Read Online Forsaken Dreamscape (Nevermor) by Lani Lenore - Free Book Online

It had been trapped inside all these years.  Her anger toward his delay
was as strong as her longing for him.
    “You
lost the dream,” he said.  “I couldn't find you.”
    “I’ve
had a hard time dreaming at all since then.  I tried.  I waited for you every
day.”
    She
was trying to make things softer between them, but he would not accept her
compromise.
    “Things
happened,” he said vaguely, and she saw that the hood wasn't even directed at
her anymore.  Why wouldn't he look at her?
    The
way he was standing now, dressed all in black and with the hood swallowing his
features, he was like a pit of darkness.  His coat of leaves had been replaced
by some sort of black hide, and to see him without that disturbed her.  He was
distant and cold, but she was reminded of something.  Her eyes lit with
recognition.  Even though she hardly recognized him now, she knew his shape.
    The
shadow that had attacked her at the asylum was his .  She could see it on
the ground beside him now.  Somehow, he had taken it back, but that did not
excuse what it had done.  At that, the cut on her arm seemed to hurt even more.
    “I
need answers, Rifter,” she said pleadingly, though she'd meant for it to be
stronger.  “Last night, a shadow tried to kill me, and it was yours ! 
Why did Whisper turn on me again?  What has happened here?  I need to know,
but, please, I need to look at you.  I've missed your face.”
    The
hood turned toward her again, and she imagined him staring at her from beneath
it.  Why was he so hesitant?  She only wanted to reconnect with him – to see at
least one thing that was still familiar in this world.
    He
was silent for a painfully long time, but then she saw his shoulders droop.  He
sighed as he relented.
    “Promise
me,” he started, “that you will try to remember it as it was.”
    He
reached for the hood before she could begin to fathom what he meant, but when
he revealed his face to her, she understood.
    His
skin was darkly tanned while his untamed hair had been bleached white by a
harsh sun.  His chest and limbs boasted strength, but it was the strength of
age and hardship, not athletic play.  From his left ear hung a long earring,
consisting of a feather and pin, which came down to his shoulder.
    He
had changed, and there was yet another thing she recognized.  Like her, Rifter
had grown older.  This young man, a head taller than Wren, had aged during the
four years they had been apart, just as she had.
    He
would have started aging as soon as I left.  But that’s impossible.  He swore
never to age.
    All
of this had confused her, but it was his eyes that jolted her the most.  Dark
bags cradled them and the whites were bloodshot from lack of sleep.  Inside
amber-colored irises, his pupils were long and narrow, like a cat, or a snake;
Wren wasn’t sure which.  She recognized those eyes.  They were the ones she had
seen peering at her in the dream.
    His
eyes were blue before ,
she remembered.  Clear and blue.
    This
was not the handsome boy she had expected to see.  Was there a flicker of him
inside there somewhere?  If there was, he was buried deep, beyond a visage that
she didn’t recognize anymore.
    “Do
you know this face?” he asked, stepping closer to her.  When he spoke, she
could see that his teeth were jagged and sharp, making him look like a predator
– like a nightmare he might have slain.
    Rifter
stood before her, inches away, and all she could do was gape at him a moment
before averting her eyes.  She didn’t mean to be, but she was afraid.  She
tried to think of what she might say, but nothing would come.  There was
silence between them as the waves rolled in, crashing on the nearby shore.
    Sensing
her hesitation, he gripped her arms and she flinched, snapping to attention,
her gaze meeting his.  His strange eyes searched her own as his fingers
clenched her tighter.  If anything could have shocked her more than his
appearance, it was the intensity of his