Fighting for the Lost (Sebastian's Daughter Book 4) (COMPLETE)

Chapter 5

I glanced from person to person, confused. "What do you mean?" I asked Samantha.

She smiled at me patiently. "The dream. How did it end?"

I blinked at her. "How do you know it ended?"

"Angelina was here," Dad spoke up. "You were having your nightmare again, and she interrupted it to speak with you. You begged her to let you see how it ended, and she let you. She did something to you where you wouldn't wake up again until the dream had played itself out."

"So wait. Angelina was here? Wouldn't I remember that if she invaded my head?"

"Not exactly. She wiped your memory of seeing her so it wouldn't affect the outcome of the dream."

"So how did it end?" Samantha asked again.

I glanced around the room. Maria was standing in the corner with shining eyes. Obviously she had heard about the first half of the dream from someone. It seemed like everyone knew about it. I didn't want to tell her that she was a part of the terrifying ending.

I must have been staring at her for longer than I thought, because she nodded to me, like she knew she was a part of the section I didn't want to discuss with her here. "It's alright. It's only a dream, remember?"

I nodded. For some reason her words made me feel a bit better. I took a deep breath and told them everything, from flying to Maria's house to the whispers in the darkness.

Once I was finished, there were tears in my eyes and I was shaking from fear. Never in my life had a dream made me feel this horrible. I leaned back against my father, and he held me. His embrace seemed to calm me a little, and laying back, I realized how tired I still was.

Maria, on the other hand, was pacing. Not that there was much room for pacing, but she made the best of it. She seemed to be thinking about something, but I couldn't tell what.

"So," she spoke up, still pacing. "You believe it was Nathaniel whispering to you, correct?"

I nodded.

"Well, we just need to make sure he can't find you. Where is a place that he would never look?"

"He's expect us to go back to the manor," Alex said. "Peter is still there, after all."

"I have to go back for him soon," Maria sighed. "I hope he's okay."

"He's fine, Maria." Dad said. "He has plenty of people watching over him, remember?"

Maria nodded.

"He'd probably expect you to go home sometime, too," Finny told Maria.

"We'll worry about this later," Alex said, getting to his feet. "Shouldn't we first try to figure out how to stop her dreams? She's still exhausted, even after sleeping for the past couple of hours. Shouldn't we just give her the medicine?"

"But what if Angelina can't get any more of it?" Maria asked defensively. "Then we'll be on our own to try to make more. We'll need this one to break down somehow for ingredients."

"Angelina brought the medicine?" I mumbled tiredly.

"Yes," Dad replied. "But we must wait to give it to you until she returns. She may be able to get a second dose that will help us to create our own."

"Or, if we're lucky, the ingredients," Maria added.

Not wanting a fight to break out, I changed the subject. "Do you think that since I finally saw the end of the dream, it could go away?"

Dad and Maria seemed puzzled for a moment while they considered it. Alex, Finny and I just watched them.

Maria spoke first. "Well, Nathaniel does like to take pity on you, so maybe. I mean, he hasn't gotten up the nerve to kill you yet, either. If he had, he would have done it by now."

"So you think it was him sending me the dreams?"

"It seems that way, but I'm not sure how he could do it."

"He could have someone with lots of power helping him," Dad pointed out. "That would be the best explanation for it."

I lay against my dad, thinking about everything. I knew that I could really use another nap, and that I could also go for that medicine. But if I ever needed more of it, and Angelina couldn't get anymore, then I would be out of luck. I knew we had to wait, but I was leaning toward Alex's argument; I didn't want to feel like this anymore.

I could also gradually feel my strength coming back. Whenever I woke up, I knew I was stronger than I had been before, even if only slightly. I just wanted to sleep for a full day or two without waking up, hoping to at least be somewhat back to how I had been. But I went over my limits when Alex had been shot down, and it had probably worsened my condition.

"Do you think Angelina would know if Nathaniel had a demon or angel working with him?" I heard myself ask. I hadn't meant to; it just kind of slipped out. "I mean, she did go inside my head during the dream, after all. If she had known, wouldn't she have told you?" Then I had another thought. "She wouldn't be hiding something, would she?"

Dad seemed ready to deny my claim, but then he considered it. He knew that she would have told us if there was another presence. So was that really Angelina, or did she switch sides?

"Well, I say we just ask her when she comes back if she was able to get any more of the medicine, and if she says no, we should probably be suspicious."

We all glanced over at Maria. "What? I feel like it's the best option. If she really is on the other side of this mess, then she could've given us poison instead of medicine. We have to wait until she gets here."

"Can't you tell if it's poison or not?" Alex asked. "You're the scientist here."

"I could, but I don't have my equipment with me and I don't want to ruin it if it does happen to be medicine."

"Well, we need to figure out something," Alex said.

"But we can't go back to London," Finny added. "He's expecting us to go back there."

"We have to go back eventually." Maria seemed to sadden. "I can't let Nathaniel get ahold of Peter. I won't."

"Then we'll go back." Dad said, his voice sounding final. "We'll leave in a couple of days, after Selena gets more strength back."

"But where will we go where he won't expect us to be?" Alex asked.

"He's going to expect us to be anywhere. There's no point in trying to hide. The best we can do is find a sturdy building with lots of good defenses."

"And where might that be?"

I could almost hear Dad's smile. "We're going back to where this all began."