Ash
Into the dreaming.
That’s what this feels like. Like walking into a dream. Or waking inside of one, which is exactly what I’ve been doing this entire time.
Walking through the doorway where I think I’m following Orion, I end up…not with Orion. And not at the Sidhe mounds.
I end up in a space between. Between here and there.
Darkness wraps around me, but that’s just fine because it truly doesn’t bother me.
What bothers me is Aengus standing a short distance away staring off into the complete nothingness of this place.
“I should have known it wouldn’t be that easy.” A part of me isn’t surprised. Not at all. Another part, small as it may be—well, it’s really annoyed at the direction this just went.
His shoulders shake with laughter and he looks over at me, unmoving.
I walk toward him, my feet swishing through the strangeness of the space. Stretches of darkness in varying shades of grey creep toward an endless horizon.
“Where is this?”
“The in-between.” He doesn’t move. Though he is wearing that weird cape, the one where galaxies twinkle back at me.
“Why am I not with Orion?” I pause beside him, trying to see what he sees. But it’s just endless.
“Because you are needed here, sweet Ashlynne.” He flips his cape backwards, hands on his hips. “Tell me, how was the Trial of Survival?”
“That’s what this is about?” I huff.
“Did you think it would just end because you—what?” He prods and I honestly don’t much like the way it feels. Having him poke at me like this.
He also isn’t wrong. “I forgot about it.”
He hums, but it’s one of those condescending hums. “That, my dear, was in fact the absolute point of it.”
“To forget?”
“Oh yes.” He frowns down at me. “How else would the trial understand who you are?”
“Veil.”
“Aengus,” he corrects gently. “Now, are you ready for the real show?”
“What—” The word is barely out of my mouth before life rushes at me.
And it is just that. My life.
All around me on screens of every single size.
“Did I die?” I spin in a circle, watching myself from every age. Just…existing. “Is this my life review?”
“No, and well, no.”
“Aengus.” I shake my head as I watch myself lose my virginity. “Aengus,” I hiss.
“Terrible lover, that one.” He shudders. “Missionary?”
“This is definitely feeling a lot invasive.” Is my face red? It’s definitely red.
