a wiseass, I’d say you are fine.
He’d located his lady in the first second, but was relieved to find the mind-to-mind connection was intact. In the next breath, he realized she was right.
He was hurting too much to be paralyzed, an ironic relief. A shudder racked him down to his bones, making him bite down another heartfelt curse. He felt like throwing up, but managed to push that back as well.
Now she knelt, sliding his head into her lap. Her hair brushed his face before she gathered it up, pul ed it away, though he liked the silk of it against his flesh. It distracted him from the fact he felt like ten pins scattered across a lane by a truck-sized bowling ball.
“Give yourself time, my love. Look at it all. Just look at it.”
Hearing the solemn wonder and rarely used endearment, he took the time to do just that.
He pried open his eyes. She’d straightened so he was staring right up into the sky. He’d viewed many beautiful night skies, that tremendous expanse that made the soul feel inexplicably small and yet treasured at once, as if he were gazing into something far deeper than his eyes could see. This was as if that screen had been pul ed back, so he could see why his soul felt that way. A carpet of stars spread out in random swirls against the deep purple expanse. The large yellow moon hung among them, tiny wisps of dark clouds making it look as if it was drifting, a ship at full sail. He wondered if Van Gogh had ever visited the Fae world in his madness.
Three shooting stars burned a path below the moon. Then he realized they weren’t shooting stars at all.
Fireflies danced in the air above him, so bright they blended with the stars, except instead of clean white light, there was a touch of red flame in their afterburn. When one came in range, he was staring at a tiny fairy, no bigger than one of Lyssa’s fingernails. A naked male with long silver hair and tiny black antennae protruding from it, just above his ears. He studied Jacob with insectlike green eyes.
Instead of almond-shaped, they were perfect, pupil-less circles. The wings of the firefly Fae were like a hummingbird’s, moving so fast they were invisible except for a tell tale blur of motion. His skin abruptly glowed bright with that reddish light, then he zoomed back up to his fell ows again.
With the pain receding enough for his nerves to register something other than agony, Jacob realized he was on a soft bed of green grass, his elbows tickled by nodding wildflowers. As he processed that, the dryad stepped into his line of sight.
She paid no attention to him. Her gaze was on the skies as well, the fireflies specifically. Though she was still obviously weak, she was standing on her own. The way she was breathing—deep, from the soles of her feet—it was obvious she was pulling in energy, holding herself up with it. When she reached up, the tiny creatures landed on her slender fingers.
At the contact, her mouth tightened, making her thin face even more painfully drawn. Her gray-green eyes, like the bark of an ancient tree, overflowed with tears.
Lyssa laid her hand on Jacob’s chest. He closed his fingers over hers.
Still holding the tiny creatures, the dryad shifted her attention from the skies to the green field that spread out to her right, populated by white flowers that glowed silver and gold in the moonlight. Jacob followed her gaze to the edge of the meadow. A thick forest marked the boundary, but beyond the forest there were four hill's, so substantive they looked like the overlapping domes of four planets on the horizon. Even in the darkness, it wasn’t hard to see their shape, because of their size and what was perched on the top of each one.
Four castles. Just like the stories he’d heard, each one represented an element. The Castle of Air looked like it was made of crystal, the moonlight making the facets glitter silver. It shimmered at its foundation, as if instead of a moat it was circled by a twisting, cycling
He’d located his lady in the first second, but was relieved to find the mind-to-mind connection was intact. In the next breath, he realized she was right.
He was hurting too much to be paralyzed, an ironic relief. A shudder racked him down to his bones, making him bite down another heartfelt curse. He felt like throwing up, but managed to push that back as well.
Now she knelt, sliding his head into her lap. Her hair brushed his face before she gathered it up, pul ed it away, though he liked the silk of it against his flesh. It distracted him from the fact he felt like ten pins scattered across a lane by a truck-sized bowling ball.
“Give yourself time, my love. Look at it all. Just look at it.”
Hearing the solemn wonder and rarely used endearment, he took the time to do just that.
He pried open his eyes. She’d straightened so he was staring right up into the sky. He’d viewed many beautiful night skies, that tremendous expanse that made the soul feel inexplicably small and yet treasured at once, as if he were gazing into something far deeper than his eyes could see. This was as if that screen had been pul ed back, so he could see why his soul felt that way. A carpet of stars spread out in random swirls against the deep purple expanse. The large yellow moon hung among them, tiny wisps of dark clouds making it look as if it was drifting, a ship at full sail. He wondered if Van Gogh had ever visited the Fae world in his madness.
Three shooting stars burned a path below the moon. Then he realized they weren’t shooting stars at all.
Fireflies danced in the air above him, so bright they blended with the stars, except instead of clean white light, there was a touch of red flame in their afterburn. When one came in range, he was staring at a tiny fairy, no bigger than one of Lyssa’s fingernails. A naked male with long silver hair and tiny black antennae protruding from it, just above his ears. He studied Jacob with insectlike green eyes.
Instead of almond-shaped, they were perfect, pupil-less circles. The wings of the firefly Fae were like a hummingbird’s, moving so fast they were invisible except for a tell tale blur of motion. His skin abruptly glowed bright with that reddish light, then he zoomed back up to his fell ows again.
With the pain receding enough for his nerves to register something other than agony, Jacob realized he was on a soft bed of green grass, his elbows tickled by nodding wildflowers. As he processed that, the dryad stepped into his line of sight.
She paid no attention to him. Her gaze was on the skies as well, the fireflies specifically. Though she was still obviously weak, she was standing on her own. The way she was breathing—deep, from the soles of her feet—it was obvious she was pulling in energy, holding herself up with it. When she reached up, the tiny creatures landed on her slender fingers.
At the contact, her mouth tightened, making her thin face even more painfully drawn. Her gray-green eyes, like the bark of an ancient tree, overflowed with tears.
Lyssa laid her hand on Jacob’s chest. He closed his fingers over hers.
Still holding the tiny creatures, the dryad shifted her attention from the skies to the green field that spread out to her right, populated by white flowers that glowed silver and gold in the moonlight. Jacob followed her gaze to the edge of the meadow. A thick forest marked the boundary, but beyond the forest there were four hill's, so substantive they looked like the overlapping domes of four planets on the horizon. Even in the darkness, it wasn’t hard to see their shape, because of their size and what was perched on the top of each one.
Four castles. Just like the stories he’d heard, each one represented an element. The Castle of Air looked like it was made of crystal, the moonlight making the facets glitter silver. It shimmered at its foundation, as if instead of a moat it was circled by a twisting, cycling
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