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“Do you have your greatest desire?” I asked.

“Yes,” he said, his thumb shifting to brush over my lips.

“Then what are you looking for now?” I whispered.

“Anything that makes us more powerful,” he said. Then he kissed me, and I opened for him, his tongue plying my mouth as he bent over me before lifting me onto the desk. I reached for his hands as they gathered handfuls of my skirt, stopping him.

“I have more to tell you,” I said.

“Does it involve how you would like me to fuck you?” he asked, kissing along my neck. I let him, allowing my head to fall to one side.

“No,” I breathed.

“Then I do not wish to hear it,” he said.

“I think you will want to hear this,” I said.

Finally, he paused and pulled away, meeting my gaze.

“Ana and I are going to cast a containment spell for the crimson mist,” I said. “We have only a short while to prepare. We must cast tomorrow night.”

He studied me for a moment. “Explain.”

I told him about how Ana and I had arrived at our plan and how we needed to cast beneath the moonlight in the water. I also told him about Lothian and Zann’s theory regarding the mist and how it might have transformed into the blood plague, which unsurprisingly he already seemed to know.

“Where will you cast?” he asked.

I noted how he spoke—as if he already approved.

“Ana says there is a lake fed by a spring.”

“Galat,” he said, pausing, as if he were recalling a memory. “We used to call it Green Lake because of its color. It is near Gal.”

“Do you think it is safe?” I asked.

“The lake or your plan?”

“I suppose I wonder about both.”

He tipped my head back. “I will not let you go to Galat without an escort.”

“I did not expect to go without you,” I said.

He seemed relieved, and I guessed that he had anticipated an argument, but I did not wish to do this without Adrian near, even though I would have Ana and Violeta.

“As far as your plan, are there consequences if it goes wrong?”

“It cannot really go wrong. It can just fail,” I said, especially if we did not have enough strength between the three of us to call Ravena’s magic to us. “But…if it goes right…then it is possible I will have the ability to control the mist, possibly perhaps also the blood plague.”

Though, it was hard to say how the magic would work once it was contained.

Despite this, the thought still thrilled me, especially given Adrian’s words the night before.

There is no one else here to protect you.

If I had Ravena’s magic and learned how to shift with only a thought, I would never need protection again. I wanted that, desperately.

Adrian was quiet for a moment, and then he brushed his thumb over my cheek, pressing into me, still wedged between my thighs.