Page 28 of Bonds of Magic
“I’m sorry you have your—baggage, did you call it?” I smiled wryly. “I know what it’s like to have that. I don’t know how to help you process it, but if someone ever made you feel—that is, you talked about growing up and—” I broke off. “I’m sorry. I really don’t know what to say.”
“It’s okay.” He laughed bitterly. “I didn’t expect you to. You seem pretty confident in that area. From what I remember of that night at the Balsam Inn.”
My body tensed, and my heart thumped loudly in my ears. I held myself very still as I tried to figure out how to respond. I’d thought we’d agreed not to talk about that night. Granted, I’d never said as much. But I thought he understood.
I felt like I was walking through landmines. I didn’t want to set him off, but I didn’twantto want that either. Once again, I was too close to what Cory was describing for comfort.
“There’s nothing wrong with who you’re attracted to,” I said after a moment. That seemed safe enough. General.
“Tell that to my dad,” he said with another humorless laugh.
His dad. Whowashis dad? If we had the same biological father, then he must be referring to the man who’d raised him instead. Either way, he needed to know he was his own person. That he could resist.
“You’re eighteen. I don’t know what he told you, but you don’t have to listen to him. You’re an adult. And you’re here now. You don’t have to listen to anyone’s bigotry, and you certainly don’t have to believe it.”
“Easier said than done.” Cory sounded exhausted. “And it’s not just that. It’s—” He broke off, glanced at me, then shook his head. “Nevermind.”
“It’s what?” I was interested in spite of myself.
He sighed, and was quiet for a long time. “It’s not justwhoI’m into. It’s also… God, this is embarrassing. Why am I telling you this?”
I didn’t have a good answer for that, so I said nothing.
“It’showI’m into who I’m into,” he said eventually. “I don’t like what it says about me.”
I thought I had a handle on the conversation, but it had slipped out of my grasp again.
“You’ve lost me.”
“That’s fine. Like I said, we don’t actually have to talk about this. I’d prefer not to.”
I searched his face for clues that he wanted to say more, but he just looked tired. So I nodded. “Alright. Your call. But if you need to—”
“Yeah, yeah.” He held up a hand to interrupt me. “Consider it said. I won’t put you through the indignity of having to pretend you care.”
Again, I wanted to object, but I said nothing. I waited until Cory lay back and closed his eyes. I was about to ask if he wanted me to talk him through falling asleep again when he spoke.
“The dreams. I see them all around me, when I’m asleep. Like little stars in an ocean. But if a dream is close to me when I’masleep, does that mean that person is physically close to me, in the real world?”
Stars in an ocean. Interesting. That wasn’t what the dreamworld had looked like to me. I wanted to ask him more about that, to hear about another incubus’s experience.
I shook my head. I needed to concentrate on the matter at hand. “No,” I told him. “It shouldn’t have any effect.”
“But last time, I ended up in the dream of another Vesperwood student.”
My eyebrows shot up. I was grateful his eyes were closed. I didn’t want him to see my surprise, or the jealousy that flared inside me. I hoped that wouldn’t show on my face, but it was damn hard to be neutral around him.
“Chance,” I said when I was sure my voice would be even. “It could just as easily be someone in Australia.”
“How do I find a specific dream, then?” he asked, opening his eyes and rolling onto his side. “Professor Romero kept trying to get me to find someone specific, but I never could. It’s a huge sea down there, no directions. I could float for hours. For days, probably.”
“Was it a Vesperwood student you were looking for?”
Cory shook his head. “No. It was just some guy. From this scroll Romero had.”
His cheeks flushed when he said it. It was maddeningly attractive.
“But you knew his name? What he looked like? Where he lived and everything?”
