips. Blinking Islene into focus as though it was in slow motion, I asked, "Vision? N-no. I am empathic. It's... similar, but I—I don't have visions! That's crazy."

"Yes, I think you do." Islene stood and held out her hand. "Come on. Let's go sit in the kitchen and talk."

"About visions?"

"And what you saw."

I shivered. Blood. If I closed my eyes, I could still picture it arcing through the air to splatter the surfaces in the bedroom and the puddle that spread out on the floor... under my grandfather.

"I don't want to." The only sanity I kept was the fact that he'd been lying face-down, and that wouldn't last if I had to describe it.

"Okay, so then I'll tell you what I saw when I first had a vision."

"Islene, people don't just start having visions."

"Like they don't start being an empath?" She raised her eyebrow. "Where's your dream journal? Do you still use one? I bet if we look through it, we'll find it isn't actually a sudden occurrence."

"I haven't made entries in a long time, and it isn't with me."

"Then we can go to the hotel and—"

"No, I didn't bring it on the trip." It was the only journal I left behind because I didn't use it.

"Oh." Islene seemed to deflate a little, then perked up. "Well, then let's talk about what you do recall dreaming."

"Zach?"

"No." She shook her head. "You dreamed of the new missing boy, right?"

"Yeah, but only because I was scared for him."

"Or you picked up on how scared he is and built a connection."

"No. It was just a nightmare."