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Back Reverie Save as PDF
Chapters (53)
  1. Front Cover
  2. Letter from the Author
  3. Title Page
  4. Copyright
  5. Contents
  6. • One •
  7. • Two •
  8. • Three •
  9. • Four •
  10. • Five •
  11. • Six •
  12. • Seven •
  13. • Eight •
  14. • Nine •
  15. • Ten •
  16. • Eleven •
  17. • Twelve •
  18. • Thirteen •
  19. • Fourteen •
  20. • Fifteen •
  21. • Sixteen •
  22. • Seventeen •
  23. • Eighteen •
  24. • Nineteen •
  25. • Twenty •
  26. • Twenty-One •
  27. • Twenty-Two •
  28. • Twenty-Three •
  29. • Twenty-Four •
  30. • Twenty-Five •
  31. • Twenty-Six •
  32. • Twenty-Seven •
  33. • Twenty-Eight •
  34. • Twenty-Nine •
  35. • Thirty •
  36. • Thirty-One •
  37. • Thirty-Two •
  38. • Thirty-Three •
  39. • Thirty-Four •
  40. • Thirty-Five •
  41. • Thirty-Six •
  42. • Thirty-Seven •
  43. • Thirty-Eight •
  44. • ∞ •
  45. • Thirty-Nine •
  46. • Forty •
  47. Epilogue
  48. Acknowledgments
  49. Excerpt from Be Dazzled
  50. One
  51. Two
  52. About the Author
  53. Back Cover

“Unravel this?” She blinked at her ruined beasts. Guilt and misery shivered through her. “You speak of the real world as though it is salvation, but don’t you see? People like us… Something separates us from the real world. Something makes sure we never belong.” Now her eyes were older than that of a young girl’s. Kane was looking into the lucid mind of the real Helena now. “I belonged here, but even this world has rejected me. Even here, I’m a…a…”

“A monster.”

Poesy’s heels crunched as she stood over them. Helena saw her for the first time, and, through her fear, Kane realized something. Poesy was here to help, but she was not here to help Helena.

“No, no!” Helena pleaded to Kane. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t in control. It was a mistake!”

“A Miss Stake, you say?” asked Poesy. “I don’t know a Miss Stake, but if I did, I’m sure she would resent such an accusation.” Poesy winked at Kane, and he realized again how far beyond this world Poesy was to be making jokes as Helena died right in front them. “Now, come with me. We’ll fix this together, yes?”

Poesy gestured for Helena to get up. When she didn’t, Poesy sighed, gestured again, and this time Helena rose into the air against her will. She clutched at Kane.

“Willard, please! Help me!”

“Wait!” Kane held her hand as she drifted up. “What are you doing to her?”

Helena’s hand went cold. Seismic dread rumbled under her skin. Something horrible was happening and Kane, still attuned to Helena’s mind, felt her understand she would not survive whatever came next.

“Forgive me,” Helena sobbed. “Please, forgive me!”

Poesy reached into her coat and, to Kane’s deepening dread, produced a teacup. Unlike the ones from the library, this one was pale pink with scalloped edges brushed in gold. She flicked the porcelain with one manicured nail and, like a boat running suddenly aground, the reverie jolted.

A ringing spun outward from the porcelain like one hundred pealing church bells, flooding the reverie with a sparkling cacophony that terrified Kane. It reverberated within him as much as he heard it around him, and he knew what happened next. The gardens began to shiver apart, their colors dripping into the chiming air. Everything began to break, to spin, to unravel.