as I’d lain awake the night before, the headache from Dean’s trip through my brain still a recent memory. Dean could get inside a brain and feel out intentions. He’d known what Marcus had wanted. He’d surmised Dev and my intentions. I wanted to see if he could figure out what the Planeswalker was truly looking for.
He’d said he wanted to find Fae magic. Pure Fae magic.
Was he searching for Summer, too? I definitely needed to know if a whole clan of demons would be looking for her. I wasn’t trying to borrow trouble, but if it was coming I wanted to be ready for it.
“You said you could read intent. What is that like? How did you know you could do it the first time you did?” I was asking a whole lot of the kid. I wanted to give him a few minutes to get ready for what he was going to do. Sometimes talking about our powers can give us faith in them.
“I always had feelings about people. Like I knew who liked me and who didn’t when I was a kid. It was hard because I knew I was a freak on my plane. I could tell who was fascinated with the idea of a human and who was somewhat disgusted by me. My father…stepfather…I’m just going to call him Dad from here out…his family is wealthy on the Vampire plane. The Malones have power and that insulated me, but it couldn’t completely shield me. We had some friends, but for the most part I was isolated. I always had some power, but it was only after that day with my Uncle Mike that I knew I had to train. My parents found some Fae teachers who could help me, and then I met Summer. She was working with some vampires who needed a thief. She and Erna used to run some small-time jobs in the beginning. I helped out on occasion. Then that crazy barbarian king started coming after her and the convergences began. To answer your question more properly, the first time I realized I could get inside another’s head was when Erna asked me to try. Up until then all I could do was small magics. Like lighting a flame or casting a locator spell. I’m really good with those. When I first started training with Erna, we experimented to see the limits of my magic. We found I have some serious power when it came to discerning intent. I can’t control a mind, but I’m pretty good at figuring out who’s lying to me.”
“And you get that by reading feelings? What is it like for you to be in someone else’s mind?” I wanted to know if there was a chance the demon might hurt Dean.
“It’s feelings and flashes of memories and thoughts. It can be different depending on who I’m trying to read. You think about sex and food. That’s pretty much it. I got flashes of…well, I’m glad I understand the way sex works because there’s some freaky stuff in your head. And what are those round things you crave?”
I made no apologies for the sex stuff. If someone gets in my head, I assure you they will see some fantasies about a gorgeous wolf and a superhot half demon and all the glorious things they can do to me. “It’s called a burger. I really want one. Though I’ll be honest, most of the time I want one.”
“You also like to nap. You crave a soft place to lie in and feel safe. That’s when you’re most content. There’s a couch you like because it’s in the sunlight, and you love the afternoon light when it’s warm on your skin.”
All of this was true. “How does that tell you about my intentions?”
“I can feel what you feel when you think about those things. They’re always playing around in your head. I can skim across your brain and catch a thought here or there. If I practice enough, I might be able to one day sift through memories like I’m going through a file. That’s what I want to be able to do. To go searching for specific memories or thoughts instead of having to hope I catch the right one.”
It would be a handy power. Dean could be a walking lie detector. “So you might be able to see something of what the Planeswalker has seen?”
“Yep, and I hope he’s not a complete asshole because I don’t know that