Page 41 of Shadow's End

I woke with a gasp and sat bolt upright. The sudden movement woke Aiden, and he shifted and sat up with me, his arm slipping around my shoulders and tugging me against him.

“Another dream?” When I nodded, he added, “How? I thought this place would protect you from her?”

“So did I. I was wrong.” I pulled away from him and climbed out of bed, tugging on a T-shirt and a pair of sleep shorts. “I need a coffee. And possibly pancakes. And bacon.”

He rolled out the other side of our bed and pulled on his jeans. “You make the coffee; I’ll do the rest.”

I shot a narrowed gaze at him. “Can you be trusted with pancakes?”

“Hey, they’re only flour and milk, right? Can’t be too hard.”

Right.“We’ll switch roles. I need decent pancakes right now.”

He smiled, though it failed to chase the concern from his eyes. “You’re going to have to teach me to cook your favorite foods properly—if only for those pregnancy hankerings that apparently hit at the most inconvenient hours of the night.”

“Keep a steady stock of chocolate and several packets of white chocolate caramel popcorn in the pantry, and we’ll be just fine.”

He blinked. “Caramel popcorn? When did that become a thing?”

“Monday. Discovered it in the Christmas food aisle at the supermarket.”

“And you didn’t share? I’m outraged.”

“You were working.” I padded lightly down the stairs. “And it was very moreish.”

I flicked on the kitchen light, lit the stovetop, then got out everything I needed to make the pancakes. With the bacon frying in one pan, I poured the mixture into two others. Aiden came in, handed me a mug of coffee, and then leaned back against the metal prep counter. “So, tell me what happened this time in the dream.”

“It followed much the same path as the previous one, but it’s not a dream. It’s”—I flipped a pancake and wrinkled my nose—“more an astral travel thing.”

“How is it happening, though? I thought the reason we moved here was to prevent it.”

“She confirmed the fact she can’t physically access this place, so staying here remains prudent.” I flipped the pancakes onto a plate, slipped it into the warmer drawer, and threw more butter into the pan followed by the mix.

“That only answered part of my question.”

I flashed him a smile, though it was a little more tense than I would have liked. “Apparently, a spell I did a few months ago to protect Belle allows darkness to call on my spirit.”

“Were you aware of this at the time?”

“Sort of? There was a warning that using the spell would make me more susceptible to darkness, but it was the only spell I could find to protect her from Clayton’s very obvious intent to rape her.” I flipped the next lot of pancakes and checked the bacon.

“Meaning you didn’t care.”

I certainly didn’t. And I’d do it again in a heartbeat to protect her. I slipped the next batch of pancakes onto the plate, put the cooked bacon on another, and shoved both into the warmer drawer before making a final batch of pancakes. He and I couldn’t possibly eat everything I was cooking, but I was betting Monty’s nose for bacon would see him coming down the stairs sooner rather than later.

Aiden contemplated me for a second. “Can she control you in these dreams?”

“Not at the moment. But I need to ring Mom, so I might ask her to do some research.”

He frowned. “Ashworth has more experience dealing with vampires than she does.”

“Yes, but this is something else, and that spell—” I grimaced. “It was a blood spell, Aiden. A gray one, but nevertheless blood based. Ashworth might have contacts in the HIC, but Mom, as a member of the high council, has access to the restricted section of the National Spell Archive. That’s where information will be found about it, if anywhere. Even Nell’s book didn’t really flesh out the implications.”

When the last batch was done, I put all the warmed plates on a tray, gave it to him to carry out, then headed to the fridge to grab the toppings—raspberries, cinnamon butter, and maple syrup—then picked up the cutlery and my coffee, and followed him out.

Once we’d both filled up our plates, he said, “You said it followed much the same path, so what changed in this one?”

I hesitated. “There’s a fire coming, but I’m not sure whether it’s mage fire or real. The trees were certainly being hit by the former, but I just have this horrible conviction it might be the latter.”

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