Page 44 of Haunted Nightmares
She takes a hesitant step backward, her physical form starting to shimmer as it goes from solid to almost apparition-like. “Please, you have to forgive me. I didn’t want to, there’s nothing I hated more than doing it. I had to, they made me, but I can’t anymore.”
“What in the bloody hell are you talking about?” I glance toward the sun as its rays begin lighting up the sleeping city. “You need to explain quickly or else I’ll be scooping up what’s left of you off the sidewalk tomorrow evening.”
“I, gods, I can’t do it anymore, not after the other night.” Iris takes another step toward the car and before I can demand an explanation or scare her away, this female single-handedly tips my world on its axis.
Iris glitches repeatedly, the blonde hair and porcelain skin fading into something much darker, flickering between light and shadow while the shimmers of silver and gold burst like little fireworks.
It happens in what must be seconds but it feels as though time stands still as a visible shield, a curtain of deception drops, leaving in its wake the cruelest illusion I’ve ever seen.
A tall, strong body replaces the tiny willowy one, the silver blonde hair now a brown so dark it’s almost black. The once porcelain doll skin is gone and in its place, a rich light bronze dotted in flecks of gold.
No more button nose and rosy cheeks, no more pale lips and round features. And instead of large, unnaturally blue eyes, a pair of almond shaped citrine ones stare back at me.
Zephyr.
My heart begins thundering in my chest as I gape at the female on the sidewalk, one who has been living in my dreams and nightmares, one I have not seen in the flesh since she was taken from me.
“I couldn’t stay away, not after…” A tear rolls down her cheek and she swipes it away as she glances over her shoulder again. “It’s been torture, hiding in plain sight, trying to stay away from you when you were naturally drawn to me. I can’t do it anymore.”
Good god, that’s even her voice. I would know it anywhere, in any lifetime. The most beautiful voice I’ve ever heard, I know it as well as my own.
I rub my eyes in disbelief, smearing troll guts all over my face before my trembling hands move to my hair and grip firmly at the roots.
It can’t be. It cannot be her.
This is a delusion. A manifestation of my grief and paranoia, my obsessing over my gentle breeze as well as the possible witch living in the city.
That’s the only explanation.
I’ve finally lost my goddamn marbles and am hallucinating my dead mate standing on the sidewalk outside of my house talking to me.
Or… or Iris truly is a witch and this is just a game to her. A way to get back at me for what I did the other night. A way to toy with thebroken kingshe referenced in my moments of weakness.
And for that she will pay.
“I have to go but I promise I will figure this out.” Zephyr, Iris, whoever this being before me is rushes to the waiting sedan and opens the door, checking the sunrise one more time as she does. And as I’m about to run down the steps and snatch her, to kidnap her once again in order to find the truth, she renders me rooted to the step with three little words. “I love you.”
My knees buckle before giving out but only for a second because as soon as the words are out of her mouth, Zephyr jumps into the car and slams the door before it speeds off down the road, and I’m leaping down the steps to chase after it.
Until I’m not.
Declan crashes into me as the first beam of sunlight touches my skin, the darkness creeping up my forearm smoldering from the most minor contact with UV rays. We roll toward the street as more of my flesh burns, the raven circling above us, clicking and squawking in concern while I fight my friend.
“Let go of me!”
“Not until you’re inside, you crazy bastard!”
I throw an elbow then quickly headbutt him in the face but the son of a bitch doesn’t let up. “Let go! I have to go after them! I have to see!”
“I saw,” Declan grunts as he puts me in a sleeper hold. “I saw her, Wraith, and we will get to the bottom of this but you can’t do that if you’re a scorch mark on the pavement.”
All at once the pain of my bubbling flesh, the shock of what I just saw, the fact that I’ve been pushing myself to the limit even though I’m still dying on the inside all hits me at once and I go limp in my best friend’s arms, allowing him to drag us both to safety.
And even with my body going numb, with the weight of this new insanity bearing down on me, all I can focus on, all I can hear ishervoice sayingthosewords.
I love you.
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