Page 73 of Grim and Oro
As I succumb to darkness, I wonder which she’ll choose.
I dream of her again, just like every night.
In this dream, I take her to the winter palace. I walk her through the same halls I explored as a child.
I smother the bad memories with new ones, with better ones.
In my dreams, I wake up next to her every morning.Isla.
In my dreams, I run my lips across her pulse and feel it race for me. I bury my hands in her hair, touching each strand, and she lets me.
In my dreams, she lets me fall asleep in the crook of her shoulder. She lets me wake her up in the middle of the night, to bury myself in her.
She lets me watch her, all the time.
When she sees me staring, she doesn’t glare; shesmiles. She laughs.
In my dreams, it’s just her and me and the little life we’ve created, and I am finally, thoroughly, infinitely, and wholly happy.
I don’t want to wake up.
No, my dreams were far better than reality. But when I open my eyes and see her green ones looking back, my disappointment withers away.
What a way to wake up.
She saved me.
She saved me.
She could have been rid of me.
I suppose she needs me, to find the sword. To have me as an ally in the Centennial. To save her people.
But no, the relief I feel from her when I open my eyes ... it can’t just be for her realm. I hope it’s not.
I watch her warily. I don’t know what’s a dream and what’s reality.
I don’t know if my read of her feelings is just hope. I don’t know how she could truly care for me, when no one else ever really has. When I have given her more than one reason not to.
“You healed me,” I finally say.
She didn’t just heal me ... she took my shirt off. She portaled me to my bedroom. She put sheets over me.
“It isn’t the first time,” she says hurriedly, as if embarrassed. “And ... you have healed me too.”
It’s true. We’ve healed each other.
“Thank you,” I say, and I wonder if it’s the first time I’ve ever said it. Then, I lean forward and do something tender, something I’ve wanted to do for a while.
My lips brush against her forehead. A quick kiss.
It lasts half a second, yet my lips are tingling. My skin prickles everywhere. My heart is racing.
Our feelings have bled together. I can’t parse out which ones are hers or mine.
Shock. I feel it like a light sting on my tongue.
Then, concern. Confusion.
