The Goblin King by Shona Husk Page B

ribs. He slipped his arm around her. Her skin was warm from the endless sun and blue sky of her dream. Unable to stop himself, he leaned into her so his lips brushed hers. Her mouth opened offering more, a taste sweeter than the wild summer strawberries of his youth. And he couldn’t refuse. His body responded to her lightest touch and the hint of a suggestion that couldn’t be. He shouldn’t be here.
    “You never came before.”
    Roan took a breath and released her. “I wanted to.”
    This was a dream, an escape, but for who? He ran his fingers through her hair, spun strands of sunlight that could bind him more firmly than any rope.
    Her fingers skimmed his cheek and his skin burned from within. “Why didn’t you? I wanted to see you again.”
    “Because this isn’t reality. And it isn’t right.” He caught her hand and tried to catch his breath.
    “What do you mean?” she asked.
    Roan watched the sunlight shimmer in her eyes, not sure what to say. Not wanting to break the spell, but not believing in the illusion. He told her the truth.
    “This is the Summerland.” The eternal perfection of a summer day. The high of life that would never die. Everything the Shadowlands wasn’t. “The land of dreams.”
    Around him a current flowed, pulsing with life and magic fed by the creation of imagination. Roan wanted to cover the field with pink flowers the same shade as her mouth. She was the perfection he was denied. He reached out to the magic to use it as he would in the Shadowlands, but it slipped from his hand as if he was trying to catch moonlight.
    At his feet the grass died. Then the blight spread. The color faded from the sky. The trees shed their leaves and twisted in grief.
    Eliza gasped and looked up at him. “It’s happening again.”
    The Shadowlands was once again taking over Eliza’s dream. There were no dreams for him. No escape. There was only one thing he could do to avoid dragging her into his nightmare.
    “It will always happen. I am not who you want me to be.” She was not who he needed her to be. Roan kissed her cheek and whispered in her ear, “Wake up, Eliza.”
    She shimmered and vanished, then returned to the Fixed Realm where she belonged. But her scent remained, clinging to his skin as if she were trying to hold onto him, pure like flowers just budding and untouched by his darkness. Roan opened his eyes. In the distance the last sliver of blue sky put up a brave fight against the gray before succumbing.
    Alone, he stood and watched as the Summerland died, death spreading from the dead heart. Him. Everything he touched was corrupted by his dark magic. It was becoming impossible to separate himself from the Shadowlands.
    He crossed his arms, surveying his kingdom. Almost-black clouds tumbled on the horizon, a smear on the perfect monotone twilight. They shouldn’t be there. There was no weather, no night, no day in the Shadowlands. They were left over from Eliza’s dream. A dream he’d wanted to believe he had a part in, if only for a moment. Roan pressed his lips together, his body tight with unspent desire. No matter how sweet the temptation, he couldn’t exist for Eliza only in dreams.
    ***
     
    Sunlight slipped past the cracks in the curtains. Eliza blinked and tried to orient herself in the strange bedroom. She wasn’t with Roan. But she had been. She’d felt his hands on her back and his arms around her. It was more than just a dream. She touched her mouth. Her lips were cool from his touch. Eliza pulled the cover over her head and closed her eyes. She tried to reclaim sleep and find her dream-lover.
    “Roan, I need to see you.”
    Smothered in the dark she waited, knowing he wouldn’t appear. He’d sent her away as her dream had been leached away by the Shadowlands.
    The curtains rattled on their tracks. Eliza sat up throwing off the cover. The hotel room was awash in pale morning light. The fabric swung from the ghostly hand that had tugged them open. No shadows clung