Page 18 of Black Castle

The walls, pristine and white, seem to contract, shrinking around him. He stands frozen still, drowning in the sheer volume of bodies, a lone, armless soldier dropped into the middle of a battlefield.

His lungs tightens and his free hand raises, clawing at his chest.

He tries to breathe. But the air is too thick, refusing to fill his chest in the desperate way he needs it to.

His pulse knocks violently against his ribs and an inaudible gasp breaks out of his lips, eyes clenched shut.

Anxiety crawls beneath his skin. A vicious living thing with sharp claws, dragging down his spine, and—

“Hey, are you okay?” a soft voice suddenly murmurs beside him. Like a faint breeze, it brush hushed kisses against his earlobes, reaches invisible hands inside him, and claws at his soul... the very essence of him.

His eyes snap open and she is right there in front of him; red-haired and an enigmatic pair of green eyes that makes him want to take a long walk in the forest.

Lucan’s heart skips a beat, the luminous essence of her beauty blinding him.

“It’s my first time, too,” her voice is clinical, her hand slipping into his, giving it a little reassuring squeeze. “Don’t worry. I got you.”

Her touch is gentle, yet it feels as if he has stepped into the heart of a powerful force field. A surge of energy ripples through him, like the largest electrical charge has just been conducted in his body—96,500 coulombs, to be exact.

What is that? He wonders, his thoughts frantic. But what unsettles him even more is the craving, the inexplicable need for another dose of that raw, electrical power.

“Don’t.” His voice comes out more gravy than he probably intends to as he snatches his hand from hers. “Don’t touch me.”

Her smile falters and Lucan feels her disappointment like a stab to his gut. He tries to open his mouth to say something, a desperate attempt to take away the pain he must have caused. She is the one that touched him without his permission. He has no clue why he desperately wants to apologize to her instead.

“I’m sorry,” she says, and in a second, the smile she lost rearranges back on her lips.

She glances at the furthest part of the room where the crowd swims. “Honestly, I didn’t know it would be this much.”

Lucan still stares at her as she speaks ten words per second, unconcerned by his silence. But he is thinking, calculating, and realizing not everything can be solved with science or mathematics after all.

But he really wants to get to the bottom of it, the reason why every time her eyes drifts away and flickers back to him, they hit him like a thousand silver bullets, but instead of excruciating pain, he will be met with an unadulterated feeling that squeezes at his heart in a painfully beautiful way, flow through his veins like a mixture of euphoria, fire, and liquid gold.

“Anyway.” She releases what seems like a final exhale as one prepares for a goodbye. “It was nice meeting you…again.”

Again? Have they met before?

Lucan wants to ask what she means. He doesn’t have a bad memory unless due to some circumstances he is not proud of, by the way. But he is sure that if they met before, he would have remembered her instantly. She doesn’t have a face that can easily float behind memory.

“See you around, Snow white,” she says, and she is gone before he can work up the courage to ask where she knows him from.

Lucan steps out of The Lumina Dome, his long strides measured and purposeful as he heads for his car.

His soldier straightens immediately at the sight of him, his eyes sharp as ever, ready to gun down any threat.

Lucan doesn’t acknowledge him, though. His focus is somewhere else—a movement in his peripheral vision. Quite subtle, yet enough to capture his attention. His eyes flick to the park bench nestled below a twin lamppost just outside the building.

And there she is. The girl from earlier. The two loose strands of her red hair, which is styled into twin braids, frame her face. The wind tugs at the strands, letting them dance around her face before settling again.

She is hunched over something on her lap—a tablet, perhaps. And she looks absorbed, unaware of the world around her.

Lucan should keep walking. He should slide into his car and leave. But he doesn’t. He stands there and watches. And before he can catch himself, his feet are heading in her direction.

Each step toward her is a mistake. He has no business approaching her. No business wanting to talk to her again because earlier, it had felt incredible.

And when the realization that he is about to do the unthinkable dawns on him. It’s too late. She already senses a presence.

Her head snaps up, alert. Her green eyes meet his, wide and startled. But it only lasts for a second as the tension eases almost immediately, her lips curling into a warm smile.

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