He stepped closer to me, then eased his arms around me with a shy smile. His face began to brighten, turning a little pink as he smiled at me. His eyes brighter than they had ever been, beaming showing hues in the colored I hadn’t ever seen before. Breathtaking sheens of gold and the earthy calming tones in the brown. I instantly felt entranced by his look again.
My hands rested on his shoulders, ready to push him away, but I couldn’t do it. I didn’t want to push him back.
But could this be real? My mouth hung open for a bit, and I sank backwards taking a small bubble of distance from what was happening. I hadn’t known him very long. Yet at the same time, I felt like I knew him forever. Could it have been because of my connection with Luna? Loic had been by my side through all of this. Was that also because of Luna? Would he really have feelings for me even after so short a time? It didn’t nearly feel that long but with everything that had happened, maybe it was long enough although I might have spent most of that time sleeping to travel between the worlds.
Meanwhile, my heart kept yelling at me to loosen up. I glanced back up at Loic. His eyes shifted away. We wouldn’t get anywhere like this. I inhaled my breath and held it for a bit, trying to refocus my thoughts. My hands relaxed and I drew closer to him.
I really thought this was my movie moment. An epic adventure wraps up in a spontaneous romance. As unrealistic as my life had now become, there was no point in trying to throw logic into all of this now. I leaned up on my tiptoes and closed my eyes only to be disappointed by his fingers on my lips.
"Not here." He winked, then he lifted me in his arms.
“Wait just a minute here!” I squeaked. “I can walk.”
"Chase, we’re heading out!" He yelled, ignoring my statement.
"Fine, pick me up some more pipe tobacco while you're out."
"Fine. You know that stuff will only kill you, faster right?"
"I'm aware of that. Allow me to die as a happy old man with his pipe and shoo."
Loic laughed and swiftly turned heading out the main lobby door. Still being thrown off by suddenly being off my feet I tried to keep my eyes on something stable, the small view of the dock in the distance or dilapidated external walls of the museum itself, anything recognizable and still to keep from getting dizzy.
"Wait, Loic!"
"Shush, Princess! Wait and see."
I clung to his arms with a breathless laugh. He took me out of the museum. Once we were out of the barrier, he held me close to him and walked to a small pond where more of those white flowers were floating on the surface. He shifted me, so his arm covered my view of the water’s reflection. Confusion filled me. I heard light splashing and saw we were standing on the surface of the pond.
“Loic?” What was he doing?
“It’s okay. Just hold on, Princess.”
Then we fell into the water. Opening my eyes, I saw we were completely submerged, sinking into the dark water. He held onto me with his own eyes closed. A barrier of light surrounded us. Keeping us dry, even while my hair floated around me like I was in the water. Fear flickered through me. Then we were emerging from the water, pushed up. I gripped his shirt as he shifted me around in his arms. I recognized where we were! We were at a fountain near the park that wasn’t too far from the school. I finally felt the moving stop as he put me back on my feet and I looked at him.
I was dumbfounded.
“We just traveled through water.”
“Yeah, not my usual method but effective, Chase used to use this method a lot.”
“But we…I…” I stammered, and he moved my hair out of my face. My hair was dry, and he was dry for the most part as well.
“It’s okay Rayne. It was a spur of the moment thing. Sorry if it scared you.”
“I’m okay, so Chase does that?” I asked Loic thinking about the experience.
“Not much these days but yeah. You can even communicate through water as well although unless you know where it’s going to come out it can be a bit garbled. A mirror is solid, so it behaves with a more definite result.”
“But water isn’t steady…so it’s more difficult?”
“Exactly! You got the idea.” He confirmed all while fixing his hair and outfit from where I wrinkled it.
"There, much better." he laughed.
His smile was more apparent now. Nearly ear to ear against his, now, rosy cheeks. What was he planning? This spur of the moment trip, the dopey look in his eye, I couldn’t fully place what might have been going through his head, but one idea came back into my thoughts.
My heartbeat sped faster, why? Nervousness? Fear or something else? I swallowed back the thoughts of anything else looking away from him briefly only to glance back looking at his dress shirt, wrinkled from where I was grabbing it. I followed the wrinkled up to his square shoulders. I felt hotter as I pictured drawing him. I had seen his muscles before, so I imagined vividly how they were shaped under the shirt leading up to those shoulders.
I swallowed again, holding my breath, afraid to make a sound. The thought came back in my mind as I looked back up to his eyes, and I melted back into the rich brown and the lustrous gold. His own eyes looked onto mine and got brighter…
Could he possibly feel similar to me? no that was…stupid I thought. I froze when thinking how stupid it was…was it really? Did I want it to be? Silly for anyone to feel anything like that for me? the spiral of thoughts began but trying to look away from him to feel sorry for myself I found one thought was left behind…
I don’t want to look away. He didn’t seem like he wanted to either.
He wrapped his arms around me again.
"Rayne, everything you said to Juliet, the capoeira dance at the club. I couldn’t get it out of my mind. I… couldn’t get YOU out of my mind. I want to be more than just your knight."
My held breath came out as a painful choke. "But why, I'm not…” that special. My heartbeat was stronger now, thumping against my chest and echoing in my ears. I wanted to say but that had been proven wrong in the general sense. But was I really that special to him?
"I can't explain it but in the short time I've known you, I've felt something for you. I've never felt this way before in my life."
"But we're from different worlds."
"That doesn't matter Rayne."
He put his hand under my chin, tilting it up.
“Lauqe tey, etisoppo. Our worlds are only separate, yet still equal.” He whispered.
I closed my eyes again, and he kissed me. I felt warm all over. Nothing was ever as fantastic as that. He pulled away and smiled.
"I won't let anything happen to you. Not just because it'll save our worlds but you're special to me, Rayne."
His expression was beaming brighter through every word. His brown and gold eyes latched onto mine, not letting me go. I clutched him equally tightly.
I was both terrified yet ecstatic. My skin tingled when he held me. My lips still felt like he was there. The cold mist coming off of the fountain hit my lips and I wanted him to come back to keep them warm.
"Loic." My voice cracked, and I felt a grin grow on my face.
Our lips met again, and my body felt numb. His grip getting tighter as mine felt looser. I kissed him back, and I felt my heart flutter with each second. All I could focus on, all I wanted, was him. He slowly pulled away and looked into my eyes. His bangs fell almost blocking the brilliant colors of his own eyes. The glow still showed through, especially in his gold eye. There was a slight tremble in his arms as he held me. I trembled as well, but this wasn’t fear, perhaps he felt what I did, and excitement shook him as well.
His hand moved and rested on the small of my back and I was pulled closer to him. I saw his chest rise and fall with his breath, I could smell cologne, not sure on what scent it was. Did he normally wear cologne? I hadn’t really noticed that smell before...maybe he put it on for this moment?
His shoulders, previously taught, loosened as his
gaze settled falling from my eyes down to where his hands were. He adjusted them, keeping them on my back. I felt his fingers through my shirt, a chill crawled through my skin, making my heart pick up its pace again. Along with my heart my breath picked up as well. His fingers stopped moving and he looked at my eyes again. The chill went through me leaving a tingle behind, breaking up the numbness I felt. As the numbness lessened my grip regained its strength and I held onto his shirt. I studied him, every curve of his body, every movement, his eyes, his hair blowing in his face because he hadn’t slicked it back against his head yet. desperately to repeat this feeling forever.
"So how was that? I figured your first kiss would be more romantic by one of our fountains. Not in some dusty old museum."
"How did you know? Oh, never mind.” had he guess because I told him I had never dated before? It didn’t matter. He was right after all. I stepped back, breaking out of his arms and covered my chest with my arms. Turning my face away from him for a moment. I looked to the ground still wanting to look in his eyes but being afraid to see what expression he had.
"Now, now we already kissed. Don't you go back into that shell of yours. Speak please."
I rolled my eyes. "I'm allowed to be nervous."
"I'm beginning to like that more confident side of you. Earlier you were on fire."
“I’m not sure how to handle this, any of this. I’m angry and scared. I just want to curl up and forget about all of this, but I can’t. I’m in so deep here I can’t breathe. Then you...”
He arched his eyebrow waiting for me to continue.
“Then you go and... kiss me...” I sighed. “Now I’m confused on top of everything else.”
“Confused? Dare I ask how?” His face shifted into a smug smile.
“I’ve never done anything like this. How do I react? what do I say?”
“Don’t think about it and nothing. You really think I know much about this either?” he shifted his weight and went to sit on the rim of the fountain.
“How have you never been in a relationship before?” I sat next to him and he turned to face me.
“Nothing that actually felt worth acting on. Crushes at most.” He answered, finally shifting his hair back away from his face.
Why didn’t I believe that? Why didn’t I care?
“I guess I should be happy…you picked me.”
He said nothing. Loic seemed to be giving me little room to breathe but not much. His presence alone brought back the warm feelings from before.
I just wanted to kiss him again. Then there was that nagging brain of mind drudging up old conversations.
"And what about Luna?”
His eyebrow slacked as he shifted his gaze directly at me. “Yeah? what about Luna?”
I bit my lip. “Isha said she loved you too."
"Of course, I'm irresistible." He winked.
My muscles tightened. I kept my arms crossed and shifted my foot to lightly kick the side of his shoe. Not displaying much strength, both because I didn’t think I could and also, I didn’t actually want to kick him. “I’m serious, Loic." My voice squeaked, and he wrapped one arm around my shoulders and pulled me in, so I was leaning against him now.
"So was I.” He stroked my hair. “Rayne, I had no feelings for Luna. She was ten. I was five when I vowed, I’d be her knight on her birth ceremony. She was my princess. I grew up alongside her. I was more like a big brother to her if anything. There was nothing romantic there."
I exhaled in relief.
So pathetic...getting jealous of a ten-year old’s crush on an older man.
Surprisingly he didn’t laugh. Maybe he knew it was a serious topic wrapped up in a serious moment and thought laughter wouldn’t mesh well.
"Come on, it’s getting late.” He let my shoulder go and stood, as he rose, he patted my head shifting his fingers through my hair. “Let's get you home. I'm sure you've had enough fun tonight." I looked around to see that it was beginning to get dark. There was still enough light to see and the lights in the park hadn’t turned on yet, but it was getting late.
"All right." I took a deep breath and tried to calm myself before standing. My heart was still pounding and his fingers in my hair didn’t help calm that feeling. I was nervous but ecstatic at the same time. to be so terrified yet happy about everything so far was a welcome change from being scared for my life.
He reached out to take my hand. I took another deep breath and uncrossed my arms to let him take my hand. He held it tight and pulled me up. He held tight on to my hand all with a smile on his face. I couldn’t help but smile as well as we left the park.
We went home. The park wasn’t far from my place and he held my hand the entire trek. Before reaching my apartment, he squeezed my hand. I turned to see him glance around us. Loic started to look tense.
"What's wrong Loic?"
He grabbed me, holding me close to him. he held onto me with one hand and held his other out in front of us, seemingly ready to move or attack. on his guard, he also shifted his stance. His lower arm around me, his other hand by his face, his body shifted to the side and his feet were flat on the ground apart, parallel to his shoulders. The entire time I was between all of these movements. I shifted so I was close to him, but I could still see around us.
"Stay close. I don't like this feeling."
“Can you sense something?” I didn’t want the answer to be yes, but I already felt my body tighten in fear against him.
“Just something around us. I don’t know what it is or where it started, but somethings just wrong.”
I did so. He had told me that he could feel them without seeing them. I focused. Soon I began to see the shadows he felt.
"Loic?"
"What is it? You see something?"
"Yes-yes. Darkness. It's surrounding us."
He growled and kept up his guard, only shifting his body slightly from his stance before. He began to cast a shield around us, but something was different. The shield was thicker, and light refracted in a way that details began to blur. The shield I had cast earlier was different. I could see through it, and it didn’t appear quite as fast.
"Now no one will see us,” he said. “I made us invisible to anyone outside."
"So, this is what you do to yourself?"
"Yeah, on a smaller scale. But enough about that. Keep an eye out."
Soon Formless materialized around us, rising up from shadows like pulling paint from a palette before taking their shapes. A mix of bird, reptile and blob shapes began to appear and mix together in the black tar that they were made of, shifting with each movement and becoming more grotesque. Eerily, they all remained in place.
The inaction only made me more nervous. Then a man emerged from the Formless. Before I could see any detail, he moved, raising what looked like a large claw. I panicked and shielded myself, making that shield of magic. I watched the shadows shift and one shape rose up looking like a set of claws coming up from the tar, dread filled me, and I focused harder on the shield around me. As I feared, the claw stretched somehow getting inside Loic’s shield and hitting my own. I was thrown back a few feet. The dome around me held strong, only allowing the ground to change under me as my shoes slid over brick. I slid passed Loic. The force on my shield pushed me. I needed to learn how Loic kept his shield stable. this is why I preferred the stability of Loic’s shield. I also preferred being in his range since he was keeping us hidden in his before. Now I was exposed, covered by a transparent blue dome.
“Rayne!” Loic ran to my side. “what happened? Are you okay?"
"I’m, okay. Were surrounded…” I huffed. “all formless.”
Loic pulled me to my feet, then stood in front of me, his own aura reforming a new aura dome around us, not seeing what had attacked me, only looking in the direction I was thrown from. There was a formless there, but that first swipe was the only attack. I heard him mutter something.
“if we are surrounded the
n why aren’t they attacking?”
Why weren’t they?
This shield wasn’t as solid as his first one. It seemed pliable, perhaps to change at will in case I moved too far again. My arm burned, and I looked down to see a small scratch the pain radiated to my fingertips, and I watched as someone came from the shadows.
“a person?” I huffed, not sure if I had said it out loud.
Loic turned to me.
“Rayne? Who is it?”
I looked to describe him. The pulse returned, warning me about this. I took in his appearance and a flash appeared in my mind. Part of my nightmare, the man choking me, his eyes became visible in the shadows. When the memory ended, I looked up at the man in front of us. I opened my mouth to describe him to Loic, but I froze, unable to speak. I felt like I didn't need to, the view of those eyes in my nightmare stuck in my head the tears filled my eyes. The tall, wide-set shadow loomed over the other Formless. His shape was square, solid and strong looking, covered completely in a tar-black trench coat. His face was worn and grizzled. There was youth still in it, having a complexion similar to Chase. I assumed they might be around the same age. His face was surrounded by long black hair that seemed to shine just like Formless tar did. A few strands even seemed to move independently, forming small claw shapes and waves. His face was covered with a black beard. Then I glanced at his eyes. He had bright red irises with no pupils. What should have been the whites of his eyes were an ashy grey color. Those eyes shifted to look at me, and my heart jolted. Bile rose in my throat.
My body trembled. My stomach began to twist as I put the pieces together. The eyes from the memory was the same as this man. The shadow in the memory was the one attacking me, attacking Luna… the pulse got stronger, warning me, screaming run over and over to my soul. Then the voices of chase and Loic telling me what had happened to her… over and over on repeat in tandem with the pulse.
Then my mind went silent, I finally discovered the name among the muddled thoughts. The man stepped out of the shadows. He left a little bit of tar behind with each step he made, and those steps were coming closer to me.
Glass Souls (Reflection Book 1) Page 28
