AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Like what?” I can’t help but speak in a whisper, one of awe wrapped tight in hesitant excitement. I don’t always like the secrets around here, or his surprises.
“The sort that means I will take the steed,” he tells me, “and offer us the privacy of no coach-driver.”
“Oh,” is all I say.
I throw another narrowed look at the gross creature. I hate these things. One time, I had a dreadful nightmare that they were running on the walls of the castle, headed straight for me, and Daein was leading the way. It was just the once though…
Daein snatches up my waist and hoists me onto the steed. I cringe the moment I’m rested on the saddle, hugging my arms to my chest to avoid touching the creature.
He swings himself up behind me in a flash, quick to loop his arm around my waist. I rest my hands on his arm to balance myself.
The slaves are silent in seeing us off as Daein whips the reins and we’re galloping down the windy bridge that takes us across the valley.
Behind me, Daein is quiet. He speaks nothing to me the whole ride, but his arm around me is starting to feel more like a tender embrace than a restraint, and I soon lean into his chest for comfort.
He rests his chin on my forehead as the gallop slows to a wander, and I know we’re nearing wherever it is he is taking me. I hope it’s not the fucking markets again.
And it’s not …
It feels like hours we’ve been riding through the wild—the absolute darkness, where no light penetrates—but eventually I spot flickers of white far in the distance.
“What’s that?” I whisper, as though my voice might spook away the glimmers of light. “Where are we?”
“The Wastelands,” he murmurs, dipping his mouth to my ear. He ghosts a kiss there. “And their light columns.”
“Their what?” I breathe, scrambling to remember all that I know about the Wastelands. There are ferals—whatever the hell they are—and … the light breaking through the darkness.
He’s taking me to see the light.
Real light. Natural light, like the kind from my world before the conquering, the kind that I never thought possible to ever see in my lifetime.
“Oh my gods,” I exhale, my hands tightening on his arm. “The … Thesun’slight?”
This time, he plants a chaste kiss on the shell of my ear. “Yes.”
I barely feel his hot breath brushing over my skin. My eyes are glued to the flickering lights as we draw nearer. The closer we get, the less they flicker—the steadier they become, more solid, and eventually it’s as though I’m staring right at pillars of the old sun.
Daein dismounts in a swift move behind me, then steals me gently from the steed. I’m in awe of the lights, the fragrance of sea-salt in the air.
Never seen anything like this before. Never could have imagined in my wildest dreams anything close to this ... this magical, beautiful birth of nature.
‘Wastelands’ they call it. No, this is heaven—heaven breaking through to hell.
His fingers slip away from mine as I wander from him. In front of me, the pillar of light draws closer with each wandering step I take, and I can feel the shiver of the sun on my skin already. It brings prickles to my flesh and steals my breath away.
I shudder out a breath as I near.
Before I can reach the curved cusp, I gingerly lift my hand, my fingers dainty and limp. Fingertips graze over the wall of pure light. The sensation is instant and I choke on a gasp. It’s as though a thousand bolts of lightning pulsed though my body at once and made me one with itself—like I belonged.
Swallowing back a tight lump in my throat, I brace myself and step into the pillar, my eyes clenching shut. The effect is instant, it’s all-over and it’s powerful enough to knock the breath right out of me.
I exhale with awhoosh, my eyes daring to open almost in a dreamlike state. A small smile dances over my lips as I tilt my head upwards and look at the cloudless sky above—so clean, so empty of darkness and greys.Pure.
I feel like I’m home.
Basking in the sun, I am on my back and I turn my cheek to press on the dewy grass. I let my lashes lower over the sight of Daein. So beautiful as he sits there, watching me, his arm draped over his hiked up knee, the unbuttoned shirt revealing the markings he was born with. His lashes are longer than mine, casting shadows over his marble face, and reminding me that he is from the darkness—he is the darkness.
I am the light.
