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Or perhaps disappear into space altogether, I think to myself.
I glance up at Solon. “Perhaps we should pick up the pace.”
“I was just thinking the same thing.”
I’m drained, having given so much of my blood away, and Solon’s weary from having been born again, but somehow it doesn’t take long until we’re moving fast along the snow plains, heading along a red creek that’s gradually turning clear, the snow melting underfoot.
“We might not have a lot of time,” Solon says. “I can carry you if you want.”
I shake my head. “I’m feeling stronger with every step.”
“Yes. That, and more stubborn,” he says.
That only spurs me on to walk faster.
Eventually we get to the bluffs where once a crimson waterfall ran over the edge, but now the water is clear and not much more than a weak stream. Of course, that stream comes from the bloody lake, which means the water in the lake is going down too.
Our way out.
“Shit,” I swear, and the two of us scramble up the slope until we’re up on the bluff. Up here, the snow is totally gone, leaving moss, rock, and lichen beneath our feet, and then we’re running along the sluggish creek bed, following it toward the lake, hoping against all hope that it’s not too late. I could be anywhere in the world as long as I had Solon by my side, but I can’t attest for other worlds.
Finally we reach the lake. The water is no longer red, and it’s just a small pool in the middle. As far as we know, this is the only way out of this world.
“Ready?” Solon asks, grabbing my hand and holding tight.
“Ready,” I tell him.
Together we step into lake and the water is practically receding as we walk in, like it’s running away from us. We’re quick though and we start running through the water until we’re in to our chests. Then, after a quick glance at each other, we take in a deep (though not needed) breath, and dive under.
It’s much easier to swim down this time. It helps that I don’t have a Lapp Witch holding onto me as a I do, as does the fact that the water is just water now, clear and fluid and easy to move through, no longer this bloody, smelly soup.
I dive down, down, past where the natural bottom of the lake should be, and I see Solon diving beside me, keeping pace. It gets darker and darker as we go, but our night vision kicks in and then the light appears. A growing glimpse of the sky that belongs to the other world, to our beautiful world.
We kick and kick and then we’re heading upward until we’re breaking through the surface, gasping for breath.
I look around, treading water, blinking at the surroundings. This is where we went in. And luckily there are no Lapp Witches to be found this time.
“I think we did it,” I tell Solon, brushing my soaked hair out of my face.
He grins at me, spitting out lake water. “I have my fingers crossed.”
We start swimming to shore, and though I start to lose my energy by the end of it, he pulls me out of the water until I’m on solid ground beside him. The air smells fresh here, like pine needles and marsh and clean air. It smells like the real world, our world. It smells like home.
I can’t help but laugh, the relief finally pouring through me. Not just that we survived Skarde (and Kaleid and Jeremias) and defeated him for good, but that we actually made it back to our world. The one that counts.
Most of all, the relief is because Solon is standing next to me, soaking wet and totally naked, and he’s here and he’s alive and he’s mine. No longer feral, the beast inside him dead, but the rest of him living.
“I can’t believe you’re here,” I say to him, swallowing the lump in my throat.
“I can’t believe I died,” he says, his gaze roaming delicately over my face. “That I died and you brought me back. You brought me back better.”
“Well, that remains to be seen,” I tell him, standing up on my tip toes to place a soft kiss on his kips.
He gives me a salacious grin, and the fact that he’s completely naked hasn’t escaped me. “I’d prove it to you,” he says. “But I’m not sure exactly what I did when I was the beast. If there’s a chance that Valtu is still alive, we owe it to him to find him.”
I nod. I can’t be the one responsible for leaving Dracula in the woods to die.
Solon grabs my hand and leads me through the woods. There’s still a lot of magical energy in the air, but it’s not dark. It’s like the whole forest is sighing in relief. It’s nice, it’s peaceful. I think we walk for hours, but it’s just enough time to slow down and take stock of everything that happened.
