Between the Moon and Her Night (Between Life and Death #3)

Chapter 36

Sage

A few days later, after Arkyn left, Von’s large hand was placed over my eyes, nearly swallowing my face in the process. His scent of amber and sandalwood surrounded me, his masculine flavor appealing to me in ways that made me want to pull his hand from my face and climb the tall god like a tree.

Although I couldn’t see, I could hear, and I knew those sounds anywhere.

It was the orchestra of churning wooden wheels and clopping hooves striking against brick-paved streets. The sound of busy people working tirelessly as they traveled from one point to the other, trying to make a living for themselves as well as their loved ones.

It was the sound of the living.

A sound I had grown accustomed to hearing during my days where I would watch over the humans from my perch in the Immortal Realm, my thoughts swirling with dreams of being like them someday.

“You can look,” Von said, pulling his hand away.

My eyelids popped open and vivid bright light swallowed the darkness from my vision. Pupils focusing, I glanced up to the sky, an ocean of velvet blue, smooth and clear. Not a single white fluffy cloud to be seen.

My body vibrated. I had been right after all.

I turned to Von, unable to contain my excitement. “You brought me to the Living Realm?”

“Yes, but that’s not all,” he answered, his eyes shifting ahead.

I followed his gaze, turning to face what was in front of us.

The frame of a gothic-inspired manor towered before us, swallowing up the sky, seated on a massive lot. The arched windows were just beginning to be installed. A few workers hoisted the one up a ladder, trying to get it to its destination.

Large homes lingered on either side, a half a mile away.

The manor was being built on a slight hill, which gave us a visual advantage over the neighborhood, as well as a great view of the city. A city that was filled with color, nestled in the gentle embrace of rolling hills.

“What is this place?” I asked curiously.

“This is Belamour, an up-and-coming new city in the northern region of Edenvale,” he answered, stepping into me. His heat washed over me, coaxing a tingle to walk down the length of my spine.

“Why have you brought me here?” My attention shifted from the sprawling, playful hills back to the incredible manor.

“Do you remember your second night in the Spirit Realm? You reached across the bond and asked where I was.”

“Mhm. You said that you were acquiring a gift for me.”

“This is it. This manor is for you. Whenever you find yourself missing the Living Realm, you can come here. My only stipulation is that you bring me, of course.”

“What?” Emotion cracked the word in half. I turned to face him, my eyes as wide as saucers. “I can come here whenever I want?”

“Yes,” he said with a soft smile. “Because the Endless Mist surrounds the continent, you won’t have to worry about Aurelius or his brothers or his men. You’ll be safe here.”

I stepped into him. “Von, I—”

His hands cupped my cheeks, his eyes shifting between mine. “Say nothing, Little Goddess. This is my gift to you.”

My hands wrapped around his muscular forearms as I stood on the tips of my toes and I kissed him deeper than I ever had before. For a time, I was certain that the world had dissolved away, leaving just the two of us and this moment we shared.

Unwillingly, slowly, I pulled back, my eyes searching his. I was no stranger to kissing him passionately, but I had never kissed him like that—so . . . intimately.

What would he make of it?

What did I make of it?

“Mmm,” he growled in pleasure as I pulled back. “I’m making a note to buy you more things if it means I get more of those.”

A soft smile tugged at the corners of my lips. “You liked it then?”

“I like everything that you do.” The pad of his thumb ghosted across my lips. “I have one more thing I want to show you.”

“Alright,” I breathed.

His umbra dipped around us and then—

We were standing— standing —amongst the stars, on top of a swath of fluffy white clouds that spanned into the distance.

“You brought me to the sky?” I asked, a bit puzzled. I held my hand out as a star danced over top of it, bits of silver glitter drifting onto my palm.

“Yes, Little Goddess, but not just that. Where we stand now is sacred.” His fingers laced with mine and he guided my hand to rest against the middle of his chest. A small smile touched the corners of his lips. “This spot is ours. It is where we once belonged before our souls were split apart.”

Light, airy magic drifted around me, brushing across my skin as the universe whispered to me. It did not speak in words, but delicate musical notes. It was like he had lifted the lid to a small locket box, because a soft, beautiful melody began to play—happy and sad, and filled with love and loss.

It was the song of us.

The song of Life and Death.

Suddenly, I was overcome with emotion.

Pain cracked across my heart. How could something so beautiful hurt so much? And why did it feel like I was missing something, forgetting something?

“No,” Von said, sweeping the tears from my eyes. “I did not bring you here for that. I brought you here because I wanted you to know where our story started. I wanted you to know that should we ever be split apart again, I will wait here for you, until you return to me.”

He lowered his forehead against mine.

I closed my eyes.

Please do not leave me again, Little Goddess, Von’s voice cried out, pleading with me. Pained and broken and—

I jerked my head back, my eyes opening wide. “Did you just say something through the bond?”

The place between his brows creased. “No, why?”

“It’s nothing.” I shook my head softly, trying to make sense of what I had just heard. “I just thought you did.”

A pained, horrific growl exploded in my eardrums, threatening to burst them. I placed my hands over my ears. Von clasped my forearms, his lips moving, but whatever he was saying, I couldn’t make it out because all I could hear was that horrible, horrible sound.

Like a weathervane caught in a storm, the world spun around and around, and then something snapped, and I fell into darkness. The scent of amber and sandalwood followed me into unconsciousness.

I drifted on the current of nothing.

The vessel that housed my soul was weightlessly suspended in the air. It was as if someone had severed the cord that connected me to my body—but there was something about this place of nothing. Something I couldn’t quite put my finger on. A finger I did not need. Nor a hand, nor an arm. Because in the realm of nothing, I didn’t need my body.

. . . I didn’t need anything.

My eyelids were closed, and yet I could see .

In particular, I could see what was above me—

A plethora of stalactites reached down from the rocky ceiling. The uneven, icicle-like structures were luminescent, glowing a brilliant, effervescent blue on the roof of the cave’s mouth. The color pulsed, growing brighter and then dimmer, as if it were breathing. As if it were alive.

I recalled that feeling. I had been alive once.

But when or how, I could not recall.

I admired the sparkling, brilliant, breathing formations.

How lovely. How true.

How true?

It made no sense and yet, it made perfect sense.

I would stay here for the remainder of eternity, drifting on the river of nothing.

Please do not leave me, Little Goddess ! a male roared inside my head.

But the owner of the voice I could not place.

Hands that were tipped with vicious claws fished me out of the waterless river. They hoisted me onto the rocky bank and began to drag me along. My soul peered at them, taking in the strange, beautiful, enchanting creatures, their skin forged of a charcoal gray and intricate white markings. They were tall and lean, their faces long and finely tailored and so heartbreakingly beautiful. Both of them had large, ethereal wings, tucked neatly in. And their eyes—housed beneath hairless brows—were completely black.

“It’s a pretty one,” said an ethereal voice, beautiful and soft and . . . male.

“Indeed. The empress did a good job upon its creation,” said the other one. The sound was equally lovely, but this one was higher pitched. Female, perhaps?

“Yes, she did,” agreed the male as they continued to drag me forward. If they found my body heavy, they didn’t let on. In fact, by the way they walked, one would think they were hauling something as light as a pillow behind them.

Weave her another fate! a masculine voice demanded—the same one I had heard before.

“Where do you think she will send it to next?” asked the female as she glanced down at me. Her hairless brows lowered, her expression changing to confusion.

“I dare not make a guess. The empress knows things we never will,” replied the male in his soothing voice. He dropped my arm, and it slapped against the rocky floor—the sound echoing. “Put her on the table and I’ll prepare for the extraction.” His clawed toes scratched against the ground as he walked away.

“Nemtuk,” the female said as she quickly dropped my hand.

“You know I can’t let you perform the extraction,” the male—Nemtuk—said. “Not after what happened last time. You nearly destroyed that poor soul.”

“No, that’s not it. I think it’s watching us,” the female said, her eyes fixed on mine.

“Impossible,” Nemtuk scoffed. “They do not possess the ability to be conscious here.”

“I’m serious. Come over here and look,” she said.

“Fine. Fine,” he sighed. His nails clicked against the ground, growing louder as he approached. Clawed fingers clamped onto my cheeks, moving my head from side to side as he gazed into my blank, lifeless face. He let out a shriek and dropped my head. “We must take it to the empress at once!”