Read Online Relentless by Scott Prussing - Free Book Online

felt her heart beginning to beat faster as she relived the nightmare. When she finally reached the end, she opened her eyes and repeated the details to Rave, who listened silently.
    “I don’t know what would have happened next,” she said when she was done, “if you hadn’t wakened me.”
    Rave took Leesa’s hand. “Maybe I shouldn’t have. Maybe there was information in it for you if the dream had continued. But you seemed so upset. I just couldn’t let it go on.”
    Leesa squeezed his hand gently. “No, I’m glad you stopped it. But maybe next time…”
    “Next time I’ll let you wake up on your own,” Rave said, finishing her thought. “That won’t be easy, though.”
    Leesa squeezed his hand one more time. “I know.”
    “Those little silver lights you saw floating in the distance—do you have any idea what they might have been? Did they remind you of anything?”
    Leesa shook her head. “No, nothing. I could never really get a good look at any of them. I could see them most clearly on the periphery of my vision—whenever I turned my head and tried to focus on some, they faded away into dull blurs.”
    Rave thought for a moment. “What about any sounds? You said it was silent there, but was there any kind of background noise at all?”
    “No, none. I thought I shouted out my illumination spell, but it sounded more like a whisper to me, as if something in that place absorbed all sounds.”
    Rave breathed in a deep breath. “There’s not really much to go on, then. What about temperature? Was it hot? cold?”
    Leesa shook her head again. The more they talked, the more frustrated she grew.
    “Neither. At least, not that I can recall. I think the temperature was perfectly neutral.”
    They sat together in silence for a bit, both of them having exhausted their ideas. Leesa was about to give up on learning anything useful from the dream when something suddenly struck her. She grabbed Rave’s arm with both hands.
    “Wait! There is something. Throughout the whole dream, I never felt pregnant, never even thought about it. I’m sure I would have noticed if I was. I didn’t feel any distress about it, either.”
    Rave looked puzzled. “I don’t understand. What are you saying?”
    Leesa stood up and paced. She needed a few moments to put her thoughts into words.
    “I think it means that if this was one of my wizard dreams, it’s not going to happen until after our son is born. That gives me plenty of time to dream it again. Maybe I’ll even try to guide the dream one of these days, the way Dominic was teaching me.”
    Rave understood now. He rose to his feet.
    “And if you do have another nightmare, I’ll let you wake up on your own. Next time, maybe you’ll see more.”
    “Exactly.” Leesa kissed Rave on the lips. “See, I knew talking about it with you would help.” She jumped up into his arms, and he caught her with practiced ease.
    “Now how about a little ride around the orchard to lighten the mood?” she asked.
    “At your service, sweetheart.”
    Rave took off running, zigzagging among the trees at volkaane speed.

 
     
    10. PROGRESS
     
    THE NEXT WEEK FLEW BY. Leesa worked hard on the growth spell every day. The stone continued to grow a little more at each session, except on the fourth day, when she had a small hiccup in her progress. The day before, the rock had finally reached the size it had been in Jenna’s illusion. The next day it stubbornly refused to grow any more, despite more than a dozen attempts from Leesa. The difficulty had not been unexpected, and Leesa simply shook it off. She was fairly confident now she would be able to break through that barrier and was determined to do it on her own, without another assist from Jenna. The next day, that’s exactly what happened—the stone finally grew bigger than Jenna’s image.
    The stone had become too big and heavy for Leesa to levitate—it was now thigh high—so for the last two days she and Rave had simply left it