The Vault of Dreamers (40 page)

“Because of this,” she says.

I feel a wrenching. A swarm of savage white spheres grabs my sister and tries to rip
her out of my arms.

No!
I scream.
You can’t take her!

I clutch my sister against me and I try to protect her body as she screams in fear
and pain. The universe laughs at us, cold and hard. The swarm pulls harder at Dubbs.
Dr. Ash is wresting my sister away from me, and if I let this gem of her go, it will
decimate me.

I grasp a sudden, startling idea.

I’m going with my sister,
I say.

You can’t!
she says.
You can’t leave me!

If I stay here, I’ll rot in this body. This is my chance.

I summon every particle of strength in my marrow and hold my sister tight. Her arms
are wrapped around my neck, practically choking me. They can’t take her without me.
Going with my sister is my only chance.

My inner voice is a snake of smoke, shriveling and twisting with anger and fear.

You don’t know where you’re going! What if you never come back?
she cries.

I’ll be out of this hell
, I say.
I have to live.

She snarls and swells in raging fury, but I summon my fiercest determination. I have
no time to reconsider and no time to waste. The white spheres have my sister in their
insatiable grip and they give one last, rending pull. I am torn off the railroad tracks,
through the swirling web of golden strands, and into a wild, exploding sky. The spheres
have stolen my sister, but they’re taking me, too.

I break into a disembodied smile of victory.

The dean and the doctor have won. They’ll always win. But this time, I’ve won, too,
and I’m more alive than ever.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Mine was the rare good fortune to work with two crack editors on
The Vault of Dreamers
, Nancy Mercado and Katherine Jacobs, and I’m deeply grateful to both. Thanks to the
team at Roaring Brook Press once again, especially Simon Boughton and Beth Clark.
I wish to thank my agent, Kirby Kim, who urged me to chase a daunting idea. I’m grateful
to my sister, Nancy O’Brien Wagner, for her insights on key drafts. I’d like to thank
William, Emily, and Michael LoTurco, with Lauren Dittmeier and James Moen, whose support
and honest feedback were pivotal. As ever, I thank my husband, Joseph LoTurco, for
everything.

Caragh M. O’Brien

September 16, 2014

ALSO BY CARAGH M. O’BRIEN

The Birthmarked Trilogy

Birthmarked

Prized

Promised

Text copyright © 2014 by Caragh M. O’Brien

Map art by Chris B. Murray

Published by Roaring Brook Press

Roaring Brook Press is a division of Holtzbrinck Publishing Holdings Limited Partnership

175 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10010

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The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:

O’Brien, Caragh M.

   The vault of dreamers / Caragh M. O’Brien.

       pages  cm

   Summary: Rosie Sinclair, who attends an elite arts school where students are contestants
on a high stakes reality show, skips her sleeping pill one night and discovers that
the school is really a cover-up for the lucrative and sinister practice of dream harvesting.

   ISBN 978-1-59643-938-2 (hardback) — ISBN 978-1-59643-939-9 (ebook)

[1.  Reality television programs—Fiction.   2.  High schools—Fiction.   3.  Schools—Fiction.  
4.  Dreams—Fiction.   5.  Science fiction.]   I.  Title.

   PZ7.O12673Vau 2014

   [Fic]—dc23

2014013322

eISBN 9781596439399

First hardcover edition, 2014

eBook edition, September 2014