Honestly, I get the feeling. There’s nothing more I want to do than to curl up with my men and sink into blissful unconsciousness.
I turn to see Raven, North, and Cain there, all smiling at me quietly. They said goodbye to Willow’s men, although there was no hugging. I don’t think that they see themselves quite as close to them as I now see myself to Willow, but there’s mutual respect. Cain at least no longer looks like he wants to kill them on sight, and I’m considering that a huge improvement.
My mates all look exhausted still. The adrenaline of battle is wearing off and all three of them look like they want to just collapse right here. I feel about the same.
Tiorelle instructs the fae to all take rests. The small handful of fae who stayed behind, those who were too old to be of service in battle or not physically fit enough, have been taking care of the children all day and will now keep watch and handle things like cooking dinner while all of us who fought against Roanac recover.
“Shall we?” I ask my mates.
They all nod, and we head back to the hut where we’ve been staying.
I start stripping as soon as I enter the building. Not because I’ve got any plans for sex, I’m way too fucking tired for that, but because I want to just collapse into bed without my dirty, blood-covered clothes on.
There’s a shower and we all do a quick wipe-off of ourselves to get any dirt or grime off. We might not care right now, but when we wake up stinking and dirty, we sure will care. Once we’re not walking piles of filth and blood, I throw on some panties and climb into bed. I’m too spent to bother with anything else and who’s going to care? Not my mates, that’s for sure.
All three of them curl around me in bed, wrapping me up so that I feel safe. I close my eyes immediately and sink down into the soft mattress. The warmth of my mates is all the comfort I could possibly need. They’re alive, and they’re safe. We beat the odds.
I fall asleep with a smile on my face.
CHAPTER24
Ihave another dream.
It’s not a usual dream, but a Sight dream, like the one I kept having of leading the army of fae without my mates beside me. That one didn’t come true, thank fuck. I was able to change reality to make it so that the Sight didn’t come true, but now I’m in this other Sight.
And you know what, I don’t want to change this one.
I’m in the middle of a beautiful, wild landscape. I don’t quite recognize it. There’s a wide open plain in front of me, the kind that reminds me of what the Wild West must’ve looked like to early settlers. I half-expect a herd of bison to appear. But the mountains in the distance don’t look familiar at all, rising white-capped and so majestic and magical that my breath catches.
This feels like the kind of place you’d expect to find giants and dragons. The kind of place that makes you believe in magic again. Which sounds silly because I’m fae, I’m well aware that magic exists in our world. But there’s something mundane about it for me, and standing here in this wild place I can feel the beauty and wonder of it again.
I stand there for a moment, soaking it all in, and then I begin to wonder if I’m alone.
A throat clears, and I turn.
Standing behind me on the side of a dirt road are my mates. They’re smiling. I don’t know where we are, exactly, but I know we’re on a grand adventure, together, and that’s all that matters.
Happiness fills me and carries me through to wakefulness, and I open my eyes.
Raven’s looking down at me, and he’s grinning.
I mean, he’s got a lot of reasons to be happy, but there’s something about that grin that has me narrowing my eyes in suspicion. Even when Raven is happy he’s not a big grinner, he’s more of a softly smiling kind of guy. Cain is a grinner.
“What?” I ask. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
Raven shrugs. “Can’t a guy be happy?”
Oh, that just makes me even more suspicious. I give him a flat look.
Raven’s smile grows. “Did you have a good dream?”
Okay, his tone is far too knowing. “Yes?”
Raven nods. “I thought so. Iceland is lovely that time of year.” He winks at me.
Iceland. That must’ve been where I was in my dream, which makes perfect sense. The slight chill in the air and the mountains and the vast—
Wait.