He gave me a sad smile and nodded. “Be safe in there.” He gave me a slow wave in farewell as he faded from sight.
I watched until Alfie had completely disappeared before I turned and focused on the fairy and Dash once more.
“You ready for this?” I asked Dash.
He rolled his shoulders and cricked his neck before nodding. I released the fairy, and she fluttered up high into the air before flying over to Dash. Once she reached him, she hovered in front of his face and turned so that her wings were almost brushing his nose. She gave one massive beat of her wings, spraying Dash’s face with her glittering black and silver dust.
Dash sneezed and shook his head, but then he looked up and gave me a smile. “Your turn.”
The fairy slowly flew back over to me. She took her time, moving hesitantly, like she was reluctant to be anywhere near me. There was a wary look in her eyes, and I could tell she didn’t trust me. It was probably because I’d been the one to summon her against her will in the first place.
She begrudgingly came to float right in front of my face and proceeded to flap her wings and sprinkle some of her glittering dust on me. The dust tickled my skin, and I could feel it softly prickling all over my face. I giggled at the sensation, feeling a sense of calmness and relief as soon as the dust touched me. It seemed like the fairy had covered me in far more dust than Dash, but I couldn’t find it in me to care. I felt like I was floating on cloud nine.
The fairy smirked as she glanced between the two of us and flew over to sit on Dash’s shoulder. She seemed suspiciously pleased with herself, and I really hoped that didn’t mean she’d given us too much.
“How do you feel?” I asked.
“Much the same as before,” Dash replied. “It probably takes a while to kick in, or maybe it’s just not as bad as Alfie made out. How about you?”
“Yeah, fine,” I agreed with a shrug. I could still sense the tingling of magic on my skin, and the sweet scent of the fairy’s dust lingered all over me, but it didn’t worry me. If anything, I was more optimistic about what lay ahead of us, and I didn’t see any problem with feeling a little more carefree.
“Any crazy thoughts?” Dash asked.
I laughed. “No more than usual,” I replied, making him smile.
“So, you ready to give this a try?” he asked, holding out a hand toward me.
“Sure am,” I grinned. I was suddenly excited to be entering a realm that was forbidden to us, and I was no longer daunted by the thought. My mind had been clouded by fear and uncertainty about entering the Southern Realm, but now that we were about step through the barrier for real, I felt remarkably brave.
I took Dash’s hand, and together, we walked toward the barrier. I was totally ready for whatever obstacles we would face on the other side.
Chapter Ten
The barrier didn’t hold us back this time. I could feel the brush of its powerful magic buzzing against my skin, but there wasn’t even a slight resistance as we walked through it. With each step I took, the green forest around me dissolved and was replaced by the dark and glittering world of the Southern Realm. The sweet and subtle scent of magic tingled my nose as I came to a stop and looked around in awe. We definitely weren’t in the human world anymore.
The world we’d entered was mesmerizing and so much more dazzling than the jungle we’d been standing in only moments ago. Huge trees still surrounded us, but they weren’t the same shade of green as the ones we’d left behind. Their trunks were black in color, and their leaves were a shimmering midnight blue. Endless ferns covered the forest floor, but the leaves were all a deep shade of purple.
The forest glittered like it had been doused in fairy dust, but it was far darker under the dense canopy of leaves in the Southern Realm than it had been on the other side of the barrier. The deep shadows made it feel like it was twilight rather than the middle of the day. As I looked up at the canopy, I could see tiny glowing lights floating in the air high above us. They were slightly smaller than fairies and looked more like tiny flowers as they sparkled against the ceiling of leaves overhead. The mysterious lights floated on the breeze, rising, spinning, and falling as they danced in the darkness of the forest.
I was captivated by my first experience of the Southern Realm, and I longed to travel deeper into the alluring world that had greeted us. It was so different from the Northern Realm, and I was excited to see more of it.
A soft breeze ruffled the plant leaves, and a gentle whispering sound surrounded me as the wind played with my hair. “Who are you?” it seemed to say as it playfully tugged at my clothes and tickled my face.
“Dash, I think the fairy dust is starting to get to me,” I said. “The breeze is talking.”
I turned to look at Dash and the awe I was feeling at being in the forest was echoed in his eyes. He too was blown away by the Southern Realm. As he scanned the forest, his eyes met mine, and his face turned serious as he considered my words. “Well, it’s getting to me too then, because I think I can hear whispering as well.”
The fairy started to speak, and Dash leaned his head in close to her as he listened to the tinkling sound of her voice. “She says the wind is trying to figure out what we are,” he told me, straightening his head once more. “We smell of both light and dark magic, and it’s apparently excited to meet us.”
“Well, of course, it is.” I preferred to think I was crazy than to imagine the wind had some kind of awareness. “So, which way to the village?” I asked.
The fairy pointed toward the forest ahead of us and spoke to Dash, her words flowing out of her in a melodic rush as she explained. I still had no idea what she was saying. The bell-like noises she made when she talked simply chimed a little quicker in her haste.
“She says it’s not too far in that direction,” Dash translated.
I hoped the fairy was right about the distance, because the forest was so dense I suspected it would take us a while to make our way through it. I went to step forward but then realized I was still holding Dash’s hand after we had walked through the barrier together. His grasp was firm and his skin was warm against my own. I quite liked the way our hands fit together, and I felt comforted by the connection between us. Energy seemed to crackle between our palms whenever our grip slightly shifted, and I didn’t want the sensation to end. Unfortunately, I could hardly battle the undergrowth of these woods with only one hand.
I let out a sigh as I pulled my hand away. It was much more difficult to sever the connection between us than I was willing to admit. Dash glanced down and frowned as he watched our hands separate. It was nice to imagine that he didn’t want to stop holding hands either, but after his dismissal of me earlier in Merik’s bar, I knew that wasn’t the case.
Dash cleared his throat and focused on the way ahead. “We should go,” he said before taking off in the direction the fairy had pointed. I tried not to groan at the prospect as I went to follow him. I wasn’t keen to add bush bashing to my résumé, and the thick forest was going to be tough to maneuver through. But at least it wasn’t as hot and humid as it had been back in the jungle.
Dash and I didn’t speak as we walked, but the fairy kept chattering in his ear, and occasionally, he would ask her questions. She seemed quite happy to be perched on Dash’s shoulder and didn’t once look back at me as the two of them journeyed through the forest together. I felt like a third wheel as I slowly trailed after them.
Thankfully, the route wasn’t nearly as dense to walk through as the jungle beyond the barrier had been. Once we got started, we found a well-trodden pathway and kept to it as Dash followed the fairy’s instructions.
We walked for about an hour before the fairy’s chatter became more frenzied, and she started to buzz with excitement. She began pointing overhead, and her wings flapped quickly as she lifted off Dash’s shoulder. Fairy dust scattered everywhere as she took to the sky, and I pulled Dash away from her as she soared up into the air. I didn’t want him to be at risk of getting another do
using of the black sparkly dust.
Once he was at my side, the two of us looked upward in the direction the fairy was flying. I was surprised to find a whole village of tree houses wrapped around the trunks that surrounded us. They were all connected by a network of winding pathways that hovered high above us near the canopy of leaves that sheltered the forest. The paths formed bridges that zigzagged between the trunks and were all made from the same glittering black wood as the trees they linked. They were lit by the tiny floating lights I’d noticed earlier, which bobbed up and down as they hovered over the pathways.
“Why do I feel like we were totally screwed in getting the Northern Realm?” I asked Dash. I was struggling to believe my eyes. The place was beautiful and magical, while we belonged to a frozen world with far too many pine trees. The only downside of the remarkable forest we now stood in seemed to be how dark it was, but that was something I could probably get used to.
“Just don’t ever tell Vixen what it’s like here,” Dash said. “She already hates the snow enough; she’ll probably try to move here and we’ll never see her again.”
“Can I come too?”
Dash laughed and shook his head at me. The fairy was still flying upward, her tiny body becoming smaller and smaller as she continued up beyond the tree houses and toward the top of the canopy. She was aiming for some of the highest branches, which were glowing with shimmering swirls of black and silver fairy dust. It was up too high to see any of the fairies themselves, but given the amount of fairy dust I could make out, there were more of her kind up there.
“I guess we found her home.”
Dash nodded. “I’d tell you she asked me to say goodbye to you for her, but I’d be lying. She’s really not your biggest fan after you summoned her.”
“Who needs fans anyway?” I replied, still looking up at the village in the trees above us. I could see movement on the walkways overhead, but they were too far above us and I couldn’t make out what sort of magical beings were up there. It was late in the afternoon, and the deep shadows in the forest were growing darker, which didn’t help.
“So, what do we do now?” I glanced over at Dash again. He was focused on the pathway ahead of us though. I wasn’t sure why he was staring at it so intently, but he moved suddenly, quickly grabbing hold of my arm and yanking me into the dense shrubbery that bordered the trampled path we’d been following.
“What are you doing?” I hissed, as he yanked me down to a crouch at his side.
“Shh!” He raised a finger to his lips.
I wanted to argue with him, but his eyes made me reconsider opening my mouth. He was giving me such a serious look that I knew I had to keep quiet. We were among an array of ferns and vines that kept us almost completely hidden from the pathway, but I could still peer out through the leaves. As I stared back at the path, I noticed something coming toward us through the forest.
I stopped breathing as the bushes beyond where we were hiding rustled, and a creature with blood-red eyes and sharp white fangs appeared. I was surprised Dash had noticed it skulking along the forest floor toward us. It didn’t make a sound as it moved, and its black fur was almost camouflaged against the dark undergrowth. The creature’s body was corded with thick muscles, but despite its bulk, it moved with the grace of a predator. It reminded me of the panther Dash had fought in the krampus bar a couple of weeks ago. But, the creature in front of us now was far bigger and would easily reach up taller than Dash if it stood up on its hind legs. I wasn’t sure if I was more afraid of its size, the muscles rippling under its skin as it stalked through the bushes, or the long fangs that peeked out of its mouth. The beast looked like a death machine, and it was terrifying.
I watched as the creature prowled past us, and Dash tensed at my side. I was tempted to summon myself a weapon, but I knew I couldn’t do so without drawing attention to us. The creature paused when it reached our tracks in the path. It reared its huge head back and sniffed the air. My whole body shook with fear as I waited for it to turn toward us, and I stood there wondering if I could summon a weapon quickly enough to defend myself if it attacked. Dash must have known what I was thinking because his grip on my arm had become so tight I was starting to lose blood circulation in my hand. I glanced up at him and he slowly shook his head. “Don’t,” he mouthed.
I gave one slow nod in return before glancing back at the creature as it dipped its head toward the ground again. If it managed to pick up our scent and follow it to the bushes we were done for. But then a howl sounded in the distance. The beast’s head jerked up as it listened, and then it suddenly leaped forward as the keening call came again. It moved so fast as it took off that I accidentally gasped. Thankfully, it didn’t hear me and continued streaking into the bushes in the direction of the call until it disappeared.
I let out a breath once it was gone and tried to calm my erratically beating heart. That had been far too close, and I really hoped there weren’t more beasts like that prowling through the forest.
I considered leaving the safety of our hiding place but couldn’t seem to get my body to move. Not when the creature had only just disappeared.
“Do you think it’s safe to leave?” I whispered.
Dash gave a slight shake of his head. “Give it a couple of minutes,” he replied. “I want to make sure the creature is gone.”
As we waited, I found myself focusing less on the pathway and more on Dash. His hand was still wrapped around my arm, and my skin was hot beneath his touch. Our bodies were pressed up against each other, and since we were surrounded by so much foliage, there was no way I could move back and give him more space. But even if I could, I wasn’t sure I wanted to.
I slowly lifted my gaze up to look at his face. My eyes were drawn to his lips, which were slightly parted as he watched the pathway for any sign of the beast returning. There was stubble grazing his chin that I was tempted to run my fingers along. For some reason, my hand decided to move on its own volition, and I lifted it to trace the side of his face.
Dash’s eyes dipped to meet mine as I touched him, and his gaze sent sparks of electricity through me. When he looked at me like that, I knew I wasn’t the only one feeling the crazy energy that was pulsing between our bodies.
We stayed there staring at each other, completely motionless for several moments, before we moved toward each other at once. Dash gripped me by the waist while my hands moved to the sides of his face. He lowered his lips toward mine, and I closed the small distance that remained between them.
As our lips met, it felt like the entire world surrounding us disappeared, and Dash became my one and only reality. His kiss was both ecstasy and torture, and I felt like it was going to set me alight. It was intense and powerful, sending my whole body into a rapid meltdown. When he slowly ran his tongue along the inside of my lips, I thought my heart might stop beating.
It felt like the kiss would be my undoing, because with one kiss, I knew I was going to be left always wanting more. I would never be able to get enough of kissing Dash, and it was going to feel physically painful to have to pull away from him. I could quite happily kiss him forever, and I hoped he felt the same because I wasn’t keen on stopping anytime soon.
Dash pulled back suddenly and I was left gasping. “We shouldn’t be doing this.” His eyes were fevered after our kiss, but they were also wild like he was worried we’d done something wrong.
“Uh, did you experience that kiss, because I don’t think we should be doing anything but kissing,” I replied. “Like, ever.”
Dash shook his head and tried to move away from me, which was difficult given the confined space we were hiding in. I put my hands on his chest and reached up to kiss him again, but Dash took me by the shoulders, holding me at arm’s length.
“Clio, of all the times we’ve been together, why are you kissing me now?”
“You were kissing me too.”
“I know, but I don’t think either of us are thinking clearly. We’re hiding from a creature
in some bushes under a tree village in the Southern Realm. Don’t you think it’s strange we chose now of all times to kiss?”
I barely considered his argument before shaking my head. “No, not really. Can we get back to it now?”
Dash didn’t start kissing me again. He didn’t look even slightly tempted. If anything, he looked a little sick. “I think the fairy dust is starting to affect us.”
“I feel fine.”
“So do I.” Dash pushed a hand through his hair in frustration. “But my need to be close to you has been intensifying ever since we came here. I can’t seem to control myself. I can’t seem to stay away.”
“Then don’t.” I leaned in once more, and this time, Dash let me. As soon as our lips met, he let out a groan.
“We can’t do this now.” He pulled back once more. “Alfie said that the fairy dust would lower our inhibitions. Mine are certainly down, and it seems to have taken yours away completely.”
I pouted at his comment. Dash was ruining all our fun. I didn’t feel like I’d lost my inhibitions, but I had to admit it was a little strange that we couldn’t stop making out like teenagers despite the fact we were also trying to avoid being hunted by a fearsome dark creature. It was strange, but I didn’t care enough to want to stop.
Dash took a hold of my chin and looked at me closely, his eyes growing dark with concern. “Clio, your eyes are seriously dilated.” He placed a hand on my forehead. “And you’re burning up.”
“It’s because you set me on fire.”
“Stop joking around, I’m serious,” he said. “According to Alfie, this was just one of the initial side effects. It could be the start of something much worse.”
His forehead was creased, and his lips formed a flat line as he looked at me. He seemed really worried, but I didn’t feel concerned. He was overreacting, and I was clearly fine. Perhaps my inhibitions were a little lower, but I didn’t see how that was a problem. If anything, it was a blessing—one that our kiss clearly proved.
Christmas Chaos (Christmas Magic Book 2) Page 11
