20. Sage

CHAPTER 20

Sage

The path I'd run down to get away from Rider, Talon, and Lord Quill ended up skirting around the edge of a wing of the tree-building to a magical grove with bathing pools. The ground turned into a rocky, multi-tiered slope with multiple pools on each tier and paths that wound around thick bushes and wide tree trunks, implying more pools lay beyond. The largest pool, halfway down, had two women and a dozen men fawning over them, while smaller groups of men bathed in a few of the other pools.

Steam curled from most of the pools, but not all and to varying degrees, indicating different temperatures, and for a moment I couldn't figure out how that was possible before remembering this was a dream. I'd turned the bathhouse underneath the Black Tower into a magical grove filled with fae almost as gorgeous as Lord Talon and who were all staring at me. Including the women.

One of them looked at me with joy, her expression inviting, while the other stared daggers at me. The one staring daggers cleared her throat and the dozen men in the pool with her all jerked their attention back to her, making the three men, clustered tightly together in a nearby smaller pool, chuckle. They, however, also went back to what they were doing which looked like?—

The prelude to sex with two of them kissing while the third?—

I heaved my attention away. I didn't know if my imagination would fill in the rest or if the dream would take a weird turn, and I wasn't prepared for either.

One of the men in another pool that was out in the open stood. The water lapped around his thighs, drawing my attention to his cock — which for some reason wasn't as impressive as the only cock I'd ever gotten a good look at — and he held out his hand to me in invitation.

"You're new," he purred, just like Black Hair had when I'd first arrived. He also had the same hunger in his eyes that made my insides squirm with unease. "Join us."

The other man with him stood as well, as if giving me an eyeful of their stunning, sculpted bodies was what I needed to make my decision.

"Ah… no. Not tonight," I stammered and hurried along the path, away from the grove… which was the stupidest thing I could have done. I had two naked men, ready and willing to entertain me.

Except even if they were my imagination, they didn't feel right.

There was something dangerous about them, something that made me fear my dream would take a horrible turn.

That, and I couldn't bring myself to have sex out in the open with everyone watching, dream or no dream. And without a doubt the dream would turn sour and Talon would walk around the corner and catch me and that would be even more embarrassing than having been caught staring at his cock in real life.

I reached an arch that was an impossible mix of stone and living tree and stepped into another strange grove. This was a maze of passages with doors and curtains, partial rooms, dimly lit alcoves, and nooks with cushioned lounges.

The steady warm glow of the fae lights that had gently illuminated the garden dimmed a bit in here and turned into a soft pink, lighting the way with the soft light from the glowing white and pink flowers growing along a vine that entwined around everything: over arches, around silver fences and screens.

The warm breeze sighed, rustling the thick canopy of leaves above me and tickling through the flowers, making their gentle light dance on the stone path and walls, and a sense of peace and warmth filled me as light flickered from the spots on my skin.

There was something sacred about where I was. I didn't know how to explain it, but I could feel…. magic? Was that what it was?

Whatever it was, it caressed my skin and seeped into me. It sank into the core of my being, adding fuel to a spark in my chest that I hadn't realized was there then turned into a heat that radiated from my heart through my limbs to my fingers and toes.

I wandered deeper into the grove, savoring the strange warm sensation sliding within me, watching the light from the flowers dance every time the breeze brushed them, and catching glimpses of light flickering from the spots trailing from my neck down the inside curve of my breasts.

This was how a dream was supposed to be. Warm and soft and comfortable with none of my real-life worries about being discovered or not being desirable or not having an ally in the Black Tower.

The path led past a series of three, intricately carved wooden doors, two on the left, one on the right, then turned a corner and split into two paths.

I was about to pick the path to the right, when I realized there weren't two paths but three, one on the far left that was narrower than the other two and partially hidden by the flowering vines.

I slipped between the vines onto the narrower path, the walls so close together I could easily reach out and trail my fingers through the blooms on both sides of me.

There were fewer flowers here and no fae lights, and the shadows deepened, but I didn't get a sense that the dream was going to shift from warm and peaceful to something dangerous.

The path branched off a few times into paths just as narrow and dimly lit as the one I followed and finally ended in a diamond shaped nook.

The flowering vine filled the nook, trailing over all walls and even on the ground, but the light from the flowers was muted, barely glowing, and the canopy of leaves above had pulled away, framing the edges of the nook and offering an unobstructed view of a stunning night sky speckled with stars. In the center sat a cushioned backless bench with wide, gently sloped arms so someone — or two someones if they cuddled together — could lean back and stare at the stars in comfort.

I stepped off the smoothed-stone path onto soft, dark moss, and headed toward the bench. But movement out of the corner of my eye and soft sighing caught my attention, drawing me toward a flicker of light coming through the vines.

The vines that were thick everywhere else in the nook thinned in this one spot, entwining around a silver fence and framing the room on the other side. Inside, the light from the flowers was brighter than the light in the nook, enough for me to see clearly, but still soft enough to suggest seductive intimacy. Two men — one completely naked, one just in his pants — stood in the center of the room with a naked fae woman, caressing and kissing her.

Light flickered from the silver spots trailing around her neck, over her collarbone, and down between her breasts. With her long black hair hanging loose down her back in a veil offering teasing glimpses of her body every time the men brushed it, I knew I was watching Rider's sister — or the woman who I'd turned into Rider's sister because this was a dream and I had no idea if Rider even had a sister.

Beyond, on an enormous bed with white sheets and a variety of green pillows of various shades and sizes was another man, also completely naked. He lounged on his side in the center and watched Lark and the other two men. He slowly stroked his hand up and down an impressive erection, his dark eyes filled with a searing, heated desire, while another man sat on a cushioned couch in the corner, fully dressed, with a similar look in his eyes?—

No, stronger, darker, more intense. It was as if Lark was the only woman for him and he needed her more than he needed to breathe. The look made my chest ache with a yearning I hadn't realized I had.

I wanted someone to look at me like that, to love me so completely that I knew without a doubt I could trust him with everything: my life, my hopes, my truth. I wanted someone to accept me for who I was, who embraced the fact that I didn't want to do the things expected of a woman, who saw me as an equal, who listened and respected my thoughts and desires.

Which was why this was all a dream, a fantasy to remind me that even though I'd escaped from Edred, my life still wasn't my own and there was no one I could trust.