"Me?" I snorted. "That's not possible. I don't have any active magic."

The spots between my shoulder blades burned as if protesting my denial of their existence. I tried not to dwell on the fact that my wings felt almost sentient. That wasn't something I had the mental capacity to consider right now.

"You clearly have Dream Weaver magic."

Nas eased out of his chair and leaned against the wall in front of me. Anger darkened his eyes and gave his expression a cruel edge. Hairs on the nape of my neck lifted as I tried to decipher his thoughts. It would be foolish of me to think he wasn't plotting to force my hand. The way he'd treated me on our way here had more than proved he was not the kind uncle figure I'd grown up with.

"Because I forced you out of my head?" I asked, dragging my focus back to Kinley. "Surely that's a skill others possess. Otherwise Dream Weavers would control all of Faerie."

Kinley grimaced. "The only reason they don't is because there are not enough of us. Our magic has limitations. I can only visit one dreamer when I sleep, and at most, I can only hold three or four in a sleep spell. I can tie the spell off as I did for Calix, but that runs the risk of someone breaking free as the spell weakens."

"There. That's why I could escape your hold. Calix already overtaxed you. I cannot imagine it was a simple matter of putting him under."

Her cheeks flushed. "It was not. I've never experienced someone with power like that, but I'm still convinced you have Dream Weaver magic. Fighting against the spell before casting the net is one thing, but I had you. You should have been under, but you grabbed the threads of the dream I'd weaved and shredded them. Only a Dream Weaver is capable of that."

"Enough, Kin," Nas said, slicing his hand through the air. "She can wait until you're strong enough, or until the spell wears off."

"Or I can rip your head from your body and shove it up your ass," I exploded, tingles racing down my arms and pooling in my fingertips.

All it would take was one more word or one wrong move to trigger some powerful magic. I didn't know what it was, but it was there. Utterly lethal.

It should worry that me that I so easily considered violence as a solution now. Fae truly were creatures purely driven by emotion and desire, and right now Nas stood between me and the only desire that matter: Calix.

Nas puckered his lips at me. "I've got a head I'll shove in your ass—"

His head snapped back so hard it dented the sheetrock. Kinley shrieked and jumped between us, putting one hand on his chest, and throwing the other up between us. My knuckles crunched against an invisible wall, and the impact sent vibrations of pain all the way up my arm and down my spine.

"Ancient Ones preserve us," Kinley growled, splaying her fingers out wide and pushing toward me until that force field shoved me to the middle of the room. "Nas, you need to leave. We will not hold Luna's mate ransom to get her to help us. That is not how we operate."

"But—"

"No, buts. Doing that would make us no better than the others. There's a reason we came to the human realm, remember?"

"Fine. Help her." He pushed her hand off his chest in disgust. "Then get the hell out of here. After all the shit you've pulled, you're not welcome here."

"I'll gladly leave as soon as I have Calix."

My heart twinged, but I ignored it. We'd come here to learn who my mother was, and I'd done that. There was nothing—and no one—to keep me here.

Nas stormed out, muttering a string of words in a foreign language, but I didn't need to know the language to understand what he said. The tone of cursing was universal. That was fine. The sentiment was mutual.

"Now—" Kinley raised her chin and a single red eyebrow. Once again, her similarity to Eira struck me.

"You're her daughter," I blurted out.

She swallowed the words she'd been about to say. It all made sense now. Eira had been furious at the thought of Lorcan breaking the Vow, but she skirted it by using Jones. Only, she wasn't trying to find a way to break the Vow and control humans again. She was trying to find her daughter.

"Don't you want to wake your mate?" she muttered. At least she didn't deny it.

"Well played." I pointed at the door. "Tell me what to do. Unless you've recovered enough to help him."

Instead of answering, she opened the door and flipped on the light. I stepped over the threshold, eyes sweeping the room. The moment I saw Calix, I let loose a sob and ran to him.

Still garbed in his Faerie clothes and inhumanly handsome, he looked entirely out of place, lying in a very ordinary bed. His chest rose and fell in an even rhythm, and his long dark lashes fluttered against his high cheekbones as his eyes moved behind his eyelids.

"He looks like he's sleeping."

Kinley walked to the opposite side of the bed and stared at him with a neutral expression. "In essence, he is. My spell is simply holding him there and ensuring he has pleasant dreams."

"Can you see what he dreams?"

"If I'm holding the spell, yes. I actually create the dreams. But once I tie it off, his subconscious will take over, changing them."

"What dream did you give him?"

Her plump lips settled into a soft smile. "I gave him a perfect morning with his mate. The first morning after the public bonding ceremony—I suppose what humans would call a wedding."

"Oh."

A bit of sadness crept in. What a terrible thing to pull him out of, especially when that day was a long way away for us. If we ever made it.

"I tried other scenarios, but nothing calmed him like that vision did."

I wiped away a tear. "Tell me how to wake him."

"I'll guide you. I have enough strength for that, but I need to warn you. There are dangers to Dream Weaving."

"I don't think he's going to snatch at the threads like I did."

"Oh, most definitely not. It's actually quite the opposite. You pushed me out. Calix may pull you in."

I covered his hand with mine. "What do you mean?"

"His mind and body will have grown accustomed to the pleasantness of his dreams. It will not want to give it up easily, and if you do not quickly loosen the threads, he could catch you in them."

That sounded problematic. Perhaps it would be best to wait for Kinley to recover her strength. I was being foolish. It was time for my human cautiousness to reassert itself. Just a smidge.

Except...I glanced down where our hands touched. Now that we were together, I ached for him. The bursts of anger and violence I'd been experiencing would only grow worse. It was worth the risk.

"I understand."

"Good." Kinley drew in a deep breath. "One last thing. Whatever happens to you in his dream will affect your physical body. It will be like it actually happened."