Stars of Fortune (The Guardians Trilogy 1)

“No, you have the key.” He pulled her to her toes so her eyes were level with his. “You are the key.” He kissed her, not gently. “Use what you are.” He kissed her again, and light snapped around them. “Wake up!”

She sucked in air like a swimmer surfacing from deep water. When her bones melted, Bran scooped her up, then sat cradling her.

“You’re all right.”

“My head.”

“You came out too fast, and you will fight it. Just breathe through it. Annika, would you get her some water?”

“What happened? Why—” She broke off when she realized she sat on Bran’s lap, outside, and in nothing but a night slip. “Oh, God. Again?”

When she tugged the slip down her thighs, Riley let out a bark of laughter that sounded like relief. “Relax, you’re covered. If I’d been the one wande

ring around dream-walking, I’d be standing here naked. I’ve got plenty of aspirin, and a couple Percocet I hold back for emergencies.”

“I can see to it. Breathe,” Bran repeated. “And relax.” He laid his hands on her head, stroked, ran his fingers through her hair, took them over her forehead, back, over her scalp to the back of her neck.

“Put it in my hands,” he murmured as Annika rushed back with a glass of water. “It’s only pain. I can ease it if you put it into my hands.”

“I remember.”

“Good. Remembering means you’re not fighting it. The less you fight it, the less of an opening you give her.”

“The Globe of All.” She sipped the water. “What is it?”

“I don’t know. But,” Riley vowed, “I’ll find out.”

“She had it, in the cave. In her hand. Did you see it?”

“A glass ball,” Sawyer said. “I didn’t get a good look—a little busy—but there was movement in it. You said it wasn’t hers.”

“I don’t know whose it was, I’m sorry.”

“I’ll find out,” Riley assured her. “It’s what I do. Now what’s this about a curtain?”

“What happens when you draw a curtain?” Bran continued to rub Sasha’s head. “You block or hide things. I’ll work on that. Draw curtains, you could say, around us, so we’re not as exposed to her.”

“It’s better now. Thanks.” When she tried to get up, Bran simply held her in place.

“You’re fine where you are.”

“I can’t add more to any of this, at least not right now. I don’t understand half of what I said, and I’m too tired to think. I need to sleep.”

“I’ll take you up.”

“You don’t need to—”

“I need a few things from my room.”

He walked her up, held her for a moment in the doorway. “I can protect you, at least to a point.”

“What?”

“Charms and spells,” he said, and drew her back. “I’d want your permission for that.”

“To block her out.”

“As much as I can. The rest is for you. You are the key, Sasha. You are the master of your own gift.”