“You could say that. Emotionally speaking. And it wasn’t me,” he added as he headed for the door. “Just stick with her, will you? I’ll shake loose as soon as I can, but I’ve got a full slate today. Let her sleep, then, I don’t know, keep her busy. I’ll call.”

He was out the patio door and loping away while Dana scowled after him. “For a reporter, you’re sure stingy with the deets.” Deciding to make the best of it, she got up to raid Malory’s kitchen.

She was taking the first enthusiastic bite of a poppy-seed bagel when Malory came in.

Heavy-eyed, Dana noted. A little pale. Considerably rumpled. She imagined the rumpled part was on Flynn. “Hi. Want the other half?”

Obviously groggy, Malory just blinked. “Hi, yourself. Where’s Flynn?”

“He had to run. Go stand for journalism and all that. Want some coffee instead?”

“Yes.” She rubbed her eyes and tried to think. “What’re you doing here, Dana?”

“Don’t have a clue. Flynn called me, at the ungodly hour of about forty minutes ago, and asked me to come over. He was short on details but long on pleading, so I hauled my ass over here. What’s up?”

“I guess he’s worried about me.” She considered it, then decided she didn’t mind very much. “That’s sort of sweet.”

“Yeah, he’s sugar. Why is he worried about you?”

“I think we’d better sit down.”

She told Dana everything.

“What did he look like?” Dana demanded.

“Well . . . strong face, leaning toward the ascetic side. Wait a minute—I think I can sketch it.”

She got up to take a pad and pencil from a drawer, then sat down again. “He had very well-defined features, so it won’t be too hard. But more than how he looked was the way he felt. Compelling. Even charismatic.”

“What about the house you were in?” Dana pressed while Malory worked.

“I just got impressions. It seemed so familiar in the dream, the way your home does. So you don’t notice a lot of details. Two-story with a lawn in the back, a pretty garden. Sunny kitchen.”

“It wasn’t Flynn’s house?”

Malory looked up then. “No,” she said slowly. “No, it wasn’t. I didn’t think of that. Wouldn’t you assume it would be? If it’s my fantasy, why weren’t we living in his house? It’s a great house, it’s already in my head.”

“Maybe he couldn’t use Flynn’s house because it’s already occupied, and . . . I don’t know. It’s probably not important.”

“I think everything’s important. Everything I saw and felt and heard. I just don’t know how yet. Here . . .” She turned the pad around. “It’s rough, but that’s the best I can do. It’s a pretty decent impression of him anyway.”

“Wow!” Dana pursed her lips, whistled. “So Kane the sorcerer’s a hottie.”

“He scares me, Dana.”

“He couldn’t hurt you, not really. Not when it came right down to it.”

“Not this time. But he was in my head. It was like an invasion.” She pressed her lips together. “A kind of rape. He knows what I feel, and what I wish for.”