AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I followed, heart thudding in my chest.
As we traveled, my fear gradually lessened until we broke out into a clearing, and then it fled all together, replaced with caution but also hope and a dash of returning memories. In the center, a faceted red gem about the size of my fist sat in the circular expanse of dirt. I ran forward, called by not just the beauty as it sparkled in the sunlight, but by some familiarity I felt. A human-shaped tangle of fat vines lay not far from the gem. The ends twitched lethargically, as if it had gorged and only barely had the energy to react to my presence.
The creature scuttled next to me and stopped when I fell to my knees next to the gem.
“Take it.”
I’d been reaching out to do just that and stilled my hand.
“Take it,” she ordered again.
Hesitantly, I clasped the gem. It was warm to the touch and a faint hum filled the air when I held it. I could tell the gem desperately wanted to be somewhere else, but I couldn’t bring the memory of where that might be into my thoughts.
I tucked it into a pouch at my hip.
“Now the others.”
“What others?” I spun around, half expecting something else to come out of the corn.
The creature scuttled until she was in front of me then stood, an impossible reversal of the backbend into the bridge she’d done earlier.
“Princess. The others.”
I frowned. Princess? Fuck! Dio! Geraint!
“Where are they?”
“Come.”
She arched backward again and hurried off to the corn.
Again, I followed.
Time stretched. Minutes or hours could have passed. I had no way of knowing, as the sky didn’t change. I didn’t feel hungry, or thirsty, and no other needs made themselves known. There was just the creature I followed, the vibrant blue sky, and the corn.
Finally, we came upon my lovers. Dio had shifted back into his large, winged panther form and lay curled up as if asleep, green vines wrapped tightly around him. Geraint had clearly struggled, but now he lay unmoving and quiet, wrapped in green. The stalks of corn nearby rustled as if pleased, though how corn could be pleased, I had no idea.
“What do I do?”
“No one leaves the corn,” the creature said.
“But the nothingness!”
“No exceptions. Not even for royalty,” the creature hissed.
“But…” I dug my knuckles into my eyes.
“Exceptions are made for the good of the realm.” She scuttled around in an agitated circle. “You must leave a piece of yourself to remain in your place. A memory, a dream, then the four will leave, never to return unless you wish to stay forever.”
“A piece of me?” My first thought went to my hair, but I doubted that was what the creature meant. A dream? A memory? I thought perhaps I could do away with the nightmare of not-Baz dropping me, but the creature shook her head.
“A dream.”
“Fuck.” What could I leave behind? What dream would be important enough that the corn would accept it? I suspected whatever I gave the corn, I’d never recover. Did I give up the dream of a family? That hadn’t been a very firm dream, more something that I thought I’d enjoy. The dream of my own performance company? I’d achieved that. The dream of spending the rest of my life with the man, now men, I loved? I couldn’t give that up. And even if I could, the realm needed me to live that dream.
I thought furiously, knowing Dio and Geraint’s time was running out. I decided and the corn accepted, and my dream of returning home to live and perform scuttled away on the wind, just like the creature waiting on me scuttled around Dio and Geraint, slicing through the vines with hands that had turned to blades.
If I hadn’t already been terrified out of my mind with everything else, that creature would have destroyed me. As it was, I could only watch, grateful it had found me and brought me to two of my men.
