by the benefactors. The dance floor can hold at least three times the crowd it carries now, but nobody else joins in.
“See, it’s not so bad, right?”
“No, I guess not. Not now that the others have started dancing.”
He pulls me in to him, closing the gap between us. It feels awkward and uncomfortable. My body tenses. “Relax. They’re loving it.”
I look around the room. Everyone I can see is looking at us. He rubs his hand across my lower back in a familiar gesture. It feels too soon for him to be touching me so intimately. I don’t know him well enough to be this close. “Now that I’ve finally got you alone, I can let you in on a little secret.”
I look up at him feeling incredibly uncomfortable and somewhat violated. His face looks solemn. His brow is furrowed. He swallows hard and licks his lips. I lean as far away from him as I can without making it completely obvious. After a few seconds of nervous silence, he breaks it.
“I know everyone here at the colony is filling your head with ideas that you are some sort of savior, but you’re not.”
His tone is harsh, cold, and demeaning. The warm heart behind his smile is gone. I feel like I’ve been slapped in the face. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me. You’re no savior. You’re more like . . . a demon.”
An evil smirk spreads across his face and confusion rains down on me.
“What are you talking about? Where is this coming from?”
I try to pull my hand from his but he grips it tighter. Anxiety builds in my core. “See the thing is, I don’t want you and your witch friend to break this curse. You’ll destroy everything my family has.”
“Well then you’re in luck. I’m not trying to break a curse. I’m trying to save my sister.”
“Emma, please. We both know that the only way for you to find her and pull her out of there is to break the curse. All of these people who are so desperate for you to accomplish that all have someone they want you to find and bring back home. They’re more than willing to take the risk of losing who they are.”
He digs his fingers into the back of my hand. “If you don’t know anything about who you are, how are you going to accomplish this?”
Refusing to back down to him, I maintain eye contact as he stares deep into my eyes, not revealing anything with my expression. “So, it’s true then . . . you do have the journals.”
I wait a few seconds before answering, putting an emotional mask in place. “What journals?”
He chuckles under his breath. “I can see the lie on your face. You don’t deserve to have them.”
“And what? You do?”
“I like who I am. I like what I can do. I’m not going to lose that, especially because of some stupid teenage girl. If my family loses who we are, we lose everything. This colony becomes pointless—nothing more than a research facility. We become ordinary. And nothing is worse than being ordinary.”
I try to pull away from him but his grip tightens further around my waist and hand. “Uh-uh. Appearances, and all that. You’re in the middle of your first dance. What would it look like if you walked away now?”
“You’re hurting me.” My face hardens and my eyes dart around the room. Hundreds of sets of optimistic eyes are on me. “Get that look off your face, Emma.”
Agitated and in pain, I snap back, “You don’t know if dreamwalking will end when the curse is broken. It could just eliminate the dark side of it.”
“How very teenage girl of you.”
“Let me go.”
“These people think you’re some kind of hero. You’re going to give them exactly what they want. Now act like you’re enjoying this dance before I take you outside and break your neck, rendering this entire conversation unnecessary.”
He has proven that I am not strong enough to escape him. I stop fighting. “What do you want from me?”
“I want you to call off your mission. Stop your ridiculous crusade to find the lost people.”
“I can’t do that. Look around this room. All of the two hundred thirty seven sets of eyes in here are desperate for me to do what I came here to do.”
“If you think you’ll survive this, you’re deluded.”
“I survived it before. I’m sure I can find a way to do it again.”