I reach into her mind without her noticing, following the golden thread. There, beneath the gardens, is a huge well of celestial power, so deep I can’t reach the bottom of it, lurking hidden like a vast, fiery lake beneath a volcano.
“It’s not working,” she tuts, opening her eyes. I stare at her, trying to comprehend how this woman can be so powerful without knowing it.
“What?” she asks, putting her hands on her hips. “I said it’s not working. I’m trying, I swear. I can’t find it.”
I find my words instead. “Maybe the pull isn’t strong enough.”
She raises an eyebrow.
“If I could have anyone by my side right now, it would be Tira,” she says. “I don’t know what’s stronger than that.”
“Then perhaps it’s not immediate enough. It’s been a while since you’ve seen your friend. You miss her, but you’ve gotten used to her absence. Think of something you need more urgently.”
The scene changes again, to a memory of Ana as a teenager playing chess against a man with silver-flecked hair and kind eyes. She moves a piece, a look of satisfaction on her face.
“Checkmate,” the teenage Ana says.
The older man smiles proudly. “Bravo.”
“This isn’t working either,” she says with a sigh. “I can’t sense my orbital power at all.”
“Keep trying,” I say. “Search for that ‘pull.’ The draw you can’t resist—just like a planet being pulled into orbit. Don’t overthink it. Find the feeling and let your mind take you to the source.”
The figures in front of us dissolve, but another scene doesn’t immediately appear. Instead, for a few moments we’re in a kind of blank darkness. I’m still reeling from the thought of that pure, pulsing well of power. What could Ana do if she truly harnessed all that celestial power? Lost in my thoughts, I don’t pay too much attention to the new picture that formulates in front of us.
Until I do.
The scene shows Ana and me in a room, a huge bed in front of us. We’re naked, locked in an embrace. Her arms are wrapped around me, pulling herself up to my level for a hungry kiss. Meanwhile, my hands roam across her exquisite body. I wonder how accurate an image Ana has of herself, because the version of her I see now makes my mouth go dry and my pulse throb.
I watch, fascinated, as the scene plays out. This imagined version of me isn’t gentle or tender. I bend her over the bed face down, her perfect breasts skimming the silk sheets as my hands grab her pert ass. Watching this, I feel my cock harden, unable to tear my eyes away from this image of myself roughly taking her.
I knew she’d dreamed about me, but I’d imagined something far more chaste than this. She has a much more colorful mind than I could’ve hoped. It seems I’m not alone in fantasizing about all the things we could do together.
This is the pull she can’t deny. The draw her mind has taken her to.
And all I can think is how I want to make all her dreams come true.
“Get out.”
A force like battering ram collides with me.
The delicious scene in front of me vanishes, like a flame extinguished. I’m not prepared for the mental attack, and with one vicious shove, I’m thrown fully clear of her unconsciousness.
I blink, abruptly back in the real world, with Ana asleep on the ground in front of me. I should be impressed by her natural mental defenses, but I’m too busy with other revelations.
Ana doesn’t sleep for much longer. I feel her wrenching herself from her nap with pure will, opening her eyes.
At first, she wears an expression of abject horror, her cheeks a tempting shade of pink as she considers what I saw. When her gaze lands on me, the glare is so hot I can feel it burning my eyeballs.
“Not. A. Word,” she says, each syllable a full sentence heavy with threat.
I offer her a smug smile and then walk away, the arousal she’s woken in me still coiling, unsated, in my gut.
Chapter22
Morgana
If I thought Elmere was overwhelming, nothing could have prepared me for Hallowbane.
