A Tale of Two Goblins - By H. P. Mallory Page 0,76

failed in his duties.”

I swallowed hard and didn’t say anything more. Dia glanced at me and her lips were tight.

“And if he’s lying,” she started with a tone of skepticism in her voice. “He could face life in Banshee.”

“Why…why didn’t he tell me?” I persisted, as the realization that I might have ruined Knight’s life crashed and burned within me.

“Obviously he wanted to protect you,” Dia finished before standing up. “That’s all I know.”

I glanced up at her and nodded, dropping my attention back to my shaking hands.

“Now, you and I need to eat and figure out what the hell we’re going to do about this Dreamstalker,” she said but I couldn’t really say I’d processed her words. I was still completely floored by the news about Knight.

I vowed that once the Dreamstalker was dead, my next stop would be the Netherworld. I wasn’t going to let Knight suffer for my shortcomings.

Thirteen

An hour later, I’d made the rounds among my comatose patients and was now back in Sam’s room. I pulled Sam’s head forward and fluffed her pillow, being careful to lay her neck and head back down. A stray hair stuck to her lip so I secured it behind her ear, feeling like a mother tending to her sick child. As far as Sam’s health was concerned, there was still nothing new. No attacks from the Dreamstalker…yet.

Dia paced back and forth in front of me as we laid out our plans. And luckily for me (or unluckily, depending on how you looked at it) Dia had finally come around to my way of thinking—that we needed to take the Dreamstalker on in dream territory rather than continue sitting and waiting and basically, doing nothing. In preparation, we added another cot beside Sam’s, the empty cot for me—for when I met the Dreamstalker in the land of dreams.

“When do you want to attempt this?” Dia asked, casting me a worried glance. By “attempt this,” she meant when did I want to go to sleep so the Dreamstalker could attack me.

“Tonight,” I answered and my voice was surprisingly level, calm. “I’m tired of waiting.”

“I’ll need to act as sentry for you, Dulcie,” she continued as she chewed her bottom lip and started her fifth stroll across Sam’s room. “I’m not going to let you sleep with no one to protect you.”

I shook my head—this was one argument on which I wouldn’t yield. “You’ll need to continue searching the hospital and the grounds, Dia,” I argued. “If the Dreamstalker…I mean, when the Dreamstalker comes for me, that will mean he’ll have to be close by. We can’t afford to have you worrying about me when you could be focused on nabbing this guy.”

“Do you have a death wish?” she demanded, facing me with her hands on her hips. It suddenly made sense why some of her friends called her Diva—she was a force to be reckoned with, for sure. I liked Dia—she took girl power to a whole new level. “If you’re asleep and I’m not there to protect you,” she continued, “whatever this thing is could take you out and no one would ever know it.”

I had to smile at her histrionics but the smile left my mouth as soon as I remembered the peril I was about to throw myself into. “No, I don’t have a death wish and I’m considering this from every angle. I need you to be out there on the frontlines, Dia, not babysitting me.” I glanced down at Sam again before returning my gaze to Dia. “I can handle myself.”

Dia glared at me, her hands still resting on her hips. “And you do realize that if we do it your way and something happens to you, I’m going to have to deal with Knight?”

Ah, yes, the little problem known as Knight. “We’re both going to have to deal with Knight, and it’s not going to be pretty.”

“You won’t have to deal with him if you’re dead,” she snapped and started on her next lap across Sam’s room. “And if you’re dead, that means I’m going to have to face him alone.”

I couldn’t help but laugh at how casually she referred to my death—almost like it was a given. “Are you afraid of Knight…Diva?” I asked, challenging her.

She stopped pacing and glanced over at me before a smile brightened her lips. “With the way you’re able to get what you want from Knight and me, you should have been a lawyer,” she started. “And to answer