did that mean?
More energy crashed into me, knocking me against the wall and holding me fast. I could see, but I couldn’t move or speak.
The clothing room door opened behind Decker and Sally, and I saw an endless, swirling black hole. I got dizzy so fast I would have collapsed if I hadn’t been pinned to the wall.
As I stared into the whirling mass of nothingness Levi was urging Sally and Decker to approach, I thought I saw shapes. Trees and hills, big ones, rounded like ancient mountains.
Levi’s voice dropped even lower, and he seemed to be chanting. Whatever held me turned me loose, and I found myself walking. All I could see was beauty in the darkness. Voices started to sing, sweet and soft and achingly haunted, and I had to get closer. I had to see the singers.
Keeping up his chant, Levi moved Sally and Decker to the edge of the darkness, which turned misty and spread into the hallway. Black fog spilled toward my feet, and when it reached me, I heard the singers more clearly.
Yes. That was right. I needed to keep walking.
Levi joined Decker’s hand to Sally’s. “This is for Forest,” he said, and eased them into the breach together.
He followed them, palms on their shoulders.
I followed him.
Stardust blended with midnight and nothing. Obsidian mist chilled my face, and still the singers called to me. How could anyone hear that sound and not answer? I wanted to sing with them until I laughed and cried and forgot everything I had ever known. I wanted to dance until I couldn’t dance another step.
Black became light, and light sizzled into blackness. I smelled pine and honey and fresh river water rushing over smooth gray rocks. I heard the daylight and the moon, smelled tomorrow, and felt yesterday’s breath on my neck. My bracelet grew thorns that stabbed deep into my wrist, and the pain tasted like sunshine.Nothing dissolved into everything, and I walked into a meadow with blue-green grass that tickled my fingertips as I bled on the soft brown earth.
Decker and Sally ran ahead of me, laughing and holding hands, until they vanished into the weeping branches of nearby willows. I had a sense of life all around me, life and death and everything in between. There was so much beauty here, and so much darkness. The grass, the dirt, the rocks, the trees—they all seemed to be aware of me.
They all seemed to be reaching for me.
“Forest!” Levi’s shocked voice snaked beneath the songs in the fresh, warm air. Then he was standing in front of me. He was taller here, and too handsome to believe.
Grass wound around my ankles. Leaves drifted down from branches and landed lightly on my cheeks. Vines seemed to grow where I stood, stroking my legs and filling me with their joy. Birds and squirrels came closer, to stare at me. Deer and wolves, too, and stuff I didn’t recognize.
“Forest,” Levi said again.
This world seemed to know me. It was waiting for me, and had I been waiting for it? I felt completely alive and totally at peace. I didn’t even care about the darkness at the edge of my vision.
I wrapped my arms around Levi’s neck and held him close, feeling his warmth and his terrifying power cover every inch of my skin. He smelled better than anything. He wasn’t hurting me and I wasn’t burning him, not here in this perfect moment, in this perfect place.
A storm was coming. It charged toward me from far out on the edges of my awareness. I felt it, I knew it, and I didn’t care. It was death, and I was life. I wouldn’t allow it to touch us.
Levi cradled me like a fragile thing, binding me to him and setting me free forever, until he broke the embrace and broke my heart, pressing his lips against my ear and telling me in a voice like distant thunder, “You can’t be here. It’s not safe.”
He pushed me away from him, away from the onrushing storm, and I fell backward.
I fell into darkness.
I fell forever.
And I landed alone in a dark stone hallway, bleeding from a dozen holes in my
More energy crashed into me, knocking me against the wall and holding me fast. I could see, but I couldn’t move or speak.
The clothing room door opened behind Decker and Sally, and I saw an endless, swirling black hole. I got dizzy so fast I would have collapsed if I hadn’t been pinned to the wall.
As I stared into the whirling mass of nothingness Levi was urging Sally and Decker to approach, I thought I saw shapes. Trees and hills, big ones, rounded like ancient mountains.
Levi’s voice dropped even lower, and he seemed to be chanting. Whatever held me turned me loose, and I found myself walking. All I could see was beauty in the darkness. Voices started to sing, sweet and soft and achingly haunted, and I had to get closer. I had to see the singers.
Keeping up his chant, Levi moved Sally and Decker to the edge of the darkness, which turned misty and spread into the hallway. Black fog spilled toward my feet, and when it reached me, I heard the singers more clearly.
Yes. That was right. I needed to keep walking.
Levi joined Decker’s hand to Sally’s. “This is for Forest,” he said, and eased them into the breach together.
He followed them, palms on their shoulders.
I followed him.
Stardust blended with midnight and nothing. Obsidian mist chilled my face, and still the singers called to me. How could anyone hear that sound and not answer? I wanted to sing with them until I laughed and cried and forgot everything I had ever known. I wanted to dance until I couldn’t dance another step.
Black became light, and light sizzled into blackness. I smelled pine and honey and fresh river water rushing over smooth gray rocks. I heard the daylight and the moon, smelled tomorrow, and felt yesterday’s breath on my neck. My bracelet grew thorns that stabbed deep into my wrist, and the pain tasted like sunshine.Nothing dissolved into everything, and I walked into a meadow with blue-green grass that tickled my fingertips as I bled on the soft brown earth.
Decker and Sally ran ahead of me, laughing and holding hands, until they vanished into the weeping branches of nearby willows. I had a sense of life all around me, life and death and everything in between. There was so much beauty here, and so much darkness. The grass, the dirt, the rocks, the trees—they all seemed to be aware of me.
They all seemed to be reaching for me.
“Forest!” Levi’s shocked voice snaked beneath the songs in the fresh, warm air. Then he was standing in front of me. He was taller here, and too handsome to believe.
Grass wound around my ankles. Leaves drifted down from branches and landed lightly on my cheeks. Vines seemed to grow where I stood, stroking my legs and filling me with their joy. Birds and squirrels came closer, to stare at me. Deer and wolves, too, and stuff I didn’t recognize.
“Forest,” Levi said again.
This world seemed to know me. It was waiting for me, and had I been waiting for it? I felt completely alive and totally at peace. I didn’t even care about the darkness at the edge of my vision.
I wrapped my arms around Levi’s neck and held him close, feeling his warmth and his terrifying power cover every inch of my skin. He smelled better than anything. He wasn’t hurting me and I wasn’t burning him, not here in this perfect moment, in this perfect place.
A storm was coming. It charged toward me from far out on the edges of my awareness. I felt it, I knew it, and I didn’t care. It was death, and I was life. I wouldn’t allow it to touch us.
Levi cradled me like a fragile thing, binding me to him and setting me free forever, until he broke the embrace and broke my heart, pressing his lips against my ear and telling me in a voice like distant thunder, “You can’t be here. It’s not safe.”
He pushed me away from him, away from the onrushing storm, and I fell backward.
I fell into darkness.
I fell forever.
And I landed alone in a dark stone hallway, bleeding from a dozen holes in my
Similar Books
