My hand landed on his arm, its solid state making me gasp. “Is this real?”
When his fingers curled around my arm, I knew it couldn’t be a hallucination. Nothing that magical could have substance, right?
“Crispin…” I reached in to hug him, to wrap my arms around his waist and bury my face in his chest.
He stepped back, pulling away from me as if I wasn’t his everything.
His face twisted, skin decaying, eyes sinking in, and a rotted stench wafted off his body. “I will roam the Never, lost and alone because of you.”
Shaking my head, I stared at the corpse of my husband, my heart beating so fast that my head swam with dizziness.
Not real. Not real. Not real.
“I am!” Crispin shouted and charged me.
I screamed, falling to the ground, covering my head and curling into a ball as a sobbed.
“Itismy fault. I never should’ve runaway.”
It is. What will you do with the guilt of death in your heart?”
The grass beneath me withered as I screamed out in pain. I ripped it from the ground with my fingers. Everything in me rocked with sorrow.
What could I do?
Crispin’s outstretched hand entered my thoughts.
That night I escaped from the temple, he had been the one to whisk me out.
He had arrived in my room in the middle of the night and said,“Do you want to be free?”
“It’s not possible.”
Holding out his hand to me, he replied,“It is.I’llshow you how.”
Breathing deeply, I commanded myself to stop crying, to will the tears back and bury them inside.
“Show me how… Show me how to change my destiny.”
I glanced up to a smiling Crispin, all the blood and decay gone. He winked once then vanished with the mist.
The fog rolled out, taking the chill and illusions with it. Wiping my eyes, I surveyed the area.
Was that it?
Windwhooshedthrough the grove.
Rolling to my side, I spotted an obsidian unicorn land on the grass.
I sat up, blinking twice.
The legendary creatures were rare and mostly myth, and in all the stories the fascinating beasts were white.
Was this another test?
What was I supposed to do now?
The unicorn stepped forward, and I noticed something odd about this one. Its eyes were bloodred, and it didn't look very happy.
