Free Of Light and Darkness by Shayne Leighton

contained, her very worst nightmare had been realized. The images flashed, vivid at the forefront of her mind, recalling that which had sucker punched her clear across the face only a few moments ago. She ran, passing the taverns and shops, not knowing where to turn next. There was no safe haven. She needed to find some place empty, some place quiet, where she could think.
    Why did it have to be Evangeline?   It just confirmed all of the fears that constantly tormented Charlotte in the back of her mind.
    Nights she lay awake, conjuring up in her mind this very thing was somehow eventual, somehow inevitable. Tears from her eyes meshed so well with the cold rain on her face; she could hardly tell she had started to cry. Her lungs began to scorch in her chest after a distance and she bent in half, her hands on her knees as the tears continued to fall. Oxygen returned to her in a fury of blistering waves. Her shivering fingers wound absently around her silver whistle, habitual.
    Charlotte straightened again and looked around at the desolate village square. Her teeth chattered as she wrapped her arms around her shoulders, suddenly too aware of the zillions of goose bumps on seemingly every plane of her body.
    She turned to her left to see a shadowed alley between the freestanding gothic cathedral and Broucka General Store. It didn’t look to her like it would a dead end, as the dank path seemed to twist around the side of the church walls. Perhaps this would be a good, quiet place.   She began walking. A gargoyle loomed at her as she passed, its wretched jaws extended in an eternal howl, like it too was disgusted with the putrid love she hid so fervently from the one who raised her. She shuddered.
    Sure enough, the washed cobblestone pathway turned and disappeared under a mound of dirt and grass. A low, black fence surrounded the entire churchyard, its twisted gate mangled and rusted. Grass, a brilliant emerald color, even in the dead of night, stretched to the moon, her ankles drowning in it as she walked. A stony fountain stood in the very center of the forsaken garden, its winged statue pointing his cherubic hand toward the night sky.
    Charlotte walked over and peered into the basin, a sickly sort of jade color with moss growing around the sides. It didn’t look like it worked at all with the limestone decay built up around the bottom. It was completely unkempt, but it was just the peaceful sort of place she needed. She sank into the basin of the dirty fountain where the rainwater collected, her legs dangling over the brim. She was already sopping, and anyway, getting dirt on her clothes was the very furthest thing she cared about. She buried her head in her hands and sucked deep an enormous breath of the clean, dewy air. Tears finally starting to dry, she shoved the rest of the garbage from her mind so she could finally think more clearly.
    Valek was her parent—her guardian, she amended. He never wanted her to refer to him as ‘Father’. He made that point when she was very young, learning to talk. Perhaps if he had made those boundaries more clear, this might have never been an issue. Valek raised her. He was the only thing she had ever learned to love, and by far her greatest treasure. In spite of growing up around all of this magic, Charlotte looked at Valek like she looked at nothing else. He meant everything , and she had just walked in on him and Evangeline. Together .
    Exhausted, Charlotte sighed and looked up at the stars. The downpour had diminished into a light drizzle. The storm seemed to have cleaned all of the thick, ominous clouds away, leaving the sky sparkling. Thankful the rain had stopped. She breathed in the clean air and watched Polaris wink down at her. She returned to her conundrum.
    She decided she should be happy for Valek. He had been alone for years, even before he’d found her. Yet the thought of Valek romantically involved with anyone at all seemed weird and unnatural, because it had always