Charmed By The Fox's Heart: Superhero Reverse Harem Romance (Cosmic Guardians Book 1), стр. 13
Cael stands and rests his hands on my shoulders, meeting my gaze evenly.
“Hey, it’s all right. I know it’s a lot. I’ve been there. When I first met Lynx, I thought I was going crazy, too. And when Aris met his familiar, he thought—”
“Aris went through this, too?”
He smiles and nods. “That’s kind of how we became friends. All this weird stuff happened to us, then these animals showed up, and…”
I narrow my eyes. “Did you know?”
“Know what?”
“When you rescued Astra,” I tell him. “Did you know then?”
He shakes his head. “It wasn’t until I touched you, I…” He stops and looks down at his hands. “I don’t understand why, but when I touched you yesterday, it brought back images of my dreams and a recurring nightmare.”
I inhale sharply as I meet his eyes evenly. “Does a woman die in your dreams?”
“You have the same nightmare,” he says, his voice barely a whisper as he stares at the floor with a faraway look. “The same one that Aris and I have.” He turns to Lynx. “What are you not telling us?”
Lynx sighs as he darts a glance at Astra before turning back to us.
“We cannot explain why there are three of you who share this same dream, but we do know why you have it.”
“Why is that?” I ask, desperate to understand.
“It is because—” He stops abruptly, and his head whips to the door, his expression turning to one of alarm. “They’re coming!” He looks to Astra. “We have to send them! Now!”
Her eyes snap to us. “Follow me!”
“What—” Cael starts to ask, but she cuts him off.
“There isn’t time! You have to trust us.”
Astra runs down the hallway to the bedroom, and we follow after her.
“What’s going on?” I ask, but she doesn’t answer.
Instead, she stands in front of the full-length mirror and bows her head, closing her eyes as she begins speaking words in a language I don’t understand, but that somehow sound familiar.
Our reflections begin to waver as a soft shimmering glow surrounds the frame. Our images ripple and distort and then fall away completely, revealing a forest. A deafening sound splits the air behind us.
“They’ve forced the door!” Lynx cries out. “Send them now! We’ll follow when we can.”
“Send us where?” Cael asks in alarm. “What are you—”
“There isn’t time!” Astra says, motioning for us to move to the mirror. “Step through the portal. Go to the Otherworld. You must locate the gemstones. Go! We’ll find you.”
“But I—”
She looks to Cael. “If you don’t go, she’ll die in your arms again just like before.”
His eyes dart to mine, full of alarm. He takes my hand and pulls me toward the mirror. I try to jerk away, but he steps through. My jaw drops and I only have a moment to scream before I’m pulled through the portal.
Everything goes dark. Time slows as we float, suspended in nothingness.
“Where are we?”
He opens his mouth to answer, but everything speeds back up, and we’re falling. We tumble through a darkened void. A terrified scream escapes my throat, and Cael grabs my flailing arms. Pulling me to him, he wraps his arms tightly around me.
“I’ve got you, Kyra.”
I blink, and we slam to the ground. Cael takes the full brunt of the impact as I land on top of him.
Slightly dazed, I lift my head and notice we’re in a forest. It must be the same one we saw in the mirror. Tall trees tower overhead, their gray trunks twisting toward the sky as if competing for the light of the sun. They are heavily laden with thick, purple, heart-shaped leaves. Long trailing vines with glowing white flowers hang down from their branches like living curtains, swaying gently in the breeze.
The ground is soft as I roll off Cael and onto the ground beside him.
He groans. “Are you all right?”
I wince inwardly. “Thanks to you. I’m sorry I fell on you.”
“Better me than you.” He gives me a lopsided grin. “According to Lynx and Astra, I’m only a guard, but you’re the queen.”
A small laugh escapes me, but my expression quickly sobers as I sit up. “Where do you think we are?”
Cael sits up beside me, his eyes scanning the thick woods that surround us. “I don’t know. Astra was talking about the Otherworld—Lunaria. Maybe that’s where she sent us.”
He slowly stands and then reaches a hand down to pull me up. The moment my palm touches his, a flash of memory flits through my mind of us kissing in a forest just like this one.
He lays down beside me in a thick blanket of grass. I smile as he reaches across to brush a stray lock of hair back from my face, staring at me with a look of intense love and devotion. “You are mine, Alora,” he whispers.
The vision fades and Cael’s eyes meet mine, widening slightly.
“Did you see something just now when we touched?” I ask a bit hesitantly.
He nods and something unspoken passes between us as we stare at each other intently. If all this is true, and part of me is still doubting… believing somehow I’ll wake up in my bed. I think Cael was more than just my guard.
Astra’s last words replay in my mind: “If you don’t go, she’ll die in your arms again just like before.”
Cael is the man in my dreams who holds me as I lie dying. As he looks to me, everything about him feels so familiar. A deep ache settles in my chest and it’s the same feeling I have in the dream as he stares down at me. I’m not sad or scared for myself. My heart always breaks for him—the man who holds me.
I open my mouth to speak but a strange animal noise startles