I felt the stitch in my gut relax. I'd learned long ago when memories became too painful, you just had to shelve them and move on. “First, what’s with the American accent? Last I checked, the Netherworld wasn’t part of the U.S.” He chuckled. “Actually, it is.” “What?” I felt my eyebrows furrow. “I did pretty well in geography, Knight.” Knight laughed again, and I wondered if he found me attractive, and if he was at all aware of how attractive I found him. “The Netherworld isn’t a single place, Dulcie. It parallels Earth. It’s just another level to what you already know here.” “What are you talking about?” I asked, my voice sounding a little too caustic.
“Just as there’s a Splendor in California, there’s a Splendor in the Netherworld. Think of it like this-it’s like a cake-you have your cake layer and then a frosting layer. The cake layer is the earth you know-the frosting is the Netherworld. It exists in the same place but on a different level.”
“So, you really are from the States?”
“Yes, from the region where your Montana is. In the Netherworld, we don’t call it Montana, though. We call it Crannag.”
I nodded although I found it hard to fathom, the image of Knight as a cowboy from Montana flashing through my head. “Interesting. So, is Crannag like Montana, looks wise?”
Knight stood up and lumbered toward me, making my heart palpitate as I felt a rush of adrenaline. What was it about this man that always had me on edge? And, better yet, why in hell was he coming so close? I automatically leaned back in my chair to put some space between us.
He extended his hand. “See for yourself.”
I grasped his hand and closed my eyes.
It was like a movie screen dropped before my eyes. I wasn’t in my apartment any longer. Sort of like the same thing that had happened when Knight channeled Trey’s vision of the creature. Only now I wasn’t witnessing the creature eating Fabian…I think I was in Montana.
“That’s Crannag,” Knight said, his voice gentle.
His breath wafted across my cheek like a thousand pixie kisses. I couldn’t help my gasp as a blush feathered over my neck and continued to rise until it stained my face.
“It’s incredible,” I whispered, half remarking on the feel of his breath. Then I refocused my attention to the virtual reality of Crannag. Verdant hills tumbled carelessly around a cornflower blue lake that reflected the azure of the sky. The lake was so clear, the reflection of the hills and sky in the pristine water looked like a mirror.
“Yes,” Knight said.
He squeezed my hand and his hand felt large and overpowering, just like the man. Granted, I considered myself petite, but Knight felt enormous. He must've been at least six-feet-four, if I had to guess. The feel of his hand caressing mine pulled my attention from his height as I swallowed.
This was so not good.
Dropping my defenses was something I'd always hoped to avoid-to avoid the uncontrolled feelings of helplessness; now I felt as if every last one of my defenses was burning up in an incendiary of lust. And Knight was planning on living with me until all this creature business was settled? Holy Hades, I didn’t know if I could make it.
I yanked myself from my longings and reinspected the landscape of Crannag. There weren’t any structures- just a row of large boulders jutting from the top of a hill. The boulders looked like a sculpture but didn’t appear to be man-made. Nothing looked as if it were touched by man, just wild and untainted. My attention shifted to the sky as it was invaded by something black soaring through a cloud, like an arrow piercing the billowy white sails.
“What’s that?” I asked.
“You call them dragons.”
I caught my breath and watched the dragon as it soared, its long neck as graceful as a swan’s. But, unlike my fairy tale image of a dragon, this one looked more like a giant lizard with bat-like wings. The body didn’t look intimidating by any accounts. Not unless you’re intimidated by a flying newt.
“What do you call them?” I asked.
“ Dorneags.”
I nodded, thinking this one of the strangest moments of my life. To think I’d never set foot in the Netherworld, and yet I could see it as clearly as if I were there. “Do all of them look like that?” “Yes, and in a variety of colors.” “Am I seeing this in real time?” I asked, sounding like an Internet nerd. Knight chuckled. “Yes, you are.” I shook my head, completely amazed. Okay, so Knight wasn’t magic, but he did have some pretty cool tricks up his sleeve. “They don’t look like what humans seem to think dragons are.” “You'll find that most creatures aren’t quite what humans make them out to be.”
The dragon swooped down to the lake and opening its mouth wide, lapped up a gulp of water and then started back up toward the sky, disappearing over the horizon.
“Wow,” I said, incredulously.
Knight dropped my hand, and the vision faded. When I reopened my eyes, all I could see was Trey snoring on my couch. My hand felt cold, and I put it in my pocket, hoping to warm it up again. I brought my attention back to Knight, who was watching me with a curious expression-one I couldn’t read. “That was amazing,” I said, feeling slightly uncomfortable under his rigid stare. He pulled up a chair and sat next to me. “You’d like the Netherworld.” I nodded. “Maybe. How were you able to show me that and Trey’s vision?” Knight shrugged. “One of my Loki abilities.” My eyes narrowed. “You never told me you could do that.” He laughed, and his knee bumped against mine, the touch bolting up my leg and into my angst-filled gut. “You never asked.”
I shook my head, feeling so out of sorts, I couldn’t even think of a retort. All I knew was that I most definitely had asked him what his abilities were. He’d just chosen not to tell me.
“So, about living in Crannag…”
“What would you like to know?”
“Are you married?” I blurted and snapped my mouth shut as quickly as an angler fish. I’m not sure why Knight’s marital status was the first mystery I needed to solve, but as soon as the words left my mouth, I was mortified. “I mean, if they have that sort of thing in the Netherworld…”
Knight chuckled. “Yes, we have similar unions.” He held up his hand as if to point to the fact that he didn’t wear a ring. “No, I’m not married.”
Knock knock; where the hell had the strong, determined and unromantic Dulcie gone?
“And before you ask, no, I don’t have a…girlfriend either.”
Holy Hades, this was getting more embarrassing by the second. And, yes, Knight having a girlfriend had definitely crossed my mind. “I wasn’t thinking that,” I said, trying to save any sort of face. Well, at this point, I’d be happy just to save an eye, a nose or a mouth.
“I’m getting a little tired,” Knight said and stretched his arms above his head with a yawn, as if to prove it.
“You really don’t need to stay here. Trey and I will be fine,” I said, forcing my attention away from Knight to the top of my cluttered desk. I started rattling papers and sorting through them as if I were a cleaning lady on an impatience potion.
“Not up for argument.”
I stood up and tried to shake the annoyance that took hold of me even though, secretly, I was thrilled to have it back…I knew the old Dulcie couldn’t have been far. Ha, take that Knight and your perfect chest!
And as for an argument? Well, there was no use in debating-he was basically the boss of my boss. And that meant he was sleeping in my apartment. I stood up and shuffled to the linen closet in my dog slippers. Pulling out a sleeping bag, I tossed it to Knight. He caught it with a smile and headed for my bedroom.
“Where do you think you’re going?” I asked, hands on my hips.
Knight jerked his thumb at Trey. “I can’t sleep out here with him making that racket.”
The hobgoblin was now flat on his back, his face aimed at the ceiling with his mouth gaping wide. What sounded like a lawnmower thundered from his throat as a clear line of drool coursed down his cheek and pooled onto the cushion. Maybe it was time for a new couch. Knight took a few more steps toward my bedroom and then faced me. “Are you coming?” “No, I want to get more writing done. I’ll be in later. There’s an extra pillow on my bed.” “Great,” Knight said and, with a wink, disappeared into my bedroom.
I stifled a yawn and returned to my desk, turning up the volume of the TV to drown out Trey’s incessant snoring which sounded like a train derailing in my living room.
Rereading my opening paragraph for the nth time, I reached the conclusion I couldn’t write anymore tonight.
