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

“Well, good thing we bought you those suits, I guess.” Arik wiped his eyes, and they were shining when he looked at Blaze.


“Yeah?” Blaze asked, already knowing what Arik would say but wanting him to say it anyway


“Yeah. ‘Cause if you think for a second that I’m going to meet Mr. Goat without a cursed Romanian witch in my pocket, you are out of your three-century-year-old mind.”


“Three-and a half.” For the life of him, Blaze could not wipe the stupid grin off his face. “You know, I know a guy who fits that description.”


“Well then.” Arik got up and dragged Blaze with him and into the shower after him. “You better properly introduce me. We’ve got a date with a book-loving goat man.”


Blaze tossed the notepad onto the counter, slammed the shower door, and set about the business of reigniting intimate acquaintance.18


Chapter 52