Penumbra (Spook Squad 3)

“According to Illie, it was some sort of test.” He hesitated. “A test they went through with regardless.”

Alarm ran through her. “Why would they do that? What sort of test was it?”

“There was an explosion, followed by a fire hot enough to melt the walls and damn near kill the both of us.”

The alarm got stronger. In her dreams, they’d tested her against fire, too. She swallowed heavily and said, “How did you survive?”

“We were lucky—the room had several fireproofed cabinets.” His gaze met hers. “Why would they want to test you against fire, Sam? Do you have any idea?”

“No.” She paused. “But in a recent dream, someone was trying to force me to control fire.”

“Who?”

Sam hesitated, but something in the way he was looking at her suggested this was a pivotal point in their relationship. That if she lied about this, she could forget about the future and whatever plans she might have. “I don’t know who they all were, but I recognized one of them—Blaine.”

“How?”

“From my dreams.”

His eyebrow rose. “And what was he doing in those dreams?”

She blew out a breath, battling a sudden reluctance to talk about it. What if the dreams were false? What if they were nothing more than images of an overactive imagination?

What if they weren’t?

If she wanted to know the truth, she had to start trusting someone with her nightly journeys. Someone other than Joe, whom she might not be able to trust.

“They were training me to use gifts I don’t appear to have.”

“Hopeworth was?”

“I can’t say for sure it was Hopeworth, because the dreams never included a location. It was just a room—or rather, an arena—with the scientists in an observation room above me.”

“And was it just you in the dream?”

“In the training arena? Yes.” She hesitated. “But I am never alone in the dreams. Joshua is always with me.”

“And is Joshua this Joe Black you mentioned earlier?”

“In all honesty, I don’t know. Joe looks nothing like the boy in my dreams. His coloring is completely different, for a start.”

“But he could be?”

“I guess so. Anything is possible, especially when I don’t even know if the dreams are real or a figment of a warped imagination.”

He considered her, his hazel eyes shuttered. “Is Joe real?”

“I’ve already said yes to that question. But I do know Joe is not his real name.”

“Do the dreams feel real?” Gabriel asked.

“Yes.” Too real and too painful—even if she didn’t entirely believe them.

Or maybe that should be even if she didn’t entirely want to believe them.

“If you are so sure, why have you never mentioned them?”

Sam hesitated. “Just because they feel real doesn’t mean they are real. For all I know, they could have been planted in my subconscious for some nefarious reason.” She looked ahead as the car began to slow and saw that they were nearing the hotel. She returned her gaze to his. “That’s what you were thinking, isn’t it?”