Once again, we stop and hover.
The soul edges closer. Tiny – like that of a child’s – and swirling in an odd half moon shape – like it’s broken. Stopping about an arm’s length away, and it doesn’t look particularly happy. My lungs are burning, and my head is pounding from the pressure. I’m pretty sure none of us are going to try to reach the surface, and the pretty light acts as a nice distraction on our way to our deaths.
The thing flits left, then right, then smashes between us and right into Kitten. Throwing us back.
I tumble and immediately start kicking and reaching for her. I can’t see the others, thrown into the darkness too, but I can see her – because she’s glowing with silver light from fingertips to toes. Her body is splayed out and motionless.
Then her chest lifts, struggles, trying to inhale, and her desire for air slams into me so hard that I curl up against the ferociousness of her feelings before I can get myself together and swim for her.
Desire fills my world again. All of us rushing. Struggling. Knowing the surface is so far up. Knowing that she’s alive right this second and in another second she could bloody drown – again.
As soon as we reach her a current of water wraps around us. It twists and pushes us all to the surface so hard and fast that we’re suddenly in the air – then crashing back down. The water splashes under our weight, but this time we float. Which is ideal. Sinking would be counterproductive right now. I clamber to Kitten’s side first, Pax a second later, both of us seizing her and pulling her to the edge.
Killian and Seth are already there, and they haul her out and lay her on the mossy path.
I struggle over the edge, my heavy pants making every movement clumsy.
Her eyes are open, her breaths shallow but even, and she’s looking straight up at the firedragons on the ceiling.
No Bubble
I’m alive?
I know I felt death – being compressed into a non-existence. I know I was gone.
But now I’m not… not gone, but am I actually alive?
Because if this is alive, it’s chuckin’ weird. There are long thin lines – glowing lines – everywhere. From Killian to Seth, Seth to Pax, all of them to me. Every-chuckin’-where.
And the smells.
My nose is broken, for sure. Cherries and old books and vanilla and leather. All at once. All distinct and yet on top of each other. And mixed in with so many others. Ash and cinnamon and spiced apples and honey. So many.
I can feel my Elorsins. Like they’re alive, which is stupid because I know they’re alive. Alive and leaning over me with worried expressions.
Pax’s hand is pressed to my chest, feeling the rise and fall of my breaths. His golden eyes are focused on his hand and blinking hard to clear tears. Overlapping him is the almost translucent outline of Thane.
You can see me? – he asks.
But I’m in too much of a daze to answer.
“Is the bubble gone?” Seth asks.
Then they all run away. Gone. I struggle, gasping even though the air hasn’t altered. Looking. Searching. Freaking-the-chuck-out.
Where the chuck did they go!
The answer – as far away as possible. They each touch the furthest possible surface, then race back before I’ve managed to sit up. Just gasping, just struggling. The world dims before my eyes, the threads and colors fade, Thane vanishes, and the intensity settles to normal.
“Help her up?” Seth suggests.
They grab at me, all at once, and I jolt with the sudden movement.
“Beautiful,” Pax says, drawing me into his arms.
He still has a vanilla scent, but not in the overwhelming depths that I could sense a moment ago. His breaths are long and heavy with relief, and his chest is rumbling with Thane’s presence. Like me existing is allowing them to exist. I hold on to him as firmly as my shaken body will allow.
When he relaxes the slightest bit, Seth claims me. Turning me and at the same time stepping in to take Pax’s place. I reach for his cheeks, cupping them in both hands and meeting his intense sapphire eyes. Water is still trickling from his hair over his face and the guy could definitely do with a shave, but it’s those eyes that hold all of my attention.
“Vexy,” he whispers, then leans in to press quick kisses over my cheeks, my forehead, and down to my lips. “Just let me kiss you.”
His power gently teases at me, and a cherry-orange scent drapes through my awareness, then he eases me away from his grip and firmly into Killian’s.
Killian picks me up, my legs wrapping around his waist and locking into place. The air is cold by the time it hits my lungs, icy and tasting like the man and his ever present Darkness.
His forehead rests against mine, a deep groan on his exhale. The sound sends shivers down my spine. We both let our eyes drift closed, just leaning into each other, feeling each other. Alive. Alive.
Until Roarke lifts me from Killian, and I naturally wrap my legs around him too. I fall into his kiss – letting the desire wash over me. Not lust, but soul-deep need, and the two of us stop breathing to keep our lips together for as long as possible.
His power wraps around me, warming me from the inside out.
It smells like purple.
No, wait – it feels like purple?
Whatever it is it makes me think of purple, roses and lilies.
He stops suddenly, pretty much dropping me to my own two feet.
“I don’t have my power reined in. I can’t. This water isn’t letting me,” he says with wide eyes – like he just realized it.
Pax steps in close behind me, his fingers trailing over the exposed skin on my neck. Roarke nods, like there was a question in Pax’s eyes that I didn’t get to
