Wishing on a Dream

by Michele Notaro

  When I walked into the kitchen, I was shocked that Isiah followed me, but he sent me an unsure smile and said, “I think they could use some time alone, but… is it alright if I help you with dinner?”

  “Sure.” I glanced around him to be sure Alaric was okay with Raphael alone, but he seemed fine.

  “Thank you for letting us invade your home, Grady,” Isiah said a few minutes later while we were both cutting up veggies.

  I waved him off. “No big deal. This is Alaric’s home, too, so he can have whoever he wants over.”

  Isiah smiled at me. “Your bond with him is very new, but I can tell that it’s strong already.”

  “Um… thanks.” I think. After a few seconds, my curiosity got the better of me and I asked, “Are you and Raphael bonded? Oh wait, can two warlocks bond like that or do they need a human or what? Shit, maybe I shouldn’t have asked that.” I cringed.

  “Two warlocks can bond, and yes, Raphael and I are soul-pledged.”

  I nodded. “Is he your boyfriend, then?” Dammit, I asked even though I didn’t mean to. What was with my mouth tonight? Maybe it was because they’d thrown me off and I was sorta protective of Alaric. I needed to find out as much as I could about these people to ensure his safety. No way in hell was I going to let them hurt him, even if they did have magic and I didn’t. I’d figure out a way to protect him if they turned out to be evil like that witch that trapped him and his father who let it happen.

  Isiah laughed. “No, he’s not. We’re just friends.”

  “Really? I thought… I mean… wait, Alaric said if we completed our bond that we would… want each other, so I figured all soul-pledges were the same.”

  “In a sense, I suppose that’s true, and it’s true that most soul-pledged pairs are together in that way, but… it’s not something we ever wanted, but we still wanted that connection with someone. We’re bound, but not together. I believe we’re the only pair like that in the world right now, at least that we know of.”

  “Wow.” That was crazy.

  Isiah shrugged. “He’s free to seek out another’s arms anytime he wants.”

  “But you aren’t?” I asked.

  “I am, but I don’t usually find a need for that type of interaction.”

  I nodded even though I wasn’t exactly sure what he meant by that.

  The rest of the conversation was kept light, and I found myself smiling at Isiah and feeling like maybe he could become a friend. Well, assuming Alaric wanted his brother to stick around, anyway. Once dinner was ready, we set the table and called everyone over. The brothers were tense, but I could see that they were both making an effort.

  After dinner, Alaric asked, “Would you like to stay here tonight?”

  Raphael’s eyebrows shot into his hairline. “Really?”

  Alaric nodded. “Yes. We have an extra room, so it’s no trouble.”

  I grinned since he’d said we.

  Raphael smiled widely. “We’d love to stay, little runt!”

  The nickname made Alaric roll his eyes, and Isiah cut his gaze to mine with a small smile. He seemed just as happy as I was to have the brothers getting along, if only for a moment.

  Alaric did his magic thing and set the house’s wards so our guests could venture upstairs. Then we got them settled in the guest room and went to the master bedroom to change into pajamas. Climbing into bed beside Alaric, I couldn’t help but smile. He was sitting there, reading a book he’d left on the nightstand, with his bare feet crossed, his back against the headboard, and a contented look on his face. He was at home. And it gave me a warm feeling in my chest and gut that he was so comfortable here.

  Not to mention he was sexy as sin and sitting in my—our—bed.

  “What?” he asked, shaking me out of my thoughts.

  “Nothing. I like seeing you in my bed.”

  He smiled at me. “I like being in your bed.”

  “Our bed,” I corrected us both earning me a small grin. I climbed in beside him and straight into his arms, and he wrapped me in them, kissing my temple as I asked, “How are you doing?”

  He sighed. “I think I’m alright. It’s strange, and I’m not sure it’s fully hit me yet, but… it was lovely getting to spend some time with him.”

  I squeezed his middle and tucked myself under his chin, closing my eyes. “I’m glad they’re here.”

  “Me too.”

  “You going to read for a bit?”

  “Will the light bother you?”

  I shook my head. The little book light was bright, but it wasn’t shining in my eyes or anything. “Will it bother you if I stay right here?”

  “Not at all,” he whispered. “I like you right here.” He squeezed me to emphasize his point.

  I leaned back and tilted my head up, hoping for a kiss, and Alaric didn’t disappoint at all. His fingers went into my hair as he kissed me hard and long, waking my body up. I wanted to roll us and capture him beneath me, but I knew he wouldn’t want to go further than this with his brother right next door. Alaric told me he didn’t often seek out the pleasures of flesh—who even says that?—or at least before meeting me, he’d only sought it out once in a while with the one person he’d been close to. It didn’t bother me if he didn’t want sex often. Kissing and cuddling could be just as intimate. And he was a hella good kisser, too.

  When he broke the kiss, we were both breathing heavily, and when he beamed at me, I smiled back. He kissed the tip of my nose, then my forehead, leaving his lips there as he whispered, “You’ve given me more than I ever dared to wish for.”

  I squeezed my arms tighter around him. “So have you.”

  His lips pulled up into a smile against my skin.

  Tucking myself back under his chin, I settled in as contentment and happiness and something I couldn’t name yet filled my chest and my heart, and I closed my eyes, letting sleep take me.

  Chapter 20

  Alaric

  Grady was still sleeping on my chest when I woke up, and I couldn’t contain the huge smile on my face. He was, without a doubt, the most amazing person I’d ever known. And for some unfathomable reason, he’d picked me to bond to. He picked me to have a relationship with.

  “What are you staring at? Did I drool on you?” Grady mumbled without opening his eyes or moving off me.

  My grin grew impossibly larger. “There’s a little puddle.” He started to move with a groan, but I held him to me. “But I don’t mind. I was admiring you while you slept.”

  “I can’t decide if that’s really sweet or really creepy.”

  I chuckled. “Maybe a little of both.”

  He opened one eye, then laughed before slamming it shut again. “Sorry for the drool bomb.”

  I shrugged, making him move. “Eh, it’ll dry.”

  He snorted. “Gross. If you’re gonna have my spit on you, it should be because I tasted your skin.”

  Heat flared in my center, but I held still, acutely aware that my brother and his friend were in the house.

  Grady shifted a little to tuck his face against my neck, and chills ran through me as his breath tickled my skin. He kissed and gently nipped me there, and my breath caught. He ran his tongue up the cord on my neck and tugged my earlobe between his teeth. And I held in a groan.

  “You taste good,” he whispered, his breath hot in my ear. His voice was husky, as if doing that to me was affecting him as much as it was affecting me. His hand ran up my chest and neck to my cheek where he rubbed my stubble. After giving my ear another tug with his teeth, he pressed his lips to my other cheek, then rested his forehead against my temple. “Let’s go check on our houseguests.”

  I swallowed around my dry mouth. “Oh-okay.”

  He smirked and kissed the corner of my mouth. “I’m going to brush my teeth and use the bathroom. You can go after me, ‘kay?”

  I nodded and he kissed my cheek again before hopping out of bed and making his way into the bathroom as if he hadn’t just made my body come alive in a way I
didn’t know it was able to.

  After we both used the bathroom and were minty fresh, we peeked into the guest room, finding it empty. An unsettled feeling overtook me, making it feel like there was a huge rock in my stomach. Did Raphie leave without a word? Why would he do that? I thought he wanted to get to know me again, I thought he wanted me in his life, I thought—

  Grady squeezed my shoulder—the one Tib wasn’t on—and said, “I hear noise from downstairs. I think they woke up before us.” He kissed my temple. “No panicking.”

  I nodded and swallowed around the lump in my throat, then followed him downstairs. We found Raphie and Isiah in the kitchen preparing breakfast. As soon as I walked in, Raphie dropped the spatula in his hand and walked over to me, pulling me into a huge bear hug. Tib got annoyed and flew over to Grady, who let him outside, but I grinned as my big brother hugged me in his arms. He was a big guy, unlike me. He took after our huge, muscular father, and I took after a tiny mother—or so I’d been told. She died when I was a baby so I didn’t remember her.

  I couldn’t believe Raphie was really here after all this time, after thinking he was gone forever. I squeezed him a little tighter.

  When Raphie finally released me, he cupped my cheeks and whispered, “Baby brother. I’m so fucking glad you’re finally free.” His use of profanity surprised me, but it shouldn’t have. He’d been living in this world, growing with it, for two hundred years while I’d been stuck in the snow globe, never changing. I had a lot to catch up on.

  “Me too.”

  He smiled, then walked back over to the stove.

  Isiah came over and held his fist out to me. “Good morning.”

  “Morning,” I replied. When Isiah didn’t drop his fist, I glanced at it and asked, “What?”

  Grady chuckled and grabbed my wrist, pushed my hand into a fist, then tapped it against Isiah’s fist, saying, “Fist bump. It’s a greeting and also a… like a camaraderie thing, I guess. Like if someone likes something you did or said or they agree with you or… you know what? Never mind. Not important. If someone holds their fist out, just bump it.” He held his out, so I tapped mine against it, and he laughed. “Perfect.”

  “Some things are really quite peculiar,” I said.

  Grady shrugged. “You’ll get used to it.”

  Raphie announced, “Breakfast is ready!” He set some things on the table, then said to Grady, “I hope you don’t mind. We wanted to do something nice for you as a way to thank you for your hospitality, and for helping my brother so much.”

  “You don’t have to thank me for any of that. I’ll do anything for Alaric,” Grady said, and I could tell he meant it.

  I grabbed Grady’s hand and pulled him closer so I could kiss his lips gently.

  As I went to open my mouth to speak, Grady put his finger over my lips to stop me and said, “Don’t even think about doing it.” I didn’t have to ask; he wanted me to stop thanking him, but I honestly didn’t know if I could. He’d saved my life, in more ways than one.

  I chuckled and kissed his finger. “Wouldn’t dream of it.”

  He rolled his eyes, then tugged me to the table where we sat beside one another and across from Raphie and Isiah. They both looked amused, and Raphie seemed happy. I said, “This looks delicious.”

  Isiah said, “Dig in. We have a lot to talk about after we finish our meal.” He smiled softly to soften the blow. We did have a lot to talk about, but I wasn’t really ready to talk about it.

  Grady shot me a glance before trying to lighten the mood. “Where do you guys live? I don’t think you told us yesterday.”

  “We travel all over, but we have apartments in New York, Dallas, San Diego, Toronto, Paris, and Edinburgh. Our main home base right now is New York since that’s where the Conclave typically meets.”

  My eyes were wide. “You have that many homes?”

  Raphie met my eyes with a nod. “We’ve been building up our funds for years, runt. The Conclave pays us well, and we travel a lot, so it’s nice to have a place to stay when we’re across the country for weeks or months at a time.”

  I couldn’t wrap my head around it, so I simply shook myself out and went back to my food.

  “So you work for this… Conclave,” Grady started. “What exactly do you do?”

  Isiah grinned. “We’re enforcers, so we investigate strange surges of energy, like when Alaric was released from his prison, among other things. If a witch or warlock breaks our laws, or we suspect a coven to be breaking laws, we’re sent out to detain them and bring them back to HQ.”

  “HQ?” I asked.

  “Headquarters,” Grady answered.

  “Oh right, I knew that.” I’d heard it on the television before.

  Grady sent me a smile before refocusing on Isiah. “Do these people have a trial?”

  “If we’re able to detain them unharmed or—”

  “Alive,” Raphie interrupted.

  Isiah nodded and continued, “Then yes, the criminal has a chance to defend themselves and explain why they did what they did. The delegates will then decide what their fate should be.”

  Raphie said, “Depending on their crime and their reasons for committing it, they could be sentenced to a few months to a lifetime stuck in the prison, and if their crime was bad enough, death.”

  Grady’s eyes went wide. “Oh.”

  Raphie shrugged. “Our laws are harsh because our magic is powerful and could be dangerous to anyone around us, and not just people either. If our magic got out of control, it could affect any living, breathing creature, and the environment as well.”

  Grady nodded and shot me a look, but I didn’t know anything about what they were talking about, so I asked Raphie, “Was the witch Claudette Rathmore who imprisoned me, was she… did she work for the Conclave?”

  Raphie said, “Yes, she did.”

  My eyes widened and fear sliced through me. “D-does that mean… are you here to send me b-back?”

  Grady grabbed my thigh, his fingers pressing into me through my pants.

  Raphie reached across the table, as if to put his hand on mine, but I jerked away so he couldn’t touch me. Raphie looked hurt, but he nodded with resignation on his face as he said, “No. We’re not. Even if… even if they wanted to put you back, I would never allow it, okay? I protect my family.”

  “I haven’t seen you in two centuries, Raphie.”

  “I know. But that doesn’t mean you’re not still my brother. You’ll always be my baby brother, and I’ll always do my best to protect you. I failed you once, and I will not let that happen again.”

  He meant it, I could see it on his face, so I nodded.

  Raphie blew out a breath and said, “You didn’t do anything wrong, so you never should have been imprisoned in the first place. She worked for the Conclave, but she wasn’t under their orders when she came for Father. She… she knew him and had a personal vendetta against him because he played a part in the death of her husband.” He waved that away as unimportant for the time being. “The Conclave never would have let another, let a son, serve his parent’s sentence. What she did, what Claudette did to you was… it was wrong, Alaric. And disgusting. She ran when she was through because she knew what she did would be enough to sentence her to death.”

  Isiah said, “We need to catch her to punish her for all her wrongdoings.”

  I nodded and turned away. After I ran that through my head a few times, I looked back and asked, “What about Father? Where is he?”

  Raphie’s face hardened, and his eyes looked icy. “He’s in prison. Where he belongs. You don’t have to worry about him hurting you ever again.”

  I nodded because it was a relief that he was there. After everything that had happened, having him in prison meant I was safer. Now, if we found Claudette Rathmore, then I’d be safe and able to protect Grady better. Maybe she didn’t care if I was out or not, but I didn’t want to risk being sent back into the globe for another two hundred years. Especially since I’d fo
und Grady. I didn’t want to leave him alone.

  Grady smiled at me when I met his eyes, and seeing his smile made me feel brave, so I turned to my brother and said, “I’m glad you’re here, Raphie. I hope you’ll stay awhile.”

  Raphie blew out a breath of relief. “That’s good… I want to get to know you again, runt.”

  “Okay, but maybe stop calling me ‘runt’ every thirty seconds.”

  “Not a chance.” Raphie chuckled, making me snort, and he took another bite off his plate.

  As we were cleaning up breakfast, a phone rang loudly, and Grady stopped what he was doing to scan the room. Raphie held up a finger. “That would be me. Hold on one sec.” He pulled a phone from his pocket, grimaced at the caller I.D., and held it up to his ear. “Hello?” There was a long pause. “Yes, we did. We’re here now.” Another pause. “Shit, seriously? Okay, yeah. Um… how about we meet at Hero’s Hideout: Comics and Games?” He listened for a few minutes before disconnecting and saying to us, “The Conclave is picking up high volumes of dark magic in this area. They’re afraid that she’s come looking for you.”

  “You really think she wants me?” I asked.

  Raphie shrugged. “I’m not sure, but we think it’s a possibility. Like I said last night, there’s been rumors about her wanting to tip the scales, and now that you’re free, the globe is no longer putting out dark energy. Also, she may come after you because you have evidence of her magic and can use it to find her. Maybe she felt the pulse like I did. Maybe she’s just coming to see what happened. I can only speculate. But she’s here, I’m sure of it. Having a dark magic surge is no coincidence.”

  At the thought of Claudette Rathmore coming here, coming to get me, fear shot down my spine and rushed through my veins. She was here. She would come after me, and if she found me, she’d find Grady. What if she went after him? What if she trapped one of us and we were separated for two more centuries? I began shaking from the sudden cold in my bloodstream.