Dreamland by Alyson Noel

Author:Alyson Noel [Noel, Alyson]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2011-10-12T19:27:43+00:00

THE RILEY BLOOM BOOKS

Radiance

Shimmer

THE IMMORTALS SERIES

Evermore

Blue Moon

Shadowland

Dark Flame

Night Star

Everlasting

Faking 19

Art Geeks and Prom Queens

Fly Me to the Moon

Laguna Cove

Kiss & Blog

Saving Zoë

Cruel Summer

Coming in Winter 2012

Riley’s adventures continue in

Whisper

The first thought that popped into my head when we entered the Roman city limits was: Hunh?

I squinted into the wind, droopy blond hair streaming behind me, feeling more than a little deflated as I soared over a landscape that was pretty much exactly the same as all the others before it.

My guide, Bodhi, my dog, Buttercup, and I had flown a great distance to get here, and even though flying was hands down our favorite way to travel, there was no denying how after a while, the scenery tended to get a bit dull—fading into a continuous blur of clouds, nature, and man-made things, all piled up in a row. And though I’d grown used 274/299

to it, I guess I still hoped that Rome would be different, but from where we hovered, it all looked the same.

Bodhi looked at me, his green eyes taking note of my disappointed face, he shot me a quick grin and said, “Follow me.” He thrust his arms before him and somer-saulted into a major free fall as Buttercup and I did the same. And the faster we spun toward the earth, the more the landscape below came to life—blooming with such vibrant color and detail, I couldn’t help but squeal in delight.

Rome wasn’t boring. It was more like the opposite—a city chockful of visual contradic-tions practically everywhere you looked.

Consisting of a maze of crazily curving, traffic-choked

streets

that

curled

and

swooped around newly renovated buildings and crumbling old ones—all of it looming over dusty old ruins dating back a handful of 275/299

centuries—reminders of a long-ago history that refused to go quietly.

Bodhi slowed, his hair flopping into his face, when he nodded toward the ruin just below him as he said, “There it is. What do you think?”

Buttercup barked with excitement, wagging his tail in a way that made him spin sideways, as I gawked at the massive old am-phitheater, marveling at its size and finding myself suddenly sideswiped by doubt.

I mean, yes, I’m the one who’d practically begged the Council for a more-challenging Soul Catch—I wanted to glow brighter, and also turn thirteen more than anything else in the world, and I wrongly believed that excelling at my job was the one and only way to speed that along. But the longer I gazed upon that massive stone structure with its arches and columns and sturdy old walls—the more I took in its sheer size and scope—the more I thought about the activities it was known for: 276/299

barbaric cruelty and slaughter, blood-soaked battles fought to the death—well, I couldn’t help but wonder if I’d maybe been a little too ambitious, if I might’ve overreached.

Not wanting to let on to my sudden fit of cowardice, I gulped hard and said, “Wow, that’s um … that’s a whole lot bigger than I thought it would be.”

Continuing to hover, my eagerness to land all but forgotten until Bodhi yanked hard on my sleeve and got us all moving again.

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