Page 182 of Lost in the Dark

“This place is beautiful,” she whispers, her eyes rising to meet mine once again. “Can we just stay here until I wake up?”

I give her a pensive look, uncertain of how to respond to that.

“We can, for a time,” I say slowly, my hand running down her arm to comfort her, “but it will not last forever. You cannot escape what is to come.”

She drops her head and squeezes her eyes shut, a tremor racking her small frame. “The purifications didn’t work. They should have worked. I don’t understand why any of this is happening.”

Keeping my movements slow, I turn her toward me and look down at her, memorizing every beautiful plane and angle of her face. I stroke my fingers across her cheek, my claws trailing over the sensitive surface until she finally looks up at me, the tears of frustration and fear in her eyes gutting me in the process.

“You know why,” I rumble softly. “You just have to remember. Remember that day, the last day when you left your home.”

She shakes her head, the tremor in her body becoming more violent. I squeeze her arm insistently.

“Just remember and it will all become clear. You were walking on the street. That is where I saw you. You were walking quickly, in a hurry, and…”

Her small hand snaps up and covers my mouth, her entire body shaking and her eyes wide and haunted.

“No, I can’t. Please don’t ask that of me. I can’t, and I won’t. Just give me this moment here and allow me to forget all the darkness that’s waiting back there.”

Though I hold her against me, she feels like she is about to fracture at any minute, and so I sigh and relent.

“Very well,” I murmur, voicing all that there is that can be said.

Naomi

Ihave astral traveled many times, but I can’t remember a single place that suits me as well as this place where Gralius has brought me. The meadow filled with lavender aromatic grass is pleasing enough, but when we enter the woods filled with ancient trees so large that their branches snuff out the light, I’m completely swept away. While there is plenty of that same grass growing between the trees, there are also shade-loving, highly fragrant flowers nestled low to the ground and blooming vines that climb high into the branches above us in the same palette of purples and blues with hints of muted reds and pinks among them.

If anyone could have created the perfect paradise for me, this is it. I don’t know how he already knows me so well, but as I allow myself to lean into his incredible warmth, I feel lighter than I can remember feeling in quite a while. Yet it’s not enough for me to be able to completely ignore the slashing barbs that reach for me in every pocket of a crevice just as they twisted up into the lower reaches of the astral, slashing hungrily for me.

I don’t know why they want me, why they have chased us all the way to the astral much less what they’re currently doing to my home, but I know one thing: with Gralius, I feel safe.

And here, as long as I avoid those deep crevices connecting back to my world, I have a beautiful sanctuary. I don’t tire walking beside him. After a while, I notice that we seem to be on some kind of path. It winds through the trees and borders various bushes, some of filled with aromatic leaves and others blooms that give off a nice, light fragrance. There’s nothing overwhelming about this place. Sensory-wise, it is peaceful haven as we stroll side by side. We do not need to talk, other than a few words about the beautiful scenery we pass, as the path winds down by a vast lake that sparkles as if the entire surface of the water is covered in jewels. In the center of it, I can see an island topped with what looks like a cherry tree in full bloom, the flower petals sedately falling on the marble gazebo just below it.

Tipping my head back, I look up at him and smile in appreciation at the strong, inhumanly beautiful angles of his face. The scarred side of his face is turned toward me, and I appreciate the view. The scars add a complexity to his features now fully visible since he’s taken to leaving his hood down. His dark hair streams behind him, fluttering effortlessly in the breeze. Though his dark horns arch proudly over his head, it is the fine network of scars that my eyes trace lovingly, memorizing the suffering he endured to make his way to me, and I love each one as a testimony to his strength to endure and grow.

I know I’m probably smiling up at him a bit too much, but I can’t seem to help myself. As frightening as he seemed when he first met, now all I see is a male with an incredible mind and heart who is everything that is protective strength and comfort. I have too often recently felt like I was on the verge of drowning, and in the midst of it all he came and pulled me free so that I can breathe. I know I am clinging a bit too much, but I feel like every breath is possible with him. He is my rock within the madness and yet is also an unlooked-for source of happiness. My entire world seems to expand with him as his perspective complements and enriches my own. I don’t know how or why I ensnared him and drew him into my dreams, but I find that I am very glad for this. My world would be a darker place without him in it.

No doubt feeling the weight of my focused stare returning repeatedly to him, Gralius’s gaze slides over to me, his brows rising slightly with the barely perceptible tip of his lips beneath the scars.

“You are staring,” he says in a soft voice, his feathers ruffling affectionately.

An unrepentant grin crosses my face in response.

“You’ll have to forgive me because as incredible as all this is, I still very much enjoy looking at you,” I tease. “It’s not often a woman has a choice between looking at the most beautiful scenery ever, and a male who is equally fine. I just don’t have enough eyes to do both.”

Gralius’s smile inches wider, flashing sharp teeth, the skeletal scars stretching in a pleased grin as he gives a rough chuckle.

“I am glad this place pleases you,” he replies, the words spilling out hesitantly as if he were suddenly uncertain. “It is the only place I have seen that comes anywhere close to resembling my home, the Shadow Realm of the thanatos.” His lips purse momentarily. “Brighter than the Shadow Realm, but still familiar enough to be enjoyable.”

My eyebrows winging up, I look around with renewed interest. “Really?”

Though the sun that filters down through the dense foliage is bright and warm, the shadows are long. I can only just imagine how much deeper the shadows and softer the light would be in a world such as what he speaks of. I can picture the soft blues, grays, and lavenders of a twilight landscape and suddenly wish I could see it more than anything.

“Do you miss it?” I ask, looking up at him.

His lips thin. “Sometimes more than anything, but then at other times I wonder what is left for me there. I worry that I have changed too much. That I will have nothing.”

There is a note of pain in his voice, and so I press into his side to share what strength and support I have.

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