Free Forsaken Dreamscape (Nevermor) by Lani Lenore Page A

them with that day.
    He
told me that he’d opened the mouth of hell.
    “I
have lost my power over this place,” Rifter confessed, his voice full of
self-loathing.  “The Vow of the Never-Ones has been broken.  Whisper was
separated from me – by my own choice – but we had begun to age long before
that.  Of course we didn’t know it right away, but it didn’t take so long to
learn.  We all changed .”
    “Changed?” 
Wren feared that word, now more than ever.
    Rifter
looked up to peer straight into her eyes, peeling away the layers of her soul.
    “Can’t
you tell by looking at me?”
    A
shrieking cry from the dead forest echoed down to them and Wren jerked her head
around, fearing the emergence of a nightmare.
    “We
have to go deeper,” Rifter said, taking her arm.
    Ahead
of them, the cavern was yawning and ominous, lit only by a hint of bright green
fungi that was growing in clusters on the ceiling and walls.
    “We’ll
get lost,” she tried to protest.
    “You’ll
have to trust me.”
    She
wanted to, more than anything.
    Wren
allowed him to pick her up.  He flew deeper into the cave, moving silently
through the air.  She kept quiet, though she could not see anything aside from
the glow of his eyes.  She decided then that, though she might have been blind
to the darkness, he could likely see through it.
    He
hadn’t gone so far before she could see a glow in the distance, and eventually
Rifter touched down beneath the light of a few dim crystals that were glowing
deeper within.  Wren had seen some like these before, years ago at the
mermaid’s lagoon, but these seemed to be losing their life and luminosity. 
They had once been bright and beautiful, lighting up the place where the dreams
had gathered, protected by strange, bubble-like eggs.
    That
was the night he kissed me for the first time.
    They
stopped at a point where the cavern gave way to an open pool of water that
seemed to flood the rest of the cave.  He peered around in silence and Wren was
good enough to copy him.  When everything seemed still, he turned to her again.
    “What
is out there?” she asked quietly, looking back toward the direction of the
forest, but it was shrouded in darkness.
    “Valkyries
– some of the lesser nightmare monsters.  The island is overrun with nightmares
now,” he said, shaking his head.  “After a while, there were simply too many to
fight.  The task became too much, and because we couldn’t seem to find an end
to one thing or another, the state of the world got away from us.”
    What
had happened to those resilient boys that she had known, willing to fight for
anything?  Wren’s brow furrowed at this thought.
    They
finally reached a point that broke them down completely.  They gave up .  She was sure
of it.
    “The
land and its people turned against us,” Rifter went on seriously.  “We all
separated, in fear for our own lives, and are branded traitors here.  This
world has rejected me.  The nightmares have taken over.  It is not safe, even
for me.  Not anymore.”
    Wren
listened to the story, her eyes growing wider.  This place had been a wonderful
escape for her once.  Once , it had promised her a new beginning.  To
hear what had happened hurt her as much as any of them.
    “That’s
terrible,” she uttered quietly.  “It’s horrible …”
    “You
believe in me, don’t you?” he asked her, leaning closer to assure that her eyes
met his.  “Despite what I look like now, you can trust me?”
    He
had asked for her trust, and how could she deny him?  She had waited all these
years just to be back with him, and if there was some way that she could help,
she had to do that.
    Rifter
brushed his hand across her neck, burying his fingers in her hair, and Wren
made her decision.  Though he didn’t look like she’d expected, he was still the
boy she had fallen in love with those years ago.  She had promised him forever
back then, and she had meant it.
    “Of
course I believe in