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“Brax?” My mother’s eyebrows pinch together as I race up the footpath, taking the steps up to the porch two at a time. My chest heaves with every breath as my mother’s worry grows. “Brax, what are you doing here?”
“I… I don’t know,” I admit, swiping a stone hand down my face. I quickly bring in my magic and let my gargoyle rest.
“Son, you’re not supposed to be here,” my father states, clapping me on the shoulder as his green eyes take me in.
“I don’t know where here is.”
My mother wraps her arms around my waist, squeezing me tight as she takes a deep breath. “Either way, I get a minute to drink you in,” she murmurs with a happy smile.
Tentatively wrapping my arms around her, it’s startling to notice that she now comes up to my shoulders. The last I remember of them, I barely came to her waist, but a lot of time has passed since then.
“I’m worried that you’re here again so soon, son.”
I blink at my father, confused by his worry and mention of it being so soon. It’s been forever. “I don’t know what you mean.”
A look passes between them, one I don’t recall or understand, but whatever it is, it isn’t good.
“Son, you were here merely a week ago, hurt, bloody, injured. We thought the worst, but then you disappeared in the blink of an eye. Are you hurt again? Is that why you’re back?”
Slipping out of my mother’s hold, I look between them. They’re so startlingly different it’s almost sweet. My father is built like me, with blond floppy hair and piercing green eyes, while my mother has olive skin, brown hair, and matching brown eyes. A blond Viking warrior and a golden goddess. And then they have me.
“Why would I have to be hurt to be back? I don’t remember being here.”
As much as everything looks like home, the feeling in my chest tells me it’s not the same, I just can’t pinpoint how or why.
“Honey, this is the afterlife. We’re in the—”
I jolt, my body stiffening as I bolt upright in bed. Sweat clings to every inch of me and my heart feels like it’s about to burst from my chest. Lifting my hand, I place my palm against my chest, feeling the rhythm of my heartbeat slowly calm down.
What the fuck was that?
I’ve had nightmares of the night at the outpost ever since we got home, that part isn’t new, but the Nightmares Guild and my parents? Fuck. Swiping a hand down my face, I flop back down in bed, staring up at the ceiling as confusion gets the better of me.
It felt so real, so vivid, yet… I was asleep? I’ve never felt anything like that in my life. Until now.
Glancing at the time, it’s a little after two in the morning, even earlier than the past few nights. I’m not going to work out in the yard at this time. It was almost midnight before I finally passed out.
A soft knock slightly rattles my door, and a moment later, it pries open to reveal a sliver of Raven through the crack.
“What do you want?” I rasp, my defenses rising at her arrival. I don’t want to be seen this vulnerable right now. I feel raw, like my emotions are completely exposed, and I think I might be sick.
“I heard a noise,” she whispers, slipping through the door and clicking it shut behind her. Her hair is messy from sleep, her nightwear stopping midthigh against her soft skin. Despite how good she looks, though, I feel like I can’t breathe.
“I’m fine,” I grumble, clearing my throat, and she shrugs, cutting the remaining distance between us. Without a word, she crawls up the bed, nestling her head on the pillow beside me as she snuggles in.
“Well, I’m not.”
“Make yourself comfortable, why don’t you.” The words snap from my tongue, but the harshness isn’t there like it usually would be. Her cheek presses against my shoulder, her hair brushing against my throat as her palm flattens on my chest.
“I will, thanks.”
I’m rendered speechless as she effortlessly snuggles into my side. Her breathing evens out quickly before she’s fast asleep beside me.
I don’t know what I’m supposed to do with her, but it’s as if my body has been waiting to have her in my bed again, in my arms, for an eternity because I shuffle around so she won’t strain her neck and band my arm around her waist.
Quicker than I care to admit, my breathing evens out too, and for the first time since the Shadowmoor outpost, I simply sleep.
* * *
