Harvest Moon (Beaux Rêve Coven 4)

He had no doubts she’d choose him.

Radha had had enough. She passed the baby to Nikon, the satyr beside her, who was another of her guardians along with Khan, and pushed up from her seat. “As Darcy said, I’m fatigued. If you’ll all excuse me, I’m going to head home.”

Bryn pointed toward Radha’s vacated chair. “Don’t be silly. You’ll eat the autumn stew I made. And have a slice of the farmer’s bread Darcy baked. You’re too thin. And Darcy’s right. You do look like Hel. Haven’t you been sleeping?”

Radha shifted on her feet then settled into her chair again, without glancing at the sly, handsome demon seated to her left or the satyr to her right, whose hazel eyes followed her everywhere. “All right. I’ll eat. But let’s change the topic of conversation.” She slathered a slice of the brown bread with fresh butter made by a local human woman, who’d traded for a jar

of Bryn’s muscadine jelly.

“Shall we talk about why you look so exhausted?” Bryn said softly.

Darcy chuckled from across the table. “Bet I know why…”

“It’s not because I’ve been…traveling a lot,” Radha said, referring to her practice of astral projection, which she did before she slept. When the men had first arrived, she’d used it to enter the dreams of some of the demons who’d kept them under lock and key inside Bryn’s inn to protect them from the demon council that had searched for them for five long years. She’d wanted to be sure of their true natures and intentions toward her sisters. After Ethan had defeated the council’s champion and the council had banished them, allowing them to live outside their rule, Radha had used her nightly travels to take the edge off her constant arousal. She’d learned what gave the men pleasure and how they in turn intended to please their future mates.

Of late, she’d refrained from entering their dreams for fear of bringing along the new darkness she’d encountered on the astral plane. Not traveling wasn’t an option. Not for her. The deep meditative state she entered was something she required before drifting away into a natural sleep. So, while others around her slept, she traveled around her home and into the woods around it, always moving because something lurked in the darkness. Something that frightened her.

“Radha,” Bryn said, pulling her thoughts back. “What’s going on?”

The jinn beside her unfolded his arms and studied her expression. “You are among friends. Tell us.”

She wrinkled her nose. “It’s probably nothing.”

“And it might be something,” Aoife said in her breathy, little girl voice.

“When I…travel—”

“Yeah, what’s that mean, anyway?” Nikon said.

“When I meditate, I leave my body,” Radha said, hating to admit her practice, because she knew the men would figure out what she’d been up to for months. “At first, I float upwards. I can travel through the roof and over the trees, until I reach the plane.” She wrinkled her nose. “It’s a place to meet spirits and other travelers. Sometimes, I simply walk around here,” she said waving a hand, “just to see what’s going on.”

“Do you watch us?” the shifter, Hamdir, said, frowning.

“Sometimes,” she admitted, feeling heat rise in her cheeks.

“You can enter dreams, can’t you?” Khan said softly beside her.

She swallowed, but then nodded, her gaze falling away because many of the men around the table were sitting straighter in their chairs.

Beside her, Nikon grinned. “So, you know how satyrs prefer to make love.”

Her mouth went dry as she recalled the particular dream she’d manipulated to have him show her just how a demon with half a horse’s body could make love to a woman…

Thankfully, none of the men she’d played with seemed angry, but it was embarrassing knowing that from now on they’d be looking at her differently.

“So, back to what’s happening now,” Khan said, his voice sharpening.

She nodded, relieved to be moving on. “For the past couple of weeks, I’ve felt like there’s something lurking when I go under. It stands very near,” she said, closing her eyes. “It breathes against my cheek,” she said, touching her cheek. “When I move, I hear footsteps shadowing me.”

“You haven’t seen what it is?”

“No. Not yet. And I think ‘it’ is a he, and he’s only biding his time. I’m tiring,” she said, her shoulders drooping. “And the more tired I get, the more quickly I become frightened.”

“You think he wants you frightened?” he asked.

“What do you think he is?” Bryn asked, not waiting for her answer. “I know you haven’t seen him, but do you think he could be a demon?”

Radha shrugged. “I’m not sure.”