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Dane’s body shook violently as if electricity were rushing through her.

“Are you hurting him?”

Juniper kept her focus, reciting the spell to completion and not taking her mental hold off of that shadow. Her eyes closed, and she imagined it shrinking away, much like a puddle dries up in the sun. The buzzing escalated into a roar, and then there was a strangevip,and all was silent.

Panting, she released Dane’s head, and he collapsed to the floor. Adriel gasped and rushed to his side. “Dane! Look at me, Dane. Can you hear me?”

He groaned and rubbed his head, sounding as if he were about to be ill. Adriel helped him sit up and steadied him as he swayed. “That was…Ugh. I’d like to never do that again.”

Adriel looked up at Juniper with wide eyes. “I don’t want that.”

The whispers hissed behind her like rushing water, muffling Adriel and Dane’s words. She frowned at the strange tinnitus. “Would you rather have Cerberus in your mind?”

Adriel shrank a little. “No.”

“I’ll be as gentle as I can.” She needed to finish this before she lost her strength and the chatter in her head got any louder. “Clear your mind so I can do it quickly.”

Adriel nodded and sat in the chair, folding her hands in her lap. Her body was tense, and her eyes shut tight. “Do it.”

Loathe to hurt her, Juniper reluctantly placed her hands on either side of her skull. Her energy slammed into a hard, sonar-like wall.

“What the…?”

“Is something wrong?”

“Your mind’s completely blocked to me. I can’t get past whatever barrier you’re using.” Perhaps they weren’t ready for this level of trust. Some secrets should stay private. But this was the only way Juniper knew how to check if Cerberus was in Adriel’s head. “Can you let me in?”

“I’m trying.”

If she was trying, there should have been a crack or a slit of light—some sort of opening to push through, but it was all blocked.

“I’m only looking for signs of a trespasser. I’ll be quick—just long enough to locate any unwanted presence and push it out.”

Divots formed in Adriel’s brow as she concentrated harder, her eyes still pinched shut.

Juniper adjusted her hands on her head. “You’re still blocking me.”

“I need time. I’m old. I’ve been blocking my thoughts for centuries. I’m not as malleable as I once was.” Her face strained with concentration. “There.”

Juniper located the slight crack and pressed into her mind. She expected similar traces of the shadow she saw in Dane’s head, but that was not at all what she found.

There was no preparing for the savage reality she discovered in Adriel’s mind, and as unbiased as she tried to be, it startled her into sharp judgment. Not the critical kind, but the terrified,survival kind. He was there. Everywhere. Scars of his presence ate up the terrain of her mind in ways Juniper didn’t understand.

Was this what mating did when immortals shared a bond? He was embedded in her like a disease.

“Did you find anything?”

“Still looking.” She concentrated on following the tattered thread of her psyche, ignoring everything else and dragging her touch back to the part of the brain that hid behind the left ear where the frayed edges of her memories began. The whispers in Juniper’s mind went quiet and all she could hear were voices from another time.

A beautiful woman carried a basket and spoke in a language Juniper didn’t recognize. There was a village. Huts freckled the land, constructed of mud, stone walls, and thatched roofs. A man with dark hair and piercing eyes took the basket from the female. She looked like Adriel.

Her parents. They were her parents.

Juniper repeated the incantation, pushing further into her mind. If she could find the first intrusion of his presence, she might also discover one of his weaknesses. Anything to help them better understand his motives would be in their favor.

She sensed the slightest incidence of him in Adriel’s mind when she was only a young girl—thirteen, possibly fourteen years old. Then several long winters passed in waiting.

Her memories were tarnished by time but also blurred as if she intentionally tried to smudge them out. A dark murky haze disguised her girlish excitement as she waited through long bouts of anticipation for her mate to come.