I drew my own conclusions. "And you think these visions can help us find him."
"I know they can." The certainty in her voice made me look at her more closely. "I can see his thread, Elias. Electric blue, still pulsing with life. But it's stretched thin, like he's very far away."
Something cold settled in my chest. "Where does it go?"
"I don't know. I can feel that he's alive, that he's fighting whatever's holding him, but I can't follow the thread to its source. It disappears into this darkness that's so complete it swallows everything else." She took a drink of her water, then set the glass down with hands that were no longer quite steady. "But there's something else. Something connected to both his thread and mine."
I knew what she was going to say before the words left her mouth, and every instinct I possessed screamed at me to shut down this conversation before it went any further. Because whatever mystical connection she thought she'd found, I wanted no part of it.
But... I also needed to know.
Resigned, I sighed deep. "What kind of connection?"
"A silver thread. Steady, controlled, radiating this sense of... calm strength." Her green eyes searched my face. "It led me to you."
Even though I was expecting her to say something of the sort, the words hit me hard. Fate threads. Destiny. Cosmic bullshit that stripped away choice and handed your life over to forces beyond your control. Everything I'd spent decades learning to avoid.
"That's impossible," I said, but even as the words left my mouth, I knew they weren't true. Because there was something between us. Had been since the first time we'd ever locked eyes. Something that made the air thick and hard to breathe, that made my instincts sit up and take notice in ways they never had before with other women.
"Is it?" She leaned forward slightly, closer, and her scent filled my nose and made my throat burn with thirst. "Because I'm betting you feel it too. This pull between us that doesn't make sense but won't go away."
She was right. I did feel it. I'd been trying to ignore it for weeks, telling myself it was just physical attraction to a beautiful woman. But the way my pulse had spiked the moment she'd walked in the door, the way my entire world seemed to sharpen into focus when she looked at me...
That wasn't just lust.
That was something far more dangerous.
"Even if that were true," I said carefully, "it doesn't change the fact that your visions aren't giving us any actionable information. Knowing Alex is alive isn't enough if we can't fucking find him."
Frustration flickered across her features as she tried to explain. "But that's why I thought you might be able to help. The silver thread I saw in my visions... your thread… it's connected to all of this somehow. And if I can figure out that connection and how it can help me, then maybe I can follow it to where Alex was being held."
Her words sent an unwelcome jolt through my system. Whatever was happening between us, she thought it might be the key to her magic. Like we had some kind of supernatural bond. Like we were?—
I cut that thought off before it went any farther. "Talin?—"
"Just hear me out," she said quickly, correctly reading the refusal in my expression. "Give me a chance to try to show you what I'm seeing. If it doesn't help, if you think I'm full of shit, I'll leave you alone. But if there's even a chance that what I'm seeing can help us save Alex..."
She trailed off, leaving that last sentence hanging between us. And despite every rational part of my brain telling me to walk away from this mess, to keep my carefully ordered world intact and free of female complications, I found myself nodding.
Because, dammit, Alex was family now. Not by blood, but because he was Kenya's mate, and that made him one of ours. Even if I didn't particularly like the guy. And if this witch—this impossible, stubborn, beautiful witch—could help bring him home and save my friend who was slowly dying without him, then I'd deal with whatever cosmic forces wanted to tangle our fates together. Temporarily. And then I'd end it before things got too out of hand.
"What do you need me to do?" I asked.
Relief flooded her features, transforming her face, and something twisted in my chest. "I'm not sure. Maybe... just be near me. Let me see if your presence really does what I think it might."
I paused for a moment, then slowly moved around the bar to stand beside her. After an awkward moment, I held out my hand.
The moment her fingers touched mine, the world exploded into light, charged with an energy that made my skin tighten with awareness.
Not literally, of course. The bar was still dimly lit, still quiet and ordered exactly as I'd left it. But something inside my chest had opened up, like a door I'd never noticed was there had suddenly swung wide. And through that opening poured a sensation unlike anything I'd ever experienced. Warmth and lust and a rightness so profound it made me dizzy.
Talin gasped, her eyes flying open. "Do you feel that?"
Feel it?? I felt like I was fucking drowning. Like every carefully constructed wall I'd built around my emotions had just crumbled into dust. Like the world had shifted on its axis and I'd never find my footing again.
She didn't let go of my hand. Instead, her grip tightened, and her eyes took on that distant look I'd seen that night I'd followed her. She pressed one hand against her chest, just above her heart, her breathing becoming shallow. Her wide eyes met mine, then suddenly rolled back, her entire body going rigid.
"Talin?" I reached for her instinctively, grabbing her shoulders to keep her from falling off the stool.
