Page 88 of The Wild Moon
“Was the place I saw in my dreams real?” I asked, staring at him. “The place with the giant stone wall and the gates?”
Vir just stared at me. I doubted I was going to get an answer to that one just yet.
When you’re stronger,I thought to myself, mocking his voice.
Vir quirked an eyebrow, and I panicked. He’s a god. Could he read my mind? Did he know I had just been making fun of him?
No further reactions or comments came, so perhaps he’d just read something on my face.
“Good talk,” was all I ended up saying. “While it lasted.”
Vir shrugged. “My turn.”
“Your turn for what?” I asked. “You’re a god. What do you need to wait your turn for?”
“Information,” he said. “I want to know how you got here.”
I sighed. “I told you the truth back at the tunnel,” I said. “I don’tknow. Just like I don’t know how I got here in my dreams either.”
Vir grunted. “When you’re ready to talk, so am I.”
“Iamready to talk, you kidnapping sonofabitch,” I snapped, forgetting for a moment I was talking to a being who could quite literally erase me from the face of the Earth with little more than a snap of his fingers. “I don’tknowhow I got here. Probably the same way everyone else does. They go through the barrier.”
His eyes burned brighter, but when he spoke, his voice was quiet. “Nobody goes through the barrier.”
I faltered, my anger vaporizing. “Nobody?”
“Nobody,” he repeated. “Until you.”
Chapter Forty-Six
Iblinked awake blearily.
What the hell? When had I fallen asleep? Angrily, I turned my head to the side, looking for Vir, demanding answers. We’d been talking about the barrier, and he’d told me nobody but me came through, and then suddenly I was awake. That reeked of god-interference, and I didn’t like it.
He wasn’t around, though, not that I could sense. For the time being, I was alone.
Taking advantage of that privacy, I carefully sat up in bed and pulled up the oversized sweatshirt, doing my best to keep the girls covered. I inspected my side, noting that the healing was kicking in.
It was going to be gross for a day or so before the fresh, pink skin that I could see forming at the center took over, but I wouldn’t be weak for long. Some food, another period of rest, and I would be right as rain. Physically, at least. My mental psyche was another matter entirely.
Gods. Honest to goodnessgods.
I climbed across a mile of covers and sheets to finally reach the edge of the Vir-sized bed. There was no way I could rest any longer. Not in bed, at least. Maybe I wasn’t up for another brawl with Johnathan, but I could walk around the god-lair at least. That wasn’t very taxing. Besides, I had too much mental energy to sit still.
Grasping at the waistband of the sweats, so they didn’t fall mid-stride, I walked out from the partitioned sleeping chamber and back into the main part of his lair.
“How long was I out?” I asked, spotting Vir over by the hearth fire in the library section.
He was busy staring into the flames. Normal flames, I noted, yellows, oranges and reds. None of his blue.
“As long as you needed to be,” he said. “Time works differently here. It would be impossible for me to quantify it to you in ways you would understand.”
“Oh,” I squeaked. “Right. And, um, just to clarify for me.Whereare we? And what is that place with the gates? What is going on here?”
Silence.
Vir continued to stare into the flames. I watched and waited for a response. He’d heard me, I was right next to him, but his attention was on the flames. Following his gaze, I, too, stared into them for a long time, trying to spot whatever it was he could see, but it must not have been for mortal eyes because all I saw was the fire.
