It was still very early. I took a deep breath of dawn air as the sun crested the horizon, the last of the stars winking out of the sky. It seemed as if nothing stirred, but I knew the Heights never slept, even as night passed the torch to day.
I trotted down to the small pond that was starting to disappear as the sun continued to rise. In an hour or so, this area would be dry until nightfall. There were so many wonders in the Heights, and this definitely was high up on my list of unimaginable places.
Kneeling, I splashed cool water on my face and over my arms. My reflection stared back at me, slightly distorted by the rippling of the pool. Sometimes I still didn’t recognize myself. It wasn’t just physical traits, like my eyes, but little things that I couldn’t put my finger on.
“You thinking about taking a dip?”
His voice made my belly flutter. “Not in a million years.”
Dash planted his butt down in the grass beside me, his shoulder touching mine. “Thank God. I wasn’t really looking forward to fishing you out of Moonshadow Falls.”
“Something scares Dash Darhk? I didn’t think anything got to you.”
“You in danger doesn’t sit well with me.”
I cleared my throat and moved to a safer topic. “The water looks so clear and inviting. Not going to lie, I would love to jump in, and the thought did cross my mind. I bet I smell like day-old funk.”
Silver sparkles leapt into the depth of his eyes. We were so close I could count his individual eyelashes. “It wouldn’t matter. Your funk still smells good.”
I grinned. “And that shows how weird you are.”
He arched a single brow. “If I’m weird, what does that make you?”
“Out of my mind.” I folded my legs underneath me and stared at the water inching farther and farther away. “You know what I miss the most?”
“Enlighten me.”
“My cell phone.”
He chuckled softly. “I miss M&M’s … and Cheez-Its.”
“Oh my God, yes. Sweet and salty. I would die for a bucket of movie theater popcorn and Sno-Caps.” It was the most natural of things to fall back into an old routine with Dash. I found him easy to be around, even when half the time he made my blood pressure rise.
“Okay, this is becoming torture.” His bone-melting smile made my insides gooey.
“Me or the food?” Shit. I immediately regretted my spontaneous reply. Flirting with the Slayer had not been on my agenda. The words had just popped out. I winced, covering my face with my hands. “That came out wrong.”
Dash gave me an appraising look. “Since it is obvious you want to know, I was talking about the food.” He winked, contradicting what he’d just said.
I rolled my eyes. He was hot. I mean drool-worthy, lip-smacking hot. But until he told me I was the only girl he wanted to be with, I was going on a Dash hiatus. “We should probably wake Star and get moving.” I pushed to my feet and pivoted away from him.
“Freckles, wait.”
I stopped only two feet from where I’d been, but I didn’t turn around immediately. I was afraid of what I might do. Being close to him this morning had unlocked the feelings I had so foolishly thought I could bury. Regardless that I told myself to keep walking, I found my heels slowly spinning back to face him.
“You were right about what you said earlier, about you and me.” He regarded me with dazzling eyes, the expression on his face unreadable. “Things are different. I’d thought about finding Ash and my family for so long, I hadn’t figured out anything past that. Or what it would be like seeing her. Or having feelings for someone else. I’m trying to deal with it all and keep you both alive.”
I chewed on my lip. “You’re exceptionally good at it. I’m still here.”
“Don’t give up on me just yet … on us.”
My heart swelled. “I’m trying not to.”
Chapter Fifteen
A vision whisked me from the present, tossing me I wasn’t sure where, but it couldn’t possibly be good. My skin prickled with tiny bumps of alarm. I’d been walking side by side with Star and Dash, winding through an overgrown path of the Misty Grove when my vision suddenly went black for a few seconds. Then the darkness cleared, and I expected something to be different, to be transported somewhere new. Visions often took me to unanticipated locations.
I stood alone, surrounded by trees much like the ones we’d been traipsing through for the last few days. Ivy and moss dangled overhead from the branches, and as my eyes circled the woods, a dark shadow came up behind me, snapping a twig. Not alone after all.
Spinning around, my hair flared out in the air, and my first inkling was the Night’s Guard had found us, but the man who materialized didn’t wear the standard blue uniform. There was nothing familiar about his face; he was no one I’d ever seen or met before, and yet a horrible feeling sunk inside me. My gaze moved past him to a disturbing scene. I couldn’t believe what I saw, didn’t want to believe it.
My stomach pitched as I stared at Dash, a look of pure horror on his chiseled face. He was standing, bow drawn. I couldn’t see what lay beyond him, so I bolted forward, but the shadow man intercepted. He wasn’t quick enough.
My world shifted as I shook my head from side to side, my brain rejecting what I had seen. If this was Dash’s, Star’s, and my future, I had to find a way to prevent it from ever coming to pass.
“You have two choices, Slayer. Who will it be?” posed a voice of pure evil to Dash.
No! I screamed inside my head. As visions went, this one brought exceptional gloom and doom.
One of us would die? Star or me?
I was sucked back into the present, and my first thought was to warn Dash, but fate had other plans. I expected to be lying on the ground with Dash and Star hovering over me, asking me if I was okay. This tended to happen when I dropped dead into a vision. Nope. Not this time. I wasn’t on my back staring at the blue sky, but still on two feet. I didn’t know how long I’d blacked out for during the premonition. It could have only been seconds or minutes. Turned out, it was long enough for us to have been ambushed.
“Welcome back, Sweetcakes,” a strangled whisper came from behind me a moment before a hand covered my mouth.
I screamed, but the pressure of his grip intensified, and then his foot kicked the backs of my knees, forcing me to the ground. Something cool pressed on the side of my neck. I didn’t need to be a psychic to know it was a blade. The images from my vision flashed through my mind, all too fresh and real.
A whimper pierced through the roaring in my head, except it wasn’t mine. My eyes shifted to the right, the fear I felt inside me doubling. Star. She was on her knees about ten feet from me in the same position I was. Tears tracked down her pale cheeks, her eyes so big they could have popped out.
With horror, my eyes went to where I was certain I would find Dash, regardless that with every fiber of my being I wanted to be wrong.