Page 198 of Bliss & Her Idols

Silence.

Maybe the others have found Torin.

Maybe he’s back safely in his bedroom.

Except, nowhere on this estate is safe.

I clench my hands and determinedly march forward, ignoring the scratch of branches against my face. I struggle through the trees, which are growing closer and closer together, before stumbling out into a small glade.

The sunshine is brighter here, breaking through the canopy.

The glade is pretty with a sea of purple daisy-like flowers. Small blue butterflies with gossamer wings are settled on the flowers, rising and falling in waves.

Light dances off the butterflies’ wings.

When I take a step forward, enthralled at the beauty, the butterflies take flight, spiraling up into the streams of sunlight.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” A deep voice calls from somewhere above my head. “Like you.”

I twirl around, looking above me into the trees.

Then I catch sight of someone sitting in the far tree on the opposite side of the glade. I can only make out one of their bare feet swinging from a high branch.

The sole is red. It’s encrusted with dried blood.

Alarm rushes through me.

“Tor!” I run across the glade, frantically grabbing onto the trunk, as if it’s Tor’s chest and I can finally hug him. “Fuck, are you okay?”

“Yes.”

“Your feet don’t look okay.”

Torin also doesn’t sound okay. His voice is strangely flat and distant.

“What’s wrong with my feet?”

“They’re bleeding.”

“I must have cut them on the forest floor, when I was walking here. I can’t feel it. But then, I can’t feel anything right now.”

Something is really off.

Why is Torin hiding in this tree in the middle of the wood?

Why didn’t he return to us?

Why isn’t he climbing down to me?

“I’m coming up to you.” Worried, I reach for the lowest branch and swing myself up, searching for the next foothold.

It’s not easy to climb in another Omega’s clothes and shoes.

I loved climbing trees, however, when I was a kid. I taught Piper how to climb trees as well.

I would take my brother out to a grove at the back of the playground at weekends. Then we would act in a way that two Omegas were never expected to. Like two wild things, we’d swing from branches, laughing and daring each other to climb higher and higher, until the world below looked small and not as frightening.

In the branches of trees, sitting with my brother, we could both pretend that we were free.

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