Black Sunshine (Dark Eyes 1)

Finally, he stops thrusting and he lifts his hand off my head, and I raise my chin in time to see the blackened ash reverse flow, quickly traveling down his arm, leaving only his luminous pale skin behind, until his hand is the familiar one I know so well.

He straightens up and then pulls out of me and there’s a moment when I feel him just kneeling behind me, trying to catch his breath, wrangle his thoughts. I know he doesn’t know what to do, what to say to me. He didn’t mean for any of that to happen, it was his worst fear come to life.

But I’m still here.

I’m still here, I tell him.

I hear his shaking exhale and then I finally flip over, turning around to look at him.

He’s back to his now naked, yet still formidable self, though his expression is as fragile as I’ve ever seen it, wary and close to unraveling.

“What are you?” I whisper.

Chapter Twenty-Two

There’s a circle of blood in the snow all around me.

I stand there in the middle, naked, frozen to the ground, ice spreading up my legs.

It’s quiet and empty all around, not a soul to be found, just the rolling hills of frosted white. The sky is a pale grey, light enough in parts that it’s hard to tell where the horizon is, and the sun is a faint glowing orb in the sky, close to breaking through the clouds.

A shadow passes over the land and I look back up to the sky in time to see black wings. They blot out the sun, blot out the world, enveloping me, like a giant leathery bird of prey.

But I don’t feel fear.

I feel safe.

I feel powerful, like I could fly up into the sky on these very black wings.

But then…then…

Everything changes.

The wings fade to smoke, just a faint shape hanging in the air before being carried away by the wind.

There’s an insidious hiss at my back and I turn around to see the cloaked figures creeping closer to me, white bony arms outstretched, pointing at me with nails that are far too long and curved.

“He can’t save you, Lenore,” a low, inhuman voice says from behind me, but I know if I turn around these creatures will attack me, the ones without faces behind those hooded red curtains. The ones that are all teeth. “No one can save you now. You’ll see, soon enough.”

I feel the presence come closer to me, then claws running down my spine, making me cry out.

“You won’t survive the Dark Order, and you certainly won’t survive me.”

With a violent thrust, his claws stab me in the back, breaking through my ribs, reaching right through to my heart.

I scream.

And then I wake up, tangled in sheets, the scream choking in my throat, panic seizing my body.

Then big, strong arms wrap around me.

I smell flowers and smoke and I know it’s Solon, holding me to his chest, his heartbeat trying to soothe me.

“Shhh,” he says to me, kissing the top of my head. “It’s alright. You’re having a nightmare.”

My eyes open to darkness and then the real nightmare of last night comes back.

Monster.