The Dream Deceiver Read online

  The Dream Deceiver

  Book Two of The Dream Weaver Series

  Chantae Oliver

  The stars align

  and

  lead

  me

  straight

  to

  you.

  God’s great design

  has

  shown

  me

  what

  to

  do.

  The guiding beam

  I

  follow

  with

  all

  my

  heart.

  This prophetic dream

  it

  takes

  us

  to

  the

  start.

  The Path to You

  By: Chantae Oliver

  Every single day, I thank God for showing me the path towards my dream.

  Copyright © 2019 by Chantae Marie Cvoliga (Chantae Oliver)

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the copyright owner except for the use of quotations in critical articles and reviews.

  No parts of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.

  Table of Contents

  Table of Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Prologue

  Deitra looked down at her swollen stomach and placed both hands carefully on top. She rubbed in soft, slow motions as she hummed her favorite song.

  Come on sweet baby, she thought, move for mommy. You’re making me worried.

  She reached over to the small table beside her and picked up the glass of orange juice that she had been drinking. She downed the final few gulps quickly, hoping that the sugar would get her baby moving.

  Time seemed to be frozen as she stared at her stomach, looking for any signs of life. The day had gone by without the signature kicks and rolls she had grown accustomed to seeing since she’d reached her final months of pregnancy. She hadn’t mentioned it to her husband as she figured she was worrying for nothing. But now, as she sat up wide awake – while he snored peacefully beside her – she fought the urge to shake him awake and have him take her to the hospital.

  Are you just having a lazy day sweetie, she thought, maybe you needed some extra sleep?

  Her rationalizations didn’t have the calming effect on her nerves that she’d hoped for, and instead, a vast array of worst-case scenarios played out in her head.

  Deitra got up and walked around the room, hoping that her movements would wake her baby up. She did soft hops, squats, and even lunges to get a response. When still nothing happened, she felt her heartbeat race as she considered her next moves.

  Are you dreaming, little one, she thought as she considered the possibility of traveling into her baby’s dream. She had been told by many that it’s impossible because even though it’s theorized that babies start to dream in utero, there had never been a successful journey to verify the validity of that claim.

  To hell with it, she thought as she climbed back onto the bed and assembled her multiple pillows around her to get comfortable.

  If this doesn’t work, then I have no choice, she thought as she looked over at her husband, we will be going to the hospital tonight.

  Her eyes stung as she said a silent prayer for her baby’s safety. She took one more deep breath, then let her eyes close.

  She entered the dream realm immediately, quicker than she’d ever done so before.

  Warmth engulfed her as she felt suspended in a comforting embrace. She felt a fast but steady pulsation around her, and instantaneously knew it was her baby’s heartbeat. She could feel her all around her, but unlike entering other people’s dreams, there weren’t any discernible images.

  Everything around her was soft, hazy, and a misty blend of light and dark colors. Happiness and an overwhelming feeling of security filled her. Different sounds came and went – her own voice humming, her husband reading a story, classical music, bits of conversations – all sounding as if they were far away.

  Deitra smiled brightly, knowing that her baby was okay. She felt a deep sense of connection to her baby that superseded anything she’d ever felt before as she remained in her dream – feeling everything the baby felt and seeing everything the baby saw.

  “I love you so much, and I can’t wait to hold you in my arms,” she said aloud, her voice echoing.

  A phantom sensation crept around her, and she felt as though she were being hugged. Her entire body tingled, and the hair on her arms stood up as though she had been shocked, but the feeling was pleasant and filled with love.

  “See you soon, my darling,” she said as the hug ended and she drifted awake.

  Deitra sat up in the bed and felt hot tears streaming down her face. She prayed again, this time to say thank you, and then pushed the pillows around her out of the way.

  She got up from her bed and quietly crept out of her room, trying her best to keep the door from squeaking.

  She went into her office/guest room and sat down at her desk and pulled out stationary and a pen. She looked down at her stomach and smiled brightly, still crying from the overwhelming happiness she felt.

  Deitra uncapped her pen and held it to the paper and began to write a letter to her baby, day-dreaming about the day she’d be able to give it to her.

  My Dearest Rhiannon…

  Chapter 1

  Kalen felt his heart seize up with panic as his body flattened to the bed where Rhiannon had once been. He sat up and looked around the room, briefly holding onto the feeble hope that maybe she’d just gotten up from the bed and he somehow hadn’t noticed. Not seeing her anywhere Kalen froze.

  Thoughts ran through his head at lightning speed, trying to grasp one that would possibly be of any help. Coming up with nothing he laid down on the bed in defeat and stared up at the ceiling – only to see Rhiannon staring back down at him – her hands covering her mouth to conceal a giggle, and opalescent wings sprouting out of her back seemingly keeping her afloat.

  Kalen let his mouth drop open as he looked up at her. He rubbed his eyes in disbelief, feeling as though he must be seeing things. It was undoubtedly Rhiannon, and yet she appeared ghostly above him. Her form had a translucency about it, as though she could disappear at any moment.

  “What is going on?” Kalen asked up to her.

  Rhiannon moved her hands away from her mouth – and with every move she made, a trail of shimmering light followed. She smiled br
ightly down at him as she shrugged.

  “I don’t know. I don’t exactly feel awake, but I’m pretty sure this isn’t a dream,” Rhiannon replied, her voice having a bell-like tinkle to it.

  Still, in disbelief, Kalen pinched himself just to be sure. He winced in pain and confirmed to himself that he was indeed awake.

  “Can you come down here?” he asked her hopefully.

  A look of consternation crossed Rhiannon’s face, as she wrinkled her nose, and focused all her attention on the wings that now sprouted from her back. Letting out a grunt of frustration, she said: “I don’t know how to work these things.”

  Not having any better ideas, Kalen decided to stand up on his bed and reach up to grab Rhiannon’s transparent and glimmering form. Seeing what he was doing, she reached out towards him and clasped his hand. Kalen almost let go from the severe shock her touch sent through his body.

  “Did you feel that?” he asked as the electric feeling began to fizzle out.

  “Yeah, it was like you gave me a static shock but amplified.”

  They both looked at their interlocked hands as if to study them, both taken aback by how strange Rhiannon’s looked.

  “What is wrong with me?” she mumbled fearfully.

  “I don’t know, you almost look like a hologram.”

  “Glamour and glitter, fashion and fame…” Rhiannon muttered quietly.

  “Did you just start singing the Jem theme song?”

  “Sorry, I used to love watching reruns as a kid. Wait…how did you know that’s what I was singing?” she replied.

  “Truthfully? Same. It was a good show!” he said, laughing.

  “One more thing we have in common,” she began with a smile, “but seriously, pull me down. Maybe once I’m grounded, I’ll go back to normal.”

  “Okay, here goes nothing,” and with that Kalen began pulling her towards himself. She felt practically weightless in his hand as she glided towards him like a kite on a string. She smiled brightly as she floated down towards him, enjoying the feeling as if she were a cloud. As he pulled her in closer, he wrapped both his arms around her to hug her but stopped when he felt the wings on her back.

  The shock from before was nothing in comparison to what he felt now. The moment his hands touched her wings, a jolt as if straight from a lightning bolt shot through them, sending him falling back onto the bed.

  Letting out a cry of pain as he fell, Rhiannon reached for him but was unable to grasp him as she felt herself floating back towards the ceiling.

  “Are you okay?” she called out towards Kalen.

  “I…I think so…” he stumbled as he groaned and sat up to examine his hands.

  Eyes widening in fear, he saw that his hands all the way up to his elbows had become translucent and shimmery like Rhiannon.

  “What…the hell.” He said as he held his hands up to show her.

  “Woah,” Rhiannon replied dumbstruck.

  “The pain is gone already, but what is happening? Are you contagious or something?”

  “Contagious!? It’s not like I’m diseased.” She replied indignantly.

  “No, I know, that’s not what I mean but look at my hands. This is crazy. We have to get you down so we can figure out what’s going on,” Kalen said with determination.

  Standing up again, Kalen reached up to grab Rhiannon’s hand – this time bracing himself for the shock – only this time, no shock was felt. The moment their hands met; he felt a warmth flow instead throughout his body as the translucency traveled up his arms. He began to pull Rhiannon towards him, but instead of her going down, he felt himself going up.

  Lost in the moment and in her beautiful eyes, Kalen let go of any worry and allowed himself to go towards her. Rhiannon’s eyes danced around him in confusion and awe as she saw him transform right in front of her eyes.

  Wings, blacker than the night sky, began to unravel from his back as the translucency took over his body. She smiled brightly at the beauty of his new form and opened her arms to him. Embracing in the air, the two timidly touched each other’s new appendages, this time only feeling a pleasant buzz in their fingers as they did.

  “This is intense,” Rhiannon said breathily.

  “We have got to be dreaming,” Kalen replied.

  Suddenly, the door opened, and a scream shot through their moment. Both Kalen and Rhiannon let go of each other in surprise as they looked towards the doorway where the shriek originated from. Upon seeing Aoki, Kalen’s mother, they both let out startled shouts as they felt gravity return to them. Falling fast, they didn’t have time to even think about what was happening as their bodies slammed onto the bed.

  Running up towards them and looking them over in concern, Aoki asked, “What just happened?”

  Getting her bearings, Rhiannon sat up slowly and looked down at her hands seeing now that they were back to normal. Hurriedly she reached around towards her back, feeling for anything, only to find that her wings were now gone. Looking towards Kalen, who was shuffling up to sitting beside her, she saw that he too was back to his usual self – all signs of his wings also gone.

  “I’m just as confused as you are,” Rhiannon said to Aoki.

  “Do you feel that?” Kalen asked Rhiannon as he looked quizzically at his hands as if searching for something.

  Looking at her own hands a bit closer, Rhiannon saw the hairs standing on end. She focused on what he could mean, and she realized that she somehow felt stronger. She hadn’t had a proper sleep in days, and yet she felt refreshed, energetic, and felt a strange sense of power rippling just beneath her skin.

  “I think so,” Rhiannon said as she held her arm up for Kalen and Aoki to see, “it’s like I can feel something pulsing inside of me now, something powerful. And I’m not tired anymore, usually after dream traveling my body still feels like it needs sleep but I don’t this time.”

  “Me too! I feel like I just had ten energy drinks or something – like I could go run a marathon and still have the energy to spare,” Kalen exclaimed.

  “Well, whatever it is that just happened, and apparently still is happening – I’ve never seen anything like that before,” Aoki said as her brows furrowed in concern.

  “Me either, we only briefly learned about fairies getting wings in our history classes. It was basically skimmed over because it just doesn’t happen anymore. Maybe I can go back to campus and check the library or ask my old history teacher if she knows anything?” Rhiannon thought aloud.

  “Go back to campus?” Kalen asked, not hiding the disagreement in his tone.

  “Yeah…listen, I can’t hide anymore. Oberon told me what happened to Lilyette, I have to be there for her. Plus, if I’m going to find out why I was sent after you, I’m going to have to face the High Council and Lady Villagomez. We need answers, and we aren’t going to find them by hiding.” Rhiannon said determinedly.

  “She’s right, Kalen,” Aoki began, “the longer she stays here, the more opportunity we give them to finding her – and finding this place.”

  She then turned directly to Rhiannon and continued.

  “You know who not to trust. Just be careful, and please don’t reveal anything about being here. On our end, we will focus on getting as much information as we can as well – there has to be a connection to why the High Council would send you after the only living son of Zachariah. Somehow, they must’ve found out that he exists, which means there must be people here that we can’t trust either.”

  “What if Oberon knew?” Kalen said pointedly.

  “Even if Lady Villagomez and the High Council are behind all this, I refuse to believe that Oberon would’ve known and been okay with them killing his cousin,” Rhiannon replied matter-of-factly.

  “Cousin…” Kalen said absentmindedly.

  “That’s right, he is your cousin. I’m so sorry I never told you about the other side of your family, Kalen…” Aoki said softly.

  “Given what they did to you and my father, I don’t blame you, Mom,” Kal
en said as he took her hand.

  “We only know for sure what Arion did, for all we know he acted on his own. Plus, all of this would’ve happened a year before Oberon was ever born, there’s no way he could’ve known,” Rhiannon said.

  “Exactly. We have to believe in innocence until proven guilty. Otherwise, we may lose out on potential allies who can help us protect you both, and possibly bring Arion to justice once and for all.” Aoki said.

  “Justice…to think all of this started because I thought that my parent’s murderer was finally found…just another unanswered question in a growing list,” Rhiannon said as she hung her head sadly feeling the weight of all that they faced press down heavily upon her shoulders.

  Placing his free hand on Rhiannon’s lower back, Kalen said softly, “We are with you in this. We just have to take one step at a time, and we will figure this all out.”

  “I know…it’s just crazy. Lilyette is in a coma, you’re Oberon’s freaking cousin and someone in the High Council – possibly all of them – sent me to kill you knowing that, I still don’t know who killed my parents or why, and to top it all off we just sprouted wings and flew!” she replied exasperatedly.

  “Well, when you list it all out like that, it is a lot. But on the bright side – we just flew!” He replied with a smile.

  “Yeah, that was pretty amazing.” She said with a small smile.

  “Now if we could just figure out how we did that and if we can control it…” Kalen said, letting his voice trail off.

  “Okay, guys, like you said, one step at a time, right? Our most pressing matters are Lilyette and making sure the both of you aren’t in any further danger, got it?” Aoki said sternly.

  “Yes, ma’am!” they said in unison.

  “Seriously you two, let’s start with Rhiannon going home and checking on Lilyette and meeting with the High Council. Hopefully, when she reveals that you couldn’t have been the killer, they will be forced to evaluate how you became the target. Our best hope is that the entire High Council isn’t corrupt and we’ll be able to at least buy some time before whoever made Kalen the target decides to try another method.” Aoki said.