‘Time is running out,’ Setrákus Ra says and I now realize he is speaking to both of us – that he has been the whole time. He was trying to get both of us to surrender. Did he think he could convince us both to sacrifice ourselves in the belief that he would allow the others to live? I can only hope none of the others fall for his tricks.

The blue stain on the ceiling of the train car is suddenly all I see, and I sit up abruptly, trying to shake off the dream that has left my brain fuzzy. I touch the bracelet around my wrist. Before I drifted off into my vision, my nightmare, I had discovered that by concentrating on the bracelet’s abilities, I was able to remove it. But the moment it left my wrist, I felt unsafe without it and hurriedly popped it back on. I touch it again and wonder if my reliance on it is a good or a bad thing. All of a sudden, something small bumps against my back and I jump up and spin around.

Clearly I’m on edge from my dream. It’s just Bernie Kosar, this time as a beagle, my favorite incarnation of him.

‘Another nightmare?’ Nine yawns from the corner. He sits on his Chest, absentmindedly carving symbols into the wall with a nail, the very picture of someone who is not on edge. The soles of his bare feet are black.

‘They’re getting really strange,’ I say, and I hope I don’t sound as shaken as I feel. Last thing I need is Nine seeing me as some kid, scared by bad dreams. ‘And I think others are having them at the same time.’

Nine lifts the nail to examine it more closely. He tilts his head, as if it’s a rare specimen and not the most ordinary object in the world. With his tongue sticking out of the corner of his mouth he looks as if he is concentrating all of his energies on this one nail. With a small smile, he bends it between his fingers, snapping it into two perfectly equal pieces. He turns to face me. ‘And what does that mean? You think they are all having visions of some kind? Or, they are having the same action-packed nights you are?’

I shrug. ‘I don’t know. I keep seeing this really skinny kid with curly black hair. He’s wearing one of our pendants, so I have to assume he’s one of us. We are aware of one another, but things in the dream seem to be tailored for him in some ways and to me in others. I see you in these visions too.’