Free Bring Me A Dream: Reveler Series 5 by Erin Kellison Page B

city. Lambert was brilliant, no denying that. “Let’s do the Sandman thing first, though.” Please, Mirren. Then he thought of a better motivation. “We have to take care of David.”
    “David?” Agatha put in. “Is he in trouble?”
    “He’s fine,” Mirren said to her. “And none of your business.”
    “Did he like his nursery? I had it designed by the same people who did the Wardrobe Tales.”
    Vince could feel the surge in Mirren’s anger at the mere mention of the nursery Rêve.
    “What kid wouldn’t like it?” he said to shift attention away from Mirren and give her a moment to collect herself. “The ceiling-sky was the coolest part.”
    “You saw it, too?” Agatha asked him.
    “Visited it recently, in fact.” Vince tugged a quick smile, but he flicked his gaze to Mirren to see if her fury had passed.
    She’d stepped away from him, appearing as if she were listening closely for something, and then he sensed it, too. Though, for him, the dreamwater air had altered its scent, not made a sound.
    “That’s enough,” a new voice said. The senator. “Agatha, wake up.”
    Senator Fleight appeared in a wavering shimmer that solidified as a living column of will power. She wore her gray glitter dress and an expression of intense hostility. The rage in the water doubled.
    “She came to me ,” Agatha said to her mother. “She’s giving me to the Sandman.”
    “Wake up right now,” her mother said.
    “No. I can’t. It’s happening.” She gestured to Mirren. “Can’t you see it? The nightmares are real. It’s all true. And she came to me . Didier Lambert told her to come to me, because he knew I was loyal to him. He should’ve revoked your Rêve privileges.”
    The senator wheeled on Mirren, and the water churned, too. “What do you want?”
    Mirren didn’t say anything. She let the question hang and looked back at Senator Fleight with her inscrutable eyes.
    The tension got on Vince’s threadless nerves, so he leaned in to explain. “We need the Sandman. Then we can go.”
    The mention of the Sandman again made the senator’s face whiten around her mouth. Not a good sign.
    “I know who you are,” she said. Spat, more like. “Vincent Blackman. Recently treated for reveler exhaustion, right? How can you even be here? How can you do his work? Didier Lambert had your father murdered.”
    So she did know some things. “He did, indeed,” Vince said. “But that’s between me and Lambert. He’s going to make it up to me.”
    “Did he promise you that? Did he promise you the world? Fine. Have it. But you can’t have my daughter.”
    “She looks grown up to me.” Probably in her mid-thirties. “She makes her own decisions.”
    “Not this one. You will not use her as bait for the Sandman. Go out there yourself.”
    “I’ve been out there.” Vince raised his hands to show her the blood. “See?”
    Senator Fleight recoiled, then recovered. “He’s going to destroy the world as we know it.”
    “He’s going to make it better,” Agatha said. “We’re evolving .”
    Senator Fleight struggled to smooth her expression. “I love you, Agatha. I know I haven’t made things as easy as I could have for you. And for that, I am sorry. But you are sick. You need help. I’ve tried, but as Mr. Blackman says, you are all grown up. This is not the future I wanted for you. Rêves—they have no substance. They are not real. You are an addict, and Mr. Lambert has used that against you, and he’s used it against me.” She covered her mouth with a trembling hand, then pressed her lips together and dropped her arm. “You need to wake up now. Please. For me.”
    After that plea, Vince couldn’t help himself. “Waking up would be smart. Never sleeping again, even smarter.”
    “You don’t deserve her,” Agatha said to him as she looked with longing at Mirren. “She’s magic.”
    “She’s a nightmare,” Senator Fleight said.
    Mirren spoke imperiously. “I need you, Agatha. If you wake,