Silver Blood (Series of Blood Book 1) by Emma Hamm (bill gates book recommendations .TXT) 📕

Another deep breath expanded his chest, and he slowly exhaled until his chest stopped moving altogether. This was how he slipped into the dreaming world, and part of the reason why it was so dangerous. His physical form was vulnerable and nearly dead while he was projected into other people’s minds.

Burke was inhabited by a Dream Walker. They could step into other people’s dreams without magic and could change the dreaming world around them. However, he could only control other people’s dreams so much before the other dreamer would start to control him.

He flexed his fingers one more time before sinking deep into the recesses of his mind. “Lost in a crowd and insane,” he muttered as though the words were a focus point.

“Alright, time to fly.”

He said the same thing every time he launched himself into the Dream World. Every time he dropped out of the pit of his stomach and into the blank space of dreams.

There was no form to his body when he was in the dreaming world. He was nothing more than black smoke until he stepped into a dream. There, he could choose what he wanted to look like. He tended to choose something in the background, a tree or some animal that the dreamer wouldn’t notice.

Formless, he traveled past the thousands of dreamers that were near him.

“Something insane. I’m looking for something insane,” he muttered to himself as he touched the edges of every dream that he could. Every single person in each dream appeared to be perfectly sane. Some of them were afraid, even terrified, as they battled nightmares.

But that was not the same thing as insanity.

He traveled throughout the night and touched nothing that seemed to fit into the prophecy. He didn’t know who he was looking for and frustration was distracting him.

Burke also hated to be so far away from his body. His mind had drifted so far that he worried he would tire too quickly and lose the connection to his physical form. This had happened before, and it had taken him nearly a month to get back. He was lucky he hadn’t died that time.

He turned to go back and disappointment made him angry. He hated coming back with nothing to show. The Five didn’t take failure lightly, and Burke was the only one that could find these people that they needed. Otherwise, they were on a wild goose chase across the world.

Just as he was about to leave for good, he felt it. A slight tingle raced across his form as though he had walked by something electric. That, right there, was a clear sign of insanity.

Though he was exhausted, he turned and prepared himself for a battle. The insane rarely liked people inside their dreams, and he never knew what kind of dream they would have. Their minds came up with the strangest of circumstances.

He flowed into the dream and pooled his smoky form into a shadow to gather his bearings. The dream was far different than anything he had expected. This made Burke nervous.

The dream was rather peaceful. A small pond was placed in the center of a large field. Flowers were growing in the emerald green grass, and butterflies worked their wings as they rested upon the larger than life blossoms. There was a dock on the lake that looked worn and old. Even from so far away he could see that there were a few holes in it that could break an ankle.

It was the figure at the end of the dock that caught his attention though. A very small woman sat with her feet dangling off of the edge. A white dress billowed around her that was nearly as frothy as the foam at the edges of the lake. Her hair was a deep blood red that seemed to have a life of its own as it floated around her. She wasn’t underwater, and yet her hair appeared to be.

There weren’t any animals he could mimic as the butterflies appeared to stay away from her. She would notice if something of her own creation wandered towards her.

Dreams had a delicate balance. If he startled her in any way, the dream could change on him. Something so fragile as a happy dream could turn into a nightmare if he lost control of it.

Burke reached into her mind with the barest caress and managed to pluck out a form from a recent memory without her knowing. He recoiled from the insanity of her mind. It rolled within her like a serpentine creature trapped inside a cage. Never in his life had he felt something as powerfully wrong as this.

He didn’t know what she was, but Burke hadn’t been frightened by a mind in a very long time.

Taking a deep breath, he wrapped himself in the form of the man in her mind and stepped out of the shadows. He had gotten a name as well, though he didn’t know if it was hers.

“Wren.”

She stiffened for a second and glanced over her shoulder.

He was struck by how unusually shaped she was. He hadn’t seen a woman with so many freckles on her skin or the glinting metal in her nose. Her forehead sloped downwards into a long nose that pointed directly at full pink lips. She was unusually beautiful and startling at the same time. A strand of red hair stroked against her cheek as though comforting her surprised response.

She narrowed her eyes at him and swept her gaze from his toes to the top of his head. For a moment, Burke thought that he had made a mistake. When he was very young, he had sometimes forgotten to put feet on his new body. He managed to not look down and arched an eyebrow in response to her.

“Hmm,” she said quietly.

Confused, he repeated the sound to her. “Hmm?”

“You aren’t right.”

“I’m not what?” Burke was shocked. No one had ever looked at him in a dream and responded so lucidly. They were usually slightly disoriented