Dreamless

prop plane. Helen was excited to tell Claire about Haircut, but before she could open her mouth, Claire was rolling her eyes and grabbing Helen by the shoulders.
    “Oh, for crying out loud!” Claire mumbled in exasperation as she undid the misaligned buttons on Helen’s pesky jacket and then redid them correctly. “You look like a dyslexic five-year-old. Am I going to have to come over every morning and dress you now?”
    “Hamilton!” Coach Tar shouted before Helen had a chance to think up a reply, let alone tell Claire what had happened the night before. “You’re sitting with me. We need to talk strategy.”
    “I have something to tell you,” Helen blurted out to Claire as she backpedaled toward Coach. “I saw someone there, you know, last night .” Claire’s eyes widened hopefully as Helen got dragged away.
    The rest of the flight, Coach blabbed excitedly about how Helen should draft this runner and then pull out in front of that runner—all useless advice considering that if she wanted to she could break the sound barrier. Helen half listened and tried to not worry too much about Haircut.
    He was big, tall, and powerfully built, and he looked like he knew what he was doing with that long dagger he had been using to defend himself. Helen tried to convince herself that he was probably fine, but she wasn’t entirely convinced.
    Whoever Haircut was, he certainly looked like a Scion. But maybe he was just a six-foot-four, muscle-y, unbelievably good-looking mortal with a great smile. And if that was the case, the poor thing was definitely dead. No mortal could fight off that harpy.
    All morning, Helen tried to find an opportunity to talk to Claire, but she didn’t have a chance. She ran her first race, trying not to win it outright, but she was distracted, wondering whether or not it was possible to get killed in the land of the dead. The useless internal debate ruined her concentration, and she ended up running way too fast. Helen pretended to pant when she realized that all of the spectators were staring at her with their mouths hanging open. All except one.
    Zach Brant didn’t look the slightest bit surprised as Helen ran past at jackrabbit speed. In fact, he looked almost bored. Helen had no idea what Zach was doing at the meet—he’d never come to one before. From the way his eyes seemed to be glued to her, Helen could only assume he had come to watch her, but she had no idea why. There had been a time when Helen would have assumed Zach was watching her because he had a crush on her, but that time was long gone. Lately, it seemed like he wanted nothing to do with her.
    Helen won her race, then she cheered while Claire finished one of her own before they finally met up by the triple-jump sand strip.
    “So what happened?” Claire puffed, still winded from running.
    “I saw . . .” Helen broke off. “Let’s go over there,” she continued, pointing to an empty expanse of field at the edge of the track. There were a lot of people milling around, and Zach was standing a bit too close.
    By this point, Helen was nearly bursting to tell Claire what she had seen. While they walked she whispered under her breath, “I saw a person. A living person.”
    “But, I thought you were the only one who can go down there in your body—not just as a spirit.”
    “Me too! But last night there was this boy. Well, not a boy . I mean he was ginormous. A guy, around our age, I guess.”
    “What was he doing down there?” Claire asked. She didn’t sound convinced that Helen had really seen someone.
    “Getting his ass handed to him by a harpy?” Helen said. “But the night before last, he pulled me out of the quicksand. One of his arms is all shiny, like it’s covered in gold.” Claire looked at her dubiously, and Helen realized just how nuts she sounded. “Do you think I’m going crazy? Sounds crazy, right? And it’s not even supposed to be possible.”
    “Do you mind?” Claire said suddenly. She glared over Helen’s shoulder at Zach, who was following them. “Private conversation here.”
    Zach shrugged, but he didn’t walk away. Claire took his defiance as a challenge. She yelled at him to go away in her most authoritative voice, but he wouldn’t budge. Eventually, she had to take Helen’s hand and steer her toward the edge of the open field where the woods began. Zach couldn’t very well follow them without Claire causing a scene about it, but he didn’t turn away, either. He just