Page 60 of Bonds of Magic
Tears brimmed in his eyes. I felt awful. Whatever this dream was, it was private. I felt worse than if I’d stumbled in on him hooking up with someone. This felt like something secret—a part of him he kept hidden for a reason.
“It’s okay, it’s okay.” I took Ash’s hand. “Come here, it’s okay.”
I pulled him into a hug so that he was looking over my shoulder, instead of at that tree. I scrutinized its trunk. A door, huh? Well, could I influence dreams or not?
I imagined an old wooden door with a rounded top, set into the tree trunk. I pictured it as clearly as I could, the weathered grain of its wooden boards, the multi-paned glass of its small circular window, the wrought iron of its hinges. And I felt heat in my core.
Not anything sexual, but a feeling of power. It felt like I was drawing it from Ash’s body as well as my own. The heat flowed out from us, curling through the air. When it touched the tree, the whole scene shimmered, and suddenly, the door I’d imagined was right there.
“Look, look.” I pointed and pulled away from Ash so he could turn around. “The door is there. You did it right after all.”
“I did?” He stared at the tree in disbelief.
“Go on. See for yourself.”
Ash rose, first walking, then running across the grass, but he stumbled as he neared the door, stopping two feet away. His hand raised in midair, then froze, as if he were afraid to touch it.
“Something’s wrong.” He didn’t sound upset now. He sounded afraid.
“What? No. Nothing’s wrong.” I got to my feet.
“It’s the wrong door. Or something. I don’t know what it is, but it doesn’t lead back home. I can feel it.”
“Are you sure?” I joined him in front of the tree. I should have asked him for more details. But maybe I could still fix this.
“I don’t know where it leads.” He backed away in horror. “But it won’t take me home.”
“Tell me about home.” I took his hand. “Tell me what home is like, and I can help you find it.”
“No.” He shook his head. “No, I don’t think that’s a good idea.” He looked around the glade, his eyes wide and fearful. “I think you should leave. I think we should both get out of here.”
At those words, the clearing grew darker. It wasn’t just the sun setting further. The shadows among the trees were too deep for that. The air was thicker, somehow, and filled with menace, like the breath of a panther waiting to pounce.
“Ash, it’s okay.” I imagined what the glade would look like in broad daylight. Bright sun. Blue sky. The trees offering a cool respite of shade. Heat rolled out from my body again, and the scene brightened.
“Look, it’s fine.”
But Ash shook his head, over and over. “No, it’s not. Something’s wrong, Cory. We have to get out of here.”
He pulled free of my grip and ran to the far side of the glade, which had darkened again.
“Ash, wait,” I called. “It’s fine, I promise. You don’t need to—”
“Hurry, Cory. It’s not safe here.”
I sighed. Nothing I did could calm him down. And his fear must be powerful, if it was able to override the suggestions I’d made to the dream.
“It’s okay.” I waved at Ash. “You go. I have to stay and fix this, but you go.”
“I won’t leave you.”
“You have to. I can’t do the spell to fix this with you here.”
I was improvising, but he didn’t reject my words outright.
“Spell?” he asked. He still looked afraid.
I nodded enthusiastically. “I’ll just be a minute. But I need to do it alone. You should go meet Felix in, uh, the library. He was looking for you a minute ago.”
