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I fucking loved him.

As he stood before me in all his glory, my legs still parted for him, all I could think about was how damn lucky I was. That he wasmine, and nobody else would ever touch him. Ever love him. That every ridge of his abdomen belonged to me. I would be the only one to taste the muscles that led downto his beautiful, perfect cock. That his lips weremine, and I would be the only one he would ever taste on that wicked mouth ever again.

And when we came together again, we worshipped each other as if he had the same exact thought.

That I was his and his alone.

By the time we had made it out of bed, half of the day had already passed. I was sure Annelise was somewhere in the cottage waiting for me, despite not having set a time for our training session. Nik and I reluctantly dressed and made our way towards the library, where we found Tess and Puck.

“Any sign of Annelise yet?” I asked as I pushed the library door open, Nik following me inside.

Tess had all the lanterns lit already, one on each of the tables. The sun had begun to set, and I realized how much time we had wasted away between the sheets. I hoped for many, many more days spent like this. But for now… there was work to do.

Tess cast a glance over her shoulder. “No, not yet.”

She did a double take when she saw that Nik and I were together, raising an eyebrow at me as I pulled the chair out across from her.

“I told you,” she mouthed silently.

I kicked her under the table, a grin spreading across my lips.

The exchange gave me a sense of déjà vu from when she had first accused me of liking him. As always, Tess was right. Nik had simply needed time, and he had come to me when he was ready.

“I’m supposed to train with her today,” I said as Nik settled into the chair beside me.

Puck exchanged an equally subtle grin with Nik and I pretended not to see.

“Seeing as the sun is almost setting, I would say that ship has sailed,” Tess replied, her gaze returning to the book before her.

“Any luck?” I asked, eyeing the book upside down to see if I recognized it. If it was one I had already combed through.

“Not yet,” she mused, running her finger along the tattered pages to keep her place in a large paragraph.

“I see you’re helping.” Nik laughed, gesturing to the empty table before Puck.

“If I read one more bloody book about dream walking, I swear I will pass out,” he replied with a huff.

“Somehow, I doubt that,” Tess replied, eyeing him with a narrowed gaze. “The least you could do is comb through the rest of this stack and determine which ones we should check out first.” She gestured towards the stack of books I had left on the table the night before.

The cottage underground was a treasure trove of information, and we had found a number of books on the subject, but nothing mentioning a token yet. Corian would have madea good mentor if he weren’t on Donika’s side—he knew the most about dream walking. More than any of us. Tyr knew a good amount too, but we had never spoken about it before his death. Other than the time he had tried to pry the Kotova grimoire away from me…

I was anxious for Annelise to return so we could train. I had only worked with my bound Stormshade magic a handful of times before Nik had turned into Noctani, and I needed more practice. Bound magic was entirely different from unbound magic, but I believed the mechanics were largely the same. Annelise has been a bound Stormshade for two decades, and her knowledge on the subject was incomparable.

The library door opened again and Zion shuffled in, Saanvi and Kenna on his heels.

“I thought I’d find you lot in here,” he said, joining us at the table and pulling up a chair.

“You found us,” I sighed, pulling one of the books from the stack to begin reading.

“Annelise just got back.” He leaned back in his chair so that only two feet were on the ground.

“Where is she?” I asked, pushing the book back and moving to stand.

Even if we didn’t have much daylight left, we might be able to at least get a little bit done. And who said you needed daylight for magic anyway?

Right as I was about to leave in search of her, the library door squeaked open again. Annelise entered with her pack in her arms, a wide smile across her lips.

“Sorry it took me longer than planned. There was one thing I had to do first.”