Page 105 of Midwinter Wiles & Valerian Dreams
“Valkie,” Lumi says, her voice carrying like mist through branches. “There you are.”
She hovers, not quite solid, not quite light.
“Am I dreaming?” I whisper.
“No,” she replies gently. “You are caught in a dreamscape, yet not fully asleep. Not lost, for Lumi has found you, but trapped somewhere in between.”
Her light spins, drawing arcs above the forest floor. I reach for her. My fingers pass right through, like dipping my hand in moonlit water.
“Is this real?”
“Enough to matter,” she says, with her usual cryptic tilt. “Come. Follow my moonbeams.”
The trees fall away like curtains pulled back. Words carry through the veil, clearer than before. Closer.
“It wasn’t for you,” Lark says. His voice is a balm, soothing and steady. “It was for Talvie.”
My breath catches at my name from his lips, and tightens when he tells my stepmother that he wanted to give us a chance to connect again.
They’re talking about the play.
I missed the play.
“She hates me,” Taynia says. “She must.”
Pain laces her words. The voice that has been cold and sharp for years now holds emotion I haven’t heard from her in too long. My throat constricts, but no tears will fall. Not here. Lark’s words of defence aren’t as sweet as the knowledge that he did it. He reached her.
“They went ahead with the play?” I ask Lumi.
“They did. For Valkie.”
“They knew? About this curse? About who I really am?”
Lumi rolls and hums. “They did. Little Aili freed Lumi from the ice, and we reached them in time. Valkie thought they would not love you if they knew your true identity, but they did this for you. They reached our queen’s heart and cracked the ice. Now we wait.”
“Help me wake her,” Lark is saying. “There must be a way.”
Yes.Yes! I want to wake. I want to go to him, to tell him I’m here. That I didn’t leave him to do it alone, not on purpose.
Then his voice is quieter.
I cling to it.
“Because I love her.”
My hands tremble. My whole being trembles.
He loves me.
Lumi glows brighter, letting her light circle around me like it’s trying to keep me from shattering.
“I never meant to fall in love with her,” Lark continues, “but how could I not?”
The way they’ve been talking…it hits me like a kraken bite. Lark has known all along who I am. He let me into his home, around the kids, into hisbed, all while knowing my true Point Fae nature. This whole time…he saw me. The real me.
“…she could never feel the same about someone like me,” he says.
No. He doesn’t understand. I need to tell him not to listen to Taynia or any of the voices telling him he’s not enough.
