I raised a brow and moved toward the edge of his bed. “Or I could find out now.”
Ronen growled and wrapped an arm around my waist, shoving me back into his numerous black velvet pillows as his shadows tore apart my panties.
Rune made an annoyed noise and jumped off the bed.
I giggled, and then sobered when I saw his humorless expression and the shadows pooling around me.
“Didn’t I warn you what would happen when you kissed me, Hellion?” He slid off his briefs, then crawled up my body until he pressed against my entrance, his mouth brushing my ear. “You’re mine. And I’ll kill anyone who thinks otherwise.”
Ronen thrust home, sating my need until we were both finally ready to close our eyes.
Chapter
Fifty-One
Lucille
Iwaited in my head, next to my swirling power, for… me. A few more minutes passed, then she appeared, wearing the same face as mine, but marked with scars I didn’t have yet.
“About time you showed up,” my future self mocked, her face tilted in a grin as if she’d known exactly what I’d been up to. Which she did.
“I was here before you,” I said dryly.
She shrugged. “Dream-walking to my past-self’s head at the right time and place takes more effort than you realize.”
I supposed it did.
“Well, you’re here now. Can you tell me what I want to know?”
She laughed at me. “When has our life ever been that simple? You think I can just give you the answers?”
I threw my hands in the air. “You said it yourself. We’re out of time, and you did with the other stuff!”
She stepped forward, all humor gone between us. “Yeah, and do you know how many tries it’s taken me to learn which words change our future for the worse or better?”
That shut me up.
“Didn’t think so.” She crossed her arms. “You have one final dream-walk to complete.”
“To who?” I asked.
“To Mom,” she answered. “To figure out the secret she was ashamed to tell us.”
I froze, my stomach sinking.
“You’ll use Praetervado.”
I frowned. “You’re going to trust me enough not to change the past?”
She nodded. “Yes. Because if you choose to save Mom, you already know what’ll happen.”
My head bowed, knowing I’d finally come to the point I’d been avoiding. The one where I let go of the idea of saving my mom. But it wasn’t actually saving her, was it?
She was dead.
A knife still twisted at the thought, but a sad acceptance eased part of the pain.
“What do I need to do?”
