When Arik Beltrán checks into a hotel on business, he expects the tedium of unfamiliar beds and boring meetings. He expects to meet a financial client and be home before the solitude of being a stranger in a mundane land becomes too much to bear. Instead Arik finds Blaze: a mysterious man with an inner fire that lives up to the name. Nothing in Arik's life, not his deranged father nor even his faint brushes with the magic only Arik can see in the woven web of life could have prepared Arik for the man in the hotel lobby who casually invites Arik to room 1109 for late night ... Well, anything at all. Blaze Zaituc, on the other hand, knows exactly who Arik is and what Arik needs: Blaze. He has crossed land and sea to find the man who has appeared in Blaze's Visions as the next target in the Quest that comprises Blaze's life. Arik is someone for whom the Universe has plans, and Blaze must make sure Arik complies. Or else. Unaware of the lives and risks hanging in the balance, Arik untangles himself from the sheets in the silent hours of the morning. He wonders if he will find the door to 1109 open and waiting. He's not a risk taker, but this one time, just this once, maybe he'll take a chance ... And seal both his and Blaze's destinies forever.

Vision Quest

The sigh that echoed from behind Arik’s closed lips had Blaze lifting his head and smiling somewhat confusedly. “Mood swing?”


Life path reorientation, Arik’s mind offered up. His tongue, however, replied with, “We’re about to use every drop of the hotel’s hot water supply. I can only imagine what they’ll want to charge us for that.”


He reached for the toggle that would redirect the water, but was stopped by Blaze’s hand on his shoulder. “Are you okay, Arik? I mean—” Blaze stopped himself, caught his lip and frowned, and for another rare moment Arik thought how nice it was to see the man behind the mask. To see something other than piety. Disturbed was almost more of a windfall than lust. Because it was real. Something lit in the back of Arik’s head.


Let’s see what boat we’re waiting for, shall we?


“I mean, I know you’re not okay,” Blaze said. “I know you’re dealing with a lot of things you don’t get, or know how to manage—”


Chapter 40