Rave laughed. “I think you’ve already told her that—more than once.”

  “Oh, yeah. You’re right. I did.”

  The ride was much too short for Cali’s taste. Just two minutes after setting out, Rave deposited her back onto the ground behind Leesa, who had been warming up with yellow and blue illumination balls. The shimmering spheres made Leesa think of the energy she sensed from the tiny baby inside her, producing a warm glow not unlike hugging Rave.

  Leesa didn’t hear Rave’s silent approach, but she did hear Cali’s feet hitting the ground. She turned around, and the two girls exchanged a warm hug.

  “I hope I haven’t missed anything too exciting,” Cali said when they broke their embrace.

  “Nope, I’m just warming up. Feel free to fire some beams whenever you’re ready.”

  Leesa ran through a series of her easiest spells. While she did, Cali took aim at a huge gray rock near the edge of the clearing and fired intermittent yellow bolts at it. She had gotten proficient enough by now that the rock was soon scarred by a series of small round holes.

  After about ten more minutes of warming up, Leesa decided she was ready for something more challenging.

  “Okay, Cali, that’s enough for now. I need to concentrate.”

  Cali reluctantly moved away from Leesa’s side to give her room.

  Leesa’s main focus continued to be trying to make the stone she had taken to calling “that damn rock” grow in size. So far, it had refused to grow even one iota, despite many attempts at every practice session. Jenna had come by once and done her illusion thing again, but the added visual had not yet helped. Still, Leesa felt like she was getting closer to succeeding. She was certain that once she broke through whatever barrier was holding her back, she would then progress relatively quickly.

  In an effort to boost her confidence, she had taken to performing the air shield spell right before attempting to make the rock grow. Up until now, the shield spell had been by far the most difficult spell for her to learn and master—but now she could create a strong shield almost effortlessly. Visualizing something invisible had been extremely challenging at first, but she had managed it. If she could do that, she was confident she could make “that damn rock” grow. She just hoped it happened sooner rather than later.

  Now that she had warmed up, it was time to create her air shield, to pave the way mentally for another attempt at “that damn rock.” She wondered if the nickname might be causing some of her problems, but it was too late to do anything about that now. “That damn rock” was what it was, and “that damn rock” was what it would stay, at least until she managed to make it grow.

  While Leesa had been playing with her illumination balls, Rave had gathered a pile of sticks and small rocks which he had balanced atop the log Leesa had been blasting earlier, putting them within easy reach. Cali had watched him with curiosity. She hadn’t seen this before and was wondering what Rave was up to.

  “Okay, handsome,” Leesa said after creating her shield. “Let’s see what you’ve got.”

  Rave picked up a golf ball sized rock. Despite having done this several times before, he was always hesitant at the start. Throwing things at the girl you loved when she was protected by something you couldn’t see was never an easy thing to do.

  He tossed the stone softly at Leesa, testing that her shield was indeed there. A foot or so in front of her it struck the invisible barrier and dropped to the ground. Leesa grinned. She knew exactly what was going on inside Rave’s head.

  “Throw harder. You’re supposed to be helping me build my confidence—how am I supposed to do that when you’re throwing like a girl?”

  “Yeah, Rave,” Cali added. “I could throw harder than that. Let’s see you put those volkaane muscles to use.”

  Rave grabbed a thick, ten inch long stick and threw it end over end at Leesa, tomahawk style. Like the stone, it bounced away before it could reach her.

  “That’s a little better,” Leesa said, “but I know you can throw harder than that. Bombard me, please. Act like you mean it.”

  Rave began hurling the sticks and stones at Leesa, using his supernatural speed and strength to launch a rapid fire barrage. Despite the force behind the objects, they all bounced harmlessly off her shield. In just a few moments, the entire pile of rocks and sticks that had been sitting atop the fallen log now lay scattered at Leesa’s feet.

  “That was pretty cool,” Cali said, nodding in approval after Rave had thrown the last rock.

  Leesa dropped her shield and crossed to Rave, giving him a big kiss on the lips.

  “Much better,” she said when she pulled her mouth away from his. “Now I feel like I can take on the world.”

  She didn’t need to take on the world, though. She simply needed to take on one very stubborn rock.

  Leesa walked slowly over to the stone, almost as if she were stalking it. Bending her knees, she placed one hand on top of its rough surface. Heated by the slanting rays of the sun, the rock felt warm under her palm. Warm was good. Growing things liked warmth and light. Leesa knew she might be reaching a bit there, but she liked the idea.

  She had taken to the touching the stone before trying her spell in an attempt to connect with it, if connecting with an inanimate object like a rock was even possible. She didn’t think it could hurt, though. Closing her eyes, she let the soft flesh of her palm join with the hard surface of the stone.

  Cali and Rave watched her in silence.

  When Leesa felt ready, she removed her hand and opened her eyes. She focused her gaze on the rock. At that moment, nothing else existed for her. The world had shrunk down to just her and the stone.

  “Blitha morun sumuss,” she said, slowly and distinctly, enunciating each syllable clearly as she pictured the rock growing in size. “Blitha morun sumuss.”

  The edges of the stone seemed to shimmer slightly. Leesa wasn’t sure if it was actually happening, or if staring so hard was making her eyes play tricks on her. Doubt was the enemy, so she pushed it away.

  “Blitha morun sumuss,” she repeated, even more loudly this time.

  Very slowly, the surface of the rock began to expand, pushing out perhaps an inch in all directions, just as she had seen it do in Jenna’s illusion. It didn’t grow as much as the illusion, but Leesa didn’t care. She reached out and gingerly touched the stone—this was no illusion. She had finally made “that damn rock” grow!

  Cali rushed over and placed her hand on the rock beside Leesa’s.

  “You freaking did it!” she exclaimed. “You made that dumb ol’ stone grow!”

  Leesa smiled. “I did, didn’t I? I guess I can stop calling it ‘that damn rock’ now.” She gently rubbed the top of the stone, almost as if she were petting a dog. “Maybe I’ll start calling it ‘that wonderful rock’ now.”

  Rave laid his hand on Leesa’s shoulder. “Congratulations, honey. You did awesome.”

  Leesa straightened up. “I don’t know if I’m ready to call an inch of growth ‘awesome,’ but it’s a pretty darn good start.”

  A start was all it was, she knew, but it was a start she had to make. She still had a very long road ahead of her, but now the first step had been taken.

  “Back up, please, you two,” she said. “I want to do it again while I still have this feeling.”

  Cali and Rave stepped back, and Leesa knelt by the rock again. She put her hand on the stone and repeated her spell. Once again, it slowly grew. Not as much as the first time, perhaps, but there was more surface to expand now.

  She smiled, pleased with herself. As she had said, it was just a start, but she was certain now she was on her way to mastering this very important spell.

  9. DEEP PURPLE

  THAT VERY SAME NIGHT, Leesa dreamed.

  Blackness enveloped her. No, not blackness—more of a purple. A purple so deep and rich and dark as to be almost black. She held her hand up in front of her face and she could see it clearly, but when she extended her arm, her hand nearly disappeared into the void. Farther out, she thought she could see faint, floating white lights surrounding her, but whenever she tried to focus on any particular one of them it somehow became lost to her sight.

  Almost as frightening as the eerie darkness was the complete and utter silence of the place. It was so deathly quiet she thought she could hear her own heartbeat, but maybe that was because it was pounding so hard inside her chest.

  She had no idea where she was, no memory of how she had come to this place of cold, eerie darkness.

  She tried to take a careful step forward, but discovered she could not. Not because her legs didn’t work, but because she wasn’t standing on anything solid. She seemed to be floating—no, that wasn’t the right word. It was more like suspended, though that didn’t seem quite accurate, either. Trying to walk felt like she was merely swinging her legs in the air.

  When she had extended her arm to test the darkness she had felt no resistance, so she wasn’t in any kind of liquid or gel. So what was keeping her up—a levitation spell of some kind? If so, it wasn’t a spell of her doing. Not that she could remember, anyhow.

  She closed her eyes and concentrated. When she did, she had the slightest sensation that she was falling. Once again, though, she wasn’t using the right word. She wasn’t falling—it was more like she was being pulled slowly down. Opening her eyes, she tried to test that sensation, but she failed. The tiny, nettlesome lights—still at the very limits of her vision—seemed to stay right where they were. Either she was not sinking downward as she thought, or they were moving down with her.

  She called up an illumination spell to break the darkness, but no light came. She tried again, shouting the spell out loud this time, hoping that volume might add to its potency.

  “Illuminati verdas,” she cried. Her shout sounded like little more than a whisper, as if this horrid place had somehow sucked up and absorbed the sound of her voice. This time, a faint golden glow appeared above her palm, casting little light. The darkness remained as impenetrable as ever.

  She closed her eyes again and the feeling of being drawn downward returned. She focused on the sensation, trying to draw whatever information from the sensation that she could. Now that she was concentrating on it, a new element became added to the feeling—an element that left her even more uncomfortable. She had the distinct feeling that she was being pulled down headfirst!

  A momentary panic seized her. She imagined herself being sucked slowly into some giant maw. Her eyes flew open, and the sensation of downward motion vanished. She had never felt so confused, so helpless. Was she being drawn into some invisible danger or not?

  She hated this place, hated the sensations it brought with it. But she saw no way to escape it. She was trapped.

  “Leesa!” She thought she heard someone calling her name from somewhere far away, but in this silent and seemingly endless void it was difficult to be certain. She tried to attach herself to the voice before it vanished. The voice might offer her only chance at succor.

  “Leesa! Leesa! Wake up!”

  She opened her eyes to see Rave staring at her, his face etched with concern. His hand was on her shoulder, shaking her. She blinked away her confusion.

  Rave’s hand moved from her shoulder and began tenderly stroking her hair. “You were having a nightmare.”

  Leesa drew in a deep breath. “Thank God. It was horrible. More frightening than any dream I’ve ever had.” Left unsaid was the scary thought that many of her dreams eventually came true—another of her wizard powers.

  “Do you want to talk about it?” Rave continued caressing her hair.

  “Yes…. No…. I don’t know.” Leesa sucked in another deep breath. “I supposed I should—just in case.”

  Rave knew what she meant by “just in case”—just in case the dream actually came to pass.

  “Go ahead. Tell me.”

  Leesa placed her palm on Rave’s naked chest. She could feel his heart beating under her hand, could feel the heat of the inner fire that was his essence. She took comfort from both.

  “I was stuck in some kind of dark void,” she began. “When I stretched my arm out, I could hardly see my hand out in front of me. I tried to cast an illumination spell, but my magic barely worked. Worse, I had the feeling I was being drawn slowly down, toward a giant pair of invisible jaws, like something down there was waiting to devour me.” Her body shivered at the memory. “Ugh! It was horrible.”

  Rave drew her into his arms and held her close, one hand still softly stroking her hair. Leesa gave herself over to the comfort of his warm, muscular body. Wrapped up in his arms like this, she knew she was safe. Rave would never let anything happen to her. He was a protector like no other.

  Suddenly, another involuntary shiver ran through her body. Rave wasn’t with her in the dream—he could not protect her there.

  Leesa knew she was going to have to think about the dream, to try to glean any information she might be able to learn from it. But not right now. That bit of introspection could wait. Now, she needed something else. She needed comfort. She needed distraction. She needed love.

  She lifted her head from Rave’s chest. “Make love to me, darling. Make love to me right now.”

  Rave happily did as she asked. All thoughts of her dream slipped away….

  Later that day, sated from their lovemaking, Leesa and Rave strolled hand in hand to the Maston orchard. Rave reached up to grab two apples, but Leesa beat him to the punch, using her telekinesis to pluck two juicy-looking pieces of fruit from a high limb. All her practice with telekinesis had developed her skill to the level where she could now move two things independently, rather than having to move them together. She floated the pair of apples down on separate paths, sending one into Rave’s outstretched hand and one into her own.

  Drops of moisture left over from a morning shower glistened in the grass, but Rave used his heat to dry an area of ground beneath the tree. When all the water had been evaporated, he and Leesa sat down beside each other. Rave rested his back against the trunk, and Leesa snuggled against his side.

  The storm had left behind an overcast sky, and a moderately strong breeze rustled the leaves above them. Leesa didn’t care—she was warm and dry with Rave.

  They ate their apples in companionable silence. The fruit was crisp and tangy. When Leesa finished eating, she tossed the core over her shoulder back farther into the orchard, a treat for some scavenging animal. She turned her head toward Rave.

  “I think I need to talk about my dream again, while it’s still reasonably fresh in my mind. There may be something in it that I need to know.”

  Rave nodded. “I thought we might get back to it this afternoon. Maybe talking about it will help you remember something. Go ahead.”

  Even though it was the last thing she wanted to do, Leesa closed her eyes and tried to recall the dream in as much detail as she could. She felt her heart beginning to beat faster as she relived the nightmare. When she finally reached the end, she opened her eyes and repeated the details to Rave, who listened silently.

  “I don’t know what would have happened next,” she said when she was done, “if you hadn’t wakened me.”

  Rave took Leesa’s hand. “Maybe I shouldn’t have. Maybe there was information in it for you if the dream had continued. But you seemed so upset. I just couldn’t let it go on.”

  Leesa squeezed his hand gently. “No, I’m glad you stopped it. But maybe next time…”

  “Next time I’ll let you wake up on your own,” Rave said, finishing her thought. “That won’t be easy, though.”

  Leesa squeezed his hand one more time. “I know.”

  “Those little silver lights you saw floating in the distance—do you have any idea what they might have been? Did they remind you of anything?”

  Leesa shook her head. “No, nothing. I could never really get a good look at any of them. I could see them most clearly on the periphery of my vision—whenever I turned my head and tried to focus on some, they faded away into dull blurs.”

  Rave thought for a moment. “What about any sounds? You said it was silent there, but was there any kind of background noise at all?”

  “No, none. I thought I shouted out my illumination spell, but it sounded more like a whisper to me, as if something in that place absorbed all sounds.”

  Rave breathed in a deep breath. “There’s not really much to go on, then. What about temperature? Was it hot? cold?”

  Leesa shook her head again. The more they talked, the more frustrated she grew.

  “Neither. At least, not that I can recall. I think the temperature was perfectly neutral.”

  They sat together in silence for a bit, both of them having exhausted their ideas. Leesa was about to give up on learning anything useful from the dream when something suddenly struck her. She grabbed Rave’s arm with both hands.

  “Wait! There is something. Throughout the whole dream, I never felt pregnant, never even thought about it. I’m sure I would have noticed if I was. I didn’t feel any distress about it, either.”

  Rave looked puzzled. “I don’t understand. What are you saying?”

  Leesa stood up and paced. She needed a few moments to put her thoughts into words.

  “I think it means that if this was one of my wizard dreams, it’s not going to happen until after our son is born. That gives me plenty of time to dream it again. Maybe I’ll even try to guide the dream one of these days, the way Dominic was teaching me.”

  Rave understood now. He rose to his feet.

  “And if you do have another nightmare, I’ll let you wake up on your own. Next time, maybe you’ll see more.”

  “Exactly.” Leesa kissed Rave on the lips. “See, I knew talking about it with you would help.” She jumped up into his arms, and he caught her with practiced ease.

  “Now how about a little ride around the orchard to lighten the mood?” she asked.

  “At your service, sweetheart.”