I look up at him through hollow, burning eyes. “What would be the point? I can’t change the future. You and Sienna believe in me so much, but what if you’re wrong about me? What if I can’t do this?”
Ian crouches down beside me, taking my hand in his. His hands are so strong around mine, an anchor. “I still believe in you, Juniper, but if you can’t change the future in your visions the way I think you’re capable of, then we change the future another way. We’ll never give up this fight.”
“I’ll be forced to watch you killed before my very eyes,” I say, voice thick with emotion.
“Never,” Ian promises. “I will never let that come to pass. I won’t leave you, my darling.”
“Nor will I,” Marcus says gruffly, but with so much emotion behind that I feel his pride and his belief wash over me like a wave.
“My vision of the ice-powered alpha already came true.”
“And now we know what we’re facing,” Marcus points out. “Now we can figure out how to fight back. Come train, Juniper. You’ll feel better if you do.”
The last time Marcus tried to get me to train with him, I blew up at him. The truth came rushing out, burning through me like acid, driving a wedge between us we’re still trying to close. But this time, Marcus is right. I need to move, to feel my magic flowing through me to remind myself thatI’m still alive, that the worst of the worst hasn’t come to pass yet.
I nod, and Ian helps me to my feet.
“My father keeps stonewalling me,” I admit. “I can’t get a read on him with my affinity. But he’s not the only one I can’t read easily. Marcus, you stonewall me just as much.”
“So, you want to train with me?” my former honor guard asks.
“It could be a good way for you to learn to read reticent minds,” Ian agrees.
“It’s not like I’vetriedto be hard to read,” Marcus says. “When your affinity emerged, I thought you’d find out my secret any day, but you couldn’t read me for some reason. Sometimes, I wished you could.”
“That’s behind us now,” I tell him, though I’m still unsure. Still mired in the lie he told me, yet yearning for him. “I need to be ready to read my father’s thoughts when I encounter him next.” Because I know I will, if not in his course on magical medicinals then in an operating theater hidden away somewhere. “He could have information about the extent of the plan, his success rate. The timeline they’re working on.”
“Then let me help you,” Marcus says.
“You’re ready for me to read you? If you have any more secrets?—”
“I don’t. Not from you,” he swears, utterly earnest. “I’m ready, Juniper. I know what I’m signing up for, and I’m not afraid. Come on, sweet-tart. Let’s try this.”
He takes my other hand and gently guides me from my nest, and I let myself him lead me.
We disappear into a part of the sprawling manor house I’ve never been in before and find practice rooms where I can work on my magic. They’re even nicer than the practice room Cassian built for me, and I’m grateful to Pack Leclerc once more. If I can’t be home at the pack house, this is whereI’d choose to be. With my new family in their comfortable, safe home.
Ian slides down the wall until he’s sitting on the floor and nods to me. I take my place across from Marcus and roll my lower lip between my teeth, unsure if I’m ready to know Marcus’ deepest thoughts. Still, I let my affinity flow through me, filling my body with buoyant light. It hums through me, answering my call. I focus on Marcus, on slipping into his mind.
I fail.
I shake out my shoulders and try again, failing once more.
“Try envisioning your affinity covering his mind,” Ian suggests.
“Do you think that’ll work?”
“Can’t hurt. Probably.”
The last thing I want to do is hurt Marcus with my powers, but I do as Ian says, gently wrapping my affinity around Marcus’ mind. I take a deep breath and let my magic sink into his thoughts, slowly, so slowly. I get his surface thoughts, that it’s a little cold in the room we’re in, that he’s a little afraid of me sending him to his knees in pain, that he doesn’t want to look weak in front of me, that I’m beautiful, even in leggings and one of Cassian’s tee shirts, my hair swept up into a messy bun to keep it out of my eyes.
I close my eyes, focusing on Marcus’ thoughts and moving past his fleeting thoughts. If I can read his surface-level thoughts, can I read deeper?
I gentle my magic, thinking of my affinity as a warm light, determined not to hurt Marcus no matter how deep I dig. I sink into his mind, catching more and more of his thoughts.
And every last one of them is about me.
How courageous I am, how beautiful. How very dear I am to him. He thinks of me in his arms, his bite on my otherwrist, finally his mate. He thinks of a long, long future for us, a future after the war that’s brewing. Growing old together.
