“Elloren...gods, Elloren...my love...”

“I lost you,” I raggedly say, hot tears pooling in my eyes as Lukas trails his mouth along my shoulder, my neck. “I didn’t know where you were...” I manage.

“I’m here,” he says, voice rough. “I’m right here. I love you.”

My heart breaks open. “I love you too.” I grasp at him, pulling his mouth back onto my tear-salted lips, his hands gripping my waist as his fire gives a hard surge and he begins to urgently pull at my remaining clothes. I arch up to aid him, his bedroom surrounding us, the walls shivering like water at the edges, the colors deepening.

His family’s estate in Valgard...

A sensation of wrongness pricks at my mind, disorientation wresting hold as our surroundings shift to sheltering branches.

The shelter Lukas conjured...the night we fled Valgard...

Muffled thunder booms overhead as his movements gain urgency, his body pressing me into the mossy ground. But the scene is all wrong. The branches are like hazy paintings, the lantern’s crimson glow strangely heightened.

The stunned realization takes hold.

Lukas is dreaming.

And I’m somehow inside it.

The scene continues to shift as Lukas kisses me, his mind forming the dream from scattered images and remembered sensations while I’m helplessly swept up in its impassioned current. A harsh sting races along my fastlines, a pained gasp tightening my throat. I look to my hand and unease shivers into being as I find my glamour gone, my fastlines visible on my green-glimmering skin.

Intuition takes root.

Vogel. This is connected to Vogel somehow.

“Lukas,” I say, breaking the kiss. I grip hold of his shoulders and push.

Lukas instantly pulls back, his green eyes thick with desire and a trace of confusion, his cheeks flushed through the shimmering green, his magic grasping at my lines.

He closes in for another kiss and I wrench my head to the side, dodging his mouth. “Something is wrong. Lukas, I’m in your dream...”

Excitement flares in his eyes. “You’re always in my dreams.” He captures my mouth again and sends a spiraling blaze of fire through me, the intoxicating, feverish rush of his power sparking all the way down to my toes. A breath shudders through me, my thoughts scattering against his desire as I fall back into the dream, pressing the length of my body against his. And for a moment, it’s all I can do not to get lost in him.

Elloren.

The almost imperceptible whisper pricks at the back of my mind as a harsher sting races along my fastlines. The haze of want clears, my gaze flicking to my wand hand, clutched around Lukas’s shoulder.

Fear strikes through me.

My fastlines are emanating smoking, curling Shadow.

“Elloren,” Lukas purrs, his voice throaty as he leans in to nuzzle my neck, his grip firming around my thigh. “Let me take you...”