One minute, he’s telling me he’s been in the woods for two weeks, and the next minute, we’re walking back to my truck in utter silence.
“Here.” I reach into the backseat, keeping one eye on the road,and hand him the blanket that I keep back there.
“I am not affected by the temperature,” he says, “but thank you.”
The blanket stays suspended between us. I clear my throat.“That's, um, that's fine,” I stammer,tossing the blanket into the back.I wasn't so much worried about whether or not he was cold—seeing as how he was wandering the forest with no apparent signs of distress—as I was the fact thathe is still very naked.
Andextremelybeautiful. Sculpted like astatue of a Greek god.
AndI've been trying hard not to look at things that I have no business looking at.But it's kind of difficult.
I try to avert my eyes, but then I realize thatthe color of his skin is changing, and I can’t seem to look away. It's now sort of amuted gray.
I look out the windshield.
His skin is the same exact shade as the sky.
“I think I need to know what's going on here,” I say.
“Yes,” he says, “of course.I apologize.”He sets his palms flat on his thighs, and I look away quickly from thosemuscular, hairy legs. Is he even human?Helooksvery, very human. Apart from the blue skin.
“There was some sort of catastrophic event.”
“Catastrophic event?” I ask, following the highway signsback to Black Forest. “What do you mean?”
He turns his head to look at me, his eyes dark in the shadows of the truck. “I believe you are familiar with the ley lines.I believe that is why you were out in the woods, is it not?”
“Yes,” I say, though I don’t know how he would have known that.
“This happens sometimes. It is as ifthe veil between your world and mine thins.”
“So, you've seen this before?” I ask.“You've had this happen…?”I gesture to him, to his perfectly-formed human body.
He shakes his head. “No, I have not.But I have seen things happen to other people.Witnessed strange goings on during these times. It israther common.But it has never happened to me.”
“Whathappenedexactly?” I ask quietly.
His eyes slip slowly over to me, like he’s not sure he should say.“Some weeks ago, Isaw youin the woodswith a mapand a woman.”
“Mackenzie,” I say on instinct, even though I’m not certain it matters. “My sister.”
“Mackenzie.”He says it slowly, like he's sounding outthe word, feeling itin his mouth. He pushes his golden hairout of his eyes.It's longer than mine.Wavy. Beautiful.“I saw the two of you, and I felt…I am not sure… Compelled, perhaps.Feltis not even entirely the correct word. It was almost involuntary, but I know, also, that it was my own doing.”
“What was?”
His gaze holds mine. “I reached for you.”
Something about the way he says it sends a fizzle through my chest.
“You reached for me?”
He nods solemnly. “Andwhen I did,I fell.”
“Fell from where?”I ask,even though I’m pretty positiveI already know the answer.
“From the sky,” he says.“Technically,fromthe atmosphere. I… am…” He seems to not want to confirm it aloud for some reason.
“Youarethe sky,”I finish for him.
