Page 108 of The Mating Claim
“It’s lovely, Drust. Did you do allthis?”
He nodded. “A pastime I no longer have time for, so I hire gardeners to tend the greenery. My descendants do not live far and they come here at times to oversee thework.”
The bright sunshine and cloudless sky thinned out as they followed the pathway into the thick forest at the garden’s edge. Dim sunlight dappled the thick tree trunks, sparkling in the increasing gloom. A pervasive stillness filled the air, so thick she could hear the too-rapid beating of her heart. No birds singing in the tree branches overhead, no scampering on the forest floor of woodland creatures. The forest seemed haunted andeerie.
Drust helped her navigate over tangled roots slick with green moss, snaking out from the tree trunks as if to trap the unwary. The ground was rocky and perforated with boulders, making the hikechallenging.
“It’s like this for a reason,” he explained, helping her over one jutting root. “I cannot properly ward the forest since it contains a sacred entrance to the underworld. My magick will not work here. To keep out intruders and innocents, I made the trees twisted and the pathway forbidding as much as possible. Do you feel theoppressiveness?”
She did. Heavy and cloying, blanketing the air as if suffocating each breath from her lungs. Lacey stopped, bent over to gulp down lungfuls of air, but it did nothing to clear her muzzymind.
“Here.” Drust clasped her shoulders, righted her and then kissed her. No mere kiss, he breathed fresh air and life intoher.
Her head cleared and her lungs stopped trying to siphon in air. When his lips fled hers, he looked down, forehead wrinkled inconcern.
She managed a slight smile. “Thanks. Great CPR kiss,wizard.”
He did not return the smile. “If a mortal manages to make it this far, they usually pass out. I have a perimeter set up to alarm me so I can send staff to retrieve them, then I wipe their memories and send them on their way with the mental warning to never again set foot here. But usually the warding around the castle walls and the gardens keep outtrespassers.”
They continued on, her trepidation rising with each step, each navigation over a twisted bit of root or a ghostly stump with limbs rising like outstretched arms, ready to grab her. Despite his life-giving breath, her lungs began to strain again from pure fear, her heart banging against her chest as if it would leapout.
And then the woods seemed to fade as a mist covered the forest floor. Drust waved a hand and the fog vanished, showing a dark, yawning cave. No, not entirely dark. Purple colors glitteredwithin.
“What is this?” Fascinated, she bent low to seeinside.
“My meditation space. Would you like tosee?”
“Sure.” The energy within the cave called to her, pulsed with life as much as the forest had trickled with the aura ofdeath.
They did not walk far when the cave seemed to fill with light, sparkling off thousands of tiny amethyst crystals set in the ceiling and walls. Wonder filled her as she ran her hand over the gemstones, feeling the vibration down to hersoul.
A goodenergy.
A positiveenergy.
“Wow, this is amazing. What do your relatives think of this cave? I imagine you bring them here personally tomeditate.”
“They have never ventured here,” he said solemnly, leaning against the wall. “No one has besides myself, untilyou.”
Drust caressed the wall as if it were a lover. “The crystal cave centers me, sharpens my mind, and purifies my spirit. It is much easier for me to focus in here, attuning to the vibration of thecrystals.”
He gestured to a soft fleece blanket on the ground. “Try it,Lacey.”
Sitting lotus style, she closed her eyes and for a moment focused only on breathing. In and out, relishing the pure, clean air, the freshness after the smog-like thickness in the forest. And then images danced in hermind.
Images of herself and Drust from long ago, when he was mortal. The love he held for her shining on his face, his carefree, deep laughter, the tender way he held her and the fire in his intense blue eyes anticipating theirlovemaking.
Lacey saw her death, a quick and painless shriek in time, cut down by a cruel Fae blade intent on invoking Drust’s rage, and stirring him to bloodshed to start awar.
She felt her lover’s grief, tasted the salt of his tears all those years ago, saw his firm resolve and resignation that the time was not right. She saw him take another for a bride, a woman he did not love, but a marriage that would keep the peace, a necessity until Drust and Tristan could gather their forces together tostrike.
She saw herself falling, as if into a well, but there was no dark water, noblackness.
She saw endless stars and magick nights, time looping onto itself for eternity, dreams and hopes never dying, but reborn in a child’s giggle, a pair of green eyes sparkling with curiosity and rebellion. Herself, searching forsomething.
Once she’d thought the search was for parents to love and cherishher.
Now she knew the true search had been for him, her Drust, her wizard she’d once lost, but whose soul was entwined with hers as firmly as the tangle of tree roots sinking into thesoil.
