* * *

  Sarah banged on Pegasus’ door again, trying the doorknob. Whichever world or dream this was, the door was locked. Clenching her fists, she pressed her forehead against the door, drawing in a deep breath.

  There was no emergency to deal with. Another deep breath. Air reverberated back at her as she released it. There was nothing she could do but stay in this nightmare until it ended.

  Sarah wiped the tears from her face, each shuddering breath slightly calmer than the one before. If both the dream and reality were real, then Pegasus would still be alive somewhere. She would see him again. It was only a matter of time.

  And time, for once, was kind to her.

  The door opened, almost causing her to lose her balance and fall over.

  While Pegasus was still looking stupefied at finding her there, Sarah threw her arms around him. She hugged him tight, comforted by the beating of his heart. Maybe if she held on to him tight enough, this would—regardless of reality—be real.

  He pulled her inside his room and shut the door, but gave up on trying to detach himself from her when she only squeezed him harder. “Another dream?”

  Sarah nodded against him.

  “Were you out there long?” His hands moved rhythmically along her back. “Why didn’t you knock?”

  “I did!” How could he not have heard that racket she was making out there? With the amount of noise she made, he would’ve heard even if he had headphones on. “Or maybe I didn’t. I don’t know anything anymore.”

  He kissed her temple. “Who does?”

  Sarah pulled him down onto the couch with her. She turned to face him, unwilling to let go of his hands as if they were her lifeline.

  He wiggled his right hand free, wiping the tear stains from her cheek. “What happened?”

  “I was there again, in the other world. I thought I was late for training, but I ran into Griffon, Unicorn and Scorpion.” She squeezed his hand harder. “Their faces when I said you told me we have training.”

  “Did they say anything important?”

  “No. They thought I was having a breakdown. I think they were going to call Athena.”

  “Sounds about right.”

  “When you didn’t answer the door, I thought maybe this was the dream and the other one was real.” Her voice trembled, exposing the depth of her fear.

  “That’s easy enough to fix.”

  Without explanation, he grabbed a pen from the table. She watched with confusion as he scribbled something on the inside of her right wrist and placed a kiss on it, smiling with a trace of his usual mischief.

  Sarah couldn’t help laugh as she read it aloud. “You’re not dreaming.”

  Pulling him towards her, she kissed him as laughter turned to tears. His thumb traced its familiar path along her naked wrist.

  “Oh, right! There was something.” Sarah wiped at her eyes again. “They were talking about some flood. Unicorn said it had been raining for several days and her nephew wanted a boat for his birthday.”

  “Would that be the future or the present?”

  “I don’t know. I panicked again. I didn’t even think of asking them what time or day it was.”

  His fingertips played along her cheek. “Don’t be too hard on yourself. I imagine it’s difficult and disorienting suddenly finding yourself in an equally familiar and unfamiliar place.”

  Still, if she hadn’t already been freaked out by the smoke… “Before I left my room, there was another vision.” She really hated that word.

  “Was it connected to the rest?”

  “It was one of the previous ones, I think.” She’d all but forgotten about it with the shock of him being dead again. “There was a lot of smoke. I’d say it’s somewhere indoors. There was debris, so could’ve been an explosion. Not much else I could see because the smoke was everywhere.”

  “This one would be a future event. Probably.”

  “Not very helpful unless there’s more clues.”

  He nodded absentmindedly. His eyes unfocused, then quickly locked onto his tablet, which had been sitting on the table. “Speaking of clues.”

  Pegasus pulled his tablet over, turning it so she wouldn’t see his screen. “I was going to show you this after training, but we might as well do it now.”

  He flipped the tablet over. Six photos of women stared back at her with similar skin tone, hair color and face shape.

  “Are we playing a game?”

  “Kind of, sorry. Might as well put your memory to the test.”

  “My good old reliable memory?” But this wasn’t even hard. Her eyes settled naturally on the face on the bottom left. That was the woman that Mermaid had introduced her to in the dream. Even the hairstyle was similar, cut short at the shoulders and parted to the side.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  She pointed at the image. “This is her. This is Lore.”

  Pegasus’ eyes widened briefly as he took back his tablet. “Yes, it is.”

  But if she met Lore, then the things Lore told her should also be real.

  “And you’re sure you wouldn’t have seen her before? Maybe during a call?” Pegasus asked.

  “As sure as I can be. I never spoke to her via video. Is there any chance she was here when I was first brought in?”

  He shook his head. “I already checked all your schedules. It’s not possible for you to have met her in person unless it was out on the street by accident.”

  “I wouldn’t remember a random stranger that well. The party is the only time I remember seeing her, so if my meeting her was real, then at least that part of the party was real.”

  She considered telling him about everything that happened that night, but it hadn’t all been relevant. And some of it was downright embarrassing. Afraid that she was blushing and hoping Pegasus wouldn’t see it, she buried her face in her hands. “There was a weird shift in the surroundings when I thought it might be a dream. And towards the end, Robyn showed up. But anything before that could’ve been real.”

  “Is there usually a mix between what could be real and what couldn’t be?”

  She shrugged, wiping the last remnants of embarrassment from her face. “Things change midway through sometimes, but I classify anything that has Robyn in it as not real. So far, that’s a pretty easy way to tell it apart. Robyn’s dead in the other world… and now so are you.”

  He placed a kiss on the back of her hand, which she now realized she’d clenched into fists.

  A knock on the door startled her, which brought a smile to Pegasus’ face. That earned him a glare, to which he responded with a quick kiss on her cheek before going to open the door.

  Griffon gave them both a quick nod. “Is this your thing now, being late?”

  “Did you come fetch us? I’m honored,” Pegasus said.

  Griffon ran a hand over his hair, which remained undisturbed.

  “What is it?” Pegasus asked.

  “Training’s cancelled. We’ve got real work to do.” He turned to Sarah. “The oversight committee will be arriving within the hour. Zeus instructed that you, with your weird medical leave, stay out of sight. And, more importantly, out of trouble.”

  She sighed dramatically. “Should I bother going back to my room or are you guys gonna lock me in here until you come back?”

  “Don’t tempt me.”

  As they filed out of the room, Pegasus held her back. He placed a gentle kiss on the words he’d left on her wrist. “I’ll come see you later.”

  She smiled at him as they parted. “Be careful out there.”

  * * *

  Pegasus watched as Sarah begrudgingly headed back towards her room, but there had been no real complaints. She also seemed to be doing better. Hopefully, finding a use for her visions, if not an explanation, would help her deal with them.

  “She’ll be fine,” Griffon said as they got into the waiting elevator.

  Was he that easy to read?

  Pegasus smiled. “What’s your take on this oversight committee?”

  “The timing is odd, isn’t it? I can’t think of anything specific that would have triggered it unless it’s politics. And if it’s politics…” Disgust flashed on Griffon’s face.

  That’s what Pegasus had been thinking. This place did not mesh well with political machinations. There were only a handful of people in the upper echelons of the government who knew about them: the president, some military heads such as General Moore, and their direct supervisor, the president’s security advisor, the most recent one being General Roussef.

  To everyone else, they were an emergency response unit, terrorist task force, or whatever else they could disguise themselves as when interacting with law enforcement. When someone started trying to play politics with them, it always turned into a mess.

  General Moore had been lobbying to change the hierarchy for a few years now, but he was always opposed by General Roussef, the security advisor. Now that Roussef was resigning, they might fall under General Moore’s command.

  “You’re really not going to tell me what’s going on there?”

  Pegasus frowned at him. Hadn’t they been talking about the oversight committee?

  “Phoenix…”

  “Which part are you talking about?”

  Griffon gave him a dirty look. “The medical leave,” he specified, complete with air quotations.

  Pegasus laughed, if only for the awkward use of the quotations, complete with a sulking sort of irritated expression that Griffon always wore so well. If well could be defined as like a child sent to bed without dessert.

  Griffon only glared at his reaction, impatience winning over any awkwardness at having to ask these things.

  The elevator doors opened, and Pegasus went out first, holding it open for Griffon. “Have you asked Zeus?”

  “He told me she was having a mental health crisis. When I pressed him, he said he thought it might be a form of post-traumatic stress disorder.” The corner of his lips twisted, almost a sneer. “But then Athena and Doc Blue wouldn’t be running a million tests, would they?”

  Pegasus shrugged. “I’m not sure what I can say.” He was sure, however, of what he couldn’t say, and that was that Sarah was either hallucinating or experiencing things from another dimension and/or the future. Most likely, all the above.

  “Does this have something to do with that time she messed up and Mermaid got shot?”

  “It kinda does. We don’t really know what’s going on.”

  “Can you tell me if we’re completely sure it’s truly her?” He waved off Pegasus’ immediate protests. “I know we checked her. But are you sure? Utterly, completely, and objectively sure it’s her?”

  Pegasus nodded, trying not to seem as if it had been a reflex.

  “And can you be objective?”

  Pegasus took a little longer to answer that time. “On whether it’s truly her, yes.” He wasn’t sure about much else.

  A long sigh escaped Griffon. “And is she alright?”

  This was a harder answer to give. “She’s hanging in there,” he whispered, saved from having to say more by Mermaid’s appearance.

  “Look who’s back in the land of the living!” She ran past them straight to where Wolf was talking to Unicorn and Cypher.

  Griffon ignored her, shaking his head.

  Pegasus watched the scene with unease. Sarah’s addition of Wolf’s name onto her wall of chaos couldn’t possibly be a good sign. He was hoping Wolf’s cold would’ve kept him on leave for a few more days.

  A bustle drew his attention to Zeus’ office, where a small parade of strangers were making their way inside. The oversight committee had arrived.

  He watched the door close ominously behind the last person before he switched his attention back to his friends.

  “You could always make my appointment here permanent,” Wolf said. “You’re desperately in need of more handsome men in this group. Just switch Scorpion out for me.”

  Scorpion smacked him on the back of his head. “Good luck with that.”

  “If they wanted her back, they wouldn’t have deleted her codes from their system,” Griffon said.

  Mermaid laughed. “They did that?”

  Scorpion shrugged. “About two, maybe three years ago.”

  Griffon clapped his hands to get their attention. “Everyone check your orders, please. There’s been a slight change.” He signaled Pegasus should check as well.

  “I hope we find these weapons soon,” Mermaid said. “I’m starting to have continuous nightmares about opening crates and finding clown masks inside.”

  Scorpion waved her tablet at her. “Would be helpful if your informant actually had something to tell us.”

  Pegasus looked down at his most recent orders. He was to be taking Mermaid’s place while they investigated some areas.

  “Wait!” Mermaid jumped up and down. “I get time off?”

  There was no mention of why the change, but Pegasus knew it had to be Zeus’ doing. This put him in a good position to keep a closer eye on Wolf since the man would be taking Sarah’s place for this mission.

  Mermaid placed a hand around his shoulder. “Why do I get time off to go on a date with Phoenix? Isn’t that your job?”