I hadn’t realized my eyes were closed until I blink them tentatively open to find the treetops far below us. A scream attempts to burst from me as I grasp for Dirk, only to find I can’t move anything. And when I look down, there’s nothing but what I can see far below me.
I have no arms, no legs. There’s nothing but wind and the trees below.
And even those are getting farther away by the moment. Struggling to wrap my brain around what’s happening, I think about Dirk. Can we talk like this? Are we technically still touching?
The treetops disappear as we move up through the clouds. Terror and panic grip me until I realize I can’t actually feel my heart threatening to beat out of my chest. Confusion swirls as I catalog my feelings, only to find that I feel…lighter.
A faint squeezing sensation at my back sends reassurance through me. It’s Dirk; it must be. But he says nothing, of course,and when I try to glance over my nonexistent shoulder to say something to him, I can’t.
This is the strangest experience, being noncorporeal. Is this what he feels like every time he flies?
As I think that, there’s the phantom sensation of someone grasping my wrist and stretching out my arm. We drift upward, and though I have no visible fingers, the clouds’ chilly moisture gathers on my fingertips.
It’s weird to smile and know my smile doesn’t exist. I’m invisible to everyone. There’s something kinda freeing about that, if I’m honest.
We shoot up through the clouds, moving faster and faster until we come to the faint green bubbly ward that insulates Ever. But somehow, my worry fades.
Then we smash into the ward, and I think about screaming, but there’s no way I can. We spin and twirl in the air, zipping alongside the ward ceiling, which is when I realize I can see a current of wind traveling fast along the ward. And when I focus more fully on what’s in front of us, there’s a maelstrom of currents in hundreds of different blues.
Aqua. Sky blue. Navy. Royal.
The shades are stunning, twisting and spiraling around and through and over each other. We’re in the middle of a current the color of cotton candy. It goes as far as I can see, skirting the ward bubble.
It occurs to me that my niece Thea’s gargoyle mate, Shepherd, has mentioned catching the currents when he flies. Is this how he sees them?
Gods, this is exhilarating.
So, I let it go, everything I’ve been carrying in my heart and mind. I stare in awe as Dirk guides us, somehow, along the cotton candy current, barreling beneath the ward. Then he hops us to a current the color of a midnight sky. It spins us in circlesuntil I’m dizzy and breathless, and then we sprint to a current the palest shade of cerulean.
I lose myself to the air, sensing Dirk at my back even though I can’t feel him. His presence is a warm mental hug. But then we dive through the pale current and pick up a current so dark, it’s nearly black. It zips us down, down, down out of the clouds until we’re flying through the forest near Ever’s singular gas station.
Except we blow past that, through the woods until the current darts past Hel Motel. Something behind me shifts, and we hop out of the wind. It’s like a rollercoaster ride but backward. One minute we were flying downhill, but now we’re just spinning around lazily in the air like two dust motes.
I don’t wanna be done flying, though. That was the most fun I’ve had in a really long time.
But Dirk spirals us up through chilly air, past black wood siding and black paned windows. I try to get a look inside the infamous wraith motel, but all I see is a faint blue figure before we pass the window and head toward the black tiled roof. We alight on it, and then the wind whips my phantom hair into a frenzy again.
When it dies down, warm lips brush the shell of my right ear, tickling me. “How’d you like my version of flying, Louanna?”
I look up over my reappeared shoulder at him. His lips brush my cheek, and he doesn’t move. It should be awkward, but I’m lost in the navy depths of his eyes. This close, they’re not just navy. Sprinkles of pale gray and pitch-black ring the outer edge of his iris. When I don’t immediately answer, he smirks.
“You look ready for a kiss, Louanna.” He presses his lips to the tip of my nose.
My body tightens and tenses, ready for something. We’ve danced around attraction, and I lied to myself for a while. I said it was a bad time, and the triplets needed my attention andsupport. But all three of them are mated and happy. They’re fucking thriving, my badass bitches.
There’s no reason I couldn’t kiss Dirk right now.
“I brought you to this place for a reason.” He leans back just enough for me to see him better and jerks his head toward the forest. “Wanna know who runs a path around Hel Motel twice a day?”
Confusion fills me, and I scrunch my brows together.
“Connall Blackwater, that’s who,” he says. “It’s part of his rounds. And I’ve noticed when he does the rounds alone, he stops in that grove down there, the one yeh can see at the edge of your vision.” He points over the trees to a spot where grass is visible. “He does naughty things out there, on occasion.”
Something inside me flutters until a blush heats my cheeks.
Dirk laughs. “I love how I can read every emotion on that beautiful pale skin, Louanna. Shall we wait for him to pass and then do a little spying?”
I spin around and slap his chest, ignoring how all the lightning on one arm streaks toward my violence. “You can’t go around spying on the entire town, Dirk. Why would you do that to him?”
