*Sasha*
I could feel the air change around as Lucas stretched his hand toward . Panic gripped and I let the orb slip from my fingers to reach for him. But he vanished as the now-glowing blue sphere took away.
This ti the trip was instant, and I found myself on my back in a space that was cold and musty, nothing like the Goddess’s temple.
The floor beneath was made of stone, my hands lay criss-cross on my chest, the orb cradled in my palms. There was no Lucas. There was no stranger. There was no train, no chasing rogues, and no evil priestess.
There was, however, an assembly of people in dated clothing, looking at an altar at the front of... well... a temple–not one for the White Queen, but another temple for certain.
Low murmuring and chanting echoed in the air, dying off as the people turned to look at .
I stood to my feet, clutching the orb to my chest. There was only one of and perhaps a hundred of them. I hated the stupid thing, but it was my only defense and possible way out if sothing went wrong.
It sure felt wrong.
Suddenly, people began screaming, rushing to get away from , and running for the exit. As the doors to the temple burst open, I could see a castle, dark and foreboding, not far off. The people were running straight that way.
As everyone else cleared out, however, one man stayed. He had been at the front of the altar, leading the chants.
I stepped backward as he approached , his eyes fixated on the orb.
“Where did you get the Slipstone?” he demanded, stalking toward .
I took a step back, ntally willing the orb to return to Lucas. “I... l found it.”
“Lies,” the man said. He was more richly dressed than the others had been. And he was... familiar sohow. His features conjured up... sothing, sothing troubleso in the back of my mind.
He moved like quicksilver to close the space between us, gripping my arm.
“It’s the truth,” I insisted. After all, it was half true. Lucas found it.
The man chuckled darkly. “Then, I suppose you won’t mind taking it back from you.” He pulled a dagger from his belt.
I tried to wrench away but his grip tightened painfully.
Everything in knew the last thing that ever needed to happen was this man getting his hands on the orb. I backed all the way to the wall, holding the orb tighter.
“Please, Goddess, please take back,” I whispered.
The orb began to glow.
He looked at it and then backed up staring open-mouthed at . “Dream dancer.... You have the mark, the star?”
I clutched my arm to the side and felt my stomach drop.
“The prophecy... has it co to pass?”
“I... I don’t know what you’re talking about!” I shouted and he rushed again, pushed to the wall, and pinned in place.
Sasha....
I heard Lucas’s voice, but I was trapped.
The man sniffed my neck, then grinned and stepped back.
Sasha....
“You do not know the prophecy now, but you will,” the man chuckled. “You will.” He sheathed his dagger. “May you be the fulfillnt of it, dream dancer.”
He was so close that the familiarity beca clear to now. My eyes widened and I gasped in disbelief. He looked like....
He held his hand up, and the orb pulsed and he was gone.
Or, I was gone, lost in a mory, or maybe andering my way back through ti. I saw myself crying in my room, the shattered bracelet in my hand.
I looked at her through my fearful child eyes and saw my mother’s pale face cloaked in worry.
“They’ll find her,” she was saying.
She wasn’t talking to . I looked over to see it was the sa man. He was much, much older, but the shape of his face and the eyes were the sa.
“We need a new bone,” he said calmly.
My mother shook her head. “Her baby teeth are....”
“It has to be fresh. We have to pull a tooth for a new potion, and this ti, we need to make sure the spell can’t be broken.”
My heart thundered in my chest as I rembered the pain and tornt of what followed. I wanted to stop them but I couldn’t. My mother held down.
Shutting my eyes tight, I struggled, fighting against her hold that was shockingly strong. I sobbed and cried and begged and fought.
“Sasha!”
Lucas’s voice reached in my fight. My mother’s strong hold beca his secure embrace as I tried fighting whatever was still holding down.
“Help!” I cried with my eyes shut tight. “Get them off of !”
“Goddess, Sasha, it’s just the bed sheets and blankets, I swear!”
My eyes fluttered open, the tears behind them spilling out as I looked around an unfamiliar room. It had the feeling of an inn, or rather a hotel. The sheets were a pristine, bleach white and slled freshly laundered.
And there was Lucas.
“Gage is at the local clinic.” Lucas explained, rubbing my shaky upper arms soothingly as I tried to reorient myself to the world around . “You were asleep. You reappeared and you were asleep. Goddess, Sasha, you slept for hours.”
“Slept...?” I croaked, wondering if I’d been screaming.
“Wherever you went, you weren’t sleeping,” Lucas inferred.
“N-no.” I looked around . “Where is the orb?”
Lucas nodded at a beat-up, waterlogged bag sitting on the luggage stand near the closet. “I asked Gage to put it in his bag.”
“Gage... the one who pulled us onto the train,” I said slowly.
Lucas nodded. “Yes. He also defended us so I could get you off the train when the shifters showed up. Luckily, I was able to grab him as well. We jumped in a lake... and you still didn’t wake up.”
We were so close. Lucas was sitting on the edge of the bed, and we were so close we were breathing the sa air. He leaned forward and bumped his forehead against mine. “I was so afraid,” he whispered. “I was so afraid you wouldn’t wake up.”
I raised a trembling hand to Lucas’s cheek. “I was afraid, too. I was afraid the orb wouldn’t get back to you. There was a man....
Lucas’s pulled back a little, his cheek still nestled in my palm. “What man?” he growled, sliding his hand over mine. He threaded our fingers together, then brought my hand to his lips to kiss my knuckles. “What man, Sasha?”
“He... he wanted the orb. It felt like it was a long ti ago. All the people were wearing old clothes. They ran away when they saw , or rather saw the orb–all except him. He wanted to take it away from . He even pulled out a knife, but then....”
“Did he hurt you?” Lucas asked, rubbing his thumb along the back of my hand in a gesture of comfort.
I shook my head. “He called it a Slipstone and told to give it back, until he figured out I was a dream dancer. Then he started going on about a prophecy. Then... then... he....”
“He what, princess?” Lucas asked.
I swallowed. “He was old... and with my mother.”
Lucas frowned. “Your mother?”
I shook my head. “He....”
I swallowed into a tight throat as I thought about the mories of what he did, what my mother’s superstition had thought would be necessary.
I clutched the erald of the necklace Lucas gave knowing that I would have to tell him everything destroying that bracelet had led to.
“He was with my mother, but so much older and changed sohow.”
“Why would he be with your mother?”
“Because you broke my bracelet.”
He looked stricken and confused. “What does that... I don’t understand. Was it an heirloom?”
“It was a talisman, for protection. My mother believed it would help hide in Winter Forest.”
“Hide you from who?”
“My father’s pack.”
Lucas’s face went pale. Of course, my mother had reasons for wanting nothing to do with my father’s pack.
“She was scared of them finding , but I always thought she was just paranoid and superstitious. But now–maybe she knew sothing.” I sighed. “I don’t know. Maybe—“
Lucas put a finger over my lips. “It’s okay. We can figure it out later. We can just... we can figure it out later. You’re back. You’re safe. You’re awake. For now, that’s all that matters,” Lucas said.
Then he pulled into his arms and held against his chest. I noted he now slled a bit of fresh lake water as well as his usual warm scent.
“Those aren’t your clothes,” I blurted, not sure what to do now that I was in his arms again. So many emotions warred within .
Lucas let out a low rumbling laugh that vibrated straight to my core. “No. They’re Gage’s. Why, don’t they look good on ?”
“You know you look good in anything,” I chided.
“So do you,” he murmured.
Lucas rubbed his hands up and down my back, and I clung to him even tighter. Whatever was going on, if I really were to disappear, Lucas Black was the only person alive who would even know I’d ever existed.
I tilted my face up so I could et his eyes. “Lucas...?”
“I can’t....” Lucas groaned, though his eyes were filled with the sa longing that I felt.
I lowered my gaze so he wouldn’t see the hurt. “Yeah, you’re right, we....”
Lucas tucked a finger under my chin and lifted it. Then, to my surprise, his lips brushed over mine.
“I can’t stop myself. I can’t. I just can’t anymore. If all we have is right now, then that is all I want,” he whispered desperately against my lips before they crashed onto mine.
I felt a dizzy intoxication as I clung to him, kissing him back with the sa passion and need as his. When he pulled back, the fire in his eyes bore into mine.
“Lucas, please, whatever happens, promise you won’t forget .”
He cupped my cheeks in his palm and kissed sweetly. “Wherever you go, if you can’t co back, I will tear apart heaven and hell to follow and bring you back.”
A tear spilled down my cheek. “Promise?”
His thumb brushed it away. “I promise.”
“Okay,” I croaked.
Lucas pulled into another kiss. My fear and trembling turned to desire and want. The heat Lucas made my body feel now was overwhelming. His tongue was rough and demanding in my mouth, his hands moving to my bare thighs to slide the rest of out from under the covers and into his lap.
His cock was already stiff and throbbing through his pants, and he rubbed against my panties right where I wanted him to.
“You’re soaking wet,” Lucas growled in my ear, gripping my hips and pulling tighter against his erection. “I can feel it all the way through my boxers. You want , Sasha, don’t you?”
I nodded, my lips swaying toward his, wanting more of what he’d been giving .
A hard rub against my core made cry out, my whole body trembling with need.
“Say it.” Lucas rolled his hips again, making whimper.
“S-say...?” I panted, not able to form a coherent thought to save my soul.
Lucas rubbed harder against , making us both groan. “Tell how much you want it.”
“I... I want it, Lucas. I need you so bad,” I moaned. “Please make love to , Lucas.”
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