The Valley of Lies (Lightkeepers #1)

Chapter FIFTY-FIVE: Dev

It was like waking from a nightmare to a peaceful dream. The fog and excruciating headache were gone. The ground was soft under Dev's back, the sky a pale expanse of turquoise and spiraling clouds.

He sat up and ran his fingers through warm blades of wheat-colored grass, marveling at the incongruous serenity.

The hillside below him overlooked a foreign country of smooth rock ledges and bright stone paths meandering through sprawling fields. There were many identical trees, all of them strategically placed, their thick trunks bent over the walkways. The dense canopies looked more like feathers than leaves, varying in shades of soft gold, lavender, and green.

It was like no place he'd ever seen, and nothing like where he'd been. The last thing he remembered was lying on Liss' lap, regretting the vile things he'd told her.

"Where are we?"

He recognized the low, feminine voice, and turned his head. Ayer kneeled behind him, her striking eyes poring over the impressive vista. The last time he'd seen her, she'd worn a pale, whisper-thin robe. Here, she stood out against the subdued landscape in shimmering red, her long, black hair tangling down her back.

"This is The Midst," someone answered.

Until they'd spoken, Dev hadn't noticed the woman standing beside Ayer. Her ears were long like his own, her silver hair braided over her shoulder like Liss sometimes wore. The elven stranger reminded him of his best friend in other ways, too. Both females were small, with fair features. Even the white, robe-like garment wrapped around her reminded him of what Liss had been wearing while they'd danced.

The longer he looked at the silver-haired woman, however, the less familiar she seemed. And when he glanced away, he instantly forgot her appearance, as if he wasn't supposed to know it.

"The mist?" Ayer repeated.

The stranger chuckled, shaking her head. "The Midst, the realm between Firstlife and Everafter. My daughter Cath brought you here. You were pleading for this boy's life, and she didn't know what else to do."

Ayer blushed. Dev wondered if he should walk down the hill and let the women chat in privacy, but decorum wasn't his priority at the moment. Everafter sounded like a euphemism for Heaven... or Hell. It wasn't the sort of conversation he could step away from.

But he wouldn't dwell on the improbability that they were actually stuck in some kind of purgatory either. After all, he'd arrived here with a woman who could transform into a dragon.

"How do we get back?"

The stranger frowned at him. "You don't. Not in your current condition. The Yansu princess and her companions must travel to the dragonlands. There, the Darkbane priestess can safely shift your body back into the living realm. But you'll need dedicated healers, if you've any chance of surviving. Otherwise..." She swept an arm toward the horizon, where a sunlit path ascended through the steepest slope of terrain.

Dev wanted to scoff at the ridiculous notion that death waited for him on the other side of the rolling hills, but he felt a gentle, undeniable tug the longer he stared into the distance.

Everafter was real, and it was close. But it was a nudge he could ignore, for now. He had no intention of dying anytime soon.

Ayer rose, shaking out the wrinkles in the loose lower section of her robe. "I'll go. I'll bring them to Loradyn."

When Edril had called her Princess and Queen earlier, Dev had thought they were pet names. Now he wasn't sure how he'd misunderstood. Even the way she held her hands against her waist was regal.