“Okay, so why don’t you tell me how I was supposed to react?” I shot back.
“I was told that the inhabitants of your world were rather delicate. And that when you first saw the rift, you would likely respond with something akin to hysterics or possibly mania.”
“Mania?” I scoffed. “I don’t know what technology is like in your country, but here we don’t really freak out over a few lasers. And we don’t use the word mania. Gross.”
I turned to inspect the hologram a bit more. “Don’t think I haven’t forgotten that you promised to tell me about my—holy hell!”
I was not expecting the image to have changed while my back was turned, but sure enough it was different. Well, thebackground was still the same, but now there was a rather grumpy looking old guy standing in the garden glaring out at us.
To my even further surprise, he began speaking. The words were harsh and not in any language I recognized.
“What’s he saying?” I checked behind me to see how Dey was reacting and flinched when I saw his face inches from my own, his features twisted in sadness.
“I am so very sorry, Rain. This was not what I intended at all.” Resting his hands firmly on my shoulders, he leaned in close. “Do not hate me for this,” he said quietly.
Then he pushed.
Chapter four
“Ow!” I rubbed at my sore tailbone where my ass had bounced off the stony ground.
A wrinkled hand reached in front of my face, sending fear rippling through me. “What the fuck?” I shouted, scrambling backwards.
In a flash, I went from irritation to complete and utter panic. My heart thundered in my chest, and I could feel a thin sheen of sweat beginning to coat every inch of my skin.
It wasn’t the cantankerous old man from the mirage leaning over me that had thrown my anxiety into overdrive. No. It was what rose up behind him. The castle. The one from the hologram. Except it wasn’t a hologram. It was real, and I was staring right at it.
My eyes darted around as my chest heaved, flicking from the purple rose bush beside me up to the two suns in the sky. Two suns. How were there two suns?
I was inside the fucking hologram which… maybe wasn't a hologram at all. I whipped back to Dey in time to see him step toward me.
One step. That was all it took, and suddenly he wasn’t in the real world anymore. He was here with me inside this illusion.
The older man shuffled past Dey and waved his hand through the air. The clearing I stood in moments before vanished into nothing as the blue light folded in on itself.
I shot to my feet. “What did you do to me?" It had to be drugs. He slipped me something, and now I was hallucinating.
I backed away from the two men, my eyes searching frantically for something familiar to latch onto. Something I could make sense of. But there was nothing.
The tightness in my chest grew unbearable, and my vision blurred as I succumbed to the full weight of my panic attack. I had to get out of there. Had to get away from them.
I bolted, blindly sprinting toward the copse of oak trees at the edge of the garden. I needed to get somewhere safe to take my Klonopin. Then maybe I could hide out until the drugs wore off. If I could just get to those trees…
I saw my path coming to an end and hooked a sharp left to keep running.
Which is when I collided with something hard and warm.
I bounced off Dey’s chest and flew backward, landing smack on my tailbone again and likely adding yet another bruise to my already injured ass.
I stared up at him, my whole body trembling. “Please don’t hurt me,” I begged.
The last thing I saw was Dey reaching out to touch my cheek, then darkness swallowed me whole.
Groaning, I squeezed my eyes shut, fighting off the bright light that tried to pull me from sleep. I should get up and close the curtains, but the pillow under my head was warm and comfortable and…
My pillow twitched.
I bolted upright so fast it hurt my neck. I was not in my small but comfy bed in Jersey. I was in a rose garden. And my pillow was Dey's firmly sculpted chest.
