As had mine.
As had Sariel’s.
Stephanie held my hand tightly, darkness still blanketed the snow-covered hills as we quietly walked back through town, through the way we had come, our feet crunching against the snow.
“That’s why Darkness is so dangerous,” Stephanie finally whispered, I’d been worried that the story had been too traumatic for her, hearing it is one thing, experiencing it through a dream, quite another.
“What do you mean?” I asked, the rhythm of her heart picked up as she leaned her lithe body against mine. “Why do you think it’s so dangerous?”
“It makes promises,” Stephanie finally answered, her voice somehow, sounded broken, altered. “It promises contentment. It promises peace.”
“To touch Darkness…” I stopped walking and faced her. “Is to experience war, it is untouchable, do you understand? The minute you grasp it, you’re already lost. Damn it Stephanie, if you have one flicker, one nanosecond of hesitation, it will wrap so tightly around you that all you’ll know is war.”
“One thing I don’t understand.” She brushed off my lecture. “Why was Sariel punished for falling in love? Isn’t love good?”
“You don’t understand the story clearly.” I kissed her gloved hand then pulled it off, one by one, kissing each finger. “He was punished for going against why he was created.”
Stephanie frowned. “That makes no sense.”
I wrapped my arms around her and turned her toward the mountain, it wasn’t as high as it used to be, rumors of the village stated that in the beginning of time, the ancestors experienced earthquakes along with a shot of bright light, when the light died down, all that was left was rubble. Half the mountain was gone.
The glorious mountain that used to protect the village from the cold, for it stopped storm systems before they were able to make it over the mountain.
Was suddenly defenseless.
And cursed with an eternal winter.
“Siberia,” I whispered, “Was never meant to be cold.” I wrapped my arms tighter around her, as tightly as I could. Unapologetic about the feelings I had for her, the fierce desire I had to protect her from the darkness inside. “The reason Dark Ones are cold, using ice particles and water with a simple flick of our wrist. It is cold because of us, we are the cold, we are the curse that surrounds us.” Tiny pieces of ice flew into the air. “You miss the point of the story, my love.”
Stephanie stilled in my arms then melted all at once. “Did you just call me your love?”
I purposely ignored her question and pointed to the mountain. “What was their job? Their purpose?”
She swallowed, her hands digging into my forearms as she swayed in my arms. “To be awake. To watch.”
“And what did Sariel do?”
“He fell in love.”
“Before that.”
Sheets of ice froze in front of our faces as we stared at the mountain.
“He closed his eyes.”
I sighed heavily. “Yes. He closed his eyes. He was not punished for his love, b
ut for going against what he was created for. He was not meant to close his eyes, not made for it, possibly for the very reason that once we close our eyes, we look inward, we lose focus of what is right in front of us. The scariest things do not always lie outside…” I kissed her cold cheek. “…but within.”
“Ick.” Alex took a step back from us. “You’re both frigid and I mean that in a completely nonsexual way.” He winked at me and then scrunched up his nose as if we smelled. “Reindeer?”
“Close.” Stephanie shoved past him. “We were in Siberia.”
Alex shared a look with me, one I knew well, his thoughts were along the lines of, Why the hell would you take her there only to scare the ever loving shit out of her? Always so eloquent, Sirens.
I ignored his yelling in my head and continued walking through the house. With every step I took more and more ice released itself from my body, melting into a puddle on the floor.
Stephanie seemed agitated, a quick learner, her thoughts were getting harder and harder for me to read, as if she’d put up a block.