Frowning, Magdelina’s lips did not move, but her words came into Alifair’s mind. “We will not arrive there for another day, maybe two.”
Alifair hadn’t had prophetic dreams since being a child. How could she be projecting to a day or so later? And how was Magdelina talking to her?
“Do not question your gift,” Magdelina snapped. “I have heard Krol’s thoughts. He is truly crazy. You are seeing what he sees in his mind. This is because you and I have a bridge between our gifts.” Her words were fading at the end. “Find us there, or we will be lost forever.”
Then she was gone.
Alifair began muttering, frantic to wake and send Bosse to save them.
His hands rubbed softly along her back, and he murmured for her to sleep. He kept doing that until she went all the way under again.
She struggled to dream again and finally gave up when her mind wouldn’t leave her alone.
Draped across Bosse’s broad chest, Alifair could sleep for days after he’d drained the stress from her body. Well, she could have if guilt hadn’t started pecking at her. First, she hadn’t done anything nice for him after the altered-state climax he’d given her. He had to have been in pain last night.
Second, it wasn’t as if she didn’t deserve this time with him, but Rez needed her. Magdelina, too.
Alifair could not forget why she came here.
Bosse’s fingers carefully pulled through her hair and massaged her neck, sidetracking her good intentions to wake up. She wanted so much more time with him, but she’d accept the stolen minutes now to hold onto until the end.
She had to get her thoughts aligned and be careful about what insights she shared with Bosse.
She had to keep her impending death to herself, or he would try to save her. She wanted to doubt that one prophecy, but those specific dreams had taught her long ago about reality.
The last time she saw her mother, she’d begged her not to leave their house after Alifair had dreamed of her mother’s death. Her mother had scolded her for even suggesting she turn her back on saving three children. Alifair had tried to explain that hadn’t been her intention. She just could not lose the only family she had left.
Her mother had hugged her and said she understood. She then dismissed the dream by saying just because Alifair had dreamed of her father’s death, and it had come to fruition, didn’t mean the same would happen to her.
Alifair’s magic had been sporadic and undependable from time to time, so no one put a lot of stock in her dreams. She knew in her heart that her death dreams were different. Perfectly clear, with no question about the outcome. A childhood friend had died after walking up on a bear and her cubs, just as Alifair had seen in the first death dream. Those were the only ones that had been prophetic and did not happen in real time.
Or maybe after suffering those losses, her mind had refused to look ahead.
In the end, her mother was captured and killed after freeing the children.
She’d failed her mother by not convincing her of the danger. She would not fail her mother’s legacy by letting down Rez and the clan.
Did that brief dream with Magdelina mean she knew how to find them?
Or had it been born of wishful thinking?
The pregnant mate had told her to believe and trust her gift. To be honest, she had no other choice, having only received one dream.
So many people depended on her, including Bosse, even if he did not realize it.
She would not fail Bosse either. He would live to enjoy a life of freedom.
Until he could escape and go after Rez and Magdelina, Alifair would hold onto him every second she could, then send him on his way to finish a duty on which she may have reached her limits.
He would argue. She’d have to figure out how to make him leave again.
That seemed impossible, but she had seen her body torn open and blood running freely. It would be better for that to happen without Bosse present.
For him to know of her coming death and witnessing it in person would not lessen his grief.
She had not seen who killed her but, at this point, believed it had to be Krol. Blood ran in a stream down the front of her. The pain had been unbearable. Then everything had gone dark.
“Your mind is too busy for you to be sleeping,” Bosse said in the gravelly voice of a tired man.
