says.
Has one of the Destinies ever visited her? Tried to bring some peace to her troubled soul? Perhaps one of the Warriors has been assigned to her, and all of her struggles are because of that guild’s belief in conflict as the route to inner strength. It’s impossible to know without visiting a Recordkeeper.
“Who was that girl? Natasha?”
She shrugs and splashes her face with water, but doesn’t answer. I want to let it go, but I can’t.
“What do you normally do when the burning rain comes for you?”
Her face tenses and she looks away. “I die.”
My voice abandons me. Fearing that I’ve intruded enough on her for one night, I leave her there, in the peaceful field dug from some hidden, placid corner of her mind. Hopefully, she will rest untroubled for the remainder of the night.
Back in the room I’ve commandeered on the top floor of their dormitory, vacant due to water damage, I peer at my body in the mirror. The gash on my shoulder and chest pulses, but is already beginning to close. Splotches of red cover my skin. The welts from the rain are no longer raised and angry; their pain is becoming a memory.
I long to ask Kalyx why I still wear the physical effects of Maia’s subconscious. The dreams I’ve walked before left no lasting marks. Are Maia’s more powerful somehow?
I don’t heal the wounds. They serve as a reminder — pain on the outside heals much faster than pain on the inside. Maia’s pain has branded me, searing more than just my skin. The barbs of my care for her have dug themselves deep within me. So deep, I fear they’ve reached the place where my soul should be.
Chapter Six
H e’s here every day . He picks Genna up for breakfast sometimes. I’ve started avoiding the main caf, instead opting for the smaller graduate school cafeteria halfway across campus. It’s quiet and orderly — the way my life used to be before Caleb entered it. Now I can’t even escape him in my dreams.
We haven’t really spoken since that night. I questioned whether my subconscious had created him, but his conspicuous silence was my clue that it really had been some kind of magical event and everything he’d said was real. Everything I’d felt.
My heart never raced before, at least not in a good way. I never melted for boys or even really wanted them looking at me at all — I’d much rather be invisible and off everyone’s radar. But Caleb’s eyes are always glued to Genna, like he’s going out of his way not to look at me whenever we’re all in the tiny room. It bugs me.
Do I want his attention? I’m haunted by the expression on his face as he looked at my bare chest. I should have been embarrassed; my body is nothing spectacular, especially not covered in welts from the stupid dream, but his eyes darkened when he looked at me and I felt … I’m more embarrassed to admit it now than I was in that moment, but I felt hot under his gaze. Wanted in a way I never have been.
He got all shy and mannerly so quickly that part of me thinks I imagined his reaction. But when he touched me, his lips only a breath away, I felt it on more than just my cheek. I felt it everywhere. The memory makes me shiver even now.
Sometimes, when I tell myself I’m avoiding them, I’m really following them. Genna flirts like a maniac — brushing up against him constantly and flipping her hair hard enough to induce whiplash. She wakes up early and tries on at least three outfits every day before he arrives. The one she discarded yesterday is somehow perfect for today. I don’t pretend to understand the logic.
When they’re together, I get it. The connection they have is obvious, like a physical cord strung between them. They can even finish each other’s sentences, for Christ’s sake. It makes my stomach churn.
Caleb is good at hiding the fact that he doesn’t actually take any classes. He fits in pretty well considering he just discovered the Internet a few days ago. Must be some kind of half-angel
Has one of the Destinies ever visited her? Tried to bring some peace to her troubled soul? Perhaps one of the Warriors has been assigned to her, and all of her struggles are because of that guild’s belief in conflict as the route to inner strength. It’s impossible to know without visiting a Recordkeeper.
“Who was that girl? Natasha?”
She shrugs and splashes her face with water, but doesn’t answer. I want to let it go, but I can’t.
“What do you normally do when the burning rain comes for you?”
Her face tenses and she looks away. “I die.”
My voice abandons me. Fearing that I’ve intruded enough on her for one night, I leave her there, in the peaceful field dug from some hidden, placid corner of her mind. Hopefully, she will rest untroubled for the remainder of the night.
Back in the room I’ve commandeered on the top floor of their dormitory, vacant due to water damage, I peer at my body in the mirror. The gash on my shoulder and chest pulses, but is already beginning to close. Splotches of red cover my skin. The welts from the rain are no longer raised and angry; their pain is becoming a memory.
I long to ask Kalyx why I still wear the physical effects of Maia’s subconscious. The dreams I’ve walked before left no lasting marks. Are Maia’s more powerful somehow?
I don’t heal the wounds. They serve as a reminder — pain on the outside heals much faster than pain on the inside. Maia’s pain has branded me, searing more than just my skin. The barbs of my care for her have dug themselves deep within me. So deep, I fear they’ve reached the place where my soul should be.
Chapter Six
H e’s here every day . He picks Genna up for breakfast sometimes. I’ve started avoiding the main caf, instead opting for the smaller graduate school cafeteria halfway across campus. It’s quiet and orderly — the way my life used to be before Caleb entered it. Now I can’t even escape him in my dreams.
We haven’t really spoken since that night. I questioned whether my subconscious had created him, but his conspicuous silence was my clue that it really had been some kind of magical event and everything he’d said was real. Everything I’d felt.
My heart never raced before, at least not in a good way. I never melted for boys or even really wanted them looking at me at all — I’d much rather be invisible and off everyone’s radar. But Caleb’s eyes are always glued to Genna, like he’s going out of his way not to look at me whenever we’re all in the tiny room. It bugs me.
Do I want his attention? I’m haunted by the expression on his face as he looked at my bare chest. I should have been embarrassed; my body is nothing spectacular, especially not covered in welts from the stupid dream, but his eyes darkened when he looked at me and I felt … I’m more embarrassed to admit it now than I was in that moment, but I felt hot under his gaze. Wanted in a way I never have been.
He got all shy and mannerly so quickly that part of me thinks I imagined his reaction. But when he touched me, his lips only a breath away, I felt it on more than just my cheek. I felt it everywhere. The memory makes me shiver even now.
Sometimes, when I tell myself I’m avoiding them, I’m really following them. Genna flirts like a maniac — brushing up against him constantly and flipping her hair hard enough to induce whiplash. She wakes up early and tries on at least three outfits every day before he arrives. The one she discarded yesterday is somehow perfect for today. I don’t pretend to understand the logic.
When they’re together, I get it. The connection they have is obvious, like a physical cord strung between them. They can even finish each other’s sentences, for Christ’s sake. It makes my stomach churn.
Caleb is good at hiding the fact that he doesn’t actually take any classes. He fits in pretty well considering he just discovered the Internet a few days ago. Must be some kind of half-angel
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