Page 85 of When Storms Collide

“I volunteer,” Nik replied, pulling his chair to my side. “I can be her anchor.”

I grasped his hand under the table and gave it a squeeze, my voice soft. “You already are my anchor.”

His responding smile had a dimple popping on his right cheek, and I thought I might melt. I hadn’t seen such a genuine smile from him in far too long.

Tess pretended to gag across the table, and I shot her a piercing glare.

“Ok, Nik is the anchor then. You will hold on to him and pull on your magic. Only enough to let it fill your core. Then… instead of letting it flow down your arms and reach your fingertips as you normally would, you want to hold it in your chest, here.” Alastir brought his hand to his breast, hovering over his heart as he spoke.

“Got it, then what?”

“Then you want to let it fill you. Let it fill your thoughts. You want tothinkof where you want to dream walk, but unless you have left a token, it has to be someone you are familiar with. Donika should be easy enough, I presume, since you have dream walked with her many times before, and you have a blood connection. Corian likely uses Donika as his anchor, making it easy for him to connect with you through that same blood link. It has likely been your subconscious seeking out Donika during your sleep, though.”

I nodded, closing my eyes to concentrate.

“Once you have thought of who you want to dream walk with, you will allow your magic to bring you there. Almost as if it were astral projection. Think about what they look like. The more specific details, the better. You don’t have to be asleep to dream walk, but to dream walkintentionally,youneedto stay with your anchor.”

“This isn’t the same as bringing Nik into the dream with me, is it? Because Corian did that once with Donika. He brought her with him and met me in Dragon’s Hollow.”

Alastir shook his head. “No, not the same. You just want to ensure your hand is connected to your anchor at all times. He will not enter the dream with you. That is a different technique entirely, which we can practice later.”

I nodded my head, closing my eyes again to focus.

“Once the person begins to fill your mind, you will slowly see their surroundings. You want to grasp onto that image with your magic, and you will be thrust into their environment.To wake up, it is the same as when you have walked dreams when asleep. You simply tell yourself to wake.”

Alastir explained it as if it were so easy, as if he was astonished we hadn’t already figured it out.

“Waking up hasn’t been the easiest part, either. The dreams seem to want to hold me there. Whether that is my own subconscious or not, I have no clue,” I mused. “And to drop the token? We need to find where the Araneoch are and spy on them. If Donika isn’t in the same location as them, that would prove impossible. We want to be able to walk dreams in a specific place.”

Alastir nodded. He reached into his pocket and took out a tattered piece of paper with scribbled writing on it.

“You can use this.” He offered me the paper, and I wrapped it in my grasp. “You will imbue this paper with your magic, and you will hide it in the location you want to visit again. Once you have found your desired subject, you can walk through the castlewiththem. It would be much easier to physically go there and leave the token yourself, as I assume Corian did. But in this instance, it is much too dangerous.”

“Agreed,” Nik replied, a muscle ticking in his jaw at the thought of it.

“So, I just have to spy on Donika enough until she visits the Araneoch… ” There was a note of disappointment in my tone.

“Unfortunately, yes. You can’t physically travel there to leave the token without her. You have to be lucky enough to be taken there. You can also dream walk with Corian if you are familiar enough with him, though that is a risk since hewould know of your presence. Leaving a token right under his nose when he can see you would be tricky, indeed.”

I shook my head. “He practically has eyes in the back of his head. I don’t want to underestimate him. Better if I stay off his radar entirely.”

“You’ll have to practice, over and over again. Hopefully you get lucky.” Alastir nodded to himself.

My gaze fell on Nik and he gave me a reassuring nod. We would need to check in on her frequently, and hope that Corian was busy elsewhere during this next week. Alastir had already given us more information than we had been able to glean after hours and hours of poring over these books.

“If there’s nothing else, the travel has exhausted anold mansuch as myself. I’d like to retire for the night.” The words ‘old man’ were emphasized as he narrowed his eyes at Nik.

We thanked Alastir for his help and Annelise, Amiyah, and Zion escorted him to his chambers for the night. An uneasy feeling settled in my gut as I realized I would need to try dream walking tonight. And tomorrow. And the next night. And any free moment I had, really.

As if reading my mind, Nik pushed back from the table, pulling me along by the hand.

“You’ll let us know what you see?” Tess asked, grasping one of the lanterns in her long fingers and pushing back from the table to follow us out into the hallway.

“Of course.”

I pulled her into a one-armed hug, careful not to burn myself on the lantern she held.

When I retired for the night to Nik’s bedroom—diagonally across the hall from Tess—I turned to see her raising an eyebrow at me, making a crude gesture before I rolled my eyes and closed the door between us.

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