Just as he helped me into my dress, Ian helps me out of it, then into pajamas. I disappear into the attached bathroom to take my hair down and scrub off my makeup. When I return to my nest, there’s a space for me between Ian and Luca that I gladly crawl into.
For a while, sleep is elusive.
But when I sleep, I dream.
I dreamof a castle on a cliff, far above the crashing, storm-swept sea. Dark, ominous clouds blot out the sky above the castle, lightning flashing against the stormy night. The cloudburst seems frozen in time, branches of lightning bright then dim as I look from cloud to cloud.
I can’t feel it in my dream, but somehow, I know the castle and the storm clouds above it are suffused with powerful magic.
I fight my way toward the castle through a cold, needling rain, desperate to see what secrets it holds, what the tempest around its towers and spires conceals. I want to feel the buzz of all that powerful magic raising the fine hairs at the nape of my neck, but every step I take brings me no closer to the castle. I break into a run, the storm streaking around me, but the castle remains out of my reach.
There’s something my mind wants me to see or to know, that this is as close to a waking vision as my sleeping mind can dream up. Despite the way my jogging footsteps churn up the mud beneath my sneakers, the castle remains distant and full of secrets.
I waketo Luca stroking the backs of his fingers along the inside of my arm where I have it slung around his chest. The haze of my dream still tangling in my senses, I let wine and cherries overtake me as I sink deeper into his arms.
“Bad dream, princess?” His low voice is a warm rumble in the dark of my nest, and I can just make out his profile in the low light.
I frown. It wasn’t a bad dream, not really, but a dream of many secrets and wonders I desperately want to uncover and crack open. “I was dreaming about a castle, and part of me knows it’s close. On Deer Island or maybe one of the other islands nearby? I’m sure I sound crazy right now, but it felt like a vision.”
“You never sound crazy to me, Junie. Could it have been Marmora Castle?”
I prop myself up on an elbow, my brow creasing as I stare down at him. “Marmora Castle? It wasn’t on your list of places to explore.”
“It’s impossible to reach. It’s surrounded by a storm of magic. No one’s been able to enter it in hundreds of years.”
“Historians believe it’s where a great battle took place between Pack Marmora and the forces of Mage King George,” Ian murmurs in the dark, rubbing a hand down my spine.
“A castle on the cliffs, surrounded by a storm?”
Luca nods and takes my hand and kisses the back of it. “I’ll take you as close as I can tomorrow morning.”
“My darling, you should rest before you go off chasing visions. You had a trying night tonight.”
“It means something, Ian. I need to see it.” I don’t know what my affinity is trying to tell me, but I won’t be able to rest without dreaming of the castle again until I find out. Even now, I can almost feel the magical buzz of power I sought in my strange dream.
He presses against me, nuzzling my neck. “The magic surrounding the castle is dangerous. It’s not something to be taken lightly. At least let me accompany you tomorrow. Curse breakers far more expert than I have tried to infiltrate the castle and failed, but if I can keep you out of harm’s way…”
“Of course, man,” Luca says.
“Then we’ll leave at first light,” I decide, a familiar magic tingling in my fingertips. My magic, the very magic my father locked away from me, the very magic Ian gave back to me after slowly unwinding sigil after sigil of the complex spell locking my magic.
“First light?” Ian groans, wrapping a possessive hand around my hip. “I don’t suppose I can distract you out of that? Wear you out so well you’ll let us sleep until midmorning?”
I smirk, arching back into his touch. “You cantry.”
CHAPTER FOUR
It’s well past first light when Cassian raps at the door to my nest with a single knuckle, two cups of coffee in his hands. The aroma greets me, nearly as welcome as his sunshiny sea-air scent. I beckon for him, and he sets the mugs down and crawls toward me, pressing me down into my nest as he comes over me to brush a kiss over my lips.
“Good morning,” he murmurs against my jaw, making my toes curl beneath my blankets. “You have an expedition to prepare for, love.”
He’s beautiful in the midmorning light filtering into my nest. The sunlight catches in his dark, smoky eyes, bringing out the golden shades of whiskey. If not for the very expedition he mentioned, I’d while away the rest of the morning with him in my nest, exchanging sweet words and sweeter touches.
“Is that coffee?” Ian asks from beside me, his voice heavy with sleep.
Cassian laughs and rolls off of me. “A white mocha for each of you, yes.”
I sit up just enough to tug Cassian back in for another kiss and feel his elation through our bond. He takes such joy in taking care of me, in taking care of our pack, and it only makes me love my first mate even more than I ever thought possible. “Thank you, Cass.”
