He’s calling for you as the dark drags you under, too strong and heavy to resist.
* * *
You wake to the pounding drum of your own heartbeat. What is this?
There’s nothing.
No light.
No ground, no sky, no stars. No wind. Nothing but a strangely intoxicating scent lingering on your clothes, and atingle at your lips that makes you draw two fingers to your mouth, trying to remember where the feeling came from.
But everything is fuzzy now.
The void presses down around you, as empty as deep space, as heavy as the deep sea. Standing up takes all your strength, like your body is three times its normal weight. And you crumple again to the nothing-ground.
What kind of sick, strange, magical prison is this?
Did Ziros send you here? Was his kiss a trick to get you off-guard?
He thinks you’re a weak little human, after all.
And maybe he’s right.
Even keeping your eyes open is taking too much energy. So you lie down, letting them drift shut.
Just a little nap.
Then you’ll be all better—
Everything is so cold, and you shiver where you lie in the deep dark empty, hugging your knees to your chest.
You thought he liked you. For a minute there, you thought maybe he was enjoying that kiss, too.
But no.
It was all a trick
Somehow, it was all a trick.
The heavy, drowning need for sleep pulls you under, and even thinking takes too much strength.
How much time passes?
A minute?
A year?
“Anzelika!” A low, angry voice echoes from nowhere and everywhere all at once, stirring you from your sleep. “Wake up,” growls the voice, filled with urgency. Strong hands flip you onto your back, fingers pressing to your neck. Feeling for a pulse?
Anzelika.
That’s the name!
That’s the name you felt earlier, when you were falling into the void.
Warmth floods your lips as your rescuer crouches over you, pressing his mouth to yours. Crushing you with his kiss.
And with every second, heat floods your body, the oppressive weight slowly lifting.
