*Sasha*
I started with the kiss... or almost kiss. Or rather, I simply said, “When we were drinking wine....” to give us both an out.
Lucas nodded, his stubbly chin grazing against my temple.
“And I disappeared. I went sowhere... else,” I explained.
“Where did you go?” Lucas asked.
I closed my eyes, still able to envision the place clearly in my mind.
***
As I knelt and scread in the place of vast rows of columns, shimring ghosts floated out from the ether, surrounding . They seed to block out the emotions that weren’t mine that had threatened to tear apart.
I was grateful on the one hand. On the other hand, I was surrounded by ghosts.
Ghosts....
My own fear began creeping up inside, but the ghosts didn’t mob and remained benevolent and protective around , so eventually I cald down. I stood and took a really good look around.
Though at first glance it seed this place was entirely made of columns, stretched infinitely in all directions, a soft glow to one side brought my eyes to far off torchlight, and a wall.
Though they didn’t speak, I felt a kind of impulse from the ghosts to move in that direction.
I walked, my steps hesitant at first, then more confident as my ghost protectors remained around . Strangely, I took only three steps and reached the wall that had appeared at least a mile off.
“What is this place?” I asked but got no answer.
The wall had glyphs etched into it of forgotten languages, not even recorded in modern libraries. They were beautiful prayers to the Moon Goddess. I had no idea how, but here I could read the words, even though I’d never learned them.
Between these prayers were stunning pieces of art, paintings and drawings, sculptures and bronze figures, renderings of all kinds of the Moon Goddess.
The ghosts did not give ti to linger over every piece, though each was exquisite.
Soft music of prayer and praise to the Moon Goddess threaded through the air, and I felt at peace.
The wall then led into a great, round room. My ghost protectors fanned out along the walls of this room, which unlike the wall and the columns, was simply an iridescent white.
In the center of the room was an altar. And perched on top of that, on a white and gold pillow, was the bejeweled Moon Goddess herself.
I stumbled backward, not sure whether to bow, curtsy, or prostrate myself on the floor.
It was her... the really, really, real actual Moon Goddess herself.
I rubbed my eyes, peeked out from behind my fists, then pinched myself.
The pain told this was no dream. I was standing before the Moon Goddess.
Standing.
I started to bow, then wiggled that into a curtsy, but the Moon Goddess simply held up one ethereal white hand.
In her other, the orb, the very one Lucas had showed , appeared.
My stomach turned and I wondered what evil magic would put back in the presence of that... thing.
“Take this,” the Moon Goddess said, her voice as loud as a thunderclap yet soft as butterfly wings. “Save them.”
Her tone brooked no argunt.
With a wary cringe, I approached the orb, feeling nothing but peace and love from the Moon Goddess herself. What was I supposed to do? Say “no” to the Moon Goddess?
Who says “no” to the Moon Goddess?
I reached out and touched the orb, feeling it hum with a power I didn’t understand.
The Moon Goddess nodded approvingly.
“Moon Goddess,” I hazarded. “Who am I supposed to save?”
But the world was swirling again, and I was in Lucas’s kitchen.
Seeing Lucas holding a hot pink palm tree mug the size of his head should have made laugh. The bewildered expression on his face should have made laugh more.
But I was afraid if I started laughing now, I’d dissolve into hysteria.
“Lucas?” I asked, his gray, bloodshot eyes drawing in like gravity, holding to this plane.
And then he was holding ... and emotions burst through like fireworks of all kinds and colors.
I didn’t tell him that part, though.
***
“... and now I’m supposed to save soone with that stupid orb,” I concluded, mumbling the last into his shoulder.
Lucas let go of just long enough so that he could transfer to his side, his strong arm holding against him.
“This orb?” Lucas asked, lifting it off the floor.
Scotch dripped off it like foul-slling blood, and I jerked away from it and from Lucas.
“No,” I murmured, shaking my head. “No. I can’t. I....” I felt my eyes welling up. “I want to go ho. I don’t want that thing.”
“Okay, okay,” Lucas soothed, taking a step away from with great reluctance. On both our parts. “I’ll put it away sowhere. You don’t need to go.”
“I need to go,” I insisted. “I want to go ho. I want to go ho!”
Lucas quickly dropped the orb in the sink and ca back to , taking my hands. “Stay, Sasha,” he whispered. “Stay with .”
I couldn’t. I just couldn’t, not while that thing was here.
“I’m sorry,” I said, and I backed away toward the door. “Ian?” I called. “Ian?!”
The chauffeur appeared in a pair of striped pajamas and an honest-to-Goddess sleeping cap. “Miss Wentley?”
“I want to go ho,” I begged, looking back at Lucas.
Lucas sighed. “Ian, don’t bother getting changed. Just take Miss Wentley ho.”
Ian raised an eyebrow but gave an acquiescent nod. “As you wish.”
I started after Ian, but Lucas corrected my course. “He’ll pull around front.”
Tears streaked down my cheeks as I looked up at Lucas. “I’m sorry,” I whispered.
Lucas cupped my face, thumbing away my tears. “It’s okay, my princess. We can work all this out later.”
With a soft kiss to my forehead, he let go.
***
I don’t know how I looked returning to the dorm room I shared with Amanda, because the second she saw , she pulled into a hug.
“Damn, girl. Lucas trouble?” she asked, walking us into our dorm room.
“Why does it have to be Lucas trouble?” I mumbled, letting her sit down on the edge of my bed.
“Girl, there is only one thing in the universe that can twist you up so hard you have that look on your face. And he’s about six foot four with gray eyes, just-fucked hair, and an ass that’s just begging to be grabbed,” Amanda inford .
I inclined my head. As much as Amanda’s graphic description was feeding my little green monster, I had to agree with her. “He does have a nice ass.”
“See? There you go. So how did Mr. Can’t-Make-Up-His-Mind screw with your head today?” Amanda asked.
“He asked to stay,” I said.
Amanda’s eyebrows almost disappeared into her hairline. “And this is a bad thing? I thought we’d been hoping he’d co to so kind of decision.”
“I don’t know if he’s really decided, or was just trying to hold onto , because I disappeared,” I replied.
“Dis-disappeared?” Amanda echoed, blinking in confusion. “Okay, there’s a story here I’m not getting.”
I sighed, then told her the whole story, from my weird reaction to the orb and subsequent disappearance to Lucas’s experience of having been ripped out of the fabric of ti and space, as though I’d never existed at all.
Amanda’s jaw dropped. “Yeah, I would have left him with that fucking orb, too. Moon Goddess. I can’t believe I would have forgotten you!”
“Apparently, you hit on him,” I grumbled.
“Well, that I can believe. If it weren’t for the crazy shit going on between you two, I’d climb him like a jungle gym,” Amanda said.
“It’s not that crazy,” I hedged. “He’s afraid getting involved with is going to ruin his stupid career. I guess I’m kind of worried about the sa–his career and mine. We’re trying to keep it professional... but then we’re not....” I trailed off, knowing just how convoluted it all sounded.
“Uh-huh,” Amanda snorted. “What did he do to you, anyway?”
“Well, before the orb disappeared , I think he was going to kiss . Then when I got back, he hugged and kissed my foreh–“
“I an when you were kids,” Amanda said. “Though I wouldn’t mind revisiting this almost kissing, kissing thing you two have going on.”
My heart sank as my mind went back to that day. But, I shook it off. “That doesn’t matter right now.”
Amanda’s face turned uncharacteristically serious as she took my hand in hers.
“When you’re blotted from existence and the Moon Goddess gets involved, I’d say everything between you and Lucas Black matters now.”
“It’s just a coincidence,” I insisted.
“I’m not normally the one to talk about fate and destiny and all that, but look at everything that’s happened since the two of you reconnected.”
I took a deep breath and shook my head.
“It might help to just talk about it,” she said sincerely.
“We were just kids,” I began softly, “and he was a red faced, snot nosed, entitled little brat. He was irritating and obnoxious and... Goddess, he was such a jerk.”
I took a mont to breathe. “There was a bracelet that I wore everyday. My mother told it was for protection, like a talisman. It was old and irreplaceable. It protected . One day Lucas snatched it off my wrist. He and his friends tossed it around trying to keep it from ... I cried and cried and finally he threw it on the ground and stepped on it. He broke it.”
I trailed off, unsure if I could continue, but Amanda took my silence to an that the story was over....
“That was a very shitty thing to do,” she said. “I would slap him too. But, now you’ve almost kissed and made up, right?
I smiled, letting the remaining details slip away unspoken.
“Almost, but that would be a mistake. We both could get in trouble for unprofessional conduct. I’m not going to let anything that has to do with Lucas Black ruin my future.”
“What if your future is with him?” Amanda asked, batting her eyelashes.
“I... honestly don’t know,” I said softly. “It’s not like I’ll know if he’s my mate or not until my birthday. And even then....”
“You would reject him?”
I shook my head. ”No, he might reject . He’s very focused on his career. I’m... I don’t know....”
“Pfft.” Amanda waved a hand in the air. “He’s hot for you like a man crawling out of the desert who spotted a vending machine. If you’re his mate, what he’s gonna do is get you in bed and then get you in babies up to your eyeballs. Even if you’re not mates, you’re gonna have hot sex for the rest of your lives.”
I wrinkled my nose. “I don’t think I want to be up to my eyeballs in babies, at least not until I’ve established myself.”
“Good for you,” Amanda said, playfully slugging my shoulder. “Yeah, I want to take so ti to explore and shit before I et my mate. Have fun, you know?”
“It’s the turn of the century, Amanda. Won don’t have to chain themselves to the stove once they et their mate anymore,” I chuckled.
Amanda shrugged. “So they say. But half the female student body are still going to university to get their missus degree.”
“Their what?” I asked.
“Missus degree,” Amanda explained. “You know, hoping their mate is a well-educated university guy with a good future ahead. I’ve seen so many girls drop out of my program once they hit twenty-one....”
I frowned. Co to think of it, so had I. Had tis really changed so little?
“That’s not going to be ,” I said firmly.
“ neither,” Amanda agreed. “So, you know, don’t put all the eggs in his basket. You never know. If he turns out to be one of those ‘woman-get--a-sandwich’ type guys, maybe you’ll end up rejecting him.”
I pursed my lips in thought.
Yeah, I decided. If it ca down to it, maybe I would be the one rejecting him. Though, the idea made my heart ache.
#
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