Read Lay Me Down for Free Online

limits to everyone but those involved in the search for Vince Blackman, Raymond’s son, who had been lost there when Maisie’s sister Jordan drowned him a few days back.
    There were now reports of something else out there too—a creature of sorts—something Steve never would’ve believed if the report hadn’t come from Jordan Lane and Malcolm Rook themselves. Apparently the creature had taken the form of Rook’s most troubling nightmare—his dead younger brother.
    The true nature of the creature was something Chimera could only speculate about, but its existence made even more problematic the criminal activities of people like Graeme and whoever was behind him. Chimera couldn’t be fighting on two fronts.
    Nevertheless, the Scrape was where packages from people like Graeme should be opened, or whatever awfulness Graeme sought to transport might pollute Maisie’s city. Might weaken her boundaries. Who knew what was inside the thing?
    As a courier, Maisie had to have crossed the Scrape at some point, but Steve asked anyway. “Do you know the desert beyond the dreamwaters? Very windy. Desolate.”
    “Oh, you mean the big haboob?”
    “Chimera calls it the Scrape,” he told her.
    “That’s a stupid name.”
    He grinned. “I named it.”
    “Figures.”
    “I was five at the time.”
    Her eyes widened slightly, and he got the sweet satisfaction of having finally impressed her. He didn’t know why he’d said it—he’d told no one else; the name had simply caught on in conversation—but he didn’t regret it.
    “That’s the second time you’ve mentioned being Darkside before Rêve was invented,” she said.
    It was his turn to smile enigmatically at her. “How do we get out of the city?” Which he presumed was the boundary of her dream. If she’d made a whole world, he was going to have to brag again, and it really wasn’t his style. “We need to open the package there.”
    “Okey-doke. Follow me.”
    She led him down streets, turning into alleys and climbing over walls, and the more he saw, the more he recognized her genius. Some concrete staircases jutted up into the sky, but went nowhere. What seemed like an artistic sculpture in front of a building was actually an access to another street. Finally the buildings lowered in stature to identical three-level walkup row houses, and beyond that, warehouses where desert sand from the Scrape had blown up to the bases of the buildings.
    Only a city, then, thank God, but how the hell did she do it? How did such a puny little woman, at twenty-one for chrissake, have such an elaborate and expansive dream inside her?
    She blushed a little and laughed. “Puny! I’m not puny.”
    Steve started. Had he spoken out loud?
    “And actually, my nickname gave me the idea.”
    No, he hadn’t spoken out loud.
    An electric current of alarm zapped through him. Careful. He had to be very careful with her.
    She’d read his mind. In her dream, she could read his mind, just as he’d read a bit from hers when they’d arrived— Trespasser.
    She didn’t seem to be aware that she could do this. Although, considering the line of his thoughts, on some level she might know that he desired her. But as she didn’t seem wary or outright scared, he didn’t think she’d perceived more than that. But then, concealing the darkest parts of his mind was second nature to him.
    “You know, a maze ,” she went on. “I’ve been getting maze books since I was, like, three—everyone’s favorite birthday present for me, so clever to play on my nickname. Anyway, I’ve gotten pretty good at them.”
    “Never buy you a maze book,” he said, testing her. “Got it.”
    He was reeling from her formidable talent. No, she had more than just talent, she had skill, too, and the perseverance it took to build so meticulously over time. And she was incredibly receptive to thought within the dreamwaters, as well. Of course she’d dominate in her own dreams, but she could learn to master the