Page 119 of Dream Weaver

“How did you know to come?” I whispered.

His eyes took on a warm glow. “I was driving by, and something didn’t feel right.”

Something, huh?

He didn’t elaborate, but a word whispered through my mind.

Destiny…

My heart thumped in a whole new way. I’d heard the stories, of course — of two souls meeting and knowing they were meant to be. As if they hadn’t met by chance but had been steered together by destiny. Shifters were especially big on the concept of fated mates. Bears, most of all.

I gulped as the glow in Cooper’s eyes intensified.

Other supernaturals were less sold on the notion. Weak supernaturals, like me.

But, hell. Maybe I wasn’t all that weak. Just an untrained, late bloomer. Maybe if it could happen to my sisters, it could happen to me.

And suddenly, I believed.

Something clanged in the darkness, and we both whirled. Destiny would have to wait.

“Come on, already,” Jay urged Liselle.

“Not before I’m sure,” she snipped.

The air wobbled, and flames lit the back lot once more. Liselle had rekindled the fire in the brazier for a second test run.

Second and last, I hoped.

I grabbed Cooper’s arm, whispering, “Watch out. I rigged it to—”

A shadow moved behind him, and I yelled, “Move!”

Wham!We rolled as one of Liselle’s men slammed a metal bar down between us. Cooper grabbed it, and they wrestled for control. I backed away, then whirled at another sound.

A second man grabbed a hammer from Bob’s station and threw it. It flew end over end, coming straight at me. For a split second, I stared. Then I ducked and threw up my hand.

The hammer spun aside and crashed into a shelf.Bam!

I did a double take, because it hadn’t actually touched me.

The guy grabbed another hammer and threw it at Cooper, who was still tussling with the first man.

And damn, could that guy aim. It went flying right at Cooper’s head.

I stuck out a hand, yelling for Cooper to duck. He didn’t, and I was nowhere near the hammer. But it arced off to the side, smashing into the wall instead.

The second man frowned. I ducked down and stared at my hand.

Metal lay all around me, reflecting the light of Liselle’s fire. The tongs at Matt’s workstation flickered. The ingots stacked by the wall reflected the flames. The scrap metal in one corner took on a fiery glow…

Liselle murmured, coaxing the fire in her brazier along.

The earth rumbled, and all around me, metal glowed. More than that. It hummed.

For years, I’d worked with metal and fire. And every once in a while, I’d sensed a similar thing — but rarely more than a barely there hint, and only when I was really in the zone. I’d always dismissed the faint sound as the echo of my own hammer.

But now, the sound wasn’t quiet at all.

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