I smiled one of my demented grins and batted my lashes. “Same on the inside, same on the outside. I don’t waste energy on playing a part for the sake of others.”
Like the gentleman part he played, he let it go. “I promise not to encroach on anything you don’t wish to show me. I won’t enter your mind. All you have to do is push the thoughts you want me to see toward me. I’ll receive them like an email. Easy.”
“Easy,” I echoed. There was absolutely nothing simple about giving someone else access to my mind.
Showing him what I saw in my dreams might help more than describing what happened, though. I tightened my hand in his and closed my eyes. The soft mantle of magic folded around me and I tried to keep my breat
hing even so he wouldn’t sense my panic. But so far, he kept his word. I didn’t feel any mental pushes from him.
I pictured the forest in mind and pushed it toward him.
He hissed out loud, and I jerked my hand away.
“What?”
“Gently, that was like forcing too much laundry into a washing machine at once. Picture it and sort of float it my way. I can grab onto it and bring it to me. An exchange, if you will.”
“Sorry,” I mumbled.
“Not at all,” he said, and took my hand again.
I pictured the dress and the carpet of pine needles leading me to the forest. Then I gently willed it toward him.
It winked out of my head and he said, “More.”
Next, I pictured Sol’s back as I found her on the log.
He inhaled sharply. Shit. I didn’t consider what seeing her would be like for him after everything he’d endured.
“Are you okay?” I asked, eyes still closed.
“Yes, please continue.” His voice remained steady, but his breathing pattern had picked up almost to match my own.
Finally, I gave him the way she looked from the front, having her invisible conversation with someone I couldn’t see.
Like a lightning strike, his emotions filtered through our connection. Surprise. Fear. Hope. Panic.
I pulled my hand back, hugging it to my chest, and opened my eyes. His stayed closed. He didn’t acknowledge that exchange, so I didn’t comment on it.
“Anything you notice?” I asked.
He shook his head and opened his eyes. “I think I know that forest. We should go there and investigate. I have a helicopter and we could be there in a few hours.”
I held up my hands. “Wait a minute. I didn’t sign on to join the Mystery Machine here. I understand you want to find your sister, but I don’t think we should run off and trudge through some kind of sentient forest right now. She couldn’t possibly be held there, with no bathroom, no food, no water. Then there is the obvious conclusion we need to discuss.”
Between breakfast and now, he somehow appeared older. His voice came out rough when he asked, “What is that?”
Was he kidding me?
“That this might be one more big fancy trap to lure us in and finally finish us off. I don’t know about you, but I have a lot of shoes to buy with my million dollars.”
His eyes softened. “No, I have enough shoes. But I understand what you are saying. However, Sol wouldn’t set us up like that.”
“Sol might not, but what if she’s not the same woman you knew? What if she is being forced by Esteban to create sendings to me? What if the sendings are Esteban wearing Sol’s likeness? I could go on with ten more scenarios where we end up six feet under.”
I needed unbiased third-party backup here, and I couldn’t believe what I was about to say.
“Where’s the captain?”