“This…” I trailed off on a sigh as his lips met my collarbone.
“You know the spell,” he said against my skin. “Either use it, or we’ll stay here and play.” He started a path downward to my breasts, causing my mind to blink in and out of focus as I fought to hold on to our purpose.
Zeph, I thought. I’m supposed… to dream… of Zeph.
“Tick-tock, Aflora,” Zakkai murmured, his teeth skimming my nipple with the words. “Make a choice.”
I threaded my fingers through his long white hair and pulled him back up to my mouth. “Stop distracting me.”
He pressed his lips to mine, his palm resting against my cheek. Make me, he taunted into my mind, his tongue tracing a dangerous path along the seam of my mouth.
If I let him inside, I would lose all my senses.
Because Zakkai was a kissing god. I’d learned that in previous dreams. He knew how to render me utterly useless with his skilled tongue.
No, no, no, I thought, fighting for control.
Zeph had taught me better than this.
I focused on our mate-bond and the door blocking me from his mind. Take it down! I demanded, irritated by the block.
Not my spell to remove, Zakkai replied, his nose skimming my cheek. “Shade put it there, star,” he whispered into my ear. “Dismantle it.”
“Why did he put it there?”
“I imagine he’s concerned that I might be able to access him and Zephyrus through your mind.” He grazed my neck with his teeth, then focused on my pulse again.
“Can you do that?”
“I don’t know,” he murmured. “However, if Shade felt the need to block me, it suggests he’s either foreseen the act or it’s happened in another timeline.”
“Timeline?” I repeated.
“Has he not told yo
u about his penchant for playing with time?” Zakkai went to his elbows on either side of my head, his white hair falling like a curtain around me. “One of his best friends is a Paradox Fae. Kyros.”
“Tricksters,” I whispered, recalling the time Shade had mentioned playing with a time-dweller. He’d been talking to Ajax about it before Advanced Conjuring class.
That’d been the day I picked up a rock and lived through the explosion at the Academy.
An explosion Zakkai had orchestrated.
“You planted the rock,” I said, cold water rushing through my veins at the memory. “You made me live through the explosion.”
Zakkai stared down at me with a note of confusion lurking in his blue eyes. “Which rock?”
“From Advanced Conjuring class.”
“I’m not sure what you’re talking about.”
“Headmaster Irwin taught us a psychometry spell to call on the history of objects. My object was a rock from the explosion. I was you. I waved my wand and said, ‘Alqisian,’ and a voice told me that this was my future—that I would one day be you.”
Zakkai rolled off of me to lounge on his elbow at my side, his expression clouded. “Who was with you during this class?”
“Shade,” I replied.
“Engage him in a dream first. I want to know what he felt.”