Page 52

Amias

"This place is great!" Ignatia chuckles as she falls back onto the bed. "It feels so lavish!"

We are in the bedroom of the lake house.

It’s a decent size, with a big window overlooking the lake.

The walls show off curves and patterns within the wood it was cut from and the floor is soft cream colored carpet.

The big bed has finely made fake furs covering it and pillows that might melt under your head.

"It is, isn't it?" I walk over to the bed as she turns over and buries her face into a pillow.

"Definitely, and it's away from the city."

I nod my head. "I love this place for the same reasons."

Her adorable smile turns into a devious smirk as she lifts her head from the pillow. "There is only one thing that can make this place a whole lot better."

I raise a brow. "And what is that?"

She reaches for my shirt and pulls me in for a kiss. Warmth overtakes my cheeks as I close my eyes and accept it. Before I know it, her tongue is sweetly caressing mine.

She lets go of my shirt as her hands hold my cheeks, her kisses becoming more and more rough. I lay my hands on either side of her, pinning her against the bed.

It's been too long since we've kissed.

She gets her hands down on my collared shirt and starts to unbutton. I almost jump back with each one being undone. A small rumble comes from her mouth, when the warmth within me is enough to cook me from the inside.

She slowly pulls away, her eyes glowing purple. I can't help but allow myself to burn under the gaze of violet fire. My heart pounds for her. My own eyes strain, reflecting pink light onto her cheeks.

What exactly am I getting myself into?

"What do you say about continuing from where we were last time?” she purrs softly.

A part of me wants to whisper my desires and keep feeding this thrill that's rushing through my veins. More than ever, I want to give into this weakness under her gaze.

But the back of my mind speaks in concern. I don't know much about dreamscreechers or what it would be like to be with one. Each moment with her is pure bliss but I can't ignore the fact that I could be in the dark about a lot of things.

I don't really know enough to go through with this. Besides, we're in a kingdom that can get her killed. I should know more than I do now.

I pull myself off the bed, my body aching in disappointment. I close my eyes and sigh before I speak. "I can't do that right now."

She lifts herself up, leaning on one side of her body. She frowns. "Oh… Apologies for making you uncomfortable…"

"No, you didn't do anything wrong," I return a reassuring smile. "I would love to be intimate with you. I'm excited for that time to come…"

She raises a brow. "Then why did you stop?" She gasps suddenly. "Oh, are you nervous about your first time?"

"Well…" At the moment, my virginity didn't seem like a factor when we were kissing.Maybe it would've if we had gotten further.

“If there's anything I can do to ease you into it, you can let me know. I'm flexible. Besides, I make a good teacher.”

Amusement tugs at my lips. “Oh, I'm sure you are." That came out a lot lower than I intended.

“Keep your voice like that, Captain Sexy.” She bites on her bottom lip.

I titter. “That's not exactly what I'm worried about.” I glance away. “I'm more concerned about something else."

"Like what?"

“We need to talk about that night.”

"What is there to talk about? I’m a dreamscreecher. That’s about it." She shrugs.

"Yeah, that's the point. I don't know much about them. I'm kind of sheltered from them and all." I reach for her hand. “You being a dreamscreecher doesn't change my love, but… I feel like it could change me and my life…”

She slowly nods. "Okay…" she mutters. I squeeze her hand. She smiles a little after my gesture. "Ask away then."

It takes a moment for me to think of my first question. “How… how did you end up here? What's your story?”

Her lips twitch slightly as her eyes shift away. “It's… it's a lot.”

I clasp my other hand onto hers. “You don't have to explain everything. Just enough to know how-”

She takes a deep breath and sighs. “You deserve to know everything. You need to.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes,” she offers a weak smile. “You're fighting for my kingdom after all. You deserve to know how life is back there.”

She starts to get into detail, talking about her father whom she loved, only to be killed by Vasilisa when she was only ten.

She pauses in-between to cry but despite telling her she can stop, she pushes herself to continue.

I move closer to her as I listen to her, bringing her shaking hands into my lap.

She details the punishments Vasilisa had given her.

She talks about the darkness and rustiness of the cage, where she was alone for a month at a time, almost mentally insane in there, and feeding off scraps for a single meal in the day.

Everyone knew when she had her punishment from how skinny she'd get.

The punishments were for little mistakes and challenging her mother.

She explains how she was a knight at thirteen, knighted beside Kaius and Clarissa, who had fallen in love with each other, but were both murdered by her mother. “When Kaius died… I grabbed a knife off the table… I wanted to kill her for what happened to Kaius.”

She sniffles and I raise a hand to her cheek, stroking away a tear.

“And… it didn't work…” She stays silent for a moment before taking a sharp inhale "Immediately, she ordered everyone to kill me and I ran. Coming here was my only choice.” She scrunches her nose.

“Even then, I wasn't sure if I was going to live.”

I recall when I first met her. “That's why you ran when you knew who I was.”

She nods. “I didn't expect you to be so kind.”

“And that's why you packed to leave…” It all makes sense. “I’m so sorry. I wish I was a lot more open-minded earlier.”

“It's not your fault,” she nearly hisses. “Don't blame yourself.”

“I wish things were better, so you wouldn't have hid for so long.”

“Well, now things are better.” She squeezes my hand. “With you.”

It gets silent between us as I tilt my body towards her. She leans on me. I rub my thumb against the back of her hand, as she whispers, “Do you have any more questions?”

I furrow my brows as more questions start to stir. “So… if you aren't just made of evil, then why did Godusa make her followers into dreamscreechers?”

“For survival. Somnia is a dangerous land. There was no other way our people were going to survive without another ability. ”

“Then why didn't your people just leave?” Wouldn't that be the easier solution?

“There was nowhere else to go. After the incident where Godusa had gotten revenge on the Sororo kingdom, our people were banished to Somnia's lands.

We were stuck there being surrounded by the Amara kingdom and then the mountains.

The mountains were too tall and cold. Then Amara wouldn't accept us back in, so there was no other kingdom we could set off to.”

That made sense. Millenniums back when the Amara kingdom and Somnia were one as the Sororo kingdom, Amara's worshippers were punished by Godusa's nightmares.

Many people were too afraid to sleep, some nearly died because of the fear.

It was a punishment for being ungrateful for Godusa and her gift.

It makes sense that the Amarians then would put her followers in dangerous lands and keep them isolated.

Ignatia continues, “The land was so full of predators, fires and diseases that many of our people. About five hundred people were trapped in Somnia, and only around a hundred survived, only ten of them being women. The Last Women, we call them. So Godusa, along with the Gift of Life and the Gift of Fire, granted us a dreamscreecher form that was supposed to help us defend ourselves. It even helped convince other people from different kingdoms to sneak in through Amara and join us to grow the population. It’s been a lot harder for other kingdoms and Gifts to come to us through Amara since though. ”

I nod. It adds up. “So if that was the case, what happened when Amarians met up with the dreamscreechers the first time? I was told that when Amarians tried to talk to dreamscreechers, they attacked us for no reason.”

Ignatia scoffs. “Our version of the story is that an Amarian pulled weapons on us before we were forced to attack. We hadn't done anything to make them think we were going to kill them, but yet, the Amarians already thought so.”

My jaw clenches. “Why would an Amarian do such a thing?”

“Fear.” She grabs my hand. “Godusa made her mistakes when she was a part of Amara's kingdom. She did torture people with her nightmares at some point. Godusa and Amara had failed to make amends. Who knows why the Amarian felt pushed to pull out their weapons all those years ago?”

It makes sense. It all does. It really seems like Grandmother had some sort of misunderstanding. Maybe there's a way to help her realize her mistake.

But what would she think about me being with a dreamscreecher? Would there be any other reasons why she wouldn't want me to be with a dreamscreecher?

“What do I need to know about romance… when it comes to dreamscreechers?” I ask. “Is there anything I should know? Physical needs? Culture wise? Sex wise?”

She snickers. “Now we're doing the fun stuff.”

I puff. “Well I want to know.”

“Well… let's see. I like to scratch the couch, I go into heat every month, and a human sacrifice is required for our mating ritual. Otherwise I think it's pretty normal.”

“Heat? A human sacrifice? ”

My jaw drops. What does that even mean? How could I continue this relationship if I need to kill someone every month?

My thoughts scatter in my brain, when I finally hear her laugh snap me out of them. “You should see your face!”

I furrow my brows even though my panic has melted away. “Ignatia!”

“Oh come on. It was funny!”

“I'm serious,” I scold, despite my own snickering. “ Is there anything I should know?”