He opened his eyes and took a step closer to me, and for some reason, I didn’t move back. I should’ve been afraid of him, but I wasn’t. I couldn’t explain it, but instead of wanting to run away like any sane person would, I wanted to move even closer to him.
He whispered, “Rhile.” I gasped. How did he know my name? “I need your help.” He suddenly turned to look behind himself, then turned back to me again. “There’s no time. Remember Rueberry Orchard.”
A pained expression crossed his face before he vanished into thin air.
“What the hell?” I said as I staggered away. “Oh my god, what the hell just happened?”
A gasp fell from my mouth as I sat up in bed, panting hard. Nausea filled my throat, and I jerked out of bed and ran to the bathroom. I barely made it to the toilet before I emptied my guts out. Why the fuck was I sick?
Sitting on the floor to catch my breath, my gaze jerked around the room, confused and feeling ill. As I leaned my head back against the wall, I pictured the man in my front yard. It had been a dream. A very real, very elaborate, very strange dream. The man wasn’t real, he didn’t disappear anywhere. He was just a figment of my imagination.
Even as I thought it, something in my chest tightened, so I rubbed at the spot and ran through the dream in my head again. It had felt so real. Something about him had felt familiar, but… the only thing I could imagine was that maybe I’d seen him come into the store or something before, and since I found him more attractive than anyone I’d ever seen, my mind had decided to play out some very weird, very detailed fantasy of the man. Although, if I’d met someone that looked like that at the store, how the hell could I have possibly forgotten him? Wouldn’t I remember seeing the most beautiful man alive?
And then throwing in the Rueberry Orchard thing seemed far-fetched since I’d never heard of it before. It was probably just some weird name my mind made up along with the beautiful man getting ready to go into battle.
I ran the name over and over in my head as I pulled myself from the floor and made my way back into my room. Lying on the bed, I grabbed my cell phone from the nightstand and typed in Rueberry Orchard. To my surprise, it showed up on a map, but when I continued my search, nothing about the place showed up. It was only a dot on a map… so maybe I’d seen it before? Or I’d made it up in my head, and it happened to be a real place?
I wrinkled my nose at that thought. It didn’t sit well with me.
Shaking off the strange feelings and thoughts, I tried to go back to sleep, but after an hour of tossing and turning, I reluctantly got out of bed to get ready for the day.
When Joz pulled up and saw me waiting out front, his eyebrows shot up. As soon as my ass hit the passenger seat, he asked, “Why the hell are you ready already?” That was fair; I was never outside before he got here.
I snorted. “Couldn’t sleep.”
He frowned at me. “Why?”
“I had a weird dream that woke me up, and I couldn’t fall back asleep after.” I didn’t mention getting sick because I was honestly fine now. I’d had my coffee and eaten some food, and my stomach felt normal. I had no idea why I’d gotten sick. Maybe because you watched that gorgeous man vanish before your eyes. As soon as that thought flitted through my mind, I pushed it away as ridiculous. Because it was ridiculous. It wasn’t as if I’d seen a real person disappear or something. No reason to be sick over that.
I thought Joz was about to tease me, but instead, he asked, “Was it a nightmare? That sucks, man.”
My eyebrows rose, and I couldn’t help but wonder if the ever-happy Joz was riddled with nightmares. “No, not really a nightmare.” When he didn’t respond, I blurted out the entire dream.
“That’s really weird.” He shot me a grin. “Maybe you’re dreaming about hot guys because you’re in serious need of a date.”
Rolling my eyes, I couldn’t help the small chuckle that came out. “Nice try, but no. And I never said the guy was hot.”
His grin grew. “You didn’t have to. I could tell by the dreamy look in your eye.”
I punched his shoulder. “Idiot.”
He cracked up as he parked the car, and we both got out.
Right before we walked inside, I said, “You know the weirdest part?”
“What?”
“Rueberry Orchard is a real place. I found it on a map, but there’s no information on it.”
“Maybe we should go check it out.”
I wrinkled my nose. “It’s a ten-hour car ride, and that’s without stopping for food and gas and everything.”
He shrugged. “So? We can do a road trip.”
“How the hell are we going to do that? We’d need to find a hotel or something.”
“Yeah, duh. Road trip. There’s a long weekend coming up next month, we could totally go then.”
“You would seriously want to spend your long weekend with me, going to check out some weird orchard?”
Joz rolled his eyes. “Why wouldn’t I? Hanging out with you is a hell of a lot better than sitting at home by myself.”
My brow furrowed—since when was Joz alone? He always went out and he had a ton of friends. Before I could ask him what he meant, he headed into the store to clock in.
With a sigh, I followed him and got ready for yet another boring day in my mundane life.
Chapter 2
Rhile
“Rhile? Ry? Wake up,” a smooth voice said near my ear. “Wake up, handsome. Please. I only have a few minutes.”
My eyes blinked furiously as the brown-haired man from last night came into view. “Who are you?” I croaked, sounding like I’d just woken up even though I knew this had to be a dream.
A sad smile spread over the gorgeous man’s face. “My name is Ezryn.” He reached his hand toward me like he might touch my face or my beard or something, but halfway there, he let his hand fall to his lap.
I took a beat to glance around, and I realized we were inside my bedroom, me lying in my bed, and him sitting on it beside me. My eyes widened and I asked, “Is this a dream?”
His lips twitched. “No, it’s not; it’s a mind-link. You’re not asleep, not really.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
He sighed. “I’m sorry I don’t have a lot of time to explain, but I need your help. I need you to get to Rueberry Orchard. Please, Rhile. I can’t come to you, I can’t make it that far, so I need you to meet me halfway. I’m tethered to this place, and I’m afraid if I pull on that tether, it’ll all come crashing down.”
What. The. Hell? I couldn’t even comprehend that, so I asked an easier question. “What’s at Rueberry Orchard?” I sat up, leaning against the headboard.
“A bridge, but it’s hard to explain. If you get there, I can tell you what to do next.”
I snorted. “Yeah, I’m not going on some weird wild goose chase, following the instructions of some dream guy that doesn’t even exist.”
His whole face seemed to fill with sorrow, and he whispered, “Please think about it.” Before I could respond, he looked behind himself and muttered, “I know, I’m trying, Braylik.” He turned back to me. “I’m sorry, I’m out of time. Please think about what I said. Please, Rhile… I need you.”