Corbin stared at his friend. “And you never thought to mention it?”
Arthur’s kind eyes flashed with annoyance.“I didn’t know anyone else was having it! I didn’t exactly think it was polite to tell our landlady that I was dreaming about her being the center of a sixsome?—”
“How do we know it was the same dream, though?” Corbin said. “Maybe you’re just having similar feelings, because of the kiss and?—”
“In the last one, all the furniture was gone, and you were on a red-velvet couch, wearing a silky robe,” Arthur said to me, the tips of his own ears turning a little red.
I nodded, my cheeks burning.
This is not happening.But it was. Arthur continued. “We were parading around you, completely naked. Corbin tore the robe off, and I was the one who was?—”
“I had the dreams, too.” Rowan’s quiet voice strained. He stared at his hands, his fingers drumming a repetitive rhythm against his palm.
My cheeks burned even brighter.
How the hell was this possible?
And why did it have to bethosedreams Arthur and Rowan saw?
“So why haven’t Flynn and I had these dreams?” Corbin demanded.
“Actually…” Flynn lifted his hand. “I think I might’ve been in on that second one, with the…ah, parade? I thought it was just my filthy mind. I love you mate, but I’d prefer if you didn’t touch me bollix like that.”
“So why haven’t I had any of these dreams, then?” Was it my imagination, or did Corbin sound a little jealous?
“You were up late in the library,” I said. “I remember the light being on last time I woke up. I think we all have to be asleep at the same time. Blake seemed to believe they were my dreams and I pulled him into them, but how I did that I have no idea.”
“Why didn’t you tell us before?”
“For god's sake, Corbin, because I thought it was just a dream. This is supposed to bemyinterrogation. Start talking, now.”
Corbin rubbed the side of his head, his usual controlling demeanor gone. He looked like someone had just slapped him across the face. A flash of guilt hit me before I remembered that he lied to me, and I pushed it down.
“Okay, okay,” he sighed. “It was going to come out sooner or later. We wanted to protect you for as long as possible. But this dream thing confirms it.”
“Protect me from what?”
“From yourself,” Corbin’s face strained. “Maeve, you’re a witch. And not just any witch. You’re a spirit user. You’re probably the most powerful witch currently alive in England, and the only one capable of holding off the threat of the fae.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
MAEVE
“What thehell?”
Of all the things I thought Corbin might say, that wasnotone of them.
I’m not a witch. This is absurd.
Corbin sighed. ‘We didn’t want to tell you like this. I knew you wouldn’t believe it, and after everything you’ve gone through with the Crawfords’ murders, we didn’t want to upset you more.”
“I’m pretty damn upset, okay!” I yelled. “And what do you mean, murders? It was just a fluke accident.”
Corbin shook his head. “That fae, Kalen, who was at the fair that night, came to Arizona to find you. To kill you. That’s why I was there – I had to make sure he didn’t succeed. I’ve been protecting you ever since you were sixteen, since my parents handed the duty over to me.”
I slumped down on the end of the couch, my head spinning. What Corbin was saying… it didn’t make any sense. “Protecting me?”
“Yeah, we all have. That’s why you remember Flynn as the exchange student. That was his shift watching you. The year before that, Arthur was a janitor at your school. I’ve been a student at your community college for the last four semesters,but I didn’t pass your first year physics paper, so I had to switch to history.” Corbin dared a small smile. “You’re way too clever for me to keep up with.”
