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After that, I keep my gaze on the woods, missing my hearing. If I could hear, I’d know if she was splashing around. I’d hear her if she was in trouble, or if she was screaming for me. With my back turned to her, I feel like I have to let my instincts stretch out around me, to warm me if trouble has come.
Still, the seconds turn to minutes, and the minutes seem to stretch on forever.
I’m about to turn back, the hell with what I told her, when I feel someone behind me. I wait, trying to decide if I’m about to be attacked, or if it’s her, when I feel a light tapping on my shoulder.
Turning around slowly, I see Ann. Her hair is wet, and braided once more down her back. She’s carrying her old clothes, wet and freshly washed, in her arms. And she’s wearing one of Imara’s outfits. It’s cut to show her belly, and seems to stretch a little more over Ann’s fuller breasts. I’m a bit surprised, as I stare at her, how pale the skin of her stomach is. And how much I like the way the brown leather hugs her shorter legs. The ends have been rolled up above her boots, probably because Imara is so much taller, but somehow it suits the little fae woman.
I find myself smiling.
“Better?” She mouths the word, playing with a loose hair.
I lift my hand, almost touching her face, then draw my hand back. She doesn’t want a mate. She doesn’t want me or the others. I can’t imagine she’d want me to touch her either.
And yet, as I drop my hand, I get the sense that she’s disappointed.
Instead, I nod in the direction we must go.
She nods back, and then starts walking again. We’re almost home, so when she seems to hurry to avoid me, I let her get a little space between us. Or, maybe I need the space away from her too. Not just because my dick is straining in my pants, but because I need to remember that I don’t want a mate.
A fact that keeps getting harder to believe.
Right about now, I wish the others were with me, especially because I feel their reason for remaining behind was stupid. Phantom and Dusk wanted to speak with the elder to learn more of the details about the whispers he’d heard from the shadows about Ann. But whatever he’d heard, it probably didn’t matter, because she refused to be our mate.
They also wanted to ask about her powers. Which, again, don’t seem worth discussing, even though I’m curious too. Because there aren’t any other light fae around. None that we’ve come across anyway. So even if we realize the fae have some kind of awesome power, we don’t exactly have an army of them to fight the coming battle with.
Ann veers a little out of sight as I keep my pace slow, she disappears behind a tree or bush, then reappears as I catch up with her a second later. It doesn’t really matter, this close to the cave, in the daylight, with just a few extra feet between us. I’m near enough to mitigate any danger.
The thought makes me complacent. Lazy, even. I look away for a couple seconds--literally two--and it’s a mistake.
Fucking hell.
Somehow my troublesome thoughts got me a little turned around, and I didn’t realize she’d veered a little from the path to our cave. She’s found the Void.Or maybe it’s found her.Knowing what I know about her now, that’s even possible.How hadn’t I realized she overshot the cave? She’s not ready to see so much so soon, nor should she be this close to it.
I haven’t used my voice in so long that when I try to shout at her, to make a sound to warn her away from it, nothing comes. Not even a vibration from my throat.
My feet are moving faster before I know what I’m doing. Her eyes are wide, and she reaches one hand out as if to touch it. Her fingers don’t come close to it, but it doesn’t matter. The Void drags her in.
Her arms flail and her mouth is open in a scream.
Normally, I’d be slowing down right now. Staying far enough away from the Void to be sure I couldn’t be pulled in also. But none of that matters now. I have no choice, no other way to save her than to go in after her.
And so, I leap in before I even have the chance to look, knowing that I won’t live long enough to tell the others how our lives ended.
TWELVE
Ann
By the timemy eyes adjust to the darkness of this place, I’ve been clawed and scratched by those same kinds of monkeys Dusk fought in the woods as they drag me I don’t even know where. Sounds--cries, squeals, screams, and screeches--assault me so that I want to cover my ears, but I don’t want to show fear because this is the kind of place that probably feeds off of fear.
A place of nightmares...
The monkeys move away from me a little bit, but I’m still in a circle of them. A sea of glowing red eyes in a world that shouldn’t be able to exist. When I look up at the sky in terror, I see nothing. No sun. No moon. No clouds. It’s as if a blanket has been cast over this world. A blanket of grey, as if some small light source exists, somewhere in the sky. Enough to make out the things around me.
But not enough to allow any kind of life to survive.
I wrap my arms around my knees, pulling them closer to my chest as some of the monkeys race around me. Some small part of me wants to understand where I am, and if there’s any way out. But the little bit of the world I can see outside of the monkeys doesn’t give me hope.
In fact, it terrifies me.
