Chapter 10 Don’t Let Go
Don’t Let Go
I was in heaven. The sun was shining on my face; my body felt as light as a leaf and free of any aches or pains. And I was perfectly safe with the man of my dreams by my side.
My head was resting on his muscular thighs and his face was right above mine.
Though the sunlight in my eyes prevented me from distinguishing his features, I knew it was him.
The One. My soulmate. There was no mistaking the warm feeling in my chest and the sense of rightness that overtook me every time he was in my dreams.
When I dreamed of him, which happened rarely, it was as if I were whole, complete. In those cases, waking up sucked more than ever.
So, when I noticed the light fading and his face beginning to drift away, I reached for him. “Don’t let me go! Keep me in your arms forever.”
He didn’t reply, but his face remained close enough for my fingers to reach.
Suddenly, something that had never happened before occurred: my soulmate’s features became crystal clear. He looked like… Karim? Black hair framed by pointed ears and cascading over broad shoulders. Dark eyes alluring despite their alienness. Kissable lips pressed into a hard line.
He removed my hand from his face and gently pressed it back onto my lap. A pity that my dream version of him was so realistic that he wouldn’t touch me even here. Couldn’t he gift me a smile?
“I will get you to smile,” I told him with a dreamy smile of my own. “You’re even more irresistible when you smile, Mr. Man of My Dreams.”
“Jesus, how many crushed mapsa leaves did you let her inhale?” asked a voice suspiciously like Tisvali’s.
Having a dream about Karim and I alone would have been sweet, but I found I didn’t mind the green-haired giant making an appearance. He’d proven himself a good-hearted guy I’d love to be friends with. And that, unfortunately, could only happen in my dreams.
Speaking of dreams, I noticed my surroundings had changed.
Karim’s thighs were no longer my pillow; I was lying on something soft, and he sat to my right.
The bright light shining in my eyes was no longer that of the sun but of a pale bluish crystal attached to the wall behind Karim’s head.
And when had the open space around us turned into a room with walls of stone like a cave’s?
“I gave her enough leaves to numb the pain from her injuries,” Karim said. “Though I never considered that a human might need a much smaller dose.”
“Don’t beat yourself up,” Tisvali noted. “It’s not like you’ve treated a human before.”
That drew my gaze to him. Tisvali was standing by the foot of whatever I was lying on.
“Uhh…” Could it be? “This is no longer a dream, is it?”
“You’re not dreaming, Jasmine.” Karim’s lips curved ever so slightly. “Welcome back.”
Could the ground swallow me now? I’d just told the Elf Prince he was irresistible. I’d asked him to never let me go. I’d caressed his face. I felt my ears burning as I blushed furiously.
Karim’s eyes zeroed in on my ear. My tight curls provided no cover for my ear’s edge, which was undoubtedly with a darker gold undertone at the moment. The only thing always revealing my embarrassment for all to see.
“Her ears just changed color.” Karim sounded perplexed as he turned to Tisvali. “Did you see that?”
His friend shrugged. He was still wearing his blood-stained garment, while Karim was perfectly clean in the magnificent ivory dress with the daring V neckline from our first meeting.
The Prince was sitting on his heels next to the bed–and wait, what was I lying on?
My sporadic thoughts were interrupted by Karim’s amazement-filled exclamation, “Now they reverted to their usual color. How is this possible?”
I couldn’t help it–I chortled. This strong, confident male sounded as full of wonder as a little boy who’d just discovered there was an entire world he knew nothing about.
Tisvali laughed along with me. “You should have seen your face, Karim! That must have been what humans call a blush. She was ashamed. As she should be. Those things she said to you…” Tisvali grinned. “I wish Deidre were here to hear this. Her reaction–I’d pay two eggs to see it!”
I felt my ears heating up again under Karim’s continued perusal, his head cocked in curiosity. “What is this blush?”
“Something my father was really disappointed he couldn’t get out of my mom.
” Tisvali chuckled, seemingly lost in memories.
“Not that it stopped him from trying by dirty-talking her ears off in the one week they were together, she has told me. The guy simply wouldn’t get that even if our kind were capable of blushing, my mom is too shameless to let anything embarrass her so.
To seduce a human while on guard duty and drag him to her moss under the other guards’ noses? No shame.”
Tisvali shook his head, smiling. “Good thing my father was just as shameless. They were a match made in underground heaven.”
“Your mother forcefully took your father home?” I blurted out.
What had those mapsa leaves done to me? I was free from the pain from my injuries, but it was as if I had no filter.
At least my question elicited a smile from Tisvali.
“You humans are so unknowing,” he told me.
“Elves always ask for their partner’s consent.
In my mom’s case, she was smitten with the human regularly picking mushrooms in the forest, and introduced herself one evening during patrol.
They talked the night away, squeezed inside a tree hollow so that the other patrolling elves wouldn’t spot him.
Two days later, he returned at dusk for her.
They sneaked into the Kingdom to her moss and,” Tisvali cleared his throat, “he was smitten, too. He stayed for seven days and wanted to stay longer, but our law made that a death wish. My mom had to take him back to the surface to save his life.”
“I’m sorry, but,” I giggled uncontrollably, “I keep imagining your mom dragging your father to her moss, club in hand.”
Tisvali scoffed. “We use bows–what kind of savages do you take us for?”
“She thinks us cavemen,” Karim told his friend, lips quirked in a faint smile. As unfamiliar as he was with something so natural for humans as a blush, he sure knew some human history.
“But you do live in caves.” No. Filter. Whatsoever. “And you said you drag others home with the intention to…” How had Deidre termed it? “Have mossy fun?” I smiled at Karim. “Sound familiar?”
An answering smile appeared on his handsome face.
“We use the English word drag to the moss but don’t mean it literally.
” His smile widened before he continued.
“Though it does happen sometimes. For example, when the partner has been rendered unconscious by blood loss and is thus incapable of getting to the moss on her own to have her wound bandaged. Sound familiar?”
I frowned in confusion before it hit me. “Your moss!”
So that was the warm and spongy surface I was lying on.
It spoke of how muddled my brain was that I only just now noticed the dark-green fabric covering my wounded forearm.
A similar bandage was wrapped around my swollen ankle.
I was in a sleeveless dress of the same color that covered me down to my knees, making almost indistinguishable the green of the moss under my body.
Looking closer, I saw that the thick moss thrived atop a long, flat rock that seemed to rise from the cave floor.
My fingers explored the unique surface beneath me, the feeling of it against my skin close to addictive.
“This is the richest, greenest, and freshest moss I’ve ever seen in my line of work. ”
Karim’s face went slack for a moment but then a sensual smile spread across his lips. “So you like my bed, as you humans call it?”
Tisvali coughed.
My ears might as well have been on fire right then.
“There.” Karim chuckled. Mr. Always So Serious chuckled! “Blushing theory tested and proven.”
Our gazes met. Try as I might, I couldn’t break eye contact. His eyes were like an endless starless sky pulling me in. A black pool of infinity that I wouldn’t mind drowning in.
“My job here is done.” Tisvali’s words broke the strange connection. “My services are not needed for what comes next, so I’ll go take my much-needed bath and well-deserved rest.”
“What comes next?” I parroted as I tried to push up on my elbows, only to get dizzy and lie back down.
“What you agreed to, human,” Tisvali said, all serious now. “I don’t want to be around to watch the two of you do it.”
“Do what?” Was he implying that Karim and I–No, that didn’t make sense–I had never agreed to…
Why did the idea of being with Karim make my heart flutter in excitement? Why did the unexpected thought of him joining me on the moss cause heat to bloom in my core?
Tisvali burst out laughing, his broad shoulders shaking. “Jesus, you’re so easy to fluster.” Apparently, that heat had spread not just down south but toward my ears as well. Not again! “Have fun with the replanting, both of you.”
“Oh!” The edelweiss!
Karim got up from his kneeling position in one swift move and put his hand on his friend’s shoulder for a second. “Graciem.”
“My pleasure.” Tisvali’s gaze was lowered as he said it, perhaps as a gesture of respect.
“I will call upon you or Deidre when I need Jasmine watched in my absence. Let her know on your way past her home.”
Tisvali nodded and left through a vine-covered opening in the wall to my right.
Leaving me alone with Karim.