4. Ten Years Later

Chapter 4

Ten Years Later

Christmas Eve

Ten years later…

Ash awoke to the sound of muffled sobs. He pressed his hands against the clear walls of his prison and saw Nova’s sleeping form thrashing about six inches off her mattress. Her powers manifested at night when her subconscious mind took over. During the day, her grief held them back.

“Ash—” His name tumbled off her pouty lips.

The anguish in her voice broke his fucking heart.

“I’m here, my love,” he replied. “I’ll always be here.”

Colorful sparks swirled around her at his words. He wished he could pull her into his arms and comfort her. But the barrier between them was unbreakable. The unscalable walls kept him boxed in. He beat against the glass dome as he had thousands, possibly millions of times. But really, who was counting?

Somehow, he’d managed to survive, as the climate seemed to have its own oxygen supply. Even though it constantly snowed around him, it was never cold. He wore the same jeans and white T-shirt as they never got dirty. Hell, he didn’t even have to take a shit. Thankfully, his cock seemed to function so he could find release.

A magical feast was always spread on the table inside the little cabin, but he never hungered. Smoke billowed from the chimney whenever he lit a fire, but it never choked him.

His domain stretched miles within a four-inch diameter. He walked the perimeter daily, hoping to find a weak spot, but his prison was an impenetrable fortress. He had no TV or electronics, so he spent hours a day chopping firewood from the seemingly empty forest. The muscles in his arms and chest grew firm with the work.

In the early days, Nova wept over him. She tried everything to break the seal and bust him out of his winter wonder-fuck hell. Nothing worked. In her desperation, she picked up the snow globe, ready to throw it forcefully against the wall to shatter the glass, but her mother stopped her.

“Don’t, Nova!” she exclaimed. “Destroying the globe will kill Ramsey.”

Nova broke down hysterically. Her mother quickly took the gift from her grasp and gently placed it back on the mantle. She wrapped her arms around her daughter and let her sob into her shoulder.

She begged her father to free him. When Geralt failed, Nova cast a final spell. It had unintended consequences, and Ash became invisible to her.

Nova seldomly glanced at the shelf where he sat. When she did, she never saw him.

Sophie, Nova’s mother, kept the area around the globe clear and even took a rag to the dome to keep it from collecting dust weekly. She would talk to him and answer when he asked about his parents. Eventually, it became too painful to hear about their lives without him. He remained in the cottage when she was around now.

Ash remained Nova’s nightly sentinel, guarding her dreams. Even if she didn’t acknowledge him, he did what he could to calm her fears and ease her back to a restful slumber. The magical veil between them thinned during the night as Nova cried out for him. And though she was asleep, she heard him.

“Ash,” she cried.

“I’m here, snow. I love you.”

“I love you too.”

He was there when he needed her, wanting to be her hero in every way. He longed to hold and comfort her through those lonely nights, but he was trapped in that fucking globe.

Inside, a darker part of him had been simmering and threatened to burst free. Nova became his obsession. Though she was the love of his life, there were times he fucking hated her.

He wanted to punish her for trapping him—even more so for forgetting him.

I wish…

What would he wish if he knew it would come true? Would he wish he’d never met Nova? Absolutely not. Just the thought made him feel sick.

He often wondered if his feelings would’ve changed if he knew she was a witch. Even that was doubtful. Learning the truth by being transformed into a fucking novelty present knocked the wind out of him. He would’ve smashed the damn thing to smithereens, had he known he would live within it.

But would he? Ash poured his love into the design, and the attention to detail was all to make Nova happy. He’d made her so overjoyed that she imprisoned him.

“I wish—” the shifting environment cut him off.

A powerful gust of wind whipped the snow into a flurry around him. The songbird warbled in warning. The doe raised her head from where she had been grazing to follow her buck into the thick trees to hide.

Something wasn ’ t right.