Chapter 6

SIX

Zane

Having Cassia in my arms in the Winter Court had felt so real. And so right. All I'd wanted was to hold her longer, to breathe in her sweet scent and enjoy the way she fit perfectly against me.

Then there was the kiss we shared. I touch my lips, thinking about it, and realize my body's still hard and ready for her. I've never considered myself to be a primal type of man, but every primal instinct was roaring to life with Cassia. I desperately want to slide into her tight body and fill her with my cum. Make her smell like me. Taste like me. And maybe even plant a child in her belly.

For some reason, in my dream, it was important to me that she acknowledge my claim on her first. It's a strange notion, but perhaps it was my deepest mind's way of claiming a woman who hasn't shown me she wants me. A woman who is my mate but seems to be fighting it with every inch of her being.

Regardless, I'd asked her to be mine, and she was about to answer me. She was about to tell me yes. At least, I hope she was.

I loosen my grip on my sheets. Not that it mattered, anyway. It was a dream. The real Cassia is gone, possibly having run away from us. She isn't worried about my kiss, my claim on her, or even her books and libraries.

Though if she actually likes books, I'll have to give her as many as she wants. The urge to laugh comes and goes. I can't imagine that something so simple would win her heart when I'd be willing to move the earth and skies for her.

Perhaps Sulien knows what she likes. Maybe I can ask him. If we ever find her again.

I sit up in my bed, resting with my back against the headboard, thinking about every detail of my dream. Had her grandmother really been kicked out of the castle when she went blind? Maybe I'd heard that somewhere, and that's why it was in the dream. But if that's true, I can understand even more why she might not like the fae.

The Summer Court's rules and ways are foreign to me. Especially the way they treat humans. Yes, the humans in my court typically do the grunt work, simply because they don't have magic, so they're not capable of being things like healers or creators, but the humans are provided for. We don't just allow them to freeze to death in the streets like animals. But there's no evidence to suggest that the Summer Court treats their humans with the same kind of care.

What has Cassia's life been like here?

I get out of bed, my mind racing. I don't know a damn thing about Cassia, my future wife–my future queen. If my dream had any truth to it, I know that she likes to read. What else, though? I know she doesn't want to marry us, but why?

I wonder what dreams she has for herself and what she wants out of life. Does she not want to be a wife, or just not our wife? Does she want to be a mother? Where's her mother and why haven't we met her? Will Cassia allow us to get to know her father and grandmother better? I've met them, but not in her presence. Not with her guidance. And what does she want in a man? And do any of us hold any of those qualities?

She's a blank slate to me, and yet she's also a whole person with a life. A life I know nothing about. What's worse, I have so few ways to even piece together who she is right now.

Not that that's my main priority.

I'm pacing my room now. My heart aches knowing she's out there but not safely with me. All of us agree that it's unlikely that she ran away, even though I'm trying desperately not to think about it, because that only means something bad has happened.

Can she think or fight her way out if she's in a bad situation? If she can't … I don't want to imagine what's happening to her now. I force my eyes to stay open because if I close them, I'll see her laying somewhere, hurt and alone.

I stop pacing and stare out my window. The sun is rising over the Summer Court. The land is vast, and she's out there. Somewhere. No one's sent a ransom note, and there haven't been any demands. If one arrives, I'll give them what they want two times over.

So, what the fuck do they want?

I suspect she was taken, but they don't seem to want anything, and that doesn't make sense. Why steal our mate? Are they just trying to hurt us? If they are, they're succeeding.

Fuck.

Whoever took her will feel so much more pain than I feel right now, I swear it. She's innocent. If they think we should pay for the sins of our fathers, I almost understand, but I don't understand involving Cassia. My anger multiplies.

But anger is useless in this situation, and I know it.

I sigh and step out onto the balcony, needing the fresh air. The sun's rays are peaking out over the horizon, the warmth unfamiliar but pleasant. I let the feeling settle over me, wishing it could erase the hell inside of me.

Gripping the railing, I close my eyes and picture Cassia the night of the ball, with that gold dress hugging every inch of her nicely curved body. I imagine the fire in her eyes when I spoke to her, those beautiful hazel eyes too pure to belong to a human. And her smile. Nervous, cocky, it didn't matter. She had the kind of smile that melted a man's heart.

"Zane," Cobar calls out my name, breaking me from my thoughts.

I slowly open my eyes, irritated at being disturbed, and see Cobar on his balcony next to me. He's shirtless, standing in nothing but a pair of blue cotton pants, similar to my gray ones. His blond curls are a tangled mess on his head, and his face has lines from his blankets across it.

"What do you want?" I ask.

How long have we been sleeping? It's sunrise. It was nearly sunrise when we went to sleep, so maybe two or three hours? Why is the man already awake and in the mood to chat?

The Spring Fae just might be insane .

"Move out of the way," he says, waving his hand at me.

"What?" Move out of the way? Why? And where the hell am I supposed to move? This balcony isn't that big.

"Move out of the way," Cobar repeats.

Before I can finish processing what he's doing, he leaps onto the railing of his balcony. My eyes widen in realization, and I step back until my back hits the railing. I'm trying to form the words to tell this insane man that he can use the damned hallway, but I'm too late. Cobar leaps across the space between the two balconies and grins in my face as he slams into me.

"What the hell? Were there too many steps to enter my room inside the castle?" I ask, pushing him back from me. The last thing we need is our morning wood… dueling? Connecting? I don't know exactly, and I don't want to know.

This man makes no sense. Everything is fun and games to him. Granted, that's usually something I like about him, but Cobar is someone best handled after at least one full mug of coffee.

"The walk was too long." He shrugs and changes the subject. "How'd you sleep? You look like shit"

Dreaming of Cassia helped me relax, I suppose. "I slept. And dreamed."

He's trying to untangle some of his ringlets and failing miserably. "Dreamed? Of anything in particular?"

I sigh. Cobar is the only one among my friends I would so easily tell such a vulnerable thing. I know he'll keep it to himself, and not make me regret telling him, so I decide to get it off my chest. "I dreamed about Cassia, and it felt so real. She told me about her family. I showed her the Winter Court. It was a good dream. "

"Is that all?" His eyes glint.

What the hell. "We kissed. And it was an epically good kiss."

I'd rather be back in the dream than standing here with Cobar… I'd rather be living that life with Cassia. One where she tells me what she needs, and I fulfill her dreams. One where I could listen to her talk for hours, and hold her in my arms forever.

If we can get her back, I think she can grow to love me. I can be what she needs… what she wants. I just wish it'd been real.

It will be. We will find her and bring her home.

"What if you're dream sharing?" Cobar says, his eyes lighting up at the thought.

Dream sharing? I haven't considered that because dream sharing is something only very powerful fae can do. The royal fae are the only ones I know for certain can do it. My parents have interrupted my dreams a few dozen times with something they deemed important, but it takes them a great deal of effort to do so. For Cassia and I to be dream sharing without meaning to, our mate bond would have to be very strong. We'd have to both be reaching out to each other with our powers and our minds as we slept.

Still, it's possible.

My heart rattles against my ribs. Was everything actually real then? Our dream wasn't full of terror or despair. She might be safe wherever she is if she's dreaming about me.

There's so much to consider.

My mind shifts. If it was real, did we really kiss? Did we really bond? Might she see things differently when we get her back?

"If we are, maybe I can communicate with her and find out where she is."

My mind races. I'll find a way.

Cobar gets a strange look and starts shaking his head. "Wait. She doesn't have any magic, though." He bites his lip. "If she had so little fae in her that she was working as a maid, believing she was human, there's no way she has the powers to do something like that."

My shoulders fall, and my chest aches. He's right. Of course, he's right. "Then it was just a dream."

The way joy just slips out of my fingers is almost crippling. I need her to be safe. I need some idea about how to find her. No matter how crazy.

She needs to be back with us where she belongs and whoever the fuck took her has to pay.

"Do you think she's okay?" Cobar's voice is barely audible as he turns to the rising sun, studying it with an expression so bleak it hurts to see.

It's strange for him to be this serious, but I feel it too. We're all her mates, so the hurt and the pain I feel is universal among us. Without Cassia, a deep and terrible emptiness is expanding in our hearts. If we don't find her, all we'll be is emptiness, never capable of love or affection again. We'll continue on for our long lives like ghosts, empty shells of the men we were before. We can marry. We can fuck. But no one will ever compare to our mate.

She has to be okay. There's no other way she can be.

"We're mates," I begin. "We'd feel it if something, if something…" If she died.

And we would. We would know the instant she died, because our souls would die right along with hers. Maybe we'd go on living, but not really, not the way life is meant to be lived .

I'm so fucking grateful we haven't felt anything. It means she's alive. We just have to find her.

Suddenly, pain shoots through my skull. I bite the corner of my cheek to draw myself back from the pain, to focus on the present, and then I funnel my magic to the barrier around our kingdom. It takes a lot of magic. More magic than I was prepared for. The damn demons are getting stronger, their numbers growing. But after a moment, I feel the barrier strengthen, and then I can breathe again.

Beside me, Cobar drops his hand from his head, and our eyes meet. Sharing pain like this is such a strange thing. It connects us on a level that's soul-deep. That makes us feel like more than brothers.

Cobar's big blue eyes are filled with sadness. "Would it be okay if I hung out for a little while? Then I'll try to get a little more sleep." He takes a deep breath. "I just don't want to be alone."

I wrap an arm around him, and he leans his head on my shoulder. Relief sings through his body, and I almost smile. Cobar was always this way as a boy. The cruelest thing you could do was leave him alone. And now that he doesn't have an army of women marching out of his bed, I imagine he's struggling, left alone with his own thoughts.

"What do you think of Sulien's plan?" Cobar asks, breaking the silence.

I sigh, feeling every muscle in my body tighten. Ah, yes, the plan. It's all we have, even if it's far from good. "It's reckless, but it might be the only way."

He leans into me a little harder, an almost hug. "It's going to be the answer," he says, and I suspect he's telling himself more than me.