Peachy! That would be like a dream come true.
Thinking of dreams, I wanted more than anything to return to the one I’d been torn away from.
“Don’t worry, pip.” I lied. “You go, and I’ll catch up with you. I’ll get up in ten minutes, and I’ll run all the way to class.”
“Do you even know where the class is?”
“Like a map on the back of my hand.”
She gave me one last uncertain, worried look. “Your face is all flushed. Are you okay?”
I pulled the blanket over my cheeks.
Yelena’s footsteps retreated, and I glanced around to find that all the other girls had left before her.
Please, let me go back to that dream, I prayed to an imaginary higher force.Let my dream lover wrap his black, silky wings around me one more time, and I’ll promise to be on my best behavior for a week.
I snuggled my nose deeper into the pillow.
Dream now,I commanded and hoped for the best.
I’d try anything to go back to him, to finish what we’d started, even though we’d have to say goodbye eventually.
I didn’t find him.
I don’t know how much time had passed when an icy dampness sank into my bones. Chunks of ice floated above my face, and the air was cut off from my water-filled lungs.
This wasn’t the dream I sought.
I fought to breathe, to wake up, only to have more cold water pour into my mouth and down my throat.
Shit! Shit!
I snapped open my eyes, and to my horror, water flooded my bunk, encasing me like an ice coffin. This wasn’t merely a bad dream.
Ice cubes floated above my face.
How could this happen in reality?
Was this an aftereffect of the ritual? I’d experienced the burn of the fire. Now must I freeze to death to finish the cycle? That ritual was a bitch!
I yelped for strength, threw the drenched covers off me, and leapt out of the soaked bed.
Then I realized I was completely naked, standing on my bare feet on the wet, cold ground.
I usually slept naked. Clothes irritated my skin.
“Now you’re swift,” Paxton said lazily, savoring the moment.
It all clicked.
Only the Demigod of Sea could pull this amount of water out of nowhere and force the currents to fly through the air like that.
I swept my furious gaze around the room and spotted him leaning against the column of a bunk. He wasn’t wearing armor but dressed in a gray button-up shirt with black pants.
The Demigod of Sea might be sexy as fuck in the early morning, but I saw red, even though lust still lingered in my veins from the erotic dream. My anger spiraled higher when I registered that he enjoyed watching me shudder with cold.
He gave my nudity an intentionally slow once-over, meant to insult and irk me, yet he couldn’t hide the heat in his violet eyes.