“You don’t need to be afraid of me,” William said.

“You’ll understand I’m having a hard time believing that, knowing at any moment you can just choose to activate us. Even without telling us.”

“I swear to you, back there in the warehouse is the only time I’ve ever purposely triggered you. All the other times … in those dreams … I wasn’t in control.”

“I believed you. I really did, William. But for all that talk in the hospital about stopping the storms, you brought it. You used me to do it. I’m already completely torn up about all the deaths I’ve caused in New Orleans—”

“That wasn’t your fault, Jane—”

“But you knowingly just did it back there. How many other people died?”

William shook his head. “I had to get us out. I have to show them.”

“Show them what? All you’ve done is demonstrate you can use us to cause complete destruction. What do you think this looks like now? We’re on our way to California. I know it. It’s where the wildfires are burning—”

“I have to show them that I can stop it,” William said. “I’m sorry, Jane. I really am, making you bring that storm. I put my own family in danger. They were nearby after that protest, even if Quincy said the plan was for my grandmother to drive far away. But don’t you get it? If I can find the man causing the fires, find a way to touch him and stop him, then we’ll all be together. And we can show them that I can stop it all. At least in the US. Then, if there’s a way, I’ll go all over the world to stop the others.”

Jane sat forward. “I want to believe you. I really do. But it’s just hard after what you did. You should have warned me.”

He approached them, kneeling down. “I need you, Jane. I need you to wake me up.”

“What do you mean?”

“I have to find the man causing the fires. Like I did to find you … I have to go in. To the dreams. If I’m successful, I want to then try and find my grandmother too. But if it gets me first, you have to wake me up. If it truly takes hold of me, it will not let me go. This wasn’t in their plans. I was only supposed to connect with you through the dreams, that was it. They never intended us to actually find each other.”

“How do you know that?” Jane asked.

“The anger. I feel it every time I defy them, whether it be reaching out to you on my own or stopping the disasters. They obviously intended me only to control you under their direction. I don’t think they ever anticipated how much control I actually have.”