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Chapter 1
Cia
“Agápi,areyouokay?”The mumbled one-worded endearment from Liam calms my racing heart, and when he moves his hand up and down my back, it calms enough that I no longer feel like it’s going to burst free of my chest.
“Nereid?” Despite the remnants of sleep making his voice huskier than normal, my angry god sounds more alert than my warrior. And when he moves closer so he can stroke my leg, I no longer feel like I’m lost at sea.
Gus isn’t far behind. “Cia,” he rasps. His large hand wraps around the nape of my neck, making me feel protected in a way I don’t recall having felt before. He pulls on the tips of my hair, not stopping until I turn my head and meet his penetrating, blue gaze. Despite the darkness, I have no trouble seeing him—any of them. “What were you dreaming?”
Taking a shaky breath, mentally telling myself to calm down.
I’m fine, I’m safe.
This stupid dream has been haunting me for close to a month, since Christmas, to be exact, and each night I feel myself move closer to the edge of panic. Morpheus, the god of dreams, is making the dream more and more potent. Every night it feels more real than the previous. Or maybe it’s Phobetor, also known as the Frightener, the personification of nightmares that’s said to appear in dreams in the form of animals.
“I-I don’t know,” I say, gnawing on my bottom lip. Only a few minutes ago, I knew exactly what set me off, but like the other times I’ve awoken bathed in sweat during the past month, I barely remember anything aside from how it left me feeling.
“Wait.” Closing my eyes, I try to focus on my emotions and as I do, something sparks in my mind. “I think we were all there.”
“Where, Nereid?” Kai questions. Then he moves until he’s behind me, wrapping one arm around my stomach and holding me so close I can feel his heart thumping against my back.
I close my eyes as I try to recall the dream. “At the beach… yeah, I think we were all at the beach. Remus and Arthur as well.”
“You woke us all up because you were dreaming about other men?” Liam asks, and he sounds so incredulous I can’t help laughing.
“They better have been dressed,” Kai interjects, peppering my skin in soft kisses as he slowly works his way down my neck and across my shoulder.
The only one who isn’t getting caught up in the mention of the Russo and Hatt Leaders, is Gus. “You called out your mom’s name,” he says softly. “That’s what woke us up, Cia. You were crying out for her.Again.”
I furrow my brows in confusion because I don’t remember my mom being in my dream. “Oh,” I gasp. “She turned into a massive gold dragon. Do you remember the King Arthur books we used to read?”
“Of course,” Gus answers immediately.
“Do you remember the one with the melee tournament? The one where Lancelot forfeits so he doesn’t have to fight King Arthur?” My voice rises with excitement as I see the scene clearly in my mind’s eye, and as soon as Gus tells me he remembers, I continue. “In my dream, my mom looked exactly like the dragon that attacked Camelot.”
Kai chuckles. “I think I read that tale as a kid. That’s the dragon sent to test if Arthur was truly ready to create Avalon, right?”
“That’s right,” Gus says.
At the same time, Liam asks, “What’s Avalon?”
I often forget that Liam hasn’t been around Gus and me during our obsession phases, and that he’s never shared our love for the written word. If there’s a movie he can watch, he’ll take that over a book any day.
“Avalon is like… well, there are many interpretations and claims. Some say it’s the place of old magic, the birthplace of Excalibur. Others say it’s the Celtic mythology’s version of Utopia.” While I explain this, my mind is preoccupied, wondering why my mom had taken on the appearance of Kilgharrah, the dragon resembling Avalon.
“What else happened in your dream, agápi?”
My breath hitches as Kai moves his hand up my sides. “Answer the question, Nereid.” It’s impossible not to get distracted by my husband’s hands, especially when he pinches and rolls my nipples between two fingers.
“I-I’m not sure. I think I was visiting my mom’s grave when everything turned black. That’s when the golden dragon came and picked me up. And then… fuck. Kai.” Although I want to scold him for distracting me, it comes out as a moan. “I can’t concentrate when you’re doing that.”
Gus chuckles. “That’s no excuse, Cia,” he says while running one hand up my inner thigh. “What happened next?”
I moan as he slides a finger through my folds. “Umm… yeah… there was a lot of water, and I think it swallowed the dragon. That’s when I landed on the beach, the one where I used to watch Kai.”
“Where he asked us ever so nicely to leavehisspot,” Gus unhelpfully adds, and I can hear the smirk in his voice.
Kai freezes for a moment. It’s over so quickly that I would have missed it if I weren’t pressed against him. Ah shit, I can’t remember if I ever told Gus what that spot means to Kai. Hell, right now I can’t even recall if Kai told me, or if I read it in his file.
