us, or you’ll starve to death.”
I never felt hungry in my dreams, but then I never ate, either. “Why does this keep happening to us?”
“You wish to love, Sister.”
A third figure limped toward us, leaning heavily on his cane. Only when I met his dark eyes did I recognize him as Bhaltair Flen—aka the most important druid on the planet.
“You’ll ken no peace until you awaken your spirits,” the old druid said, and turned to Sorley. “Your hearts chose each other. Since you willnae see thus awake, the swan brings you here.”
“Master Flen, as I told you, they’ve no memory of this love,” Kendric said. “Awake, they despise each other.”
“Love denied becomes hatred. Bind them in water, lad. ’Twill open their hearts to their minds.” He gave us a sterner look. “You may journey anywhere together in the nightlands. Learn what you may of the calpa, for they cannae dreamwalk.”
Suddenly I was submerged in freezing water, and then Sorley dragged me up to the surface. Good thing my hands were tied to his, because I would have… jumped him.
“Jess.” Sorley kissed me.
Kendric waded out and cut the ropes he’d used to tie us together, but looked worried. “You shouldnae forget your love for each other now.”
“Right.” I drew back, and then smiled at my dream lover. “Birdbrain.”
“Twit.” Sorley held me close. “Thank the Gods.”
I had no problem waking up after that. Sorley always helped.
Chapter 14
Scrupulosity
Numbers are my thing. My earliest memory is counting my Cheerios before I ate them. I went to bed fifteen minutes before Gilmore Girls came on so Grandmom wouldn’t miss any of it. By the time I was eight I was balancing Granddad’s checkbook and budgeting his pension. We figured out by then that I would never be like norms (normal-brained people) but that was okay with them.
My grandparents home schooled me until I learned how to smile, laugh, look into norms’ eyes, and talk like them. That took a lot longer than numbers.
Grandmom had a fatal heart attack right after I graduated high school, and Granddad died a month later. The doctor said it was grief, but I didn’t know what that was. My parents had died in the crash that made me what I am, so I had no one left. I didn’t know what else to do but go off to college, so I did that. After I moved into the dorm, two norms came and introduced themselves as Coco and Tory, and asked if I’d like to try out for cheerleading.
“I don’t know how,” I told them. Things like this weren’t covered in my chemical engineering textbooks.
“Can you do this?” Coco asked, and jumped up into the air with her arms in a V.
I can easily mimic other people, so I copied her moves.
“Come with us, Sweetie,” Tory said, and took me to meet the other Angels.
I made the squad, but Coach Jennings asked to have a private meeting with me.
“Hannah, we would love to have you on the squad,” Coach said. “But why do you want to join the Angels?”
“I can learn to be more like norms—I mean, people who aren’t neuro-atypical,” I said, because I’ve never been any good at lying. “Is that okay?”
“Of course.” She looked as if she were seeing me for the first time. “Just promise you’ll let me know if you have any trouble.”
I never had trouble; I just did what the squad did. Cheerleading was strenuous, but I was in good shape, and I learned fast. Me being a tall, blue-eyed blonde helped, too. When we time-traveled to the fourteenth century I kept a headcount of the girls. Most of the clan guys were nice to me, but I ignored them. I liked numbers better. When the squad voted to go back to live with the McGillean, I went with them. Although medieval Scotland seemed inconvenient, I wasn’t going to lose my new family.
I didn’t like the plane crash part, and I didn’t get a super power, but otherwise it was okay.
The calpa, these shape-shifting demonic water horses that attacked and ate people, were what really bothered me. I started counting them, beginning with the one that attacked Tory. Then a week later a calpa attacked Miranda, and another one killed a village norm. Grace and Roxanne got jumped next, and the clan also found parts of two norms from two other separate attacks that week. Seven days later there were eight different attacks around the island.
I went to the scroll room to get some