When the dream solidified, Cassi opened her eyes to find they were sitting side by side on a sandy shore with the surf tickling their toes and the sun shining overhead. Waves crashed. Birds cawed. The place was unlike any she'd ever visited, pulled straight from her books and her imagination, the perfect spot in which to pretend.
"Where are we?" Xander asked, his mind trying to come up with some story to justify her sudden entrance into his dreams, to explain it away. Their clothes were wet, their wings too. A rush of water flooded the ground beneath them, surging over their ankles, warm and not unpleasant. He dug his fingers into the sand, lifted his arm, and watched the wet particles drip slowly back into the sea.
She met his eyes above his wrist. "Where do you want us to be?"
"It looks like the island where Tassos washed up after Nyara saved his life. At least, this is what I always imagined it to be."
"Well, this is your mind."
"True." He grinned, and that was all it took for her to convince him this was nothing but a dream. "I wonder why I brought us here."
He didn't. Neither had she, really. The story of Tassos and Nyara was the furthest thing from her thoughts. She'd just wanted to be somewhere that wasn't the avian realm or the foggy seas beneath the mist, somewhere neutral. Still, the mind had a funny way of spotting symbols in the dark. "Why do you think?"
Xander frowned.
Cassi eyed him curiously. "What?"
"Nothing."
"You can tell me."
He shook his head.
"If you tell me one of your secrets, I'll tell you one of mine."
Facing the horizon, he absently drew a circle in the sand, over and over, until finally, with a sigh, he folded his arms across his bended knees. A rolling wave washed the shape away. "I don't want to be like Tassos. I don't want a love born from sacrifice. I want to be able to give as much as I receive."
"This is about Lyana?"
"No, it's about me."
She put a hand on his arm. "I wasn't talking about you when I said those things."
"If not me, then who?"
This wasn't the conversation she wanted to have. Cassi turned back to the sea and studied the reflections glittering across the surface of the water. "Let's just say you're not the first man to step into one of my dreams."
"I thought this was my dream."
The ghost of a smile passed over her lips as she collapsed against the shore, letting the water soak her hair and her back, enjoying the scratch of sand in her feathers. Xander fell beside her.
"You owe me a secret," he said.
She dropped her head to the side. "Ask me a question and I'll give you an answer."
"Promise?"
"I do."
He studied her face as though it were a map with no labels, searching each groove, each curve, for a path to the hidden treasure. "What are you so afraid of?"
Cassi flinched.
Before she could look away, he took her hand. "There. I see you doing it again, putting a guard up, raising your walls, as though afraid I might see. But what? What are you so worried I'll see?"
She held his gaze unflinchingly. "Me."
I'm afraid you'll see the real me.
A wave rolled over their legs and up their chests, then splashed against their faces, washing the conversation away. Cassi jumped to her feet and pulled him up, a laugh on her lips as she kicked at the water. This was a dream. Xander didn’t have magic. He wouldn't remember this night, not the way she would. And she'd been right before. He made her feel brave—brave enough to let him see a part of her only one other person ever had. She had, after all, promised him a secret. It wasn't her fault he'd forget it as soon as he opened his eyes.
"Imagine something, Xander. Dream of something wonderful, and whatever you dream will come to be."
"What do you mean?"
"Don't you remember being a child, when every shadow held a secret and every sound a story? When your blanket was a fortress, and the candle by your bed a fire-breathing dragon, and your pillow a shield while you slashed at the air with a sword no one else could see? Pretend with me. Play with me. Please, Xander. I want to forget the world for a little while. It’s been so long since I've had fun, I'm not sure I remember how."
"I'm not sure I ever did."
"Not even in the pages of your books?"
A secret smile played across his lips.
Cassi squeezed his fingers, enlivened by the spark burning behind his lavender eyes. "Show me."
He glanced to the sea, lips pursed and determined, his thoughts poking at her hold on his dream. She relented, giving him the option to take over. As a girl, her favorite game had been to see what dreams another mind might weave. With Malek, it had been almost a relief to give him the reins, to not have to fight for dominance every second she lived inside his head. But Xander was more hesitant, as though asking permission, his thoughts gentle and probing. She cajoled him closer, inviting him in.
The first shift was small, little more than a test. A warm breeze blew in from the east, wrapping around their torsos and making their feathers flutter. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw his mouth gape open in wonder. Then the sea before them transformed, no longer a deep blue, but a golden citrine. Xander bent down and dipped his palm in the liquid before raising it to his lips. Hummingbird nectar, she realized as it fizzed above his fingers. Cassi laughed and dropped to her knees beside him to take a long drink. He put his hand on her shoulder, and a ripple pulsed across the air. He didn’t need to touch her for the magic to work, but she didn't correct him. She just lifted her face to the sky as raindrops kissed her cheeks, tasting of sugar and honey.
"We can go anywhere?" he asked.
"Anywhere."
"We can do anything?"
"Anything."
Water clung to his lashes and dripped down his face as he turned to meet her eyes, something wild simmering in his. He pulled his bottom lip between his teeth, tasting the rain as he grinned.
The ground gave out beneath them.
Cassi clutched his fingers as they fell, tumbling through the shadows until a new world materialized in bright color. They were perched on a branch in the middle of a great forest, the leaves twice their size and the bark as blue as a jay's wings. Xander dove, plummeting through the foliage, and she followed. As they sank, the world twisted, until down was up and up was down, so when they fell into the underbrush, they sank through it as well, dispelling leaves and emerging on a freezing mountain peak, the skies above them green and the ground an ivory blanket of snow. In unison they raced across the land, ice changing to sand and cliffs to rolling hills. A sapphire strand hovered on the horizon, and when they reached it, they dove through, splashing beneath the waters as their wings vanished and their legs turned to tails. They swam through the sea like birds through the sky, his imagination leading the way—and what a wonderful imagination it was. Readers always made the best dreamers. At least Cassi liked to think so. After all, reading was simply dreaming with open eyes.
His mind was so beautiful she didn’t want to leave.
Yet there was no magic so strong it could stop the sun.
Through the little strand of spirit still tied to her body, Cassi distantly felt the warmth on her skin, whispering of morning. Though she knew it was time to release him, she held on tighter, clinging to his thoughts even as his body fought her magic. Only when the dream began to fall apart around them did she finally, reluctantly, let go.