especially your pool, as I think after this journey, I will need it.” This of course was referring to the dust of the dirt road we travelled down. But then I had to question his reaction, as I had expected his witty reply… However, what I didn’t expect was his body to tense, his hold to tighten and his voice to be strained as he answered in a single stern word that this time was anything but playful…
“Indeed.”
2
Flipped and Stripped
That one worded reply marked the beginning of a stretch of silence between us, along with the start of my worry. Because it was as if a switch had been flipped in Lucius at the very mention of his kingdom, and now all I did was question why?
Was it because of how he would be forced to treat me again when there, or was it because it was a reminder of having me taken from his tower? This, despite him once believing I would have been untouchable there. But then, with that logic, I guess there wouldn’t have been many places left where that same bitterness wouldn’t follow, seeing as something bad had happened wherever I had been. Gods, but I was starting to think I was cursed, as trouble most certainly knew how to find me. I mean, was I leaving bad guy breadcrumbs or something?
In a perfect world, I would have asked him what was wrong… oh who the Hell was I kidding, in a perfect world we wouldn’t even be here right now. And as for our first date, it would have gone the way Lucius had envisioned it, with him walking me to my door at the end of the night after the gala and coming inside. I would have woken up to him making breakfast and then we would have spent the day together. After that, well, I didn’t know, but what I did know was that three months later it wouldn’t have brought us to this point. To where we were making our way back to his Kingdom in Hell after I had died in his arms and come back as some other version of myself that was no longer fully mortal… if I even had been to begin with.
My point was that in that perfect world, we would not potentially be facing a war and the eradication of his people. An entire race of vampires that included so many I cared for, including my mother and the man I loved.
So, the truth was… I was terrified.
Terrified of what awaited us next. Terrified of how it would all end and when it did, asking myself if both our hearts would be left intact and unscathed. And as for right now, that terror seeped into an unknown future where Lucius could potentially be making decisions without me knowing until it was too late.
So, there it was. I was afraid. Not because I feared his anger or frustration, but more the honesty I knew I wouldn’t like, or the lies I knew I would hate even more. Because whatever it was, I had to hold on to the promise he made me never to leave. Which meant that everything else I could cope with, and hope that when the time was right he would tell me… or really… was I just being naive?
Whichever the answer to my unspoken fears was, I tried to focus on the surrounding countryside, or what little of it I could see bathed in moonlight. Especially as we were long gone from the eternal glow of lights granted by the moat of sapphire blue flames that surrounded the castle and constantly licked at its pure white walls. A light that had offered a clear view of the road ahead for the first fifteen minutes of our journey.
However, now it seemed like an endless road of dark orange dirt that was framed on one side by fields of pale green grass, and on the other a strange forest of bleached white trees. Trees that, without the sunlight, now looked eerily like an army of ghosts just waiting to whisper words of caution and warn us to turn back. Because the further we travelled away from the ethereal Fae castle, one that had been surrounded by fantastical creatures only known to the human world as myths and nothing more, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of loss. As if I was leaving behind a piece of myself, and the more distance we put between