The Palace of Dreams

Contents Cover Title Page Dedication Prologue Part 1 Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Part 2 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 29 Chapter 30 Part 3 Chapter 31 Chapter 32 Chapter 33 Chapter 34 Chapter 35 Chapter 36 Chapter 37 Chapter 38 Chapter 39 Chapter 40 Chapter 41 Chapter 42 Epilogue Acknowledgments About the Author Copyright Guide Cover Start of Content Title Page Dedication Prologue Epilogue Acknowledgments About the Author Copyright III V VI 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360 361 362 
 
 Thirteen Witches Books 3
 The Palace of Dreams
 New York Times Bestselling Author
 Jodi Lynn Anderson
 
 
 
 
 
 For Gwen
 
 
 PROLOGUE 
 In the woods a girl is walking, her long dark hair in a ponytail, a quiver of painted arrows slung over her shoulder. Behind her lies the house in which her family sleeps.
 It takes several minutes for her to reach the ladder. She tries the bottom rung, and it holds her weight. The girl—only human and, till now, earthbound—climbs into the sky, toward the moon.
 While she’s away, the animals talk, in their way; the trees whisper through their roots; the undergrowth points branches at the beauty of the dark; the night flowers bloom so that they, too, can gaze up at the sky. Nocturnal creatures hunt and are hunted; they speak quietly of scents and directions to burrows, telling each other “stay away” or “come closer” or “I am here.”
 When—later that night—the girl returns, she walks home softly and full of secrets. Annabelle Oaks lies down envisioning the danger her future holds: she pictures arrows piercing wicked hearts. She envisions a time when witches are ended and her loved ones are safe. She hears soft breathing in the night, her sister in the bed across the room. Outside, an owl hoots softly. Years from now, another owl will determine her fate.
 The forest, alive and watchful as it always has been, settles down to wait for morning. Light-years away, on 
 
 
 
 CHAPTER 1 
 “We’re getting there,” says a woman’s voice in the dark.
 I’m not sure who the voice belongs to. I reach out to see if I can touch someone—my mom, my brother… but my hands touch nothing. I wonder if I even have hands at this point, because when I try to reach them up and touch my face, I feel nothing.
 Besides the voice, only one thing seems to exist: a pinpoint of light I see in the dark ahead of me. It might be a tiny dot close by or an immense glow a million miles away. All I know is that moments ago, I somehow stepped into a hole in a magazine. And now I am hurtling—across space, underneath space, or maybe through no space at all.
 “Soon the universe will suck us back out into existence again, like being sucked through a straw,” the voice says. “Just let yourself relax. You don’t have to do a thing. It’ll feel squishy, but not painful.” The voice has just the slightest hint of a Spanish accent. Silence passes for a moment. Then, “I’m Wanda, by the way. Wanda Luna. Sorry we have to make our introductions as disembodied consciousnesses, but a mal tiempo, buena cara.”
 “Disembodied whats?” another voice chimes in. I think it’s Germ.
 “Oh! Here we