“Then do so now. I know what I’m doing—we will both survive this mating. I’m asking you to trust me completely, Grace.” His eyes changed to the rare dark silver hue.
She couldn’t breathe. “I’ve wanted you to let me make my own decisions about my life, and I guess you deserve the same. If you want to risk your life, so long as we try everything we can to preserve it, then you have that right. If we do this, I’m all in. You need to understand that.”
He frowned. “You have to be all in. We both do.”
Oh, he had no clue what she meant. “If we mate, things will change.” If they survived, she had to get to know him, maybe love him, whether he liked it or not. Whether he was prepared for all of her or not. The idea thrilled her to a degree that was surprising. So much for being self-aware.
“Agreed.” His expression lightened. “I’m pleased you understand.”
She swallowed. “Come on, Adare. Neither one of us knows exactly what we’re getting into, and that’s a fact. You think you can handle me, and I think I can handle you, and neither one of us likes to be handled.”
“Grace, I admire your sense of adventure, but make no mistake, you will be handled. After your escapades in Colorado, you’re on the Kurjans’ radar again, and we’ll have to take additional measures for your safety. That needs to happen whether we mate or not, and if we do mate, it becomes my duty.” He paused. “Not that there’s a choice in mating. We’ve both agreed it’s the only path to take, and now we’re just wasting time waffling.”
Waffling? Take her in hand? Oh, he had a harsh reality coming his way. “What? You just want me to take off my clothes and bend over?”
“If I want you bent over, I’ll bend you over.” He straightened in his chair. “However, I’m willing to follow the queen’s two step, two night plan.”
“Meaning what?” Grace snapped.
“Meaning, come over here. Tonight, I’ll bite. Tomorrow, I’ll mate.”
Chapter 22
Hope settled down in her bed, her head hurting from crying. Libby snuggled next to her, already sound asleep, while Paxton lay in a sleeping bag across the floor. They didn’t have sleepovers much anymore, at least not with Paxton, but his even breathing relieved her. Why hadn’t she known about his dad?
She’d been so dumb. At the very least, she should’ve made Pax tell her the truth. He was a much better liar than she’d thought, and that just made her sad.
It was her job to protect him; to protect everybody. She was the prophet, even though she didn’t know exactly what that meant. She was also the Lock, and sometimes nightmares revealed what that might mean.
For tonight, she needed sleep. So she let herself drift off, keeping a firm hand on her imagination and her mind, knowing tonight was the night. With Libby and Pax in the room she felt safe, and somehow, she was stronger.
Sleep took her, or maybe she took it.
She was soon standing on tall cliffs, watching a gray ocean throw up spray before her. The sky was dark and the water mysterious. She rubbed her hands down her chilled arms and took a step back, her bare feet scraping across rocks. There’d been a change in the air, in her body, the day she’d turned thirteen, and power flowed through her in a new way. She’d figured this would be part of it.
“Hope?”
She partially turned, not surprised to see Drake emerge from a cave in the rock. She blinked, looking up the cliff to high above. Huh. She hadn’t realized she stood on a ledge. The dream world used to include pink sandy beaches and warmth. “Hi.”
Drake looked around, his greenish-purple eyes taking in the area, his body tense. He’d grown, a lot, since she’d last seen him. His hair, all black, was cut shorter to wisp at his shoulders, which had widened considerably. The new play of muscle was nice. Interesting. He was a full Kurjan but his skin wasn’t as pale as most, and his features were more human. Even his eyes could pass for green if one didn’t look too closely. Now that he was a teen, he looked even more human, except for his height. “How are we in a dream world again? Weren’t they destroyed? How did you do this?” he asked, moving closer, his gaze on the ocean below.
“I turned thirteen,” she said, looking way up at his face. He was even taller than Paxton, but he’d filled out with muscle, too. They had met in dream worlds as little kids until the dream worlds had disappeared along with the immortals’ ability to teleport. It was because Quade Kayrs, another greatish uncle of hers, had returned from a world far away—somehow that had screwed everything up. “I didn’t create this dream world, though.” It was too cold. Too scary looking.
Drake watched the water spray up from far below. “Can your people teleport again?”
“No,” she said. “This is different.” She didn’t know how, but she felt the truth in her bones. She looked up, way up, to another cliff and saw the edge of her book. The green one she could never reach but had always been with her.
Drake followed her gaze. “Have you figured out what’s in that weird book?”
“No,” she said quietly. They’d agreed, years ago, not to tell each other the secrets of their people, and that was one of them. The book was for the Lock, and only she could open it. That was all she’d figured out so far.
He looked at her, his eyes filled with a light she’d never seen. “Thirteen, huh? You wear it well.”
She’d heard the expression on a television show, and she blushed, her face heating. Flirting was new to her, and she was a dork about it. Man, he was cute. Like the boys on television but taller and stronger. She kicked a pebble. “You got a lot taller.”
He nodded, sweeping an arm out. His hands had gotten bigger, too. “What do you think this means? That we can meet again?”
“I’m not sure.” For a while, they’d tried to communicate over the internet, but the grownups had found out and shut them down. It had been nearly two years since they’d talked. Were they still friends? Their people were enemies, but they were going to change that someday. Somehow. The wind whipped up, feeling unfriendly.
