Page 136 of Living Legend

"What's this?"

"It's what you'll need to get the answers you want."

"And her hair?" I don't know why I almost felt my stomach turn thinking about what her hair would be used for. I took the bottle from her hands and examined it.

Natalia grabbed my feet and swung them off the couch so that she could take their place. "It's in there, compounded with some rosemary to increase the effects."

I popped out the cork and sniffed the liquid. A potent citrus scent flowed into my nostrils. I pulled back, wrinkling my nose. "And the smell?"

"Lemon balm. I thought it might go down better if you tasted something other than a plant. With the rosemary, when I put you to sleep, it will help you relax a bit so you aren't so stressed."

"I'm not stressed. I'm just…anxious."

She rolled her eyes. "Sounds like the same thing to me."

I lightly moved the bottle back and forth as I watched the liquid slosh from one side to the other. "What's going to happen, exactly? How long will I be under?"

Natalia bit her bottom lip. "Everyone is different, Nicholas, and I can only tell you what I know. You'll drink this and start to get sleepy. I'll secure you into your trance and you'll find yourself in somewhat of a blank space. I'm not inside your mind, so you have to guide yourself where you want to go. The lock of her hair is what physically connects you to her, so you'll need to focus on that, on her. Focusing is your main goal. If you can't focus, you will end up in a place you don't want to be. You know what you want to find, so find it. You want to know about her start, so focus on that."

I absentmindedly nodded.

"As for how long you're under, I'll leave you be for however long you want, but I can pull you out if I need to. If I see you struggling in any way, I will pull you out. Safety is something I deem highly important." She gave me a small smile, as if hoping that would reassure me.

"Okay."

"Nicholas?" I looked up at her. "What are you going to do, if the answer isn’t what you’re expecting? Will this have still been worth it?"

I couldn't think about that right now. I wanted this to go smoothly. It had to."I think so. I don't know. I'll figure it out." I sounded like an idiot.

She gingerly nodded her head and pointed to the little bottle. "Drink up and get comfortable."

I took one deep breath in and one out. I brought the bottle to my lips and downed it. It felt like a slight burning sensation in my lungs. I coughed, as if it had gone down the wrong pipe. I regained my composure, swallowing until the burning began to subside. I tasted the lemon instantly, but the hints of rosemary stained my taste buds.

Everything happened so quickly. My shoulders slumped a bit, my limbs hanging down heavy and useless as I tried to move them. My heartbeat was starting to slow to a relaxing pace while my head was swimming with the need to fog over. My eyelids felt like they had a heavy weight on them, demanding to be closed. I felt Natalia's hand on my head, and then a tingling sensation along my neck and ears. Sparks of blue and purple caught in my periphery, and I knew she was doing her part in putting me under.

"I hope you find what you're looking for," I heard her say as my body went numb right as my head hit a pillow. The fog enveloped my head and my eyes shut.

It was dark, wherever I was, and my eyes felt like lead weights. My mind was slowly adjusting itself from the fog, and I shook my head several times until I started to feel like myself again. I was cautious to take any steps since I couldn't see a fucking thing. Even though there was nothing around me, I felt like everything was moving slowly. My eyes were starting to adjust to the dark, and I looked to my left and right, hoping something would give me a sign.

Natalia's words rang inside my head.You know what you want to find, so find it. You want to know about her start, so focus on that.

I knew what I wanted to find, and I knew I wanted to help Dani figure her shit out, even if she didn't care to do it herself. It was like an itch I needed to scratch, and it wasn't even my problem. Not fully, at least. I closed my eyes and thought about what I wanted to know. I focused on her face, her hair, her eyes, the way she bit her lip whenever she was being playful or annoying. I focused on the way she spoke to me, how she sounded like she was intrigued by the light but never felt good enough to embrace it.

I just focused on Dani, on helping her. Helping her meant understanding her relationship with Lilith, which in turn made me think about her and Lilith.

I felt the ground underneath me shift as I focused all my attention on that one thought. The way I was moving was like a conveyor belt in a certain direction. All of sudden, instead of moving slowly, I was thrust forward, as if I was being sucked by harsh winds. The dark around me started to fade and morph into something I was familiar with. It faded into less of the stark black and more of the darkness of a night sky. My whole body was brought to a stop, and I slammed into a tree.

My shoulder connected with the trunk, the stinging sensation rattled throughout my body. I groaned, grabbing my right shoulder and rolling it around, making sure I didn't dislocate anything. When I was pretty sure I was fine, I took in my surroundings. I was in a set of woods in the human world. I noticed the thick fog that surrounded my waist, almost as if I could wade through it if I wanted to. I looked behind me, trying to survey where I should be walking. The fog shadowed over the moon, so the light was dim at best.

A sound alerted me to look forward. Lights flashed through the trees, lights I recognized. Blue and red. I decided that walking wasn't enough for me and decided to jog over to the scene. As I got closer, I saw an opening through some of the trees. I slowed my steps as I got closer and closer. A car was wrapped around a tree near the beginning of the woods, and there were pieces of it scattered throughout the street. Police officers were spread out, speaking quickly to one another, the sound of an ambulance in the distance. I moved around the humans, looking for her.

This must be where it happened. This is where she died and Lilith took her, but where was she? Why did I…why did I have an overwhelming feeling of deja vu?

I had seen so many variations of death while doing my duty, but there were ones you just didn’t forget. I tried to look for something to throw me off, to shake off this feeling that something about this was familiar. I scrubbed a hand down my face as I leaned against one of the cars. Maybe I hadn't done this right–I was shit with portals and now I was shit with sleep-inducing, memory-invading magic. I veered my eyes towards the totaled car and caught sight of something I knew all too well.

It was a white light, one I had been trained to detect. My first instinct was to go towards it, which is what my feet were already doing. Once I was next to the totaled car, I knelt down to the shattered window and saw a girl leaning back on the seat, her head facing me as she fluttered her eyes open and closed. She was barely alive, so she couldn't quite see me yet, or whoever was coming for her. She obviously wasn't Dani, and I moved out of the way as the ambulance got closer.

I was starting to get confused as to why I was in this moment when she wasn't even here. Maybe I had sent myself back to a memory of my own making, since something about this scene was so recognizable to me. Glass was everywhere, so I shifted around the pieces I could. I didn't know how this kind of magic worked, so I was being as cautious as possible. I went into this blind, on the notion that we needed answers. Dani deserved to know this about herself. She deserved to know Lilith's need for her, her importance. Clearly, yanking out souls with a dark magic dagger wasn't the only use she had.

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