34. Chapter 34
Chapter 34
T he soft, warm August light is flooding the Graf Hill sitting room as I lie sprawled on the sofa, my feet on the backrest and a book in my lap. But my eyes aren’t on the words printed on the page. They’re fixed on the ceiling, my mind running circles around everything that’s weighing me down.
Sure, I’m a Librarian at Grimm Academy, I have a family I love, and I have the best husband in the whole wide world. I’m happy. It’s been a long time since I was this happy.
But then there’s the issue of the three of us being in a time in which we don’t belong and of my failing efforts to dig out and destroy Baldur’s pieces.
It’s all been making me feel restless and distracted at the same time.
So when Orpheus enters the room, it takes me a moment to register the somber look on his face. I push myself up just as he comes to sit next to me.
“Anyi,” he starts softly, this funny little frown on his face.
It’s with bated breath that I ask, “Yes, Orpheus?”
He takes a piece of old-looking paper out of his pocket and holds it in his hand. “Ever since I found out about you, I’ve been researching the Aurora. It was months ago that I found this piece of paper, but it was only a couple of days ago that I managed to decipher it.”
“What is it?” I ask with a frown.
He hesitates, only making me more afraid of what he’s about to say. Finally, he speaks. “It’s a prophecy regarding yourself.”
My eyebrows shoot up.
“It seems you have a meeting with destiny ”
*
It’s in a little forest clearing near the town of Troyes that Orpheus stops the horse, putting his arm out for Lorcan and I to follow suit.
“Are we there?” Lorcan asks as we come to a stop as well. His voice sounds strangely hollow, which could be one of the signs that we are.
My heart skipping a beat, I watch Orpheus unmount the horse and give him a nod.
Somberly, Lorcan gets off as well. Orpheus comes to help me down, smiling warmly. The look we exchange is a lingering one. Despite two weeks of thorough goodbyes, he is still leaving his family, his life and his time for me. And his eyes, like mine, are filled with nervousness, but there’s hope for the future in there as well, which makes me return an even wider smile.
“It does feel the same as it did when we first arrived,” Raven says as she flies off my shoulder and starts circling this one spot in the clearing from which I’m sensing something as well.
The three of us come to inspect it, Orpheus taking some contraption out of his pocket with which he does a reading of the air. “That’s because I was right,” he states with a smile. “It’s here and it’s open.”
We all exchange loaded glances. I guess this really is happening.
“Is everyone ready?” I ask, my voice barely above a whisper.
“Yes,” Raven says with excitement in hers, Lorcan gives me a determined nod and Orpheus comes to put his arm around my waist. “You’ll need to go first.”
“Of course.” In dead silence, I take a deep breath and step through the portal.
Instantly, just like before, I find myself in the near darkness of seemingly boundless space, the forest clearing around me retreating into the background.
I start doing the hand gestures, making the nothingness around me get populated by countless doors. Then it all starts spinning around me, so fast, the doors seem to turn into stars making up constellations.
My heart pounding, I lower my hands to my sides and throw a glance over my shoulder to check whether everyone’s managed to follow me inside.
Orpheus hasn’t. I call out to him, reaching a hand through the darkness to find his.
I pull at his hand. “Come on,” I plead as I feel the tug become more insistent, “be quick about it.”
Grimacing, he tries to push forward, but he doesn’t manage to get any closer at all.
I yank on his hand and feel the wall he hits. “Orpheus,” I call out, panic in my voice because the tug is becoming impossible to resist, “what’s going on?”
There’s a moment of silence during which I watch it dawn on him. And I don’t know exactly what kind of conclusion he’s come to, but the look in his eyes — the heartbreak in them — is telling me all I need to know.
“I suspected I might not be able to follow you, Anyi,” he whispers. “The world needs the Aurora. You need to go back and I need to let you.”
He lets go of my hand.
My heart shatters to a million pieces. The tug grows stronger and I feel us being pulled towards a door, away from him.
“No,” I yell out from the top of my lungs as I try to get closer — to grab his hand, to force him back, to do something.
I fail to move against the tug and start losing it, my mind reeling in search of a possible way to stop myself from getting sucked away from him.
He only shakes his head, this plea in his eyes. “No, look at me,” he urges.
I do as he says, straining to resist the tug and barely being able to stand looking into his eyes, filled with so much pain and love at the same time. “To the ends of the universe, that’s how much I love you, Anyi,” he whispers. “Like I found you in your original timeline, like I found you in this one, I will always find you.”
I open my mouth to tell him how much I love him — my love, my mate, my salvation, when the tug becomes impossible to keep resisting, and I get sucked back and thrown into boundless space.