AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Eventually, he rolled over, his face toward the cushions, and drifted to sleep.
When awareness found him, he was standing at a door, feeling like he’d been there before, though he didn’t recognize it. It wasn’t a door to Elsewhere—tall, narrow, and true—but rather a small one, round and wooden with an ancient-looking patina of moss glazing its surface. It seemed to be suspended in front of him, and he could neither turn around or go around it; he couldn’t even see beyond it. Only the door existed, so he turned the brass knob and stepped through.
He was standing in the woods. A forest covered in winter white, and it was snowing. Everything was in shades of black, white, and gray. The impulse to shiver pushed against his awareness, but he realized he wasn’t cold. Unsure where he was supposed to go, he walked, his shoes moving noiselessly over the terrain, though a glance over his shoulder, he discovered he was still leaving footprints. When he looked forward, the forest remained noiseless, locked in the muffled acoustics of a snowfall.
“Hello?” he called out and felt as if his words dropped into the snow at his feet, traveling nowhere.
Suddenly there was a rush of sound like a vortex of wind, and a voice called, “Lucian?”
Luc spun where he stood, certain it was Brinna’s voice, but the forest was empty. “Brinna?”
“I’m here!” she cried out.
“I can’t see you,” he answered, turning around once more, sure she was just within arm’s reach.
“I’m behind the hedge.”
“Keep talking.” Luc started forward. “I’ll find you.”
“I’m stuck. Trapped. She trapped us!”
“Who?” he asked. Though he didn’t know where Brinna was, he started running. “Are you in danger?”
The dreamscape stretched endlessly so it felt as if he were running in place. “Brinna?”
“No. I’m safe. I think–”
Then, suddenly, as if he’d stopped moving, a small green dot—the only bit of color he could see—rushed toward him until it stopped at the tips of his toes. He tilted his head up and saw he was standing outside a brilliant green hedge that stretched as high as he could see and as long in both directions. Thick with massive leaves, vines as thick as his thigh curled in and out of one another with thorns so sharp it seemed impossible to squeeze through.
“I’m at a hedge,” he told her.
“At the cottage?”
He’d seen that hedge before, stood inside it once with Brinna. This was not that hedge. Of course he must be dreaming because Brinna was… where was she again?
“I can’t see you,” Luc said, and reached out, curling his hand around a vine. A thorn pricked his finger. He pulled it back, a bead of bright red blood welling at the tip, dropping to leave another drop behind. A blood-red flower sprouted where it had fallen, blooming wide and bright, and in the blink of an eye it sprouted a fat thorn as the petals shriveled and fell away.
Luc snatched his hand away. “Brinna?”
“Lucian!” Her voice suddenly sounded so far away. “Lucian,” she repeated, now clear and close, as if she were relieved to see him. As if she were–
He turned and there she was, dressed in a dress and sweater that weren’t enough for the cold.
She rushed forward and threw her arms around him. “You’re here.” The sensation of her against him was… so real. The solidness of her body, the binding of her hold, the wet of her tears against the skin of his neck, her familiar scent invading his lungs.
He wrapped his arms around her, his palms slipping over the silky fabric, and drew her in closer. The proximity affected his ability to breathe, though in a good way. He hadn’t even realized he’d barely been drawing breath without her.
“Where else would I be?” he asked, her hair tickling his skin.
Brinna’s arms tightened.
“Lucian!” A different voice, somewhere behind him.
“No!”
And suddenly Brinna was ripped from his arms.
“Lucian!” Her scream cut off abruptly as if a door slammed shut.
