There was resignation in her voice rather than surprise. “Did Ash foresee this?” Lucas asked. His voice didn’t sound like his own. Hoarse. Raspy.
She nodded. “It was one of a few possible futures. We’d hoped he wouldn’t go down this path.”
Aria sat in the chair nearest the couch. “He used Nikolai’s power to do it?”
Yes. Yes, he had. Lucas reached for a drumstick, but changed his mind. His stomach was in knots.
Cara grimaced as she answered Aria. “Yes. I’m afraid so.”
Aria’s lips compressed. “We have to help Nikolai, but what can we do?”
Cara took a long sip of her tea as she scanned Lucas. “You two have a connection to Nikolai.”
“Aria does. Not so much me,” Lucas protested automatically.
Cara’s brows rose and Aria offered him an incredulous stare. “You dreamed of him last night.”
His heart fluttered like a trapped moth. “That doesn’t mean I have a connection.”
Cara’s focus sharpened. He didn’t like the calculation in her gaze. “What did you see in your dream?”
Lucas swallowed. “He told me Galeran was controlling his power. That he wants to use it to clean up the realms.”
Cara’s mouth straightened. “Well, you are correct, it seems. Tell me the entire dream. All of it. Little details matter.”
Lucas sighed. He really didn’t want to have this conversation. But Aria’s amber gaze was filled with expectation, and when Cara didn’t relent, he found himself describing the dream.
Aria’s mouth slowly dropped open when he reached the part about offering Nikolai his life energy to bring the seed to life.
As soon as he finished, she lit into him. “Shards, Lucas. If it wasn’t a dream—he could have drained you. Why would you take such a chance? Nikolai has no idea what he’s doing. He could have killed you so easily...”
Was she worried for Lucas, or for Nikolai, who might regret accidentally killing him? He darted a look her way, and away again, as he contemplated how his instinct had just taken over. “I think he was giving up. He didn’t believe there was anything he could do to fight back. He needed to know that he could.”
Cara nodded. “Your instincts were bang on, my boy. You did exactly the right thing.” Her piercing gaze didn’t waver. “And that dream isn’t your only connection to Nikolai. Am I right?”
Aria’s brows drew down as she looked from Cara to Lucas. “What is she talking about?”
“It doesn’t matter,” Lucas protested.
“It does matter,” Cara said as she rubbed her hands together. “In fact, we are going to use both that and the dreams to help Nikolai.”
To Lucas’s relief, the concept distracted Aria from him. “Are you saying we can reach him in dreams?” she asked.
Instead of answering, Cara leaned toward Lucas. “Have you dreamed of Nikolai before last night?”
Crap.He crossed his arms and sat back in his seat. Did he want to admit to this? Finally, he nodded.
Aria’s brows rose.
Cara turned to Aria. “And you? Have you dreamed of him?”
When Lucas refused to look at her, the Dragon shifter tore her gaze from him back to Cara. “Yes.”
The Watcher nodded in satisfaction. “What I sense between the three of you—when you are close to each other, your life essences light up everything around you. It’s so powerful it’s breathtaking, but unfocused. I have only seen that between bond mates.”
Lucas’s heart accelerated, and Aria’s eyes widened.
“You think we are fated mates?” she said. “That is rare in Dragon shifters.”
