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“You’re—You’re so… young.”
He laughs again. Shrugs.
The wind is choppy, big gusts, then calmness. The sky is cloudless, Aegean blue, so vibrant if I were upside down, it could be the ocean.
I think I’ll stay here forever.
Young Kane has a softer forehead and happier eyes. There are fewer creases of stress and sadness wilting his expression. He motions to the ground.
“Let’s sit?” he asks.
I follow him down to the grass and crisscross my legs. I don’t know how to rationalize what’s happening. It feels real. Have I lost my mind? First, DaiSzek whisks me out of my cage and jumps through hoops of reality to get me to this beautiful meadow where all my problems seem to swim away. Then, a younger version of Kane emerges from the forest that surrounds us. He doesn’t seem surprised to find me here. Have I gone mad?
“What is this place?” I finally peel my eyes off of his soft face and take another look at the blossoming flowers, swaying like dance partners in a ballroom.
“I call it Ambrose Oasis,” he says. “The safe place you can go when you’re scared or in pain.” His eyes almost look like honey, with a direct ray of sun setting them on fire.
I nod. But I don’t understand, not in the slightest. I’m just glad I made it out of there when I did.
“Do you want to talk about it?” He plucks a stem of lavender from the ground and hands it to me. “Here, smell.”
I take the herb from his fingers and hold it up to my nose. I inhale deeply, the lavender-infused aroma wafting up my nostrils and the edges of my brain like taking a warm shower. The scent is strong and clean.
“It’ll help keep you at peace,” he adds.
“I don’t think I want to talk about it,” I respond to his first question carefully. “I don’t think I’ll ever want to talk about it. Not for the rest of my life.”
“I thought you might say that.” A sad smile tightens his mouth. His tone implies he’s had this conversation with me before. But why am I seeing him so young? Why not the man I know now?
“Are you sad, Skylenna?”
I shake my head. “No, I’m much happier now that I’m here.” And I am. I feel an overwhelming amount of relief. Like I had a tight rope hugging my neck, and DaiSzek cut me loose. I can finally breathe. I can let the muscles in my neck relax. I can enjoy the warmth of the sun on my skin. The breeze carrying lavender running through my hair.
But that feeling of relief is suddenly replaced with a twinge of fear.
“Wait. I don’t have to go back, right? I can just… stay here.” My back is stiff and I’m ready to run. Sprint away from the reality that might be fast enough to catch up with me.
Kane’s eyebrows knit together in empathy. “You can stay here.”
My shoulders fall and I let go of the air trapped beneath my chest.
“But if you do, you’ll never find your way back to him.”
“Him who?”
His eyes narrow. The way Dessin’s does when he wants me to figure something out for myself.
“You mean—”
“I mean, Kane and Dessin. The Kane and Dessin that are nine years older than I am now. The ones that are waiting to see you again.” Even in his youth, he’s always had those intense eyes that are both warm and concrete with knowledge. I miss those eyes so much it hurts.
My lips part and I feel the pain of losing them in the outskirts of my soul.
“I want to see him again. More than I’ve wanted anything. But I’m starting to lose hope. It’s been months. There’s been no sign of him. And that’s not like him! He would never leave me in a place so horrendous this long. He would cross over every layer of hell and beyond to rescue me. There would be no force strong enough to hold him down.”
My words shiver as they leave me and float to him. They are weak and heavy with a heartbreak that sits on my shoulders like a backpack full of cement blocks.
“Why do you think he hasn’t come for you yet?”
