BooksBarbecue
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

“You…” said Poesy—a buzzing in the back of Kane’s mind as he began to unravel her—“and I are…not so different, you know.”

“I know,” Kane said.

The unraveling must have hurt Poesy greatly. The sound she emitted was unlike anything Kane had ever known. Ancient and inhuman and so much more than simple sound. It was ferocity made sonic.

Then Poesy was gone, and there was nothing left but the polyphonic roar of the reveries as they spooled, one by one, into Kane’s open palm.

• Forty •

Resolve

Kane could have returned the reveries directly to the Cobalt Complex, but there was one more thing to do before he took the crown off for good. As gently as his bruised mind could manage, he set himself down on the manicured grass of the garden, near where Dean lay huddled.

First, he needed to apologize. Gently, he knelt by the boy and did what Dean had once. He traced an infinity symbol into the boy’s back, whispering, “Dean. You can open your eyes now. I’m sorry if I scared you.”

Dean blinked at Kane, and at the strange recurrence of the gardens from Helena Beazley’s reverie Kane had created around them. He seemed unsure of his own weight as he stood, like he expected to just float away.

“I’m…not gone?”

Kane squeezed his hand for reassurance. “Doesn’t look like it.”

“But you unraveled Poesy.”

“You never belonged to her, Dean. You’re as real as anyone. Trust me. For once, I know stuff.” Kane tapped the crown and tried out a smirk. Dean gave a sly grin back.

“Kane?”

Adeline cut through the milling guests, the grime of one reverie drifting away as her costume from the Beazley Affair wrapped around her. Trailing after was Sophia, her red dress exchanged for her golden ensemble.

“It worked!” Adeline said, wrapping around Kane. “I can’t believe you let me read your memory like that! I can’t believe that worked!”

He hugged her back, as hard as he could.

Sophia pushed toward Kane. Her eyes were sharp. She was lucid now. And of course she had questions. Kane waved them off, just happy to see his sister, but she wouldn’t let him hug her for long before asking: “Just tell me what’s real. Like, did you just murder a magical drag queen sorceress using two dream journals and a sharpened ballet slipper?”

Kane looked at Adeline, then Dean. They both shrugged. They were going to need a lot of time to debrief all this.

Kane gave his sister a playful punch to the shoulder. “Just gay enough to work, right?”

Sophia’s serious interrogation cracked into a familiar grin, the old refrain bringing relief to her confusion. Adeline let out a wry groan, and Dean looked very embarrassed about it all.