Page 10 of Ruby & Onyx

The kiss feels so pure, so right.

I would die for this kiss. I would part the seas and skies for this kiss.

When he pulls away, he angles his forehead to meet mine and holds me like this for several heartbeats. We share each breath until he moves to press a kiss on my cheek. Is it possible for two hearts to beat in tandem? It’s like invisible strings succumbed to the tension and pulled us together, tethering our hearts for eternity.

“Don’t ever leave me,” he whispers into my ear, the fine hairs covering his jaw tickling my cheek, before setting me down gently.

“Behind you!” I squeal as my knees wobble.

A knight swings his sword at the man’s head but isn’t quick enough. He dodges the blow and then sweeps his sword clean across the knight’s tender neck. Blood spews in all directions and a drop of sweat lands in my eye, obscuring my vision. I clear it with the bottom of my tunic, but by the time I look up, he is gone. Lost to the swarm of bodies swirling around me. I desperately move in the direction where he last stood, fighting for another moment in time, but he is no longer there.

The moans of dying men swell in my ears, sending me to my knees.

I lost him.

I wake up heaving and gasping, completely inconsolable and stuck in the throes of an imagined loss. This felt so different from the usual nightmares – devastating but not frightening. It felt like finding the missing piece of the puzzle only to lose it once more.

For the first time in my life, I willingly try to return to the land of sleep. I squeeze my eyes shut and try to conjure his image, pleading desperately with the gods to give me one more moment, one more chance. I beg to see that ruffled brown hair and his tall, sturdy figure again.

Hours go by, and my pleas go unanswered. Once the sun begins to flood in through the window, beckoning me out of bed, I accept defeat.

He is gone.

Slipped through my fingertips before I could hold him in my hands. It was only a dream. But why can I still feel that tether pulling, desperately seeking for our hearts to be intertwined once more?

The dog in the corner barks a simple reminder of his presence. I had forgotten about him. He seems so at home here. More comfortable, perhaps, than me.

“I suppose you can stick around here if you want,” I tell him.

* * *

In the two weeks since the prowler first appeared, my mind has refused to quiet. Like a mantra for my sanity, I remind myself constantly to stay clear of the barrier, to ignore the snapping and howling of dogs as the guards usher them along patrol, and to stifle that insatiable desire to go searching for whatever is out there. My curiosity is playing me for a fool.

I took a walk to clear my thoughts, but it was a futile effort at best. The scattered daffodils, clustering along the trail like pops of golden humor or the massive camellia bushes sprouting up from the dirt are nature’s best remedy. But then I see a log burnt to a crisp and remember the way that the prowler’s body turned to ash.

Will I ever be able to forget his face?

I freeze at the sound of a twig cracking in the distance, and my spine goes rigid. The trail goes still as if it shares my nerves, and only the ruffling leaves fill the silence.

Did I imagine it? Gods, maybe I did. Given the absurdity of the last couple of days, it could be my paranoia creeping up on me.

Something grabs my shoulder from behind, and I jump so high into the air that my feet are nowhere to be found when I slam down onto the dirt. Pain streaks from my tailbone to my back.

I look up to see Oren staring down at me, barely able to conceal his amusement. He must have hidden behind the camellias to startle me.

Of course, it would be Oren. After my mother died, we began a relationship… of sorts. Not the lovey-dovey, future-marriage type of relationship that most women gravitate towards. Ours was both brief and strictly physical. It was all that I was capable of at that time.

I flash him a venomous look as I dust the dirt off of my soon-to-be bruised backside.

“I’m so sorry! I thought you heard me coming!” The look on his face shifts to worry in a fraction of a second.

“Obviously, I did not.” As I get up from the ground, I wince at the shooting pain. But when I stand, I find myself surprised that we see eye to eye now. He used to be rather short, compared to me anyway, but now he surpassed my height. And what was once a body of skin and bone is now muscular and taught. His dark skin is smoother, unblemished by the acne that once gathered in spots around his forehead and chin.

“I’m sorry!” He stutters as his eyes flood with nervous regret. “I saw you running over here, and I… I don’t know! I wanted to say hello!”

He’s so clearly frazzled that it cools the jagged edge between us. Perhaps the attraction that’s stirring in my throat eases that friction, as well. “It’s fine,” I tell him. “It’s my fault. I’ve been far too paranoid recently.”

His shoulders relax a little, but some remnants of panic remain sketched onto his features. “Is everything okay? You seem tense.”

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