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

chest.  Surely
he hadn’t meant that they had died !
    “They’ve…?”
    “They
left me,” he said, but Wren only felt slight relief from that.  “They’re out
there somewhere now, on their own.”
    Those
six boys that Rifter had chosen to be his companions – the six that were left
in a long line of the fallen – had once called Rifter their leader.  They had
not always seen eye to eye with him, but their loyalty had been strong.  They’d
fought for him, despite the circumstances, and Wren believed every one of them
would’ve died for him as well.  Something terrible must’ve happened to cause
them to leave him.
    There
were so many things to address, but to start, Wren took a deep breath to steady
herself.  She looked at the light-haired boy, trying to find the one she
remembered.
    “Tell
me what happened,” she said firmly.  “Why is the world dead?  Why have you
aged?”
    He
didn’t answer immediately, instead circling around her, considering.  She
watched him, his movements, feeling his eyes penetrating every part of her as
if he was staring through her flesh.  Finally, he stopped behind her, leaning
in against her hair.
    “You’re
beautiful,” he said near her ear, as if just discovering it.  Wren felt her
heart speed as it had in former days.  “Somehow more than I expected – than I remembered . 
Perhaps I’ve only missed you.”
    He
touched her shoulder affectionately, and she savored the sound of his breath. 
She might have claimed not to know him, yet she felt something inside at his
show of admiration.  It was pleasant, but she could not allow herself to be
taken by it.
    “I
owe you so many apologies, Wren…”
    “I
just want the truth,” she insisted, but did not bother pushing him away.  “What
took you so long?  What of the others?”
    She
paused as a thought came to her.
    “He
came back, didn’t he?” she assumed.  “Did you dream him up again?”
    “No,”
Rifter said, his gaze shooting to hers.  “This has nothing to do with the
Scourge.  I swore he would stay dead, and that, at least, I’ve been able to
manage.”
    Wren
was able to feel a bit of relief at that, but it faded swiftly, giving way to
further confusion.  How had this happened if the Scourge had nothing to do with
it?
    Rifter
stepped back from her and strode away.  She was relieved when his glowing eyes
turned, and yet sad that he had retreated from her.
    “I’ll
start at the beginning.  Is that what you want?  You will have your answers.”
    Wren
found a place to sit on a damp rock formation as Rifter leaned back to sit on
the air – merely one benefit of being able to fly.
    “It
was the darkness,” he said.  “By the time you left, it was already on its way;
we just didn’t know it.  We had a lot of guesses, but never quite decided what
brought it on.  It came on like a storm over the sea, but the effect was a
thousand times more than what the Scourge could do.  Those dark clouds rolled
over, and the land died.
    “I
was away when it happened – taking you back to your old life.  I didn’t have
the chance to stop it, and then it was too late.  That darkness – or nightmare,
or whatever it was – destroyed everything.  It corrupted everyone at least a
bit.  Some fell into despair completely.”
    Sounds
like the asylum ,
Wren thought, shifting uncomfortably.  Perhaps our lives have not been so
different.
    “It
was a change in Whisper that I noticed first,” Rifter went on.  “She was very
sensitive, you know.  The darkness snared her heart.”
    The
fairy, Whisper, had never been very high on Wren’s most-trusted list, though
Rifter had never seemed aware of the creature’s misgivings.  Something had
finally gotten his attention.  Did he know about what had happened at the
orphanage?
    “Why
did she kill the children?” Wren asked.  “Was it because of me?”
    “Yes,”
he said soberly, and Wren felt her chest ache, even though she’d already