Page 17 of Deathless
The three of us shifted into our sleeping positions, scooting and wriggling up the mattress as a single unit. Once I settled into the middle spot, flanked by my lovers and protectors, I closed my eyes and willed my brain to settle down as much as my body had.
No dreams,I pleaded.No nightmares, just for tonight.Just let me rest before I have to leave.
I should have known it was pointless to ask.
6
RORI
The dream started off normal enough, like all the others. This time, I was in the wooded area behind the safe house. A white dove sat on the mangled stump of a tree, one that had been used for target practice so much that it was little more than an abused fence post.
I came toward the dove, Astarte, my movement not fully perceptible. I may as well have been floating.
“What’s happening to me?” I heard myself ask.
The bird said nothing, only stared at me as she moved her head around.
“I can feel something happening to me, but I don’t know what it is. I need your help.”
Astarte fluffed up her feathers before smoothing them down again.Do you know the difference between a true god and a false god?
Her voice in my head warbled, like there was some kind of distortion with the sound.
“I don’t know.” Some instinct prickled over me, and I got hit with the urge to run. Not just to move at the pace faster than walking but to run for my fucking life.
But where I was practically floating earlier, my feet felt cemented into the ground now.
“Astarte, help me!” Panic edged into my voice. “I don’t know what to do.”
Yes, you do.
The dove’s form broke apart like she’d been made out of sand or pale dust, a delicate sculpture disintegrated by the wind. Now as tiny particles floating in the air, what had once been in the form of a dove came toward me.
I turned to run, putting all my energy into my legs to get the hell away. Whatever the hell that was, I didn’t want it touching me.
No matter how hard I pumped my arms and legs, it didn’t look or feel like I was crossing any distance at all. I was stuck, running in place from a swarming...something.
You only need to know one thing about false and true gods, Aurora.
My head pounded with the reverberation of the voice, like a bass speaker turned up way too loud inside my skull.
“Who are you?” I shouted at the top of my lungs, though I heard no sound except a constant, heavy buzz inside my head, pressing against my skin, all around me.
When I tried to scream again, it felt like sand was being poured down my throat, shoved up my nose, and rubbed into my squeezed shut eyelids.
This swarm thing was trying to get inside me.
All gods are false except for me.
“Rori.Rori! Fuck, come back to us.”
I was falling, kicking, grabbing for purchase on anything I could. Something hard and flat smacked against my skull, and I wanted to sob with relief. Finally, something solid! Pain pounded at my temple the moment I finally woke up.
“Shit, she hit her head. I’m gonna get the doctor.”
My eyes snapped open to the beautiful sight of the hardwood floor in my bedroom. Relief was short-lived though as I coughed like I never had before in my life.
“Easy, paloma. Take a deep breath.”
