The Indestructibles (Book 2): Breakout by Matthew Phillion

break in reality, an old scabbed over wound in time where another magician had passed through badly. That opening led them here, to this idyllic place, with its strange creatures and wind that sounded like music.
          "I hate not knowing where we are," Natasha said.
          "I think we're in the Dreamless Lands," Doc said.
          They had that feel, the waking hallucination, the senses overlapping and crossing signals unnaturally. He'd only been to the Dreamless Lands once, and then only briefly.
          "I'll trust your judgment on that," Natasha said. "I never had much reason to go to the higher planes. No business for me there."
          "Not much business for me there either," Doc said.
          "What were you doing here, then?" Natasha asked.
          Doc raised an eyebrow.
          "You're asking me about my life."
          "Silence, I've told you a million times. You fascinate me," Natasha said. "Just because I think you're a nostalgic fool doesn't mean I don't like your stories."
          Doc smiled, nodded, fixed his glasses on his face.
          "Have you heard of the Lady Dreamless?"
          "I thought I was the only Lady you know."
          "Am I the only Doctor you know?"
          "Not even close, Silence."
          "I came here to help a friend out of an arranged marriage," Doc said. And then he began to recite:
     
     
          "Have you heard of the Lady Dreamless?
          Promised to a nightmare Prince,
          Raised to the sounds of the songs of the Damned,
          Queen of the Citrine Tower,
          Heir to an empty throne?
         
          Have you heard her story?
          Trapped for a millennium in a black gem,
          With only the whispers of passing nightmares
          To keep her company?
         
          Have you heard of her escape?
          How she crossed the black and starless paths
          Of faded lands, armed with only her wits
          And a wisp of fire to guide her?"
     
          Natasha roared laughing. She fell onto her back and held her belly and laughed until tears poured out of the corner of her flame-filled eyes.
          "That was you? You're the idiot who got the Nightmare Prince's bride out of her contract? I thought that was the other guy, the fox-spirit guy. Renard."
          "I just helped get her out. We had to. If the Lady Dreamless and the Nightmare Prince got married nobody would have slept in any reality for a hundred years. We did it for everyone's mental health."
          Natasha sat back up again, brushing the hair out of her eyes,
          "And people say I'm a meddler," she said. "So what does this mean for us?"
          "I don't know," Doc said. "But maybe she can help point us in the right direction home."
         

 
     
     
    Chapter 14:
    Show and tell
         
         
          Well, at least they aren't keeping me in a cell, Sam thought. He was being held in one of the suites where agents would crash and set up shop if they needed to work with one of the prisoners or pursue an investigation in the old days. Like a studio apartment, it had a desk, a bed — even a couch, with a small private bathroom. It was also locked.
          They didn't do that in the old days.
          Prevention walked in without knocking, her agents Lock and Rourke in tow. Sam had taken to entertaining himself by pretending he couldn't keep their names straight, despite Lock having a full head of hair and Rourke keeping his buzzed short. He had to figure out some way of entertaining himself while he was kept essentially behind bars.
          Behind bars in a prison he and his former fellow Department agents help fill.
          "You look like you had a great meeting with the kids," Sam said.   Prevention offered a hard stare. "Did you know Straylight could detect psychic probes?"
          "We have never, ever known exactly what powers the