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Chapter2
A Dream Within a Dream
Istare at the black hole eyes of Thanatos and shiver from his frost sprouting tiny barbs along my neck—like a cold water-serpent to slither toward Neo’s fang bite.
At first, I panic until I realize what he’s doing. His frost whispers into the broken flesh to slow the blood, then his Death shades wrap around my flesh like a sacred sepulcher toannihilatethe marks. He erases them.
My whole body shudders.
Neo triggered my trauma, and Thanatos has justreapedit—I can’t fathom what bewilders me more. I tremble against his very-clothed chest. While Neo prefers little else but his chaotic shades to clad his slabbed fortress of a body, Thanatos is veiled and enigmatic—black robes cloaked and daggered to his form like a second skin. It doesn’t hide his own marble musculature, his masculine prowess not like Neo’s warrior but more like…agod. A god who was only ever conquered by my Creator mother. Not by me.
Slowing my gasps, I press my head to his chest…and breathe in the scent of Death—far sweeter than I’d ever imagined. Like snow-clad black roses.
I flinch when he strokes the top of my head.
“Shh…” his hushing voice soothes my quavering. My shoulders sink as he removes the pins from my hair, one by one, so my crown of curls sinks, cascading to protect my face. He knows everything I need.
Here, in this tattered reality, his domain, I am not a Princess. I am simply…Elysia. Here, I am a gold scribble of soul. My spirit is more alive than ever, it’s difficult to believe I have ever been part of a world where my body requires such mortal necessities as lungs to house breath and bones to shelter marrow. Only blood and heart apply here.
And nothing but Death’s godlike fortress surrounding me.
Somehow, I find my voice like a breath prayer in this deep darkness. “What am I supposed to make of all this, Thanatos?” I tilt my chin up, eyes stalking him, just waiting for him to thrust my mouth open, ready to steal my tooth, raze my flesh, and rob me of my blood. All so he may live again. Fear pulses through me, thrumming my blood. “Neo bites me, and then you just heal me without expecting anything?”
Thanatos narrows his eyes to slits. Startled, I almost leap back, expecting that black hole to devour me as he responds, “First, the Goddess made it very clear that your tooth and anything else must be granted to me by your willing hand. Death may not be bound to the rules of earth, but we certainly abide by the laws of the divine, Elysia. Not even I will tangle with the Goddess or her winged beast servants. And second: I did not heal you. I merely erased what my brother destroyed, something I gain much pleasure from.”
My eyes fall, not in shame but in humility. “At least you’re honest.”
Sighing, Death traces his finger across my jawline, coaxing my chin upward. Tingles break out all over my soul skin. “Would it please you to learn the blood oaths that bind you and my brother also apply to me? I cannot lie to you, Elysia, even if I desired.” I wish his breath didn’t wrap around me like a sonata of shades and ice, calming me until I feel safe.
“So…” I lick my lips and scrutinize him while slowing my breath, “…I must sleep in your bed every night…withyou?”
“Only when you are in my tower,” Thanatos defines, pursuing my eyes.
“The Soul Plane,” I discern, whipping my head all around at the room that is eerily similar to Neo’s. I peer over Thanatos’ shoulder, discovering the same bone door, the same multi-leveled suite that is stipulated as mine, the same archways leading to other unexplored rooms. “Is it all like one upside-down black mirror?”
“As much as I appreciate your oversimplification,” purrs Thanatos, his finger departing from my jawline and his frost slipping from my neck, though the dark sanctum of his form lingers as he finishes, “the Soul Plane cannot be contained to a mere reversal. The only reason you view it as such is thanks to my glamour for your rathermortaleyes.”
“Will you show—”
“No.”
Death lowers his head, suffocating all my preying curiosity in one pupil dilation, his fragrant breath carousing my face. I part my lips, wanting to sink into his dark abyss, wondering if he desires me as much as I do him.
“You are not ready to see the fullness of my domain, Elysia,” he diverts me before offering a faint smile. “But you are in dire need of a bath.”
He gestures to my body. I peer down at the blood designs that have transferred to my skin and cringe. Only then do I realize the bathrobe has been exchanged for a chemise, empire-waisted with a lacy bodice.
“How in the—”
Thanatos rubs his eyes, sighing…but not perturbed as I imagine Neo would be. I am so new to this world, and he is showing far more restraint and patience with me. He remains calm and collected, proffering an explanation, “The Soul Plane is not bound to the laws of nature. You will always arrive in my realm garbed in your heart’s truest desire. The only transference that may occur isblood. Hence…” he sweeps his hand to the adjoining bath…except Thanatos’ is filled to the edges and covered in—
I break away from him to approach the bath with a soft smile. Warmth blossoms in my chest. “Rose petals?”
“Such as they are,” Thanatos breathes behind me.
What they are is death. I sit on the edge of the bath and dip my hand into the layers of shrunken, dead petals, twirling my finger into the rose corpses. “I love them.”
“You do?” Thanatos’ voice is tinged with surprise, which honestly bewilders me because I believe he understood me in deeper ways than Neo. Perhaps I’ve been wrong. He may hold my greatest secret of Noralice, but not even Death can fathom all that ismine.
