Already he was thinking of Briana as his witch. He hadn’t been prepared for the sheer strength of this draw to her. The bond between them already came with the side effect of impulses to protect and possess, but sleeping beside her as the wolf had altered things irrevocably. Overnight, he’d gone from merely existing to having a purpose again. Staying away from her had been difficult before, now it would be impossible.
“But first,” Astrid whirled back to Bri, “I want to know why the hell you were crossing planes.”
A chill stroked the air. Gooseflesh rose on his arms.
Loki fluffed his feathers.
The color drained from Bri’s face.
“That is so dangerous,” Astrid said, barely above a whisper. “What if you couldn’t come back? First Kean and then–”
“I didn’t mean to. That was the first time it’s ever happened. Normally, I can see him and talk to him, but last night…I went there. I could touch him.” Bri crossed the room and stood beside Astrid, taking her hand.
Tears shimmered in Astrid’s eyes. “What?”
Lucas glanced away, feeling as if he was intruding on a moment that should be private. Yet he couldn’t help his curiosity. Clearly these two women shared a deep bond. It would behoove him to at least understand their dynamic if he was going to become a part of Briana’s life.
“Kean’s not gone, Pear. He’s a Lumere. I’ve seen him. I’ve talked to him. Last night I actually held him. And I’m going to find a way to bring him back.”
Lucas was even more impressed as Astrid steeled herself to the news and mastered her emotions. “Kean’s not gone?”
“No,” Bri whispered. “He’s trapped on a different plane.”
“How long have you known?”
Briana stared at her feet, shoulders slumping. “Since Yule.”
“And you accidentally met him on another plane last night?”
A shrug.
Astrid narrowed her eyes at Lucas. “You saw this?”
He uncrossed his arms and slipped his hands into his pockets. Less threatening. Innocent wolf—nothing to see here. “When she crossed over, I saw nothing. I was left holding her lifeless body. I was…very concerned.”
Terrified, more like. She’d been just a shell, with only the faintest thread of magic connecting them. He’d poured everything he had into that connection.
Astrid digested that, one eyebrow cocked. “That night in the Arcanum, you said that you and Bri are bound.”
He nodded.
“And your magic reached her when Kean’s couldn’t, when even our coven bond couldn’t.”
Bri finally met his eyes. Hers were a deep evergreen with faint swirls of white fog. Was she gazing into the past? Their past? Or perhaps their future. He wished he could read her thoughts, but again he took the cautious route. “She’s a Skydancer.”
Astrid slid off her stool and strode toward him. “But we don’t know what that even means. There’s no reference to Skydancers in any Zyne texts.”
She dragged her toe through the circle of salt around his feet, and her spelled circle released him.
“Thank you.” He bowed his head.
She gestured for him to sit.
He strolled to the curio cabinet in the corner instead and popped open the top door. “Ha!” She’d been holding out on him. He brandished the bottle of Bowmore 25-year at her. “May I?”
A mischievous glint sparkled in Astrid’s eyes. “I’ll put it on your tab.”
He poured three glasses and handed them out before turning one of the chairs around and sitting in it, crossing his arms on the back.
“She became a Skydancer by binding herself to me. I am her Familiar. It is an ancient magic that has been outlawed for at least a thousand years. That is why you cannot find any mention of it. The ritual has been completely erased from the Zyne Archives, as far as I can tell. I spent the better part of a century chasing the oral histories, of which there are few.”
“Hold the phone.” Astrid tossed back a hefty swallow of her scotch and swirled it in her mouth, turning an incredulous look on Bri. “When did you find the fucking time to bind yourself to an immortal?”
“Four hundred and some years ago,” Bri said. “An ancestor of mine…but also me. I didn’t know what it all meant until recently. I still don’t understand everything. I only have bits and pieces from my regressions.”
She was having regressions? That was a good sign, wasn’t it?
Astrid frowned. “Okay, we’ll come back to that. How could you not tell me about Kean? How could you not tell me the very first time you saw him? I can understand not shouting it from the rooftops until you knew what was going on, but we are a coven. Sisters. We swore a blood oath. Perfect love and perfect trust, remember? And you’re still keeping fucking secrets? You let me believe he was… you let me grieve? Alone?”
Astrid’s jaw clenched as she exhaled, and the plants on the shelves shivered.
Lucas’s heart constricted at the ache in her voice.
Briana looked like she had swallowed a chunk of ice.
For the first time, he was truly envious of that Ward, who had these two fierce, powerful women willing to move heaven and earth for him. Jealousy was a foreign and uncomfortable emotion for him, like an itch in a spot he couldn’t reach.
Bri wrapped her arms around Astrid. “You were not grieving alone. I was grieving too. I was grieving all of them. I’m so sorry I didn’t tell you. At first, I was afraid you would think I was crazy. Then, I thought maybe I was crazy. Then I worried that if I changed the ritual to include you, it wouldn’t work. I promise I was going to tell you before the next full moon. I know that doesn’t make up for it, but I need you to forgive me, Pear. Kean really needs our help.”
“I could have been helping this whole time!” Astrid shook her head in dismay.
“I know,” Bri whispered.
“Does he know that I don’t know? Does he ask about me? Does he understand what happened to him?”
Bri wiped her eyes, nodding as she resumed her seat. “He understands. He actually explained it to me. He said he did it on purpose.”
“He gave up a turn on the wheel?”
Bri nodded. “He wanted me to tell you. It was my decision to wait. But now I think we need to hurry. He seemed…not like himself last night. It felt like he’s giving up.”
“Kean never gives up,” Astrid said, as if pointing out the sky was blue.
Bri’s face clamped into a hard mask. “I’m afraid that place may be changing him.”
Again, Lucas felt a twinge. Not only did the Ward have their loyalty and love, he had their respect. Even if his spirit moved on, his memory would be hard to live up to.
Was he cursed to spend another lifetime proving himself worthy of his new mate? Were the Fates that cruel?
So be it.
He refilled his glass, then Astrid’s. Bri took a quick swallow from hers and held it out. He brushed his fingers lightly against hers as he poured.
His enhanced hearing noted the brief catch in her breath, confirmation that she felt that same seductive tingle he did. A faint blush touched her cheeks, and a warm wave of satisfaction quieted his worries about the future.
This is only the beginning of our story.
***
Bri wrinkled her nose when Lucas found yet another excuse to touch her. First it was giving her a hand off her stool at the bar. Then a hand on the small of her back as they climbed the stairs. Now a polite, innocent brush of the fingers that wasn’t innocent at all. She wasn’t sure if he was trying to acclimate her to his physical presence–which could never happen, because his energy filled the whole room–or to slowly drive her mad with those damned magically charged tingles that flushed her with heat. She didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of knowing how he affected her, but his arrogant smirk said he knew anyway.
Dammit.
She blinked slowly and focused on not spilling her drink.
“I think it’s likely
that it was our connection that allowed you to cross planes,” Lucas said, all business again as he resumed his seat.
“Then I think it’s time you tell both of us,” Bri gestured to Astrid, “about this bond and the effects of your magic.”
If he wanted to play on their team, he was going to have to earn her trust, and that meant full disclosure.
Lucas nodded, as if he’d only been waiting for her to ask. “As I told you last night, the ritual we performed must be repeated in this life for the bond to be complete. Once it is–”
Bri cleared her throat. “I’ll absorb some of your powers, right. Got that.”
She was not ready to drop the whole immortality bomb on Astrid so soon after the Kean-is-a-ghost bomb. She hadn’t even had time to process that yet.
Lucas paused, studying her, and nodded slowly as if hearing her thoughts. “Because your soul is bound to mine, my magic kept you tethered to this plane enough that you could leave–and return–to your body.”
All true, and he hadn’t revealed anything she didn’t want him to. What if he could read her mind?
That would be so freaking unfair.
She glanced at Astrid to see if his explanation passed her scrutiny.
“And the overnight health boost?” Astrid asked.
That sensuous curl returned to his mouth, and mischief sparked in his eyes as he looked directly at Bri. “A taste of what could be. I believe that sleeping together, especially on the full moon, had some effect on both of us. I also found myself recharged, despite having spent nearly all of my energy to keep you grounded to this plane.”
“Hold up…what?” Astrid gaped.
Bri’s cheeks heated and she cut her hand through the air. “We did not sleep together. We passed out beside each other. And he was a wolf.”
“Not the whole night,” Lucas added helpfully.
Bri glared at him, and his smirk only grew. Of course, the wolf couldn’t have carried her upstairs and tucked her into bed. Had he slept beside her as a man? Held her in his arms? She had slept more soundly than any night as far back as she could remember…was that why? She gnashed her teeth together and ignored the quiver of nerves in her belly.
Astrid’s brow furrowed as she studied the two of them. “Well, she’s not going into that grey place again, so you can remove your spell now.”
Bri and Lucas both opened their mouths to protest and stopped, staring at each other.
“Why don’t you want to remove it?” he asked, his tone careful.
“I do want to, but I never said I wasn’t going back there. If your magic is what makes reaching Kean possible, I’ll deal with it for now.”
A pang of guilt sliced through her at the way his expression locked down. She hadn’t meant for that to sound so harsh. Like she was merely using him.
But the shoe fits.
She grimaced.
“You are not going back there,” Astrid said, crossing her arms over her chest. If looks could burn, Bri would be smoking.
“I agree.” Lucas his arms over his chest too, as if that settled things.
Bri huffed in frustration. She was so tired of everyone else telling her how she should be using her abilities. She’d finally found something she could do that was useful. But even Kean apparently agreed with them, so that was three to one. She was the novice, so she had to defer to the experts. “Fine, we’ll table it for now, but we need to come up with another plan. Soon. Astrid, can you help me find me some references on astral travel? Maybe I just need to practice, and it will get easier.”
Astrid nodded. “I’ll look for some on Lumeres and the different planes spirits can inhabit too. There could be other ways to commune with him.”
“I think we have that covered.” A tight net that had been slowly choking her the last few months felt like it had been cut loose. One less secret weighing her down. But more than that, it was having help. Admitting she couldn’t do things on her own was so difficult for her. Always had been. She was awful at sharing her burdens, at asking for help. Exactly what Kean had been so angry about–right up until she’d gotten him cursed onto another plane. Yet, here she had been, repeating the same mistakes.
Time to learn my lesson.
She turned to Lucas. “You said you could call in some favors to get me information on Lumeres.”
He finished another swallow of Astrid’s private stock and took his time savoring it. “I have already made the call. It will take my source a few days to compile the references into a searchable database.”
“Oh,” Bri said, trying to mask her surprise. “Thank you.”
That was very helpful. Kean had also said not to trust Lucas, but a part of her—despite her cautious instincts and better judgment—did trust him. With her life.
No, with your soul.
Chapter Six
Bri was walking through a misty wood again, but not as Vivianne. This was not a faery-lit path to a romantic tryst. The trees were twisted into tangles of dead branches, clawing at her from the shadows like bony fingers. There was only one path to follow—a long tunnel carved through the darkness with a faint, cold glow at the end. She didn’t want to go down the tunnel. She was wearing a formal concert gown, like she did in all her dreams, but this dream was different. Normally, she could ask a question or focus on something particular and zoom-in. This time she was merely a passenger.
A chorus of eerie whispers filtered through the scrabbling branches as she floated on wind and mist toward the iris of light. Fear choked her throat. She tried to shift away from the edges of the trees but had no control of her muscles. A prisoner in her own body. She sent her focus forward instead, concentrating on the light, willing it to get bigger faster. Even though she had no idea what waited at the other end.
A crack of lightning split through her head as she popped into the light, and the sound of rushing water blasted through her ears.
The next moment, she was standing at the edge of a river, surrounded by dense evergreen trees. She couldn’t tell where the edge of the green-black pines ended and the night-dark sky began. A faint sliver of moon and a speckle of stars cast the only light, reflecting like a sparkling carpet on the river’s gently rippling current. Mist blanketed the ground, swirling to her knees. Bri bent to dip her hand into the water.
A branch cracked.
Her head snapped up, and she gasped.
Standing across from her on the opposite bank was a giant, white bear. Not a polar bear or a grizzly, but some sort of ancient breed that no longer existed. Even on all fours, it was six feet tall at the chin, a bulge of muscle and fur across its shoulders at least two feet thick. Its forelegs were as thick as tree trunks, and six-inch claws gripped the slick boulders at the water’s edge.
Despite its size and arsenal, the bear wasn’t frightening. The glossy black eyes staring at her didn’t promise carnage. They looked…sad. She would have spoken if she had control of the dream. Instead, they both stood there, staring. The mist swirled. The river of stars streamed by. A moment later, the bear turned its back on her and disappeared silently between the dense trees.
Was she supposed to follow? Cross the river? She couldn’t move her feet, but she reached for the water again. As soon as her fingers skimmed the surface, she tumbled forward into the frigid current.
Icicles of shock stabbed through her as the rushing sound of waves pounded her skull. She tried to scream, but her mouth was frozen open, and she inhaled gulps of water instead. Her chest tightened, and her lungs convulsed.
No. Wake up. Wake up! WAKE UP!
She gasped awake clutching her sheets, covered in sweat and shivering. Like so many nights. She staggered from the bed into the hall. Familiar with the routine, Max stirred from his sentry post against the door and followed her to the bathroom. She rinsed off and changed into fresh pajamas. She jotted a few notes about the dream in her journal, but she wasn’t sure what to say. This one had been strange. More like a vision. But her visions had always involved people she
knew, and she didn’t know any bears. Was it a regression? The water in her lungs had felt real like a regression.
“Too abstract,” Bri grumbled as she turned off the lamp. Regressions were always vivid in detail and action-packed. This seemed more symbolic.
Like a vision.
And now her brain was going in circles. As if things weren’t complicated enough already. She’d gotten better at being self-aware in her dreams and controlling them to a degree. So why had she felt like a helpless bystander in that one? She could barely make herself wake up.
And what was the significance of the bear?
She added white bears to her list of symbols to research. There were several books on dream interpretation in Ce-Ce’s library. She could look it up in the morning.
She tucked herself back into bed and willed her mind to go blank, but her thoughts kept drifting back to the misty tunnel, the sparkling river, and those sad, black eyes. A few replays later, the dream even had a soundtrack–a faint strain of melancholic violin music.
After a few more notes, the music grew less faint.
Her eyes shot open and she sat up, her ears perked. She was about to lie back, convinced she was imagining it, when the music rose and fell again as if carried on the wind.
With a sigh she shuffled to the window and thrust it open, hoping to be greeted by nothing more than a chilly breeze and the quiet night. Instead, she heard the song clearer than before. It was coming from the woods behind her house.
Max padded over and joined her at the window.
“Do you hear that?”
He stuck his nose out, sniffing the air. His ears twitched in answer. Maggie, always the more protective of the two, hadn’t even stirred.
“Screw it.” Bri pulled on her robe and sneakers, went downstairs, grabbed a flashlight from the mudroom, and stepped out into the yard. She clicked on the flashlight and did a slow scan of the fence line.
She was so sick of mysteries. Her powers were a mystery. Her ability to access that grey place. The dream. Now this. She hated—with a passion—being in the dark. Of course, just when she’d made a little bit of progress, Fate would toss another surprise her way.
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