Chapter 28

TWENTY-EIGHT

The fine sand trickled between Jade's toes. It felt like she was standing on ground-up silk. She glanced over her shoulder and saw that the slender, crescent-shaped beach melded into an ocean made of darkness and stars.

The infinite Universe stretched out all around them, incomprehensible in its vastness. At the edge of the beach, the glittering tapestry buffeted the sandy shore, forming gentle ripples as if the fabric of space had turned into water.

The pale shore rose toward a dark forest where slender trunks of strange trees were illuminated by starlight, forming a ghostly alien grove. Moss-like plants hung from their spindly branches, swaying gently in the soft breeze.

For all its alienness, the forest wasn't uninviting. She didn't sense anything sinister from it. The branches burst into little tufts of featherlike foliage at the ends, unexpected softness against a backdrop of stark lines and shadows.

But something was strange. Ha. As if the entire scenario—a beach floating in space, with the stars and infinity as the water—wasn't surreal enough.

It occurred to her that this world was painted in shades of monochrome. There was no color. Not a single blossom or vibrant leaf. Just the light of the stars and a thousand hues of grey.

Was this how the Universe looked to Dragek?

Was this his world?

"You…" She reached out, not really knowing what she was doing, but suddenly compelled to touch him. "Haven't you ever seen color before?"

Her hand stopped before her fingers reached his cheek. Time slowed. Did time even exist here? It felt like she was in a trance.

"I know there are different shades of color, depending on how the light is reflected or absorbed from a surface. I can perceive it, but I don't see it in the way your human eyes would. The first time I ever understood what color looked like was when I saw it through your eyes."

"My eyes?"

"In the mine where I found you. When I took control over your body."

" Oh. "

"It was… unsettling."

A soft sigh escaped Jade's lips. Why did his admission make her feel so sad? "A pit in the earth isn't the best place to experience color for the very first time. I almost wish you could enter my head again."

"I would never. It's dangerous for you."

"Why?" Jade pressed him, suddenly insistent. She remembered the terrible weight of memories that had hit her back there in the mines when she was certain her situation had become hopeless.

So much darkness.

And she was certain it was all his.

She'd seen it through his eyes. She'd felt what it was like to have his deadly hands. To be the cause of…

So. Much. Death.

But she knew he wasn't evil. He'd been forced to do those terrible things.

How was he not more bitter and twisted? At least when he was with her, he wasn't.

There were times when she'd caught him being almost… sweet.

He could be an absolute demon in battle, but now, he hesitated.

"I'm not afraid of you, Dragek," she said before he had a chance to respond. "I'm not going to pretend I didn't see what you've done—what you were —but I don't despise you for it. So, if the answer to my question is that you want to shield me from all the horrors in your head, I'm telling you that you don't need to do that. Obviously, at that time… something happened that I don't completely understand. That was extreme. But after you took me out of there and went to all that trouble to heal me… I didn't forget anything . It's inside me now, too. Yet, I know you're not dangerous—to me, at least."

Things had moved so quickly since they'd departed Earth for the Fleet Station, but Jade realized she'd internalized everything she'd seen. Somewhere, somehow—during the aftermath and the healing and the silences in between—she'd processed his turmoil and tied it to her own.

She'd seen inside his soul in a way that no other living being ever could.

Suddenly, she realized that she knew him.

That's why it was so easy for her to reach out and touch his face.

He was one of the most dangerous beings in the Universe, but he was also unfathomably pure. He'd been viciously controlled by another. A terrible, malevolent presence that had forced him to do terrible things against his will.

What had really happened to him?

Were all of his kind like this?

Jade could hardly fathom the horror of it.

He caught her hand before she reached him. He wrapped his fingers around hers and gave her a look that immediately quelled the storm in her heart and mind.

"Understood." He went quiet for a moment as he regarded her. His sightless, all-seeing, obsidian gaze traveled slowly across her face. His lips were slightly parted, revealing the sharp points of his fangs. His voice deepened into a low growl. "Your sympathy is unnecessary, however, and a waste of time."

"No. It isn't. You brought me here, Dragek. This is how I am. And I know what it's like to be an outcast. So don't tell me I can't react to you in a human way— my way."

He went quiet, gently squeezing her hand, his touch warm and rough and terribly addictive.

His expression changed, turning into a curious mixture of surprise and wistfulness. Jade felt the ripple of his powerful presence all over her body, and it was like a warm, familiar blanket. She was getting used to this, and that in itself was astonishing.

How had she gone from being utterly terrified of him to feeling so comfortable in his presence?

This is the place I used to go to… when I felt like I could no longer tolerate the oppression of the Mistress in my head. That's how I was able to defy her. I walked the void between worlds and escaped. Even if it was only temporary, it was the very thing that kept me sane. Afterward, I'd be brutally punished. They couldn't handle the fact that I could escape, but they didn't know how to stop me. And I was too valuable to them. Anyway, I didn't care. As long as I could escape… even for the briefest of moments, it meant my soul was still my own. Not theirs.

Jade's chest tightened around her fluttering heart. "So this place is… sacred to you."

It's my creation. My domain. A place of yearned-for silence and stillness. It has never felt empty before, but now that I can come here whenever I choose, I can decide who I allow to join me. You… are the first.

The soft breeze tugged at Jade's unbound hair. It wasn't warm or cold, but it wasn't unpleasant, either.

She was still dressed in the soft robes she'd found in her quarters, and she was still naked underneath.

The sand danced through her toes.

Dragek's warm touch sent a ripple of anticipation through her.

He wasn't letting go.

His entire being burned with quiet intensity—she could feel it through her sixth sense, through every fiber of her body.

His dark hair was loose, fluttering gently in the breeze. It came down past his shoulders, so silky and soft she was tempted to run her fingers through it. Such a contrast with his hard, rugged features and his powerful physicality.

And he was dressed now—well, as much as he could be dressed, anyway—in long, opulent robes that reached his ankles. A deep shade of midnight grey—if grey could ever be described as rich , then this was it—they were open at the front, giving her a glimpse of his smooth, sculpted chest.

Her fingers twitched. Suddenly, she ached to place her hand upon his smooth skin.

There's a small possibility I might not come back from the place they're sending me to. You're the only one who's ever been able to reach me in the void. I thought it would be good… if we met again before I departed.

"But you're the one who left."

He chuckled softly: a low, deep rumble that slid into her ears and wove its way right down into her toes, into her bones. "If only you understood, then you would understand. "

"I refuse to believe that someone like you wouldn't survive… whatever it is they're sending you off to do. As far as I'm concerned, you have to come back. We have unfinished business, the two of us." Jade didn't quite know what that was, but after this…

How could she ignore him now? How could they exist in different worlds?

Just like that, their paths were becoming more and more intertwined.

Just like that.

Humans didn't connect like this. They couldn't. It took days, weeks, months, years . Even then, sometimes, one could get the feeling you didn't really know the other person, the one you thought you'd known the whole time.

Humans could turn from friends to strangers in an instant.

But Dragek…

Just like that, she'd seen the inside of his soul; she'd seen that it was bleak and desolate and horrifying. Despite all of that, he was beautiful.

She didn't understand anything anymore. Just that right now, his hand around hers felt good.

Right.

Like all the loose pieces of the chaotic Universe had fallen into place.

Before I depart from here, I will show you the place I've made. I'll show you what's possible. And you'll understand that the physical world is merely an illusion. Everything you thought you knew is just a surface image. It's here that you and I have real power. So come with me, Jade. Let me show you what I now know… beyond a fragment of a doubt.

Suddenly, his tone had turned reverent, and Jade was certain she had to be dreaming because she couldn't stop herself from stepping forward as he tugged gently at her hand, leading her up the sandy beach toward the ethereal grove.

A strange realization came over her.

She felt at home.

At perfect peace.

She hadn't felt like this in such a very long time—if ever.

As they walked toward the trees, she thought she caught an elusive glimmer of color shimmering in the delicate leaves.