kicking up sand. “I had to tell my dad everything. I didn’t see a lot of headquarters, but what I saw, I told him about.”
Hope wiped sand off her leg. “Yeah. I would’ve told my daddy too. Don’t feel bad.” If they were gonna stay friends, they had to tell each other the truth. “Did you try and tell your daddy that the Seven are good?”
He looked at the huge ocean. “They can’t be good because they want to hurt Ulric. He’s our religious guy. Like your prophets.” Glancing down, he studied the blue markings on her neck. “You’re a prophet. Can you reach others like you? Maybe you can reach Ulric.”
She shrugged. “I don’t see the other two prophets much.” Lily and Caleb were super nice, but her daddy didn’t let her spend time with them since she was just a kid. Something about choosing her own path or whatever. “I don’t think I can reach him. This is the only dreamworld I can get to.” Right now, anyway. It got easier every year, so maybe someday she could visit other dreamworlds and even talk to Ulric. But then she’d really get grounded.
Drake scrunched his toes in the sand. “You and Paxton are good friends. No?”
“Yes,” she said. “Him and Libby are my best friends. And you, Drake.”
“Hmm.” He watched the bird fly by again. “Do you see the future?”
“Sometimes.” The bird came back, and she waved at it. “But I don’t get to choose the stuff I see. What ’bout you?”
He nodded. “Same. I can see some stuff but not others. Me and Pax? We’re not gonna be friends. I’ve seen us fighting each other as grown-ups.” He sighed. “But I can’t see who dies. Somebody does for sure.”
Her stomach did something funny. “Nobody dies.” Drake just couldn’t see the whole picture. “We’re gonna fix it all.”
He turned his head suddenly. “I have to go. Meet you back here soon.” He smiled, but his green eyes didn’t twinkle.
She wanted to tell him it’d be okay and to trust her. Instead, she woke up back in her room with the rain splashing against the window, her hand in Paxton’s. She turned to watch him sleep.
How was she gonna save them both?
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Promise awoke and stretched against a hard male body, wincing as her butt hit his hip. The night before came crashing back. She’d been working on her boards when they’d blurred and become fuzzy, forcing her to sit suddenly. Ivar had insisted she get some sleep, and she’d protested, saying she just required more coffee. When he’d grasped her arm in that no-nonsense hold, she lost it and punched him in the thigh.
The world had instantly spun, and she’d faced the computer to receive a hard smack against her ass.
She blinked into awareness. “I cannot believe you slapped my butt,” she muttered.
“You punched first,” he retorted, his voice grumbly in the morning. “You’re lucky you were exhausted. Ever punch me like that again, and you’ll be facing the floor over my knee for a good long while.”
Oh, he did not. Yes, she’d punched first. But there was no need to get all alpha on her in the morning light. “I was not in my right mind at the moment.”
“I was, which is why you’re still able to walk today.”
Well. Whatever. She slipped from the bed and headed toward the bathroom for a quick shower and blush of makeup. Returning, she grabbed her laptop from the table and gave him her haughtiest look.
He sat up in the bed, the blankets to his waist, his magnificent chest revealed. His eyes were a lighter blue today, and he watched her like a hawk spotting a rabbit. “You need to eat something.”
She rolled her eyes. “I’ll grab a bagel on the way to the board room.” She paused, her mind racing. “I’m ready to talk to everyone.” Numbers and solutions clicked through her brain, and she nodded, adding them to what was already there. “In fact, I don’t have a choice. The earth is at the right position for the journey to be made.”
He stretched from the bed, a hulking warrior taking up more than his fair share of space. “You can get me back to Quade?”
She swallowed. “I think so. But I need more information.” There was still no way to know what he had to do when he got there.
“You can’t break the bubble?”
“Not yet.” Even if she could, she wasn’t certain she would. For now, she required more information.