Page 54 of A Curse of Malice & Mercy

I walk to the edge of the water and dip a toe in. It feels like silk-sheets. Smooth, luxurious.

Just like the sheets I’m currently wrapped in.

“This is a dream,” I say aloud with a laugh.

I’m safe knowing it’s just a dream—a lucid one. One that wraps its welcoming arms around me and allows me to shed the heart-crushing emotions that plague my waking life. It’s been a while since I’ve had a lucid dream like this—one where I’m aware I am dreaming, able to manipulate the dreamscape.

I jump into the water feet first.

Water rushes up my nose, as I sink to the bottom, but I can breathe. I propel myself upward, breaking the surface.

I giggle, loving the warmth and love exuding from the dreamscape.

“Hello, human,” a familiar voice calls out.

I spin around, the golden water rippling outward around me, as my gaze connects with a pair of hypnotic blue eyes. My giggles grow into a full-blown fit of laughter. Mostly at the fact that I’m dreaming of Rainer.

“I like this,” I say with a smile.

He sits at the river’s edge, feet dangling in the silky water, in nothing but a pair of black briefs, with a smile of his own. The expression is positively dazzling on his face.

“Dimples,” I murmur. “You have the cutest dimples.”

I wonder if he has dimples in real life too, or if it’s only a dream-conjured image. I haven’t seen him wear a true smile yet—only crooked grins, smirks, and sneers. But smiles evade him like my freedom evades me.

I double take the muscles lining his physique, and I spend a moment appreciating the excess of tattoos marking his almost-naked body. My mouth waters.

He’s a decadent specimen.

I rather like this dream. It’s a nice reprieve from my reality, and I don’t want to wake up anytime soon.

Tilting my head up to the sky, I close my eyes and bask in the joy that is sunshine. Until the subtle scent of roses fills my nose, and I’m aware of his presence in my proximity.

I tilt my head up to gaze at dream-Rainer, our mouths inches apart. Everything else falls away and it’s only the two of us floating in an abyss.

He leans in, moving so close we share a single breath.

When his eyes roam over my lips, his pupils dilate. “What a treasure you are, little rose.”

Instead of closing the distance between us like I’m aching to, I grab his hand, and pull him under the silk-water with me. As much as I crave his physical touch, it’s a simple moment of fun and freedom that speaks to me most.

It’s intimate in its own way.

When we submerge ourselves beneath the surface. The water takes on a more aquatic form—translucent with specks of glittering gold.

It’s magical.

We play like this for what seems like hours, wordlessly laughing with each other, splashing each other with water that turns into confetti midair, manifesting various colorful fish that swim around our legs.

“I needed this,” he mutters. “A break from the nightmares.”

His words flutter around me. At first I’m confused, but then I realize he’s only a manifestation of my mind—my own subconscious. Which means his words are too. And they’re right. I did need this break. From the nightmares I face in both the day and the night.

“Alessia!”

I hear my name being called, even from beneath the surface.

“Did you hear that?” I ask Rainer without surfacing.

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