“Don’t worry, Wynny. One day, you will be brave enough to follow that laugh.”
I looked at him at the statement and the confidence it held behind it. I knew it was true, and I knew I wanted to. I couldn’t, not yet. Not when I held so much guilt in my heart about what had happened. About what I had done.
“You and Thom, both. You will find peace. Happiness.” Talon spoke deeply, his voice breaking in an emotion that cut through me because of the jealousy and resentment I had never wanted him to feel.
I had chosen to leave Talon in whatever life awaited us beyond this one without me. I had also chosen to live, to be near a man who tamed me. A man I still desperately loved. And everyone knew it.
Thom.
The blood drained from my face at the realization, at the guilt that was taking over. I wanted to tell him not to worry, to beg him not to think that way, but I couldn’t, because it wouldn’t be true.
“I want you to always be happy, Wyn.” The words were a stab to the gut, the phrasing exactly what he had told me only moments before he had died, before I had chosen to live and left him for what I had thought would be forever.
“Be happy.” He leaned down and whispered the last words in my ear, his voice so soft and gentle it ran down my spine in a ripple of pleasure and relaxation that took all my confusion and guilt from before away.
I shivered at the touch, at the words, as the grey sky before us broke open, the golden light that had been smothered rushing through in ribbons as it escaped its confines. It bathed the courtyard in a yellow glow that made everything glitter and come alive. It was the same sanctuary we had sought so often before, creating a calmness that moved into me as I turned toward him. His fingers were soft as he ran them over my cheek, as his eyes pulled me into him.
“I am not sure how this works, if this is real or if it will be here again. For all I know, our T?uhas have been broken, and this is part of your delusions.” He laughed at his declaration, but I couldn’t. Not when everything felt so real, not when I didn’t want to lose this.
“I hope not.”
“So do I.” He sighed into my ear, his breath warm as it ran pleasurably over my skin. “But, if I’m not here the next time you find this place, know that I love you, that I adore you, and that I will see you again soon.”
“Talon…” I tried to stop him, tried to declare the same love and passion to him that he had for me, but before I could get more than one word out into the air between us, he stopped me with words that in some weird way meant more to me than any other.
“You gave all the love that I needed. So shy, like a child who had grown. You’re my lady.” He spoke them gently, lyrics to the band I had so foolishly worshiped for so long, the band he had playfully declared his distaste for since I first found them in the 70s. Regardless, he said them. He said them loud and clear as he looked into me and captured my heart yet again.
“Go save that beautiful girl of yours. I can’t wait to meet her.”
His words faded as the brilliance of the sun washed everything into a bright white glow. Warmth seeped into me before the T?uha faded into reality, leaving me gasping on my bed as I woke.
I blinked into the room I had spent most of the day before within, ripping apart and removing all traces of Talon and who I was. I let my eyes adjust to the dim light of what I could only assume to be dawn, the steadily increasing light glimmering over the ancient, wooden rafters above me.
“Good morning, Wynifred.” Sain’s voice was soft beside me, and the last fragments of the dream faded away with the calm words.
Muscles ached in a dull throb that tensed through my weak body as I turned to him. Even though it had been a few days since Joclyn had removed the curse from my body, I still ached, like a body flu mixed with a muscle transplant surgery. I was sure the fact that everything in this abbey was a veritable soap opera didn’t help, either. Then again, if it was a soap opera, it would have been at least mildly humorous.
There wasn’t really anything funny about the dangers that had taken up residence both inside the abbey and out.
Sain sat in the old chair near my bed with a wide grin plastered to his face as he slowly sipped on the disgusting filth both he and Joclyn now called food. My stomach twisted a bit at the memory of Joclyn, sitting surrounded by all those feathers after her fight with Ilyan, shaking and broken as she drank the Black Water.
It was truly bizarre how everything had changed for the both of us. Too much change, too fast. Jayne would want to blow something up. I would, too.