The Crystal in the Chasm

chapter 16

My hand slowly slipped my mask back over my face as the door clicked open. Light poured in against my tear-stained cheeks and a tall, muscular figure stood illuminated like a shadow in the doorway.

"Sea Wolf?" His voice was like medicine to put me at ease. Death Bringer shut the door behind him just as I flicked a candle back to life. Only one, to hide the tear streaks in my makeup.

"What?" I sighed heavily.

Death Bringer strode confidently toward me, the smell of rum wafting through the air as his steps faltered slightly in a drunken sway. He looked different than usual; almost royal. His hair was slicked back in a neat style I hadn't seen him wear before.

"Why are you hiding?"

I shrugged and tried to mask my scent of sadness by thinking of pleasant thoughts. It wasn't working.

"Who made you cry on your birthday?" his voice was low and full of threat as he sniffed the air.

Sniffling, I turned away from him and stared at the renaissance mural on the wall. "I worked myself up, probably from drinking too much."

"Come." His ringed hand lowered down to me.

All I could do was stare at his palm. I was tracing the cracks and callouses in his skin with my eyes when he motioned with a curled finger again.

"Where?" I shook my head as if already deciding against it.

"Dance with me."

I shook my head again, "I can't go back out there."

Death Bringer groaned and spun on his heels, cracking the door ajar as music slipped in from down the hall. Then he returned to me with a grin, his eyes like a light at the end of the tunnel as they peeked through his matte black mask. I took his hand.

In an instant, he pulled me against him. We were chest to chest, our hearts beating against one another as he interlaced one of his hands into mine and slid the other down my back. I shivered, my breath hitching. I had never been close like this with him. Not willingly. Never so intimately. He was in all black, with only a few small accents of red in his elegant attire, and his scent burned its way into my poor lungs. Sandalwood and darkness. Instead of overthinking it, I allowed my head to rest against his chest. His heart thumped rapidly under his skin. Thump, thump, thump. I was certain mine sounded the same.

We swayed silently, the only noise of the distant music trailing to us from down the hall. His thumb traced a few small lines down my back as we flitted around the room at a slow pace. When the music picked up, so did we. He spun me around once, his eyes meeting with mine as I turned back to face him, then he rolled me into his arms and braced my back as he lowered me into a dip. My knee rose as I neared the floor with an arched back, my hair falling from out of my face. His other hand firmly landed on my hip as he gently raised me back up and spun me away from him. Back and forth we went, our rhythm never faltering. It was as if it were choreographed when I spun back to him and he lifted me by my waist into the air once with a spin. Time froze as I peered down at him, his features sharp and full of divine beauty. Darkness ebbed over his shoulders, swirling in a clear mist around us.

When the song stopped and the music shifted back into a slow, wordless instrumental, we swayed to a stop. Still chest to chest, we were breathing the same air. His head was tilted down to mine, our faces nearly touching as we stared at one another. Through the candlelight, my reflection stared back at me in his wide pupils.

Same. We are the same. I kept hearing it. Over and over again in my head. We are the same. I couldn't tell if it was my voice or his. My stomach lurched as the realization settled in. He and I were one and the same. Wherever our souls came from, it was the same place. Two souls crafted from the same bone. Onyx said it herself, she told me our minds were alike. As much as I hated to admit it. I couldn't bear it any longer so I looked to the floor with a heavy deep breath. We were still touching. Every cell in my body against him roared with a flame just beneath my skin. I pulled away slightly as he cleared his throat.