As promised, here is today’s teaser! Once again it’s from Vynasha Part 2, A Wylder Tale. If you feel clueless while reading this, stay tuned for Part One’s upcoming release!
Before the castle walls had glowed with some strange otherworldly floating lights. But out here the land was the pale amber and rose hues of a golden sunset. Snow fell peacefully rather than violently and she could hardly feel the bitter sting of cold. The brisk wind was refreshing rather, welcoming her. She looked down to find the roses the Prince had given her. Blood red petals had been replaced by pure and glowing white. She reached down slowly to touch them and the feeling is euphoric in a way only her mother could have understood.
These were her roses, forged by the earth and cold and her blood. They were as much a part of her as she was them. She felt in her skirts for her dagger and frowned when she felt nothing but silk and velvet pleats. Where was her dagger? She looked around for the tools Hvalla often tucked away for her when she was careless. But there was no stash, no wooden chest to protect their things from the elements. And Hvalla was nowhere to be found today.
Vynasha dug her fingers in the earth but it did not feel as solid as it had before. In fact the world seemed to blur and contort shape, so the stone walls faded away and a dark silhouetted stood vigil over a virgin sun. That was when she knew this was a dream, one of his dreams.
“Grendall?” she called. He kept his back to her and she could not help but to trace his frame with her eyes. It felt like forever since she had seen him. Had it been days or moons?
“You came back,” he whispered and the sound carried clear as if he spoke beside her.
She flinched and turned her focus to the roses. They needed tending, whether this was his dream or no. So she pruned them with her fingers. The thorns pricked her skin and unveiled the violet hued blood beneath her fingertips. She stared in wonder as she touched the white roses with it and the liquid only made them shine like stars.
“You came back even though I told you not to,” he continued roughly, stronger now. “I did not ask you to invade my dreams, Vynasha.”
“It’s not as though I wanted to come,” she practically snarled back at him and then sighed. That was not the truth, but lies were easier, weren’t they?
“Yes, lies are always easier,” he answered her thoughts aloud and suddenly standing before her. Instead of a moonlit gray pallor, his skin shone like hot white coals, like the sun gleaming behind him. But his white eyes were sad and angry still. “Lies are what have surrounded your entire life, Ashes. And you are still not ready for the truth. You choose to remain that weak little girl, afraid all the terrible things that have happened are somehow her fault.”
Jennifer Silverwood 