Walking to the center of the room, I harbored a few fantasies about bodily dunking Dorian in a fresh vat of Jallina’s vegetable noodle soup. Right over his arrogant, dismissive, aggravating head. I chuckled as my brain supplied carrots and celery and broad noodles all stuck in that magnificent mane of hair he sported—the one I liked to dig my fingers into when he fucked me hard.
I slipped to the floor, crossing my legs and blowing out my breath. I’d come here to clear my head of all the bullshit that was swirling around my life. Meditation usually did that for me.
Meditation in the Breaker’s cave had been the best.
It had been, after all, my cave.
Now it was the Chasm that let vampires and druids cross the Scar… but it was still a chasm between us.
Pushing all of my thoughts out of my head, I just let myself breathe, feeling the cool tile below and warm sun above. I let in a little magic and let it drift around me lazily.…look up…
I shook my head. It had sounded like my own voice in my head. It happened once in a while when I was extremely tired and trying to meditate. My own voice had things to say to my subconscious. I wasn’t tired, not sleep tired, but I was physically exhausted.
Mentally, too.
Resuming the breathing, I let the world drop away behind my magic a little bit and just tried to stay calm.
…look up…
The twins this time. Once upon a time, Cely had told me I had music in my soul. I could be a singer or play an instrument if wanted to. I could remember sounds like no one else I’d ever met in those short years with her.
It was probably that ability that allowed me to hear the twins in my head.
I sank back again.
…look up!...
That was angry Dorian voice. Of course it was.
He’d only been angry in the past few days. He hadn’t even come to our rooms at night. I had no idea where he was sleeping. Or if he was.
…look up…
This time I snapped my eyes open.
Celine’s voice.
My eyes brimmed with tears. I hadn’t remembered her voice until that moment. Gods and savior, I wanted to hear her voice again—especially now that I knew who she was.
…look up, my little one…
“Mom…” I whispered, smearing tears away.
…look up, sweet Kimber…
I turned my face up to the miraculously unbroken ceiling. Through the sheen of tears, the reds and golds swirled and blurred and ran together, then apart again.
I blinked to clear the tears.
Red and gold.
A teardrop of red with bursts of gold on opposite sides, swirling and elongating as they chased each other through the glass above, the same red drop of blood and burst of gold that had sat in the glass above the doors of the Stronghold.
I leapt to my feet and spun with the swirling colors.
Red.
Gold.
