Beyond Wild Imaginings (18 page)

Garren’s fingers caressed over hers, and she felt his shoulders move in a sigh.

“Enjoying the beautiful night sky?”

He turned and gazed down at her. His violet eyes were dark, and his face was somber. A tremor went along her spine, and she drew her breath in softly as he feathered his touch over her cheek and across her lips. “Would you like a closer look?” he whispered.

She frowned in question.

He slipped one arm around her waist and pulled her close to his body. “Put your arms around me, Kelly. Hold on tight, all right?”

She did as he said, but was confused as she did so. She locked her fingers behind his back and looked up at him, wondering what he had up his sleeve. He smiled down at her and took her face in his hands, sweeping her away in one of his tender kisses. She closed her eyes and gave herself over to him, letting him do what he would. She trusted him implicitly, and she so loved the feeling of his lips on hers.

She heard his wings unfurl, and she smiled against his lips as she felt her feet leave the ground. She held on tight and continued kissing him, loving the way she felt like she was hovering in the air. When he pulled away, she glanced around and gasped. He had flown them a good distance up into the sky, and even though they were nowhere near the stars, they seemed so much closer than they had on the ground.

“Oh my gosh, Garren,” she murmured. “This is paradise.”

He smiled and met her eyes. “Don’t look down,” he teased. Her giggle made his smile broaden. “I won’t let you fall.”

She sighed and gazed at him, completely enraptured. “I’m not worried about looking down and falling,” she murmured. “It’s looking into your eyes and falling that concerns me.”

He frowned, obviously missing what she was trying to say. “I won’t let you fall, Kelly. I promise.”

She smiled and shook her head. So much for being romantic. “No, Garren, I wasn’t being literal. It was a metaphor.”

He frowned again, but then his eyes widened as the meaning of her words seemed to dawn on him. He sucked his breath in sharply and stared at her for a long moment. “I’m sorry, Kelly. Words are not my—”

“Forte, I know.” She smiled. “It’s fine. You make up for it in every other way.”

He gave her a shy smile and tightened his arms around her. “You mean those words?” he whispered.

She gazed up at him. As frightening as it was, she did mean those words. She was falling for him. She knew it, and she was powerless to stop it. She didn’t want to stop it. Garren made her heart feel full. He made her feel alive and whole and exhilarated. She never wanted to go back to living a life without Garren. It hadn’t been living. It had been surviving, existing. Her routine had been mundane at best. She didn’t want to go back to depression and isolation and only feeling alive when she was lost in one of her books. She didn’t want to remember what that had felt like.

“Yes, Garren, I mean it.”

His grin threatened to light up the sky, and he crushed his lips to hers, marauding her mouth in a way that made her heart pound and her whole body blaze. Her fingers knotted in the fabric of his shirt as she matched his passion with her own. She didn’t care how insane it was. It didn’t matter. She wanted Garren. She wanted him for her own. That was all that mattered. That was all she wanted to focus on.

* * * *

Rachel frowned thoughtfully as she and Chad peered out of their tent door at Garren and Kelly kissing up in the sky. She sighed. “Do you think it’s weird?”

Chad glanced at her. “What?”

“Having a thing for your imaginary friend?”

Chad smiled and looked back up at Kelly and Garren. He shook his head. “No, I don’t think it’s weird, Rachel. I think she’s needed him for a very long time.”

Rachel watched them a little while longer, then felt a smile tug at her lips. “I have a strange feeling that maybe he’s needed her too.”

Chad grinned and nodded. “Yeah, I think you’re right.” He sighed and backed into the tent. “Come on, Rach. Let’s go back inside and go to bed. We’ve been voyeurs long enough. Let’s give them some privacy.”

She smiled and backed in also before zipping up the door.

Chapter Fifteen

“Kelly! Get out here! We need your help!”

Kelly was jolted awake by her sister’s voice, as well as by a not so nice slap on her backside. She sat up and shook her head, disoriented and confused. “What?” she mumbled. “What’s going on?”

“What’s going on?” Rachel screeched. “It’s pouring freaking rain, that’s what’s going on! Chad and I are swimming over here!”

Kelly frowned and slowly became aware of the thunderous sound of rain pounding against the tent ceiling. “When did it start raining?” she asked as she scooted out of her sleeping bag and located her shoes. “What time is it?” The last thing she remembered was drifting off to sleep warm and content in Garren’s arms and hoping she’d never have to sleep alone again.

That got his attention enough to make him blink rapidly in an obvious attempt to clear his vision. “What’s wrong?” he asked, still all but slurring his speech.

Kelly zipped up her jacket, not that it did much good, and bent to help Chad. A curious sensation settled around her heart, and she put her hand to her chest. She frowned, trying to decipher the feeling. It felt prickly, like a tingling, strange sort of apprehension that quickly blossomed into all out dread. Cold waves of fear washed over her, and she spun to look at Garren. Panic gripped her and squeezed until she couldn’t take a whole breath. He was standing in front of the tent, looking down at his hands as his entire body went from solid to completely see-through and back again. “Garren,” she whispered.

Kelly’s eyes widened as Garren doubled over and let out a pain-laden shout. “Garren!” she cried, running to him. “What is it? What’s wrong?” She went to take him by the shoulders, but her hands went right through him, and she stumbled forward with a startled cry. She tramped through the mud, but she lost her footing and fell to her hands and knees. She started shaking so badly that her arms wouldn’t hold her up. She sank to the ground and sat on the sodden dirt, not caring. She braved a look back over at Garren as her heart threatened to pound right from her chest. By now, Rachel and Chad had realized that something was wrong, and they were staring at Garren in shock and horror as his shape continued to waver.

“Garren,” Kelly murmured, tears filling her eyes. “Please tell me what’s going on.”

He was still in obvious pain, but he tried to mask it as he stepped toward her. “Something isn’t right, Kelly. I-I don’t know what it is. I have to go back.”

She blinked, and her tears spilled over her lashes and down her cheeks, mingling with the rain that already stained her skin. “Go back? What do you mean? Do you need me and Rachel to play again? Do I need to say the rhyme? Tell me what to do, and I’ll do it.”

His features softened, and he knelt down in front of her, his body wavering and flickering like a candle in a hurricane. “This is bigger than us, little one,” he whispered.

Her heart squeezed tight in her chest and she choked back a sob. “What do you mean? I don’t understand.”

His brow furrowed, and he winced. “This has something to do with the entire realm, Kelly, not just you and me. Something is very wrong. I have to go back.”

She shook her head adamantly and reached out to try to grasp his wrist. Her fingers closed around nothing, and she bit her bottom lip to keep from crying out in near hysteria. “Please, don’t go,” she whimpered. “I’m afraid if you go I’ll never see you again.”

“I don’t have a choice, Kelly.” His voice was choked, and a fine sheen of sweat broke out over his forehead. “This is something I cannot control. It is taking all my effort to remain here right now.” He met her eyes and tried to force a smile. “I promise I’ll return to you, little one. You have my word. When I find out what’s going on, I will return.”

Her tears were as relentless as the pouring rain. “But what if you don’t?” She was terrified of losing him, terrified of going back to her life before he’d been in it. She couldn’t imagine waking up without him now. Her heart beat stronger when she was with him. The world seemed to make more sense, and everything seemed so much more beautiful.

He leaned close to her and put his mouth to her ear. “Nothing in this realm or any other can keep me from you,” he whispered. “I swear this on my life, I will return to you.” He pulled back to look into her eyes, and he reached his fingers up to touch her cheek, even though she could barely feel him. What would normally be his comforting, soothing touch just felt like a wisp of wind against her skin. “Kelly…”

She forced herself to look into his beautiful eyes, even though it was the hardest thing she’d ever had to do.

“I love you.”

She drew in a great, shuddering breath and tried to reach out to him one more time, but he dissipated right as she did so, and she was left grasping the empty air. “No!” she cried. “No, Garren! Please, come back!”

“Kelly!” Rachel ran to her with Chad hard on her heels.

Kelly collapsed into sobs as her sister knelt next to her and caught her in her arms. He couldn’t leave her. He couldn’t! He held half of her heart. How was she supposed to keep on existing with half a heart when she knew now what it was like to live with a whole one? She felt his absence already. He’d only been gone for two seconds, and her heart felt divided. It was terrible.

“Kelly, it’s okay,” Chad said, trying to console her.

“No, it’s not okay!” she spat. “What if something is horribly wrong? What if he never comes back?” She was not usually someone who gave into dramatic displays of emotion, but she couldn’t stop the way she was reacting. Grief and fear unlike anything she’d ever known gripped at her and would not loosen its hold. It was true that something supernatural linked Garren and her. It was the only thing that made sense. She had given him part of her and, without that part, without Garren, she would always feel empty. It was fine before him. She hadn’t known any different. But now, without him, her life would always feel like a pathetic shade of something much better.

“Kelly, look at me.”

Surprisingly, Rachel’s words cut through Kelly’s hysteria. She blinked up at her sister, who stared at her with a strange sort of conviction.

“Garren will come back to you,” she said. “He loves you.”

Kelly shook her head. “But how do you know?”

“He has always loved you. Even when we were children, he loved you different than all of our guardians loved us. You were everything to him, even then. He will come back to you. I think he has too much determination to have it any other way.”

Kelly remembered how Garren had spoken about being different from the other Lucienus. How he’d refused to give up and die like his brethren. He’d said he was better and stronger because of Kelly’s creative power. If that was the case, then maybe Rachel’s words were true. Maybe whatever had pulled him back to the Creative Realm was something he could fight off. Maybe he had that much strength of will… Yes, she had to believe that was the case. She couldn’t afford to believe another way. It hurt too much to consider any other possibility.

* * * *

It was two days before Kelly was even able to get out of bed. Garren’s absence had hit her harder than she’d ever expected. She’d been heartbroken before. She’d had her heart ripped out, stomped on, and torn to bits, but she’d never felt like it was missing before.

After Garren’s disappearance, Rachel and Chad had been quick about getting everything packed up and taking Kelly back home. After her hysterics had abated, Kelly had just sat and stared for the longest time, feeling cold and empty and aching inside. She’d frightened Chad and Rachel so much that they’d decided to alternate staying with her.

For twenty-four hours, Kelly had remained in her zombielike state. It was surreal and horrible, and all she’d wanted to do was go to sleep for the rest of her entire life. She’d at least been able to function the next day, but the sadness that swarmed her was overwhelming to the point where all she did was stay in bed and cry. To Rachel’s credit, she’d been nicer and more attentive than she’d ever been, but it hadn’t made much of a difference. In all honesty, Kelly wished that everyone would just leave her alone, but she knew that was never going to happen. They were all as confused and weirded out by recent events as she was. Kelly should have explained about how Garren held half of her heart, but she knew they’d never really understand. Well, Chad would, but she didn’t want to have to go through it. It hurt. That was all she knew and all they needed to know.

It wouldn’t have been so bad if she’d known what was happening, if she knew where he was, or what was going on. If she knew whether or not he was ever going to come back. Not knowing was the terrible part. It was awful to not know if she would ever have the chance to tell him how much she truly loved him. She’d been afraid to tell him. She’d been afraid of their connection. It hadn’t made sense to love an imaginary man, but Garren was not imaginary. He was as real as she was, just different. And she knew now that it was impossible not to love Garren. He was part of her. They were part of each other. It was inevitable. Any other relationship she’d been in had only been a sham. That was why she’d never been able to find a decent man. Her heart had always only belonged to one man. She had been waiting her entire life for Garren to return to her. It was only with him that she could really know love. No human man would ever do because her heart was not hers to give to him. She’d willingly given it to Garren when she was eight years old, and it had been his to hold ever since.