Maxwell lifts a shaky hand to his forehead. “Of course. That was Lidia in a coma. How could I have forgotten about that?”
I pat his shoulder. “It’s a lot to take in.”
“So Phobetor has her?”
“I’m not sure,” I say and explain what happened in the subdream.
Maxwell frowns. “That doesn’t prove he took her over. In fact, if she never goes into REM sleep, he’ll have a hard time making her an Overtaken. I think he just took advantage of an opportunity. Bailey…” He looks at me pleadingly. “Promise me you won’t go back into Lidia’s dreams.”
“But the coma—”
“Let me think on that.” He shifts his attention to his unmoving younger self.
Davu opens a small window. “Are you hungry?”
Max doesn’t reply.
“I remember this,” Maxwell says. “It was a month before I escaped.”
Before I can ask how he escaped, or anything else, the memory changes.
Things speed up even more.
We’re in a large meeting room. A dozen people are sitting in a circle, Valerian’s and my parents among them. In the middle of the circle is Nostradamus and his werewolf.
I happen to know kid Valerian is here too, but he’s hiding using his powers, so he’s not part of my father’s memories.
“The prophecy,” Maxwell says darkly. “That cursed thing cost me everything.”
Nostradamus begins to speak. “If Phobetor isn’t stopped, he’ll destroy everyone, not just your little world.”
“We know this,” Max says. “Tell us something we don’t.”
“There’s one thing that will give you a chance at victory,” Nostradamus says. “A minuscule chance.”
Mom looks at the seer skeptically. “What is it?”
“Only Two working as One can defeat the god of nightmares,” Nostradamus says. “Remember, only Two working as One.”
Everyone gazes at him in confusion.
“That’s much too vague,” my mom says. “Who are the Two? How do you work as One?”
Nostradamus stands up. “I might’ve already said too much.”
Everybody starts shouting questions, but the werewolf growls at them and leads the seer out of the room.
This memory looks like a movie on fast-forward.
Mom and Max are watching Asha and me play in the distance.
Maxwell gazes longingly in the same direction.
“Two working as One doesn’t have to mean the twins,” Mom says, sounding like a chipmunk. “You and I are soulmates—that’s a type of two working as one, isn’t it?”
“You can make that argument, true,” Max says, also sounding funny due to the speedup. “But let’s be honest with ourselves. Without ever having heard of the seer, the girls play a game they call ‘two as one.’ Are we to ignore that?”
Mom twists a ring on her finger. “That game could be a coincidence. Even if it’s not, are we really going to allow our children to fight Phobetor?”
Max squeezes her hand. “That’s a different conversation altogether. Whether or not us being soulmates means we’re Two as One, I’d rather defeat Phobetor myself than have my daughters be forced to do it.”
She nods. “Everyone says we’re the most powerful dreamwalkers they know. The girls don’t seem to be stronger. At least, not yet.”
“I guess that’s that,” Max says. “We’re going to tell everyone that we’re certain the prophecy is about us.”
Mom squares her shoulders. “We’re going to battle Phobetor.”
In the next memory, Max is a young child. He’s playing a game with other boys, the details of which are hard to make out due to the speedup.
The memory that comes after this takes place in the padded room again, only this time Max isn’t catatonic. He stares intently at the corner of the room. Thanks to the speedup, what must’ve taken a long time for him happens almost in an eyeblink.
A shining plasma gate opens in the corner of the room. It looks like the gates at the hubs, only smaller and fainter.
A woman steps out of the gate. “You have only two favors left. Use this one wisely.”
In lieu of an answer, Max leaps into the gate.
Before I can ask Maxwell pertinent questions about his unusual form of escape, the next memory starts. In it, my parents are battling in the dream world—at least I assume that’s where they are, since when Mom punches a wall behind Max, it shatters into pieces.
“Training for the big battle,” Maxwell says without being prompted.
I guess he doesn’t want me to think he beat his wife.
When I refocus on the memories, Max is at a funeral, and the memory after that looks like my parents’ wedding.
Now things begin to move so fast I can only guess at what I see. It seems like the next memory is that of a battle happening in a subdream-like space. I get a glimpse of Phobetor, as well as Mom and Max.
The next thing I catch is the end of the battle. Both my parents have fiery eyes.
What follows flashes by so fast it’s impossible to make out, and then the world explodes around us, jolting me awake.