The Children of Hypnos

[Vol. 3] Chapter 31: Lost

"No, Edgar!"

He was fast in his older form, but still not trained, not like she was, not like all the dreamkillers here were, and the minute he moved, they scented blood in the water. Emery saw them notice this variable enter the fray. They turned on him. They would kill him.

She felt the world change. It narrowed down to a single point.

She had a very important choice to make.

The moment came; the moment went.

Her choice was made, and she hardly felt like it had been a choice at all.

She had lied to Edgar. She could shoot everyone while they were moving like this.

The fluctuations of the Dream, though they put pressure on her brain, made it easier to target exactly who she wanted, as if the Dream itself had created channels for her bullets to travel along. When the dreamkillers made and released their dreamforms, they created ripples around themselves like rings on a target. Emery had spent much of her time around targets, moving or not. Hitting dead-center was easy.

She took them down before they could reach Edgar. Before any dreamform could touch him. Delafleur had not brought that many dreamkillers with him, and they fell one by one under Emery's gun, before even Liam or Zoya or Moxie could defeat them. They fell, they fell. One by one by one. Emery did not think, she only shot. Their armor did not save them. She made sure Edgar's path was safe.

One.

Two.

Three.

Four.

Five.

Six.

Seven.

Eight.

Nine.

Ten.

Eleven.

Even with only one gun, she still had twelve bullets. The twelfth she kept, because she had killed so many around her that there was no one left to come after Edgar.

"Stop!" he yelled, planting his feet and pointing the Peacemaker toward Delafleur, Grandpa Al, and Trevor. Grandpa Al was the first to notice him. The distraction gave Delafleur the opening to bind Grandpa Al in dreamform vines and hold him in place like a shield. Trevor was forced to stop his own dreamform blade short so it didn't sink into Grandpa Al, and Delafleur took that opening, too, forming a concrete beam that smashed into Trevor's shin. The bone snapped, the sound echoing across campus. Trevor collapsed with a sharp cry.

"I said stop!" Edgar's hands shook, rattling the Peacemaker. Emery stopped beside him, reaching for the gun.

"Edgar, you're pointing at Grandpa—"

"Shut up, Emery!" His eyes were red, his expression wild. He stared at her until she backed down, then returned to the three men. "Stop fighting!"

"This can end, Edgar," Delafleur said. Emery noticed with a queasy lurch that Delafleur's hand was resting on the back of Grandpa Al's neck. He could drain the life from him, just like he'd done to Lewis. "No one else has to get hurt. But I need promises. I need to know your family won't hurt anyone else. That you'll help me stop this pointless fighting."

"Bullshit!" Emery bared her teeth at him. "Our family didn't start this!"

"Didn't you?" Delafleur's eyes cut to her, then back to Edgar. "When did everything start to go wrong, Edgar? When did things stop being the way they were supposed to be and start being wrong?"