“Alive?”
“No. Just… back.” Her voice drops to a whisper. “Others emerged from the cave then. I recognized some of our professors, students, so many witches and mages. They just kept pouring out… Black eyes, bloodied mouths, their hunger overwhelming… I could feel it.” She pulls out of my embrace and looks up at me, her eyes still holding the terror of the dream. “Undead, Baz. They’re making an army of undead. That’s what I saw the day I got bitten by the snake. An army that can’t be killed.”
She rolls onto her back again and closes her eyes. “He wanted Ani to kill me.”
“What did Ani say?”
“Nothing. He turned toward me, and his eyes—they were as black and dead as the others. There was nothing left of Ani at all—just this shell. He opened his mouth, and black smoke started pouring out… Judgment called him the Black Sun. Said he’d rule over the Dark armies that would usher in the new magickal order. That’s about when I woke up.”
Black Sun?
I’ve never heard the term, but something about it makes my gut sour. Ani’s the emanation of The Sun—goodness and light. Joy. Just picturing him like that…
“Wait. The staff…” I sit up in bed, leaning against the headboard as the terrifying idea hits my brain. “What did it look like? How big?”
“Kind of like a tree branch? The end held a bright red jewel. Do you know of any magickal staffs like that?”
“Staffs, no. But a wand? Yeah, I could think of one wand in particular with that kind of juice.”
“Thewand? Flame and Fury?” Stevie bolts upright beside me, clutching the sheets against her chest. “Can it do that? Bring the dead back to life?”
“That’s probably a better question for Kirin. Did you guys come across anything like that in the books?”
“Not yet, but there are so many different legends floating around…” She looks over at me, the terror in her eyes replaced with undaunted determination. “We need to find it, Baz. We can’t let any of the Dark Arcana find those objects. This dream… It’s only the beginning.”
“I know.” I pull her close again and stroke her hair, wishing like hell I could tell her itwasjust a dream. That she’s worrying over nothing. But I can’t do that, and we both know it.
The sun hasn’t risen yet, and after a few minutes of dead silence, we sink back into the sheets. Stevie turns on her side, her back to me, and I draw her close, seeking the contact of her silky-smooth skin, pressing my lips to the base of her neck.
She lets out a soft moan of pleasure that makes me instantly hard.
“For someone who insists he’s not the cuddling type,” she teases, “you’re awful clingy.”
“Cass seems to think you shouldn’t sleep alone. I volunteered to keep watch. Aclosewatch.”
“I thought we were supposed to put up fliers.”
“For murder victims? Because any guy that offers to keep you company in bed—that’s what he’s signing up for.”
“Possessive much?”
“Of you?” I growl and bury my face in a mass of curls, my cock already straining against her backside. “No question.”
Stevie arches back against me, making the whole situation infinitely worse.
“You’re playing with fire again, Little Bird,” I warn.
“You’re right. You should probably teach me a lesson or something. Maybe I need—”
“I knowexactlywhat you need.” In one fluid motion, I’ve got her on her back again, and I climb on top, pinning her wrists above her head as I settle in between her thighs.
I run my tongue along her inner arm, across her shoulder, down to her breast. My mouth closes around her nipple, and I inhale her sweet honeysuckle scent, tasting and teasing her, damn near losing my mind as she writhes beneath me. The bedroom flickers in my peripheral vision, and suddenly we’re at the lake by the standing stones—Stevie’s lake—the vision of her Star Arcana energy.
She arches her hips, her wet heat calling to me, begging me, and with no more invitation than that, I roll on a condom and plunge inside her.
After a night of slow, delirious pleasure, we’re fast and frenzied now, hot skin sliding against hot skin, kisses devouring kisses, and it’s not long before we’re both at the edge, teetering on the precipice.
“Baz,” she whispers, and I thrust in deep, her body clenching hard around me.
