Worlds Collide (The Land of Stories #6)(15)

“Oppression is a sport for the small-minded. Empathy is the path to true power,” Merlin lectured. “A great leader respects all walks of life; otherwise, life will walk all over them.”

“Ain’t that the truth,” Mother Goose agreed. “It’s just like I told my friends during the Boston Tea Party: Tyranny is a revolution’s welcome mat.”

Arthur was reminded of his elders’ wise words as he flew above the land they were training him to rule one day. The flight made him very thirsty, and he descended toward a small lake. As soon as his claws touched the ground, they transformed into hooves, and Arthur galloped the rest of the way to the water as a horse.

When he arrived at the lake, Arthur found a young woman standing alone on the shore. She wore a white dress and had long strawberry-blonde hair, and stood with her back facing him. Arthur transformed back into his human self upon seeing the young woman. At first, he worried she might be one of the Mists of Avalon that Merlin was always warning him about, but there was something very familiar about her. Eventually, the young woman heard him approaching and turned around.

“Alex,” Arthur said with a big smile. “It’s so good to see you.”

“Arthur?” she said. “Is that you?”

Alex was much more surprised to see him than he was to see her. In fact, Arthur wasn’t rattled in the slightest; Alex made regular appearances in his dreams.

“Of course it’s me,” Arthur said. “Who else would it be?”

Alex looked around the lake, completely disoriented; she seemed to be afraid of her surroundings.

“Where am I?”

“You’re in my dream,” Arthur said. “I know it’s a dream because it’s the only place I get to see you. And now that I know I’m dreaming, I imagine I’ll be waking up soon.”

Whenever Arthur realized he was dreaming, he immediately returned to consciousness. He could feel his mind’s clarity returning by the second, but oddly, this time he didn’t wake up.

“I must be more tired than I thought,” he said. “I’m grateful for every extra second I get to spend with you, even if it isn’t the real you.”

For the first time, Arthur noticed that Alex looked very different than she normally did when he dreamed about her. Her face was much paler, her eyes were red like she had been crying, and she blinked frantically like something deeply troubling was on her mind.

“This is so strange,” she said. “I thought this was my dream, but maybe I’ve stumbled into yours.”

“So I’m dreaming of you dreaming of me?” Arthur asked. “Well, I’m afraid to look up what this means in Merlin’s dream dictionary—”

“No, I mean we’re both asleep,” Alex said. “Just a minute ago, I was dreaming of my hometown, and then I suddenly found myself at this lake. I think we’re communicating in our sleep.”

“So it’s really you?” he asked softly.

“Yeah,” she said. “It’s really me.”

Arthur didn’t know which possibility was more overwhelming: that he and Alex were connecting subconsciously, or that he was standing in front of the real Alex and not a figment of his imagination.

“But how is this possible?”

“I don’t know,” Alex said, and struggled to think of an explanation. “When my brother and I were little kids, we used to see each other in our dreams all the time. We would wake up the next day and recite everything we had done and everything we’d said. No one believed us, so we stopped mentioning it—we figured it was just a twin thing other people didn’t understand. I was hoping it still worked and tried contacting him now. But it looks like my dreams led me to yours.”

The two shared a small but very telling smile.

“If this is real, it’s no mystery why it’s happening,” Arthur said. “We probably spend so much time thinking about each other, our subconscious minds are trying to tell us something.”

“Arthur, please don’t start this again; it was hard enough the first time,” Alex said. “We both agreed that living separate lives was the responsible thing to do. You have a destiny to fulfill, and you can’t jeopardize it by running off with the first girl you met in the woods.”

“I’m not jeopardizing anything,” he said with a playful grin. “I plan on fulfilling everything on my destiny to-do list. I’m going to pull the sword from the stone, I’m going to start Camelot, I’m going to form the Knights of the Round Table, and I’m even going to find the Holy Grail. Once I’m done, I’m going to find you, and you won’t have any more excuses to keep us apart.”

“Arthur, I may not be around by the time you do it all,” she said quietly.

“Of course you’ll be around,” Arthur said with a laugh. “I’ve been training twice as hard with Merlin and Mother Goose so I can finish much faster than the legend predicts. It may have taken another King Arthur a few decades to complete his legacy, but I know it’ll only take me a couple of years because I’ve got you to inspire me.”

Arthur’s devotion brought tears to Alex’s eyes, but not in a good way.

“No,” she said, and shook her head. “Even if you finish it earlier than expected, you have to stay in Camelot. You’ll throw your life away if you do it all for me.”