Cara patted the spot again. “We need to be in close contact. Sit.”
With obvious reluctance, Lucas crawled onto the bed and folded his legs beneath him.
“Closer,” urged Cara.
Lucas swallowed and moved a little nearer. Stifling her impatience with him, Aria shuffled until her left knee touched his thigh. He flinched as soon as she made contact, refusing to meet her gaze.
Cara shifted until her own knees touched both of them. “There. Now I am going to put the two of you into a hypnotic trance. This is going to be a tall order, because the bond between the three of you is in its earliest stages, but we need you to make contact with Nikolai.”
“We don’t know if there really is a bond,” protested Lucas. His voice sounded strained.
“Well if there isn’t, we’re screwed,” Cara reasoned, her gaze fastened on Lucas. “But I am seldom wrong about these things.”
“If we make contact, what then?” Aria asked.
“I need you two to form the connection. Nikolai can no longer tap into either the life or core energies, but he can still manipulate his own life essence. His wouldn’t be enough to crack those runes, but if he can take from you as well, then I can show him how to use it to disable them.”
Aria’s gut twisted. That sounded like a huge “if.”
Lucas glanced at the slim figure leaning against the door frame. “Will this work?”
Ash’s silver eyes gleamed at him. “The possibility exists,” he conceded.
“That isn’t exactly reassuring,” Aria scolded.
Ash shrugged. “Always in motion is the future.”
“Seriously?” Lucas stared at him. “You’re quoting Star Wars?”
“Apparently, Yoda was a very wise man.”
Lucas stared at him. “You do know he wasn’t a man. He was three feet tall with green skin and big pointed ears.”
One golden brow rose. “I did not know that.”
“Okay people,” Cara rubbed her hands together, and then picked the amulet up from where she’d laid it on the bed. “Let’s leave the discussion on popular fictional characters for now, shall we?” She placed it in her palm and took Aria’s hand. Aria folded her fingers around Cara’s so that she touched the amulet.
“It’s warm,” she said, sounding surprised.
Cara looked at Lucas and extended her other hand. When he didn’t respond, she wiggled her fingers at him. “Take my hand, Lucas. And Aria’s too. We need to be linked for this to work.”
Lucas sighed and took it. Then he extended his other hand to Aria.
The moment their skin touched, a pulse of warmth shot through her, igniting all her nerve endings. She shivered and her heart fluttered. Could it just be pheromones? Or was Cara right?
A muscle jumped in Lucas’s jaw, and he wouldn’t meet her eyes. Maybe he didn’t want to be with her? Or did he just really not think this would work?
It might not. But they were Nikolai’s best hope.
Cara squeezed her hand. “Focus, my friends. We have a Unicorn to save.”
Aria swallowed. “What do we do?”
“Close your eyes. I want you both to think about Nikolai. His eyes, his face. His body. His scent. Things you find irresistible.” When Lucas snorted, she added, “Or annoying. Clear your minds of everything else and think only about him. I am going to put the two of you into a trance, so if you feel yourself drifting off, just try to concentrate on Nikolai.”
Considering that he hadn’t been far from her thoughts every waking minute, Aria found it almost a relief to permit herself to focus. As she did so, Cara began to hum. The sound took on a depth and a resonance far beyond what should have emerged from her throat. Aria’s red-gold locks moved as though teased by an invisible breeze and all the small hairs on her body stood on end.
Lucas’s fingers tightened around hers, but he remained silent. Aria’s thoughts became sluggish, but she kept an image of Nikolai first and foremost in them, and added details—his distinctive scent of warm, living earth overlaid with a hint of ozone, the energy that crackled around him, and his deep, sexy voice...
