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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

He reached for the wisp of intuition, and it reached back, blooming bold and brash in his chest. The blooming sensation manifested around him, rivers of color coursing from Kane’s skin and carrying him upward. Buoyed upon nebulous rainbows, he faced down the awestruck crowd, then turned to consider their god.

It considered Kane back, unimpressed, before releasing its deadly breath over him.

Kane clapped his hands.

The arching fire stopped. Time stopped.

It was an instant of unmoving.

From Kane’s hands erupted a day-bright brilliance, washing the cavern in every color, as though Kane were a prism through which light split to spectrum. In this unmoving instant Kane knew the reverie for what it was: a living tapestry of memories and thoughts and dreams, sewn together with the desperation to be real, to be realized.

The reverie resisted Kane’s control, searing his mind as he fought to hold it in his head all at once. But it was lethargic, its energy waning, and Kane gritted his teeth through the pain. He was able to pin its corners wide and pick at its center, which was the fearful creature frozen before him. Its hideous body sagged beneath Kane’s concentration, sending out a shock wave that turned the arena to liquid. Colors and textures bubbled together. Pieces of the cavern broke apart to float unmoored in the vibrating air. Below, the floor scattered like dry leaves so that Ursula and Adeline floated in a white yawn of nothing as the reverie tore itself apart, whirling toward Kane, colliding into a knot of light gathering between his flexed palms.

The unraveling intensified, its rush growing into a thunderous riot. The pain in Kane’s head was beyond even the agony from the fire, but he stayed focused on his purpose, knowing he would feel the pain later.

He held the knot of light up, a white star dragging everything toward it.

He forced himself to stay strong as the weight of the world collapsed upon his shoulders.

• Twelve •

The S Word

Kane had a new empathy for punching bags. For crushed cans kicked down the road. For the focal points of incessant force.

His thoughts rose slow and blurry, like bruises on his brain.

He was floating. He was sinking. The aurora was dissipating, depositing him onto stiff, plastic grass scored in white symbols. His head hung over his streaming hands. He might have fallen asleep there on the football field if it hadn’t been for the unsure murmurs of the many people who had just watched him fall from the sky.

“Excuse me, excuse me.”

Adeline pushed through the crowd of stunned players, getting real low and in Kane’s face.

“Hey. Dream boy. You all right?”