Kissing Danger ✔️

FIFTEEN

Word Count: 1701

An overwhelming feeling encompasses me.

A feeling of falling has my eyes squeezing shut tighter, my heart nearly stopping as a sense of tension wraps around me, pushing my limbs closer to my body as I fall through a tunnel of darkness. Not once do I feel Eryk's grasp leave my body, his finger's only tightening on me as terrifying silence builds in my ears.

And then, the tension releases, and my feet are touching the hard ground. I stumble forward a step, but Eryk pulls me back up against him, stopping me from hurtling face first into the ground.

Rubbing my eyes, I push off him, looking around.

I'm not sure what I expected - perhaps a world full of features I've never seen before - but this looks completely normal. A warm breeze sifts through my clothes, a saltiness to it. Around me, near white dunes stretch, littered with sage green and silver plants. I can hear the sea nearby, waves washing up against the shore in a distinctive, beautiful way.

"What is this place?" I ask, looking at Eryk, who is ruffling a hand through his dark hair.

We stand on some kind of wooden walkway, smooth, dark wood littered with golden sand leading up to a small home that sits amongst the dunes.

"My home," he responds, walking toward it. I glance at my mother, at Lei, trying to make sense of where we have been taken. Mother is calm, a sense of determination written across her face, whereas Lei looks stunned, mouth slightly agape as she takes in the sights around her, trying to understand how we went from a snowy labrinth in the middle of the night, to a warm, sunny environment surrounded by sand.

"Where is it?," I question, chasing after him, careful across the haphazard placement of the wooden planks beneath me. "Passion Pack?"

"No. We aren't in that realm anymore." He sounds bored, tired almost. I follow him into his home, looking around for any evidence I may see something familiar to tell me where I am. But everything, the furnishings, the artwork on the walls are all strange and nonsensical, depicting patterns, places and people I've never seen before in my life. My head spins just looking at it.

"Okay...What realm is this then?" I ask.

"A faraway one," he responds, shrugging his jacket off to leave it on the couch in front of him. "Here, you will be safer, I hope."

He doesn't sound so sure of himself, that I could be safe here. Even so, I have to admit that I clearly had enough people coming for me in the other realm for it to be too dangerous for me to to stay there.

I turn to my mother. "I was born here?"

"Yes, sweetheart. You are from this Territory as well. Territory Two," she explains, as if any of that should make sense to me. Territories? I've never heard of anything like that.

"How many Territories are there?" I question, looking back at Eryk. He's opening windows, brushing dust off a few things. How long has he been in the other realm, with me? This place looks clean, but not very well lived in. There are no signs of any personal belongings strewn about, making me wonder if he really does live here, or if he is just telling me that.

"A lot." He shrugs, clearly not in the mood to explain it all to me right now. "You bleed purple, which means your ancestry can be tracked to this Territory. This is where you belong."

"Are you from here?" I ask softly.

He nods. "Yes."

He's shown me he has bled my colour before, which should have made me realise he's from this territory too. What other colours can people bleed? Does everyone from every territory bleed a different colour? I'm both curious and terrified of that notion.