if my life truly began when we met. He pulled me into his arms and I could feel the wind dying down, but it picked back up the moment I remembered that he was still leaving me. It was like my emotions were in control of everything. He broke the kiss and I couldn’t bring myself to look at him, afraid of what he might think of me. Never mind the fact that he had a scared-to-death fiancée he never told me about. I just couldn’t bring myself to see the disappointment in his eyes.
“Sloane...” He paused for a minute. “You have to stop. Look at me, please.” I couldn’t resist any longer. Not when he held that tone—that pleading tone as if he were begging.
I opened my eyes and I saw it all. The fear, the love, and the betrayal. He brushed his thumb across my cheek and the warmth from his hands stung my face, the traces of him lingered, and in that split second everything disappeared. It was just me and Declan standing there in the woods. He pressed his forehead to mine and closed his eyes. “You have to control yourself or they will find you. You know nothing of the other world that you are connected to and the only way to protect you is to leave. Please, Sloane, for me. Calm your storm before you wreck your aunt’s land.”
That did it. That was the fuel needed to push me over the edge. How dare he speak of my aunt right now? My eyes shot wide open and I struggled to get free of his hold. He snatched me back to him. “Sloane, I love you more than you’ll ever know. Now wake up.”
Chapter 1
My eyes shot open. Trying to get a grip on reality and where I was, I lay there staring at the ceiling of my loft. I turned my head to get a look at the clock on my night stand and noticed it was pushing four o’clock in the afternoon. I had slept almost twelve hours. I rolled over on my side, grabbing one of my pillows and holding onto it as if it were my body. When I thought about my dream, I couldn’t help wonder why it was so vivid. I mean, what happened in the dream wasn’t even the way things were left between Declan and I. In fact, that morning I remembered hearing the truck driving off in the distance. I’d gotten up to cook him a surprise breakfast at the cabin, but when I let myself in, he’d cleaned out. He’d packed everything up and left before he could even face me. He once told me of his last girlfriend, Constance, so I guess I manifested him going back to her and that weird power thing was just a result of watching too many damn movies.
I am too old to be wishing for superman powers, well, only unless I am trying to move things. Now that the dreams are coming more and more often, the dreams have seemingly become what ifs. Each dream gets a little bit further each time. He has never told me to wake up, though. That was just crazy. My subconscious really had issues.
My phone was beeping from missed calls and text messages and all of them were from Shay, of course. I knew she was wondering if I was OK. She knew I’d been a little stressed these past couple of months and thought it was because of the dreams. But it was much more. See, Shay and I bartended five days a week at this nightclub here in town called the Xchange. We had a very big clientele, so we remained extra busy, making most girls wish they were us. Well, that’s actually mean, but we did have a lot of haters that gave us the stank-eye.
What Shay didn’t know was that I secretly owned the Xchange. I didn’t just run off after my aunt died and become a bartender, though. I actually got my degree in business and accounting, but while going to school, Shay and I picked up bartending on the weekends to make a little bit more cash. Not that we needed the money, but we were bored. When I heard the owner of the Xchange was looking to get out, I had my lawyer draw everything up and the previous owner never knew who was buying. I kept the staff on like usual and if something