“So… what now?” I asked. “You wanted a private place to talk. Here we are. Although, I’m not sure I would have chosen a graveyard when literally anywhere else would have worked.”
He held out a hand which I reluctantly accepted. It was soft and warm, lacking the callouses I would have expected from someone with his muscles.
“Literally anywhere else would not have had what I need to show you,” he replied. Tugging me forward, he led me deeper into the cemetery.
I contemplated the headstones as we passed by. What could possibly be here that I would need to see?
A thought crashed into me and I froze, unable to continue along the small path.
Dey cast a look at me over his shoulder, his eyes questioning my lack of movement.
“Dey…” I began slowly, trying to process the thoughts whirling through my brain as they all coalesced into one solid notion. One reason he would need to bring me to a cemetery.
“Are my parents dead?”
The thought gutted me. Every orphan dreamed that somewhere out there they had parents. Ones who had a good reason for giving them up. Ones who searched the world for them, obviously realizing the terrible mistake they had made. One day they would show up and whisk them away to a perfect existence with food on the table, constant laughter, and the security that came with knowing you were not alone in the world.
I had always pretended that I was an exception to that rule. That I lived firmly in reality and didn’t care about the people who left me at the orphanage with nothing more than a gray blanket and a name. I knew that life was cruel and unfair, and no amount of dreaming would ever change that.
Lying to myself was possibly my greatest skill.
“No, Rain. Your parents are not here.”
I was embarrassed by how much relief flooded back into me as I followed close on his heels. “Okay, so out with it then. Were myparents like high ranking politicians and my birth was a scandal? Oooh, maybe they’re royalty? And I’m like a secret princess or something.”
Dey's step faltered at that last one, and he glanced back at me, his mouth curving up into a knowing smile that spoke volumes.
“No… No way,” I protested. “That was a joke. You’re just fucking with me. Come on, are they like drug dealers or something? Because there’s no reality in which I’m a princess from some foreign country.”
He came to a stop in front of a flowering shrub. “No, Rain, you are not a princess from a foreign country... ” His words trailed off as he pulled the shrub back. “You are a princess from a foreignworld.”
I blinked repeatedly as if that might change what I was seeing.
“Shut the fuck up!”
Dey frowned. “You keep using that word differently.”
I didn’t even bother to respond to his comment as I took in the sight in front of me. A shimmering mirage hung suspended between two weeping willows, it's edges glowing with a faint blue light that pulsed with an electric energy.
Moving closer, I could start to make out details in the image. It depicted something like a maze, except the tall hedges were all covered in sizable flowers, similar to roses save for their brilliant, almost neon colors and obscenely large petals. Two suns hung in the clear blue sky: one high up just reaching its apex, while the other lingered nearly halfway to the horizon. Both cast their honeyed light over the manicured shrubs, offsetting the vividly green leaves and swirling pink, blue, and purple flowers with an ethereal glimmer. Beyond the exquisite garden, Behemoth oak trees sporting early fall colors stood proudly in a row, like steadfast soldiers holding the line.
And behind it all, a massive castle climbed high into the sky, the light gray stones of it's walls sparkling in the afternoon light.
Only the front of the castle was visible, but I could see at least six massive towers and even more turrets with crenelated parapets. The two largest rose up out of the back of the main keep, lording over all the smaller ones. Dark, almost black, spires crowned each turret and burgundy flags atop the tallest ones listed in the breeze.
It was insane. It was unreal. It was…
“Is that a freaking hologram? It’s so cool!”
I looked back over to Dey who now sported an even deeper frown.
“You are not reacting the way I had expected.”
Now it was my brow that crinkled in confusion. “What were you expecting? Yeah, it’s a really cool display, but what does this have to do with my parents?”
Dey just blinked at me, his mouth opening and closing, his head shaking slightly.
“You are… I was not…” He ran his fingers through his hair repeatedly, the slight wave to his blond locks turning messy. “You are not reacting in a way that I have been prepared for.”
