“Oh, the fog is thinning out.” Manu points ahead.
She’s not wrong. I see a landscape ahead—green hills and a blue sky. But the mist is behaving in an odd way. It’s almost as if there’s a portal separating the gray world where we are from the other side.
“Wait, the fog is getting thicker again,” she says.
“Our window is closing. We must run.” Adrian takes off faster than any human I’ve ever met.
Manu and I sprint after him. The mist is closing in—meaning the opening is getting smaller and smaller.
“We need to jump,” I yell. “Now!”
We leap, making it to the other side just before the mist shuts off the opening completely. When I look over my shoulder, there isn’t any fog behind us. It’s like it never existed. Instead, I stare at rolling green hills peppered with yellow flowers and trees. The sky is the most brilliant shade of blue. It almost doesn’t seem real.
“Where are we?” Manu whirls around, taking in our surroundings.
“This is my sanctuary,” Adrian replies.
“How can this beautiful place exist in the middle of that wasteland?” I ask.
Adrian taps the side of his forehead. “It all comes from here… my memories.”
Manu cocks her head, crossing her arms. “I thought you couldn’t remember much about your life.”
“I can’t. But this place…” Adrian glances around. “It must have a deep meaning to me. When I didn’t think I could go on any longer, when the despair was so heavy I thought it’d crush me like a boulder and I was ready to give up, this place appeared for me.” He shakes his head. “I thought I was going crazy.”
I narrow my eyes. “So… it’s an illusion. This whole place… none of it is real.”
His lips curl into a wry smile. “Only the people trapped here are real.”
“But how do you know?Youcould be an illusion our minds conjured up,” Manu points out.
“True, but so could your mate. Are you sure he’s truly here?” Adrian arches a brow.
She looks at me, and immediately, I’m reeled in by her beguiling eyes. Since the moment we first met, I could never stray away from her. All those centuries of forced separation were the cruelest torture I’ve ever endured. The bond blazes in my chest, so potent that I can almost see the glowing link connecting my heart to Manu’s.
She comes closer and wraps her arms around my waist, holding my stare. “He’s real.”
I cup her face, rubbing her cheek with my thumb. “Yes, I am.”
Desire swirls in her beautiful eyes, and it fans the flames within me. I want to kiss her, take her right here and forget the world. The heady feeling is overpowering—it’s everything.
Adrian clears his throat. “We should continue. My house is over that hill.”
His voice breaks the spell that threatened to put Manu and me in a daze again. We have to be careful. We could easily get trapped in our own fantasies and never escape.
“Convenient that your imagination also came up with a place to live,” I say a little roughly, not yet over my lustful thoughts.
He shrugs. “Like I said, this place has a deep meaning to me. I don’t know what it is, but I guess any emotion that’s strong enough can alter the magic in this place.”
His words give me pause. If strong feelings can create an idyllic landscape and even a house for Adrian, then it might also open a door out of here for us.
“If your theory is correct,” Manu starts, “maybe that’s the key to escape this hellhole.”
“You’ve read my mind, love,” I say.
Adrian seems deep in thought as he rubs his chin. “I’ve thought about it, but I’ve never attempted it.”
“Why not? Don’t you want to return to the human world?” Manu asks.
