CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Brokk
Morning comes too soon, for I never want to get up when I hold my sweet mate in my arms. Lara sleeps so deeply, giving it her all, as she does with everything. I love that about her. She feels things so passionately, and I want her to love me with all of that intensity.
“Ah hem,” Grey says from beside the hammock right as the plants send an alarm rippling through me.
“How did you get in here?” I didn’t drop the foliage barrier last night. In fact, it’s still in place.
“Please, orc.” He smirks at me. “Did you really think a few plants could keep out a cat sith? I walk the shadow roads, and the shadow roads go everywhere.”
“Morning.” Lara gives a sleepy yawn and rubs at her face. “If you can walk everywhere, go get me some coffee.”
Grey says, “I don’t know what that is.”
“You’re not missing much,” I mutter, unable to comprehend why humans love the bitter brew.
Holding her close, I swing my legs over the side of the hammock and stand. My magic flows outward, making the vines of our bed unwind and dismissing the plant barrier.
When I set Lara on her feet, she throws her arms over her head in a full-body stretch that tests the limits of the catsuit’s elasticity in the most delightful ways. Fuck. I love that catsuit.
I chop off the top of a couple of coconuts for breakfast, and we drink the faintly sweet water so that I can halve them to get at the meat. The feline fae refuses the offer of a coconut, saying he hunted for breakfast.
Lara gnaws on a cream-colored piece of nut, leaning forward on the log as she starts spreading photographs across the ground with her other hand.
“What are these?” Grey leans over to sniff one of the pictures and recoils, his nose scrunched. “They smell atrocious.”
“They’re pictures of a wall from the building at the center of the island,” Lara says. “The humans think this has something to do with a magical artifact of some kind.”
“I don’t remember seeing anything like this.” He sniffs. “The words don’t make any sense.”
“That’s because I can’t figure out how to put the pictures in the right order.” She picks up one and holds it up against a few different photos before dropping it back into its original spot. “I suck at puzzles.”
“Then allow me.” Grey shifts into his dual form so he can use the werepanther’s hands to move the photographs around. “If there’s one thing cat sith are good at, it’s riddles and puzzles.”
Lara and I watch as he plucks up several of the pictures and arranges them in the center of the space until they overlap into a cohesive whole. Then he works on their edges, adding the remaining photos in an outward spiral that grows until a wall forms.
“How did you do that so quickly?” Lara asks.
“You have to look at it as a whole instead of focusing so much on each individual piece.” He shrugs, the fur on his shoulders rippling with the movement.
“That’s High Fae, but it’s an ancient form.” I shake my head. “I only understand a few words.”
“I can’t read it either,” Grey admits.
“Really?” Lara’s lips purse as she leans over and eyes the pictures. “It looks normal to me.”
I brush my fingers over her cheek, her temple, feeling a telltale tingle. “You’re using magic. You’re a witch.”
“There are stories that being a witch runs in my family, but how can that be true?” My mate shakes her head, but amazement fills her eyes. “If I have magical powers, why haven’t I used them before? I studied the journal for years .”
“When the doors of Faerie opened a few months ago, it let magic back into the human realm. Just a little at first, but it’s growing.” I grin at her. “You’ve been a witch your entire life, but you couldn’t use your powers until now.”
“So I have…” She flaps a hand toward the photos. “Translation magic?”
“You have command over the written word,” I say. “It seems fitting.”
“As lovely as debating magical theory is, I want to know what’s special about this building,” Grey says.
“On it.” Lara leans over the photographs and reads:
“The Door of Dreams will transport you to where your heart most desires.
“Yet heed my warning, eager traveler. Do not assume to know where you will land. For the Door of Dreams follows the dictates of your heart, even if they are hidden from you.
“You cannot fool the Door of Dreams.
“You cannot cajole it.
“And most especially, you cannot walk back through it.
“This trip is in only one direction. Make certain you can live with the consequences.”
“The Door of Dreams,” I say. “I’ve heard of that.”
“I have as well,” Grey says. “But I had no idea it was on Fruvalia!”
“What have you heard?” Lara spins toward us, her face glowing with excitement. “Tell me everything .”
“Rumors, myths, stories lost to time.” Grey sits back on his haunches, balancing perfectly even though the werepanther form is new for him.
“Same. In fact, the one story I heard sounded a lot like what you just read.” I gesture toward the photos. “During the final battle of the Three Realms War, the elf fae cast a powerful glamour over the battlefield that made the orcs wander about, unable to see each other. One of the warriors who got lost eventually stumbled across the Door of Dreams. He stepped through, expecting to return to duty as one of the orc queen’s guard, but instead wound up in a realm with no other orcs. There he met the wood nymph who was his fated mate.”
“Aww! That’s so sweet!”
Grey taps an extended claw tip against one of the photos. “If this is true, and we find the Door of Dreams, I can return to my people on the mainland of Fruvalia and lead them to our home realm.”
“Ketalia.” I nod.
Grey startles and growls, “How do you know the name of the cat sith home?”
“I’m from Alarria, and there, the cat sith and orcs are allies.”
His head lifts as he opens his mouth and takes in several audible sniffs. “You don’t smell like you’re lying.”
It’s my turn to growl. “I’m an honorable orc warrior.”
“Well, then, orc.” He shifts back into his panther form. “If we are indeed allies, I will take you to this building so that we may find the door.”
“What do you think we’ve been doing for the past two days?” I jab a finger toward the center of the island. “We’re traveling straight toward it.”
“Ah, but you can’t get there in less than a minute, can you?” His green eyes glitter mockingly.
I bare my tusks, but I can’t argue. Moving at Lara’s pace, it’s going to take several more days to reach the ruins.
“Please, Brokk.” Excitement fills her voice as she leans over and puts her hand on my forearm. “Let him take us the fast way. We have to get there and figure out how to use the Door of Dreams before Elton Edgerton does. We can’t trust a megalomaniac like him with something this powerful.”
I can deny her nothing.
“Very well,” I say.
“Excellent. There are only a few things to note. Don’t step off the path, and whatever you do, don’t let go of me.”
“What happens if we do?” Lara asks.
The feline fae’s voice turns deadly serious. “You’ll be lost forever.”