I didn’t comment on him knowing Cooper and Deacon were in here with us. It didn’t matter. “I don’t know what to do, Everest. It’s . . . a lot. My mind is unsettled. My heart is . . . far away. I’m overwhelmed. There’s too much. The prophecy⁠—”

“I know. You’re doing better than you realize. Just one step at a time. Valathame will send guidance. You are not alone, even if I cannot be there with you.” He pulled me flush against his chest, then pressed his lips to my forehead, holding me tight. “Prepare thy Coven, Francelina. They will not give you rest for no reason. If the night goes unscathed, they are elsewhere.”

“I miss you,” I heard myself whisper.

“Sleep, Gali. I will keep the dreams away for tonight.” He sighed against my skin. “Our time apart is near the end, and then we will never be parted.”

I closed my eyes and let darkness take me.

Everina Dream Skadior

CHAPTER NINE

FRANKIE

Everest had kept his word. He’d kept the dreams away. I slept. Like really, truly slept. No lucid dreaming, no astral projection, no nightmares, not even a happy dream. Just blissful rest. When I woke to the smell of food being cooked downstairs, I discovered that sunrise had quickly turned into mid-day. Breakfast had turned into lunch, and the second we all spotted Emersyn cooking her famous fried chicken in the kitchen, we all sat down at the table and waited patiently.

Everyone looked as frazzled as I felt. We all just sat at the table in silence, though that may have had something to do with the tense energy rolling off Bentley. A nervous psychic was not a comforting sight. Yet not a single one of us wanted to ask, we didn’t want to know. Not yet. We’d already gotten two major prophecies at sunrise. We didn’t need another. If he knew pertinent information, then he’d let us know when the time was right.

Ignorance was, in fact, bliss.

My mind kept replaying certain lines of the prophecies. It was torture, because I didn’t have a clue what they meant. Release the son, betray the vice, deep in the Lore they’ll feel his bite. That was clearly Everest. We were to release him and betray Lilith. Deep in the lore could’ve meant a lot of things but my gut kept trying to tell me something I did not want to think about. We’d become too familiar with the word Lore and it was only in a certain place and no one—no one—wanted to go there again. I refused to even think it, though I did wonder if that was why Bentley was so damn tense. Yet again, I wasn’t going to ask.