Chapter Five
Cohen
T he beautiful fae stumbles as she comes to a stop in front of me. I’m not sure if I grab for her or she reaches for me, but my magic sizzles as our skin connects.
When my eyes meet hers, they’re glossy and vacant.
I blink and the world around us morphs.
Lorcan, the dragon, and the female nightmare disappear.
We’re no longer outside Anders’s home on pack lands. The female who Veryn called Rogue stares at me with wide eyes as I pin her to the wall in the familiar house.
My hand comes to rest over her mouth, and my body flattens against hers as the group of three men search the room.
My magic is shielding us from view, but I don’t know who those three are or why we’re hiding. It’s a bizarre sensation to understand bits and pieces while having no idea of the overall context of what’s happening.
I can hear Rogue’s voice speaking in the real world as she says, “Not a shifter at all.”
My back is to the men we’re hiding from, so I have no idea what they’re up to.
Rogue’s huge gray eyes stare into mine, and the moment feels especially intimate. There’s a strange aching in my chest that urges me to pull my hand away and replace it with my lips.
My heart races, thumping so loudly I can hear my pulse in my ears as I do exactly that. I’m six-three, but Rogue is tall, like all fae, and I only have to bend a bit to brush my lips over hers as I remove my hand from the equation.
She hungrily kisses me back, shoving her tongue into my mouth. Keeping quiet is complicated because it’s a perfect kiss. Slow and sensual and building in its intensity. My body reacts like I’m actually in the moment, pinning her to the wall with my lips pressed to hers.
Visions are complicated magic I’ve never experienced before now.
I can’t understand how I can hear the running commentary in the real world from Gemma and Lorcan, but also be actively participating in the soul-consuming kiss.
Rogue pulls away in real life and the vision fades. She stumbles backward, looking like she’s about to fall.
I reach for her once more, and this time we’re pulled into a kaleidoscope of events never lasting longer than a brief flicker.
The three men who were after us in the earlier vision stand around a desk, talking to a woman I’ve never seen before.
In a blink, the image morphs, and the three men sit in a rundown living room. The man with reddish-blond hair says, “He’s weakest while we control his phylactery. If we don’t end him before he locates it ? —”
Rogue stands face-to-face with Calyx in the same bar where I met with my old friend a few nights ago. They stare at each other in what almost seems like awe.
There are quick flashes of Rogue arguing with a huge man I’ve never seen, but by sight alone, I assume he’s some type of shifter. He makes a grab for her arm, but the scene changes again.
Rogue’s voice once again echoes in the real world. “Oh, shit.”
Calyx and I sit side by side on the couch in an unfamiliar house. He bumps my shoulder with his, saying something that makes me bark a laugh.
Last time, I was in my body for the vision, but this time, I can see myself from the outside and it’s extremely unsettling.
Or I think it is until the scene changes once more, and an even more grisly image takes shape.
It’s only a flicker, but my heart drops.
Calyx lies on the wooden flooring of a house I don’t recognize with a massive wound in his chest and his head separated from his body.
The lifeless look in his eyes will haunt me for a long time.
The vision fades, and I stare at Rogue in abject horror.
“Wait, is that going to happen or has it already?” I choke out.
Calyx is immortal, but certain conditions need to be met for him to resurrect.
“I think that was the future,” she says. “Sometimes it’s hard to tell, but…” Her face twists into a frown. “You need to take me to him. Now.”
“Whoa, take who, where?” Gemma asks as she moves closer to her sister.
I’m still so out of it that all I can do is to stare at Rogue in awe. She’s an extremely powerful seer.
“Rogue?” Gemma probes.
Rogue’s head shakes, and she turns to face the nightmare, breaking the spell between us. “The plan hasn’t changed. Okay, just a tiny bit. You take Veryn to grab some of Ember’s things and to help settle her family’s frayed nerves. I have a lead I need to follow.”
“I can siphon Veryn to Haven and back in fifteen minutes.” Gemma frowns. “We should stick together.”
“You weren’t in my vision,” Rogue says, her eyes flying back to mine. “Also, the warlock and I have a few things to discuss.”
“It’s going to take a lot longer than fifteen minutes to talk Ember’s fathers out of coming here,” Veryn says calmly.
“I hate it when you do this weird seer shit.” Gemma’s shadows spill out around her, darting toward Rogue. She tugs her sister to her, and they embrace.
My chest rises and falls in rapid pants.
Holy fucking shit.
That vision was a lot to take in.
My mind replays the pieces I can remember, but it circles back to two events—the kiss Rogue and I shared and Calyx’s lifeless body.
“You’ll call me if you need me?” Lorcan asks, startling me out of my thoughts.
I nod.
He also has the gift of prophecy, but his gifts prevent him from seeing anything too closely related to his own timeline.
Christ.
What mess have we gotten ourselves into this time?
“Did we, uh…” I swipe a hand over my face and focus back on the road. I learned to drive on the other side of the pond, and being in the opposite lane is always a bit of a harrowing adventure. “Did we see the same visions?”
“I can only assume so,” Rogue says, crossing her arms over her chest. She’s already got one leg linked over the other. Her body language couldn’t be any more closed off. “Why is the paranormal council after you?”
“I have no idea. They must be after Calyx, and I got caught in the crossfire.”
“Calyx, that’s the man from the vision?”
“Right,” I murmur. “I’m sure he already knows, but I plan to warn him. Don’t take this the wrong way, but he won’t let you apprehend him. It’s not that I don’t think you’re capable?—”
She lets out something like a snort.
“I’m more than capable, but I saw something in that vision…” Her eyes dart away from me, and she looks out the passenger window. “More like someone.”
“You recognized someone?” I probe.
I cut my eyes to the side just in time to see her nod.
“Yeah, but something was off,” she says softly. “I get the feeling she’s not playing for the right team.”
I stay quiet, hoping to entice more from her, but it doesn’t come.
Rogue said she’s not playing for the right team , and I only saw one woman in that vision besides Rogue. That means she knows the woman who was speaking to three men who were chasing us.
Too bad I don’t have the first clue what any of it means.