by E. J. Mellow
Though her answer had him frowning, the way her honeysuckle fragrance brushed by him in a tantalizing trail made it impossible not to turn his head and follow. Stepping into the hallway, he was immediately transfixed by the curve of her darkened silhouette and the hypnotic sway of her hips. The vision of her radiant smile surrounded him, and he felt a crack in his meticulously constructed plan to be careful. A crack that formed from the presence of too bright a light of a fallen star.
— 6 —
THE SEASHELL DANCED rhythmically through his fingers as he waited under the tree’s canopy. A soft breeze flirted through the field, and the tall grass bent away from its touch, teasing it to try again. Dev’s gaze roved the still night, his senses tuning in and out to the different stimulations of the land—the bright lights zipping above, the buzzing of insects below, and the hushed rustle of leaves around him.
These quiet moments were a luxury. They were also a curse. For thoughts liked to fill silences such as these, and memories tended to live there. Dev’s time limit to keep both at bay was running out, so when he smelled the delicate collection of Navitas in the air, he let out a relieving sigh. She was coming.
Like a hiccup in the folds of space, the area directly in front of him warped slightly before a soft light blurred his vision. In an instant it all disappeared, leaving a new form on the cool ground.
Dev studied her as she lay on her back, eyes closed. She wasn’t wearing the same thing that she came in last night, and he felt a slight dip of disappointment. A dark jacket was thrown over a loose-fitting shirt, and tight jeans encased her toned legs. He tilted his head to the side. Okay, the jeans he liked.
Rolling over, a distressed mewl emanated out of Molly, and Dev pushed up from the tree, a slight panic setting in. Was she hurt? But when she sloppily swatted at nothing, her eyes opening with a grimace, he relaxed, for she was suffering from an ailment all of her own making.
He was never a big drinker, even during the darker times, but he’d helped enough comrades home after long hours spent trying to forget a recent horror to know when someone had overindulged.
He watched in fascination as Molly, with great effort, crawled her way to lean against the tree, still unaware of his presence beside it. Once she was settled and looked almost peaceful, he stepped forward.
“Had a little too much fun?”
She jumped, letting out a squeak of surprise. “Please stop doing that.” She groaned, grabbing her stomach.
He couldn’t hide his smile. “What’s the celebration?” he asked, taking a seat beside her.
“Being a Saturday,” she mumbled and hid her face in her hands, her long, dark hair tumbling around her shoulders.
He slid his gaze over her form again, not realizing he was looking for a peek of her soft skin. This was the most covered up she’d ever been. “I think I like what you normally sleep in compared to this.” He plucked at her blazer.
“I think that should offend me, but I feel too horrible to care at the moment.”
He chuckled and found himself fighting an urge to tuck a strand of her hair behind her ear so he could see her face. He balled his hands into fists instead.
“Dev?” Molly said his name with a slow lift of her head.
He could listen to her say his name for days.
“Yes, Molly?”
“Why do I still feel drunk here if I’m supposed to be dreaming?”
He shook his head in amusement—just arrived and already asking questions. No wonder the Vigil elders summoned him before coming here. None reacted with much surprise when he officially reported a Dreamer had broken into Terra, but Dev hadn’t really expected anything different. The elders were a strange group of cryptic tongues and hidden emotions. No one knew if their ability to appear apathetic was a trait given to them during creation or learned in their rigorous secret studies. Whatever the cause, Dev was unconcerned at the moment, for apart from barely batting an eye when he finished his report, their only instructions were to not tell her any specifics about Terra or himself. He left promptly after that, conceding to their demands and not asking anything further in case they changed their minds and ordered him to stay away. Not like that would have stopped him, but it was best to follow the rules when possible, especially if they didn’t really interfere with his plans.
“Well, your mind here is the same mind you’ve got when you’re awake,” he said with a scratch of his chin. “So if your brain is still drunk right before you go to sleep, why wouldn’t it stay that way when you’re asleep?”
“So I guess that means I really am dreaming. None of this is real?” She motioned to their surroundings.
He smirked. “It would seem so, wouldn’t it?”
With a sigh, she turned away, and Dev decided this was as good a time as any for a distraction. Standing, he extended his hand to her. “Come on. I want to show you something.”
As he helped her up, she wobbled slightly on her feet and grabbed his arm for purchase. It took a second to realize her grip on him, and he glanced down at her, a huge grin plastering across his face. “Molly…are you feeling my muscle?”
As if she’d been slapped, she whipped her hand away, eyes wide in mortification. “What? No!”
“I mean, you’re welcome to feel them?” He playfully flexed his bicep and tilted it toward her.
“Just…shut up.” She pushed at his arm, and he couldn’t help laughing again. This was too good. “Actually, you know what? I don’t think I’m in the mood to see whatever it is you want to show me after all.” She turned and stormed away.
Dev reached out and twirled her back in the direction he wanted them to go.
She squeaked and shoved out of his hold. “I’d rather not be manhandled.”
In all of Terra, she was making this too easy for him. “So you think I’m a man?”
“Gah!” She threw her hands up in exasperation. “Whatever. Let’s go see what’s so great.”
With a hidden smile, Dev followed behind her retreating form.
Molly groaned as she pulled her heeled boot out of the soft ground, a repeated issue that forced them to walk at an unproductive pace. She studied the mud now concealing the majority of the soft suede, and with a resigned sigh tried balancing on one leg to remove them. Dev extended a hand to help, and she grabbed on to him without question. With her fingers interlocking with his, he became momentarily fascinated by it. He had forgotten what it was like to be connected like this, and the feeling was both foreign and familiar. He didn’t know if it was because of the girl or the years of denying himself such intimacy, but whatever the cause, it felt right. As soon as Molly became barefoot, they silently pressed on, and it wasn’t until they neared their destination that Dev realized he had never let go.
And she hadn’t asked him to.
— 7 —
HER FIGURE WAS a black outline set against a darker expanse, and her hair danced in the wind as she gazed out from the canyon’s lip. Dev had been indecisive about showing her this place, not knowing if it was going against the elders’ rules, but he couldn’t see how it would hurt. Nothing about the Edge would give away that this place was anything more than a dream. Terra ran for miles in every direction, but in all the years he’d been alive, he knew of no one who had traveled beyond this deep carved-out separation to the east. Having been nicknamed the Edge seemed more than fitting.
“This is amazing,” Molly said, her hushed voice drifting to him on the wind.
“I come here every so often,” Dev said, settling on a nearby rock. “It’s strangely humbling to look at something bigger than yourself.”
She was quiet for a moment, then said, “I’ve wondered what was beyond the field—if it kept on going.” She glanced over her shoulder, brown eyes meeting his, and he patted the space beside him.
Taking a seat, she removed her blazer, the movement causing her fragrance to encircle him, and his eyes briefly closed.
“So,” she said, shifting slightly, “do you think you�
��ll ever explain why you always know when I’m here?”
Dev held back a grin. “One day, if you’re lucky, I’ll show you.”
“What does that even mean?” she groaned.
“You’ll understand when the time’s right.” Would the elders ever let him speak the truth?
“Well, can you at least give me a straight answer about something when I’m awake?”
Dev eyed her from the side. “I can try.”
“Why can’t I remember you when I wake up?”
A pain hit him low in his chest, and he worked to control his expression. Why can’t I remember you? Standing, he walked to the ledge, letting the blackness of the ravine’s bottom swallow up his confused emotions. Why did that bother him? It shouldn’t have.
It couldn’t.
Squaring his shoulders, he took in a calming breath. “Your brain is completely closed off when you sleep, only concentrating on resting. So it’s easier for you to remember me here than out there.” He gestured to the space in front of them. “When you wake up, you have a lot more to think about, so the things that happen while you sleep get pushed to the back of your mind.”
The sound of her bare feet against the pebbled ground announced her approach. “So will I remember that you just told me this?” she asked, coming to stand by his side.
Dev peered down at her. “I’m not really sure. I’m still trying to figure out how much you’ll remember.”
“Why? What else is there to tell me?” A sudden breeze whipped a strand of her hair across her face, and he turned, tucking it behind her ear. “There’s nothing else. I’m not sure why I said those things. You must be making them up for me to say.”
She bit her bottom lip, her frustration evident. If she truly didn’t remember this place when she awoke—didn’t remember him—would it really matter if she heard the truth? Would it ease the bit of pain he saw swimming in her eyes? He had a strong urge to tell her everything.
“Mols…” Her name escaped his lips like the ache he felt inside, and he noticed she shivered. “Are you cold?” he asked, running a finger along her prickled arm. She shook her head, seeming incapable of words. “If it makes you feel any better, I never forget you when you leave.”
Her mouth parted as if to respond, but instead she took in a stuttered breath and swallowed. Dev studied the movement in her neck, trailing his gaze down her soft skin until it disappeared under her silk top. What was she doing to him? He couldn’t help it when he found himself moving closer, resigning the responsibility of whatever happened next.
“Molly, I can’t explain it, but there’s something about you that makes me know this is all happening for a reason.” His attention stayed pinned to her. “You’re my hope,” he finished softly, his body swaying forward, a pull to be closer to her burning throughout him. This same desire also had warning bells sounding, telling him to move away, remove himself from her intoxicating scent and unknown mind. Something about her threatened to shake the foundation of his carefully constructed walls, and he knew this woman was the last thing he should allow to crumble them.
Like a soft caress, an orange light crept across Molly’s cheek, coating the side of her face with warmth, and with an acute awareness, Dev blinked to clarity. Quickly turning, he searched the landscape and cursed as a fiery haze lifted off the horizon. Such a scene could pass as the beginning of a peaceful sunrise, but he knew there was only one thing that brought forth such a glow—the Metus.
“What is it?” Molly asked, and he spun back to her, momentarily forgetting she was there.
Colló. This wasn’t good.
“You have to wake up now,” he said, and when she didn’t respond, he grabbed her shoulders. “Listen, you have to wake up. I have to go.”
She glanced from the light in the distance back to him. “I’ll go with you.”
He would’ve laughed under different circumstances. “No.” He shook his head. “That’s not an option.”
“Well, I’m not staying here.”
“I know. You’re going to wake up.”
Her eyes sparked with defiance. “How? You can’t make me.”
Wrong thing to say.
A challenge was like a siren’s call to Dev, and now it potently mixed with the adrenaline already pumping in his veins to get Molly out of here and safely awake. Glancing to the ravine behind her, a small smile inched across his lips. It would have to do, he thought, for there was no time to come up with other options. Taking predatory steps forward, Molly followed with ones back, now regarding him with uncertainty.
“Dev?”
“I’m extremely sorry, but it’s for your own good.”
“What is?” Molly asked, her eyes darting behind her as her heels came close to dangling over the lip.
“This.”
And then Dev shoved her into the abyss.
—∞—
Molly’s scream still echoed in his ears as he ran toward the blazing light, the memory of the all-consuming terror in her eyes promising to haunt him. But she had to wake up, and there had been no other alternative. If she wouldn’t on her own, then she had left him no choice. He watched her fall long enough to see her blink out of his world and enter her own, giving him the reassurance needed to know she was safe.
As the tall grass whipped against his legs, his breathing remained steady despite the speed at which he traveled. The decades of training had conditioned his body to withstand the most rigorous of exertion, leaving him the perfect specimen of endurance. He climbed the final grassy slope, whose top glowed orange from the nightmares that lay on the other side, and when he reached the peak, the stench hit him first, then the sounds, the scene all too familiar. Two packs—fifty Metus—swarmed half the number of Nocturna outside the bordered city of Terra, which loomed tall in the distance. The bright blue-white light of the soldiers’ weapons flashed all around him and mixed with the glowing fiery mass of their enemies. The seven-foot-tall forms lumbered forward, their lava skin drooping as if in a constant melting state, and their high-pitched howls never ceased to set Dev’s teeth on edge.
As he made his way into the fight, there was a satisfying pop every few seconds as one of his comrades sent a monster born from human hatred bursting apart. Dev’s Arcus was retracted and armed within seconds, and he let fly one flaming arrow after the other as he entered the battle. He spun out of the way as a Metus swiped forward with its dripping paw, and then ducked as a mucus ball sped past his head. His body buzzed with the frenzy around him, but his senses picked up every detail. To him the chaos was organized, patterned, and his muscles bent and twisted to meet every need he demanded.
Catching sight of two familiar forms, he stepped to the side of a strawberry-blonde and her tall, curly-haired partner. The three of them danced among themselves to put down the four surrounding monsters.
“How did they approach?” Dev yelled over the noise, smacking away a creature’s outreached claw with the edge of his weapon. The parasite hissed.
“No one on the wall saw them coming.” Aurora flipped her Arcus around to transform it into a two-barreled gun and aimed down a closely approaching Metus. With a thunk, thunk, large bright balls of Navitas shot out and embedded themselves into the Metus’s chest. It stumbled back, screaming and clawing at the area that began to fill with blinding light, and then, on one last cry, it popped out of existence. The three of them shielded themselves from the liquid blowback.
“They didn’t get picked up on the heat scanners?” Dev frowned as he turned to engage the next threat. That didn’t make sense. A mass this big couldn’t have slipped through.
“No.” Ezekial, Aurora’s partner, came to stand by his side. “For some reason they couldn’t detect them. It was like they just appeared out of nowhere.” Though not as large as Dev, what Ezekial lacked in build he more than made up with his lightning-fast reflexes, a formidable opponent to any who challenged him. Which is why, when he quickly made work of the Metus they both faced, Dev felt more than comfo
rtable leaving him and Aurora to handle the remaining two.
As he blocked and attacked his way through the nightmares, searching for Aveline, Dev replayed this new bit of information. Why couldn’t the wall patrols detect the Metus from farther out? One or two had been known to roam undetected, but a pack of this size? It was rare for their technology to malfunction, especial the thermal scanners. No, something was off, and he couldn’t help wonder if any of it had to do with the recent appearance of the Dreamer.
A growl vibrated beside him, and Dev leaped up and spun in the air, his Arcus whistling with his quick movement, and when he landed in a crouch, the head of a monster rolled next to him before the body, newly decapitated, crumbled away.
“Dev!” Aveline shouted nearby, backing up as she let go of a flaming arrow that found its mark in a charging Metus. “I thought you might be sitting this one out.”
“And give you the chance to add more points on the board than me? Never.” He settled behind her and allowed the familiarity of her movements to wash over him, each attaching to the other until the decades of being partnered together guided them into a deadly dance. They swayed, twirled, and ducked under one another’s arms—a terminating whirlwind. Dev’s mind shut down, and he became a purely reactionary being, putting down any enemy that crossed his path. And after what seemed like an endless blur of stabs, splatters, and monstrous screams, they were left panting and wiping sweat from their brows. The surrounding battle had finally dissipated into nothing but a few final sludge-filled bursts as the last remaining Metus either fled or were destroyed.
Dev flicked his Arcus to the side, removing a piece of burning flesh that clung to its length. “Do we know if there were any casualties?” he asked Aveline, glancing around the singed field. Remnants of the battle were still present, from the thick, pungent scent of decay to the weary expressions worn by every nearby Nocturna.
