Nightmares and Daydreams: Chapter 14

An attack was coming. They were prepared and deadly. Sharing the vision, or experience, or whatever it was with Dray made it easy to accept it as fact. What it didn’t make easy was accepting our lives as we knew them were over.

Images of the vision wouldn’t leave my mind, so I hiked—yes hiked!—up the mountain to the overlook. I needed fresh air and stars. The sky was really clear, so it was basically a light show up there. No moon. Just constellations for as far as the eye could see. It was breathtaking.

“It’s hard to imagine a world right on top of our own that looks nothing like this,” Gigi said quietly.

I still jumped though, because obviously I thought I was alone.

“Sorry.” She sat beside me. “I didn’t mean to scare you. I saw you go off alone and got worried.”

Alone. A foreign concept in my life these days. Ironic since I spent all of my first twenty-one years essentially alone. The universe sure was trying to make up for lost time. I would give just about anything for a few hours of genuine alone time. No Dray. No Gigi. No Rain. Just me, myself, and I.

“Oof. Sorry. I thought you were upset. I’ll go.” Gigi shot to her feet.

“No. It’s fine. Sit.”

“But you want to be alone.”

Did I broadcast all my thoughts to everyone around here? “I did. But you’re here now, so sit your ass down.”

She sat. “I think I projected my own feelings onto you.”

“I’m not used to being around people constantly. With everyone distracted by the wedding festivities I saw a chance to escape.”

She winced. “And I’m overwhelmed by everything and everyone and saw a chance to be your white knight.”

“I don’t need saving, Gigi. You do.”

She scowled as she stared up at the sky. “I don’t need saving.”

“You sure about that?”

The scowl deepened. “Everyone sees me as fragile. I’m the cute little butterfly. The flitty bookworm. The middle sister.”

“To be fair, you’re also the one running from your Destiny like your pants are on fire. You’ve given yourself that reputation.”

Gigi shot me with a dose of anger so strong I was actually impressed. “Ryddyck and I are talking now. No more hiding.”

“And how’s that going?”

“It’s difficult. I’ve started writing out his riddles. When I look at the words alone it’s easier sometimes to make out what he’s trying to say. He uses the wrong words a lot; or combines them in ways that don’t make sense at first.”

“He’s not here to hurt you.”

She went very still. When she spoke it was carefully and slowly. “No. He’s not. But it’s clear to me that where he’s from, his kind, they aren’t like us.”

I saw the ship and the glinting swords in my mind again. “How so?”

A thousand expressions flashed over her face before she spoke. “There’s a lot about them that is like us. He talks about blood and unity, but not peace. Never peace. It’s always a longing. A soul-deep constant longing for something. Something they are willing to kill and sacrifice for. He always describes them as hungry.”

“Well, as far as we know, they’re doing everything in their power to bring down the walls between our worlds. So, I guess that tracks.”

She nodded and we sat staring quietly up at the stars. The night air was cold, not chilly, so I was glad I grabbed a sweater before I left. I wouldn’t last much longer though.

“He’s nice,” she said very, very quietly. “I might even like him a little.”

If there was one thing I could say about Ryddyck, it was that he was nice. As strange as he was, as hard as he was to understand, it was impossible to mistake his intentions. That male cared a great deal. And he was super intuitive about who he felt was good and who he felt was…not.

“There’s a kindness to him that is more genuine than I thought possible.”

I might even go so far as to say my friend had some very affectionate feelings for dear Ryddyck. “It’s always enlightening when you let people show you who they really are.”

“Yeah.” She dropped her head on my shoulder and sighed. “I’m sorry I fought it for so long. I like to think of myself as the wise and enlightened half of our friendship, but I have been put in my place.”

I wrapped an arm around her middle. “Ah, it’s okay. We all need to be taken down a peg or two from time to time. Now you can see how great I am.”

“I’ve always seen how great you are, Rhysa.” She kissed my cheek and rested her forehead against my shoulder before shifting away, leaving me feeling unusually empty in the silence she left behind.

My skin tingled where her kiss lingered and my heart beat a little faster. My feelings for Gigi were complicated at best, but there was no mistaking the love I felt for her. No matter what, it was genuine and pure. The rest would shake itself out one day.

Dray appeared in the shadows. “You’ve come to our spot without me.”

My feelings for Dray, on the other hand, were not complicated at all. I loved this male to distraction. “I knew you’d show up eventually.”

My chill disappeared as he sat beside me and wrapped his big body around mine. “Gigi was here.”

“She was.”

“You two are a knot of emotions.”

“We are.”

“How is she?” He produced a glass of bourbon from out of nowhere.

I took a small sip and let the burn warm my tongue and throat. “Better I think. Making progress for sure.”

“We should come up here more.” He took the glass and helped himself to a rather large gulp.

“We say that every time.”

“Well we should actually do it.”

I took the glass back and finished off the drink just as Dray scooped me into his arms and cradled me against his chest. “It’s really easy to get swept up in all the drama. I forget that sitting together and listening to your heart beat is the most calming thing in the whole world.”

“Dray.” My heart skipped one of those beats. He was so sincere.

“Shhh. Look up at the stars with me.” A simple plea to live in the moment while we still could.

So I looked up and let him hold me.