Never Let You Fall (The Prophecy of Tyalbrook) (26 page)

Skye

Something had pulled me from a deep sleep and I jerked awake, slightly disoriented, to find myself in the middle of a glowing meadow. The moonlight shone brightly down onto a sparkling lake. All around me were glowing flowers; bright neon flashes sparkled and lit the meadow. I was dimly reminded of being in a club with a black light.

A sad melody hummed though the still night air. I twisted around in vain, looking for where it was coming from.

Weeping willows surrounded the meadow. Their low branches danced in the breeze to the mysterious chiming of music.

Standing up, I drifted towards the lake. It sparkled like a million diamonds in the moonlight, calling me to get closer.

A light splash sounded.

As I made my way closer to the water’s edge, I spotted a rainbow of shimmering color as it swam just below the surface. The flashes were just far enough in depth that I couldn’t make out what type of fish they were.

A sudden bolt of lightning wrenched through the night sky and caused fear to course through my veins.

“So. This is the Princess of Tyalbrook,” crooned a smooth voice directly behind me.

I whirled around and lost my balance, almost toppling into the water. An arm shot out to steady me.

“Careful now, you don’t want to go for a midnight swim with them.”

After righting myself, I found the owner of the voice who stood before me, and was stunned. As gorgeously beautiful as Xander, with his chiseled face and hard bulky muscles, the young man who stood before me was the exact opposite but just as beautiful.

He was tall and slender. I could tell that his long arms were strong by his grip on me, but they were lean like a swimmer’s would be. If he hadn’t been so pale, I might have mistaken him for a California surfer boy. His long, blonde hair hung in waves around his chin, down his neck and to his collar; neatly tucked behind his ears. And that’s when it struck me. His ears.

“You’re an elf!” I blurted out, taking in the slight curvature of his ear up to a small point.

“Yes,” he drawled in a beautiful accent. “And you are a Princess,” he teased, as he pulled me from the water’s edge.

His features were boyish, perhaps even more like a girl’s would be: rounded chin, soft cheeks and bright blue eyes. He was ethereal, almost angelic in appearance, which made him absolutely breathtaking. A glowing halo of light surrounded him, making him seem even more angelic.

“How do you know who I am?” I questioned, panicking a little at being found out this early in the quest.

“We are magical creatures, milady. You can’t hide your true self from us. Welcome back to Tyalbrook…we have been eagerly awaiting your return.”

He bowed low and smiled, letting go of my arm as I tugged it back to my side.

I stepped around him in order to put a few paces between us before I turned back to him. “Since you know who I am, do I get the same courtesy?”

“You may call me Griffin,” he declared, looking up at the twinkling sky as another flash went off. “You’re very lovely.”

“Lovely? No, you are the one who is lovely,” I acknowledged reluctantly. “Now where are we, and how did I get here?”

His face softened at my praise of his looks. “We are in the Enchanted Forest, and you are sleeping. I found you wandering here. The flowers were singing for you and I heard them.”

The flowers were singing? I spun around and looked at the glowing flowers again. I bent down and put my ear closer to the nearest one. The lilting song that came from the flower brought tears to my eyes.

“Do not be sad, Princess. They rejoice at your return!” he smiled, and stepped closer to me again.

“This is amazing! I never thought that someplace like this could exist.”

“Well you did know, once upon a time. Your mother brought you here several times as an infant.”

“She did?” I breathed, and twisted on my heel to look at Griffin. “How would you know? You can’t be much older than I am!”

Laughter bubbled out of his mouth as his eyes scanned over me.

“I am older than I appear. I knew your mother once as I know you. I can tell by the shock on your face that you are still confused.” Several flashes crisscrossed the sky again and were followed by a loud boom of thunder. “I’m afraid we may not have much time, Princess.”

“Time? Time for what?” I interrupted.

His eyes had taken on a sense of urgency. His voice, which had been pleasant before, now sounded more firm, laced with an edge of panic.

“Listen to me. There are many in Tyalbrook who will want to use you, Princess. To marry you. There is much evil here. Many men will tell you to stay away from us, but I am here to offer you my protection.”

My head swirled. “Protection? How can you offer protection?”

“Skye!” I heard my name being called. It sounded fuzzy to my ears, and echoed like it came from a megaphone on the far side of the field. “Skye?”

Griffin stepped toward me and placed his hands on my shoulders, pinning me to that spot. Part of me was terrified and wanted nothing more than to pull away, but the other part was mesmerized as he stared into my eyes; watching as his angelic features glowed in front of me.

“We will speak again soon, Princess. We have much to discuss. Do not trust the men you meet. They are all full of greed and desire power. They have no love for this Kingdom. Don’t mention this meeting to your Guardian or the witch, Princess…”

I felt Griffin and the garden slowly go out of focus, as the voice that had called my name became clearer.

“Skye, come on baby. Wake up.”

Popping awake, I found Xander hovering over me with a worried look on his face.

“Xander? What’s wrong?”

“What’s wrong? You tell me! You were mumbling in your sleep and it woke me up. When I looked over at you, I saw that you were shaking uncontrollably. I was on my way to cover you when I saw that you were crying.”

He stroked the damp hair from my face and I felt the wetness of tears I didn’t know I’d shed.

“Oh,” I sighed. “I’m sorry for waking you. I’m fine, really.” I placed my hand on his cheek to soothe his worried expression and attempted to reassure him. “I promise. I was just dreaming, I guess…and I am cold, but I’m okay.”

“Come here, then.” His voice was ragged and filled with sleep as he held his hand out and pulled me up. He wrapped his arms around me and rubbed my back, letting me tuck my cold fingers in between our bodies to get warm.

“Come lay with me by the fire,” he whispered into my ear, his hot breath causing me to shiver more. I could only nod at his suggestion. He bent down, picked up my thin blanket and pulled me over to his makeshift pallet. As we walked by the small fire that he had been attending, he dropped a log onto it.

Xander had been sleeping propped up against a tree. He sat back down, pulling me to sit in front of him, and covered me with both of our blankets. The fire was close enough to cast a glow over us and to slightly warm the blankets.

Xander’s chest was warm, and I found my fingers creeping into the tunic he wore as I tried to search out that heat. He leapt a bit when my icy fingers found his skin, and I heard him suck in his breath.

“Sorry,” I whispered, pulling them back.

“No,” he whispered back. His hands found my wrists and he guided my hands back onto his chest. “Stay there. Warm up your hands, Skye. They’re freezing!”

The intimacy of pressing my fingers to his bare chest was warming me up faster than he knew. One arm was wrapped around my shoulder, pulling me tightly into him, while his fingers aimlessly traced circles over my upper arm. Even through the fabric of my dress and cape, his gentle touch sent shock waves through my body.

His other arm, after pressing my hand back onto his skin, had actually started to wander down to my hip, making me hold my breath for a moment. Although once there, he simply stopped and rested it there gently.

Both relief and disappointment flared through me when he stopped exploring my body. Deep down I knew nothing was going to happen between us, but the feelings he gave me, just by being around, were so strong. I couldn’t help the urges he awakened in me.

I tried to think back over the strange dream I’d just experienced as I lay in his arms. It had felt so real! I could almost believe that it
was
real, except that I knew I’d only been asleep. Xander had woken me up, for goodness sake! How weird my life has become, I mused.

Content, we lay there in silence for a while before I finally spoke. I whispered so that I wouldn’t wake Selene, who was across the fire from us asleep.

“Xander? Why do you always tell me that you’ll never let me fall? Like, where did that come from?”

“It was a promise I made to you long ago, and once I did, you kept repeating it back to me. I guess it kind of became our thing,” he replied. His voice betrayed no other emotion, but I felt the hand at my hip curl into my dress, almost as if he were tightening his grip on me.

I tried to lift my head to see his face, but the way I was pinned into his body, his head rested on mine. My cheek was so warm against his chest that I hated to move it. So I remained, but continued to prod him for answers.

“Why did you make that promise? What were the circumstances?”

“I wish you could remember me, Skye,” he whispered as his chin rubbed my head. “God, how I want you to remember us. To know who I am.”

Feeling emboldened by the longing in his voice, I ran my hand along his chest and wrapped it around his waist. I pulled my legs closer to his and lifted my top leg gently; resting it on top of his. I was trying to get as close as I could to him. His voice and his words just made me want to crawl inside of him.

“You cold, still?”

I chickened out of admitting that I’d just wanted to touch him and shook my head. Feeling my body shiver, more from his touch than the cold, I hinted, “The ground is cold.”

He needed no additional prodding from me. Instead, he moved his hand from my hip and scooped up both of my legs to pull me fully onto his lap. He repositioned the blankets, which actually helped to cover him, now that I was on him.

“Better?”

I was going to make a joke about how I must be crushing him, until I felt his hand begin to wander again. But this time, instead of landing on my hip it actually cupped my backside. This time
I
was the one gasping for air.

“The promise, huh? I guess I can share that one with you,” he teased, pretending that he hadn’t heard my sharp intake of breath at where his hand now rested. His thumb rubbed back and forth and I noticed that I was definitely warming up now. Just in all the wrong places.

I snuggled up to his chest and swallowed hard as I allowed his hand to softly caress my bottom, waiting patiently for him to begin his story.

“It’s actually nothing spectacular, you know. I guess you were about four and I was six, and we were at the park with my parents one morning. You’d been playing around in the little jungle gym house while my dad made me do the monkey bars and balance beams.

“You see, he’d been training me even back then. He always kept me working on my strength and coordination. I guess you must have been watching me, because after I swung across the bars you climbed up onto the platform and called out to us, ‘Let me try!’ You were so cute with your little pigtails, and I remember dad telling you no, because we were on the big bars, but he offered to take you to the toddler ones.”

He chuckled then. I wished for the second time since we’d sat down together that I could lift my head to see his face. He sounded far away, lost in a memory, as he continued.

“You stomped your little foot and said, ‘No! Let me try!’ So I looked at my dad and he just shrugged and smiled back at me. He adored your stubbornness just as much as I did. I jumped down and stood to the side to watch, and he positioned himself right in front of you to help you go. But you would have none of it. You shook your head and pointed your finger at me and said, ‘Xander can catch me. NOT daddy’”.

Softly, Xander continued, “Dad stepped back and let me move into place, but I could barely reach your feet once you were hanging, so I had to tell you no - which made you
very
unhappy. I swear, Skye - you looked down at me and although you were only four, your eyes…”