When Galadriel felt herself land, she didn’t want to open her eyes. As long as she kept them closed, she didn’t have to confront where they were. She wouldn’t have to accept it yet if they hadn’t made it back to Vyker’s stream and were now lost even further in the progression of streams. On either side of her, she felt Angela and Vyker moving and finally let her eyes open. Her hand was resting on something hard and cool, and when her eyes slid open, she saw that it was on a platform of stone. They had made it back.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Galadriel jumped to her feet and threw herself into Vyker’s arms. He scooped her up and spun her around, kissing her firmly before putting her down. His eyes sparkled with a happiness that she hadn’t seen before, and she knew that he was feeling the same level of excitement and potential that she was. Angela was looking around herself in awe, and when she turned to Galadriel, she saw a smile on the other woman’s lips.
“It’s warm,” she said softly.
There was so much more in those words than what they said, and Galadriel nodded. Angela shed the blanket that she had been wearing around her shoulders. It looked like it was woven from pieces of grass that Angela would have had to harvest from under the ice and dry out to craft this and any other items that she and Jacob would need to use. It fluttered to the ground and seemed to settle into the sand with almost the same tangible level of relief as Angela had shown when she felt the warmth of the sun on her skin for the first time.
“The grave is closed,” Galadriel pointed out, looking at the monument that was now back to one cohesive piece rather than the open gateway it had been when they traveled through the portal.
“It must close as soon as the portal is activated,” Vyker said. “That would protect it from people who might stumble on it.”
“Should we go to the temple?” Galadriel asked.
Vyker and Angela nodded, and they started along the hill back toward the village. Galadriel wondered how Angela was feeling, experiencing the different version of reality for the first time. When they approached the temple, Angela seemed to fall back slightly.
“What’s wrong?” Vyker asked.
“What’s going to happen to Jacob?”
“He made his choice,” Vyker said. “When we go back, he can join us, or he can stay and wither with the stream. It’s up to him. You can’t hold yourself responsible for that. You saved yourself.”
“Did I?” she asked. “Am I ever going to make it back to the home that I knew? You never even told me what they said when we disappeared.”
She had turned to Galadriel, looking at her as if expecting her to tell her something that would reassure her and that she had made the right choice. Galadriel thought back to what Rick had told her.
“The company funding the excavation didn’t want anyone to know that two of the researchers had disappeared at the site. They thought that it would bring bad publicity to the project and prevent them from going forward. They covered it up by saying that the two of you were assigned to different projects in other countries.”
“What about our families?” Angela asked, her voice taut with emotion.
“They faked some communication with them, and then just let them assume you were too busy to respond.”
Angela’s hands came up to cover her face, and for the first time, Galadriel noticed the small diamond on her hand.
“Jeremy will never forgive me,” she whimpered.
“Is Jeremy your fiancé?” Galadriel asked.
Angela nodded.
“We were supposed to get married a few months after the excavation. Now, he thinks that I just abandoned him.”
Galadriel drew Angela into her arms and hugged her tightly, trying to calm her crying.
“It’s going to be alright,” she said. “I don’t know how, but it will be.”
They entered the temple together and found Vyker standing in front of the wall. Just as Galadriel had expected, the engraving that he had made on the wall in the other stream wasn’t showing up on this one. He pulled the metal tool from his bag again and knelt down to make the engraving. The sound of the stone chipping away beneath the tool reverberated in the temple, and Galadriel felt relieved when it was finished. He brushed away the stone dust and stood. Galadriel watched as his fingertips ran along the star stones embedded deep around the edge of the engravings. As she watched, Galadriel noticed that the spacing of the stones was uneven. She drew closer to the wall and looked more closely, careful not to get too near.
“Are there stones missing?” she asked. “They aren’t spaced evenly. Some of them are much closer than the others. It looks like there are some that have been taken out of place.”
Vyker stepped closer to the wall and touched his fingers to one of the gaps in the series of stones. Galadriel realized that it was the same place in the wall where they had seen the star stone sparkling in the wall in the other stream. As if he had realized the same thing at the same moment, Vyker reached into his pocket and withdrew the stone. He rolled it over in his palm a few times and then lifted it to the space. The stone sank into the wall, perfectly filling the gap in the sequence.
“That’s it,” he said. “That’s what my father was after.”
He turned and rushed out of the temple, Galadriel close at his heels. As they ran across the desert toward Vyker’s home, she saw Cantu approaching the temple.
“Please take care of Angela,” she called to the guardian.
The woman nodded, and Galadriel continued following Vyker. They rushed into the building and into his bedroom where he opened a large box tucked in a corner and withdrew what looked like an old journal. He brought it to the table in the center of the seating area and flattened it on the surface.
“Right here,” he said, pointing at one of the pages. “These notes say that the heart of the wall was missing. I never knew what that meant, but I think I do now. The stones around the engravings have always looked like that to me. I never noticed that there were any missing. These sketches, though,” he said, turning the page and showing Galadriel a rough drawing of what she could only assume was meant to be the wall, “show that there used to be more missing. I think that this is what made my father start his quest. This is what is making the wall vulnerable. It’s not just the StarKillers. These stones are what keep the wall safe. They are its heart. I don’t know what took them or how, but they went missing and my father knew that he had to find them to restore the wall and keep it from being destroyed.”
“That’s what allows the other creatures to get close to it in the other streams. Without the star stones, it doesn’t have the protection.”
“And until this one has its stones back, it will be vulnerable.”
“So where do we find the rest?”
Vyker reached around her to take her papers from her bag and spread them on the table again.
“Where we did before.”
****
Cantu had brought Angela to another home and helped her to bathe and eat, and she had fallen deeply asleep. Vyker agreed that they should spend one more night there before starting back to the other stream. Now that they knew that they would be moving further into other streams, there was no way of knowing how long that they would be gone or what challenges they might face along the way. They would need all of the energy that they could get before they left again.
Galadriel had bathed and changed into another dress, this one a soft green length of fabric that looped around her body and tied around her waist and at her neck to drape over her body. Vyker was still in the bedroom, sifting through all of the papers that he had strewn across the table, and Galadriel had needed to walk away from it. The repeat images had become too much for her, and she needed a few moments when she didn’t have to think about it anymore. She was walking around the front room of the house, discovering the details that she hadn’t noticed before. Cold torches sat in several sconces along the walls, and two of the corners contained thick c
ushions on the floor like low furniture.
“I love the way you look in that dress.”
Galadriel smiled at the sound of Vyker’s voice and paused where she stood, turning to speak over her shoulder at him.
“Oh?” she said.
“Mmmm-hmmmm,” he said.
She could hear his footsteps coming toward her, and her body trembled with desire for him. It had felt like she had had to force down the ache, but now she didn’t want to hide it any longer. She reached down and gathered her skirt up a little to reveal her legs. Vyker was close behind her now, and she could feel his breath on the back of her neck.
His hand flattened on the middle of her back and guided her forward so that Galadriel leaned with her palms against the wall and her hips pushed back toward him. Cool air rushed around her legs as he lifted her skirt up and over her back. She heard Vyker's pants hit the ground just before he lowered to his knees and she felt his tongue delve between her thighs. Crying out at the intense feeling, Galadriel rose up onto her toes and let him ease her legs further apart and guide her hips back more. His tongue played across her, and she sagged forward against the refrigerator, feeling her control disappear. She reached back to bury her fingers in Vyker’s hair and dropped her head back, giving herself over to the feelings he was creating in her.
He stopped just as she was spiraling toward oblivion and climbed to his feet. His hands slowly untied the bows at her waist and her neck so that the dress dropped away, his movements returning to their languid, unhurried speed. Vyker ran his fingernails lightly down her back from her neck to her hips, and then reversed the trail with his tongue, sending a shiver through her body that brought even more intense heat and wetness between her thighs. His hands came up to cup her breasts in his palms, and then one traveled down her stomach to the apex of thighs. As his fingertips swirled into her swollen clit, he applied pressure so that she stepped back, presenting herself to him.
An instant later, he was inside her, and she was gasping for breath, struggling to control the overwhelming sensations as he filled her so fully and completely it was as if her body had been waiting her entire life to hold him. Instead of withdrawing and plunging into her again, Vyker rolled his hips just enough that his hard length massaged her while keeping her hips nestled into him. Galadriel felt her body trembling in response to him and didn’t know how much longer she was going to be able to maintain control. The sensation of him inside of her was like nothing that she had ever known before she met him, and with each deep stroke she knew that she would never be able to let him go. He leaned forward to cover her body with his, enveloping her completely and pressing kisses to the back of her shoulder.
"Turn around," he whispered in her ear and carefully withdrew from her.
Galadriel turned to face him and Vyker swept her into his arms, tucking her hips against his and wrapping her legs around his waist. Their mouths met, their tongues tangling as he carried her toward his bedroom. Ignoring the large bed in the middle of the room, he lowered himself to his knees on the rug and rested her back so that he came down over her. He leaned down to run his tongue through her folds, and then rose back up to stare down into her eyes as he eased into her again.
Galadriel bent her knees so that just the tips of her toes touched the floor, opening herself to him. Vyker reached down and cupped one hand around her hip, holding her securely so he could thrust into her faster and harder. She clung to him, digging her fingers into his back and letting the sounds pour out of her with abandon as their bodies nurtured each other. Vyker tucked his head down into the curve between her neck and shoulder and increased his intensity until she could feel herself climbing toward climax. His sounds deepened, and he sped up more until he suddenly slammed into her one hard, intense time, and she felt him throb as he poured into her.
Vyker grunted and drew in a strangled breath, releasing the tension in his hips so that he could slowly roll into her, pushing her over the edge so that she crashed around him. Galadriel wrapped herself around him, holding him tighter as she lifted her hips to meet each of his gentle strokes, riding her climax until their bodies cooled and relaxed.
His mouth covered one breast, and his tongue lightly flicked at her nipple before he moved over to the other to lavish the same attention. He tenderly licked sweat from her skin and wrapped his arms around her to hold her even closer.
“I love you,” he whispered.
Galadriel felt her heart swell within her and nestled closer to him.
“I love you, too.”
“I want to show you something,” he said.
They climbed to their feet and he guided her toward a door on the far end of the room. Not bothering to cover themselves, they stepped out of the door onto a narrow patio. Vyker wrapped his arm around her waist and pointed up at the sky.
“I’ve been thinking about what you said about the constellations,” he said.
“What about them?” Galadriel asked.
“You said that the warrior has always been your favorite,” he said.
She nodded.
“It sounds strange, but it makes me feel safe.”
“I’ve never heard of constellations,” he said. “They don’t exist here. But that just means that they haven’t been made yet.”
He moved the hand that he was pointing and Galadriel gasped as she saw the stars above her shifting position. Soon they formed the familiar shape of Orion, with only the center star of his belt missing. Vyker reached into the pouch on his hip and pulled out a tiny pale blue stone. He touched it to his chest and then held it out to Galadriel. She dipped her head down and kissed the stone. Vyker repeated the gesture and then held the stone in his palm so that he could blow on it in the same way that he had when he first showed her the birth of the stars.
When he opened his palm again there was a swirl of light hovering above his skin. Vyker flattened his hand and tossed it forward. Galadriel watched as the tiny ball of light grew and spread as it sailed upward, soon settling into position in the center of Orion’s belt. He settled the stone back into his pouch and looked at her.
“Now whenever you look up at the stars, you’ll know that you are always with me.”
Chapter Thirty
The next day, Galadriel, Vyker, and Angela made their way back to the hill. The process of opening the monument and moving through the portal seemed almost commonplace now, but Galadriel could see that Angela was nervous as they started tracing the engravings.
“It’ll be alright,” she reassured her. “We’ll make it back.”
Within moments, they had fallen to the ground in the cavern again, and the chill of the stream hit them. Fortunately, they were all prepared with extra clothing, and they took a few seconds to add layers to protect themselves from the chill. As they made their way out of the cavern, Galadriel could see that Angela was holding a thick blanket and cloak in front of her as if preparing to hand it over to Jacob, reassuring herself that he would be waiting for her when they came out of the cavern.
The light had dimmed further when they stepped out of the cavern, and Galadriel pulled her torch out of her bag to light it. Vyker did the same, and soon they had an encompassing halo of light around them to help them move across the frozen ground. They had gone a few yards when Galadriel heard heavy breath to one side.
“You came back.”
They all turned to the sound of Jacob’s voice and saw him walking toward them. Angela rushed to hug him, and Galadriel could hear the woman crying again. She wondered what emotions were fueling those tears and could imagine that there were many thoughts and feelings crashing against each other until Angela herself might not have been able to truly express what she was going through. Finally, the two parted, and Jacob looked to Vyker.
“Where do we go?” he asked.
“Are you going to trust me?” he asked.
“The darkness has been coming much faster now. I know that you are what Angela and I have been waitin
g for since we arrived here. If you are willing to accept me, I am willing to trust you.”
Vyker straightened his back and stared down at the smaller man.
“Are you ready to go now?” he asked.
Jacob patted the bag that he carried over his arm.
“I have everything that I could pack.”
“We’ll go to the wall first,” Vyker said.
Without any other comment, he turned, and they started across the icy ground again.
****
The journey seemed less difficult this time as Galadriel felt fueled along by the strength of the four of them traveling together with the same goal. Even if they weren’t sure how they were going to accomplish it, just knowing that they were united in what they were meant to do gave her greater confidence and helped her feel like they had a better chance of overcoming whatever they might encounter.
When they arrived at the temple, Vyker asked them to wait outside while he went in to the wall. The silence around them was almost tangible as they waited. Finally, a loud cracking sound broke through the air. It continued, growing louder with each passing second until the world fell quiet again. Vyker stepped out of the temple just before the structure collapsed, weakened by the loss of the engraved portion of the wall. Galadriel walked up to Vyker and brushed the stone dust away from his skin.
“And now?” she asked.
She knew that destroying the wall had been difficult for him, and she didn’t want to give Vyker too much time to dwell on it. Instead, she wanted to encourage him to keep going – to focus on the next step ahead of them.
“The next engraving says ‘Appearing still and under control. Beneath, the fury and the rain.’”
“Do you know what it means?” she asked.
“It sounds like what I’m feeling right now,” he admitted.
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