[open] It is the nature of dreams to end // pq help needed

[Warlight]

Warlight

Soul as sweet as blood red jam

You owe me nothing at all

Warlight wants to argue, but Lilliana is sliding closer, close enough to touch, close enough to hold. The red mare doesn't feel like a stranger anymore, and when she slips her neck across Will, the gentle shutter that skips across her topline is a pleasant surprise. The intimacy doesn't feel out of place.

Light begins to bathe them and with it strange memories. Elena, Brazen, Nash, Yan, they are names she has never known, but they bring her a comforting and familiar warms none the less. Lilliana's words begin to make more sense as the magic spreads, but soon there is darkness pushing in against the light.

Celina, another name she had never heard, comes to life in her mind, drawing blood that may as well have been her own. Soon enough the memories meld - then she is back in the woodland where she died, and it is her blood that runs down her chest. It is her own heart hammering against her broken ribs, her broken body falling to it's knees, and her baby crying. It hit's her in the gut, the sounds her little boy is making, screams muffled by the blood in his mouth, and the ringing in her ears. Warlight gasps, a gasp that nearly becomes a sob; the memory is so sudden and visceral.

I'm sorry

Lilli's voice is enough to break the scene that Warlight is ready to leave. Her jaw clenches and her eyes shut, as if that will help keep the memories out. She tries to listen, to take the advice of the healer, and she thinks instead of humid afternoons wasted on a forgotten beach. She thinks of Raul and the way he holds her, and the open sky and summer meadows.

Finally, the light releases her. Will feels small and raw as she stumbles backward. Her breath comes ragged but she can tell her lungs fill with air in a way they hadn't since she had met the dark god, and her eyes rise to meet her companion's, the last traces of fear are vanishing.