Blind Speed Dating #19 (YA)

Title: THE DREAMSPEAKER'S DIARY

Genre: YA

Word Count: 73,000

Query:

Brier has a secret: She can speak her dreams into existence. After a frightening childhood event, she’s learned to keep her talent hidden, and she’ll do whatever it takes to prevent her dreams from taking shape. But that all changes when Keller Temms comes to town. Enigmatic and brooding, he’s a foster child with a guarded past, yet he draws her like nothing else.

Suddenly, Brier's closely controlled life is thrown off balance as her dreams take on a life of their own—even showing up at Grayson High without warning. When agents from a secret dream lab come after her, Brier must push the boundaries of her dreamspeaking abilities in ways she never imagined possible to save herself and the people she loves.

But when hunters infiltrate her dreams, Keller comes to her aid with skills of his own, and Brier must decide if he’s an ally or the reason she’s a target in the first place.

First 250:

When I turned six, I learned the monsters in my closet were real—but what scared me most was realizing I had put them there.

This is my first thought when I wake in the basement closet sprawled beside the baseboards. My fingers trace the grooves of claw marks—in the place my mother couldn’t cover with paint. Her words from that night come back to me and I’m reminded that, as scary as the creature in the closet was, the people who will come for me if I’m discovered are worse. My second thought is that I have to get my dreamspeaking under control, because this is the third time this week I’ve woken up in the damn closet.

The floor creaks and a light switches on. 

“Brier?” My sister’s muffled voice reaches me beyond a wall of old coats.

Squinting against the sudden brightness, I scramble out on my hands and knees. “Owen? What are you doing up? It’s the middle of the night.”

“I thought I heard you on the stairs.” Her eyes search my face, drop down my Hello Kitty shirt and tattered flannel shorts. “Why are you in the closet?”

“A…mouse.” My eyes shift toward the shadows. “I saw a mouse.”

“And you followed it into the closet?”

Taking her arm, I steer her toward the stairs. “Just one mouse can cause a lot of problems. We’re talking infestation.” I switch off the light and lead the way back to our rooms.