Dreamwalker's Bride - Chapter 397

Chapter 397: Hello Darkness my old friend
Ford could feel his eyes welling with emotion as Mia spoke again. He didn’t let her go until she pushed a little at his shoulder.

“Oh.”

“Oh, what?” His joy plunged back into worry at her single syllable.

“I pulled back to see you, but… it’s dark. I can’t see you at all.” She admitted.

“Do you want light? I can knock and Martin will let us out, only, Grandpa thought cutting you off from the magic of the trees was the best course of action.”

“It has helped a lot,” Mia sighed. Ford waited, blinking into the inky darkness. He wished he could judge her expression, but instead he tried to exercise patience. “Not yet, I suppose. My mind needs a few moments more of rest before pitching back into the fray.”

“How bad is it? Do we need to get you out of here and back to your father?” Ford asked her seriously. This much magic was obviously taking a toll on the young woman.

“No, no.” Mia had an audible cringe in her voice, even without Ford being able to see the way her shoulders shrugged slightly. “I can do it.”

“Are you sure?” He leaned forward a little, enough for a strand of her hair to brush his forehead.

He didn’t mind the sensation, the way it tickled.

“I wasn’t prepared for how overwhelming it was,” Mia admitted. “I think, with a few moments of relief, I will be able to concentrate better, and handle it. The stress of the magic was distracting me, causing me to look for other things, compounding the images in my mind. I couldn’t take it, but now that I know what to expect, I should do a better job. I definitely want to avoid what just happened.”

“What exactly did happen?” Ford asked, and Mia must have turned to face him, because her breath fanned softly across his cheek.

“I’m not sure how to describe it.” She sighed. “I could see what was in front of my face, with my eyes, but there were other images in my mind’s eye. The entire path laid out before me, like when we were in the cave where Uncle Trace got taken. Just now, I could see everything in such immense detail, so mesmerizing, and far more detailed than my eyes normally see.

“Every speck of dust on the road, every leaf of every tree, intensely and mind-bendingly clear, like a mural I could walk up to and see every small thing. I get so caught up in it that my mind becomes overwhelmed… If I can try to ignore the utter oddness of it, just sort of blur it out and see only the path and not the details, I think I will be better off.”

Mia paused here for a moment, as if thinking carefully over her next words. As she hesitated, Ford forced his posture to relax a little, hoping to impart some serenity to the woman still held loosely in his embrace. Finally, she spoke again.

“I’m too stressed about what might happen to all of you. When I think of danger, I look for it, automatically, like a reflex. I can’t bear the thought of any of you getting hurt because of my silly need to run away and get memories back. Memories I don’t even particularly want, now that I have them, only the absence of them seemed more terrifying than the presence…”

“It’s not your fault.” Ford told her firmly. “We’ve talked about this.”

“I know,” She heaved a heavy breath, and then he could sense her turning toward him. Carefully, slowly, he pulled her a little closer and bent his neck until his forehead rested against hers.

“Do you not believe your aunt? Your grandfather? Your father? Me? We’ve all told you so.”

“I believe you… or at least, I try to,” Mia said. “But the guilt of Uncle Trace being taken was heavy enough. The weight of one of you being hurt or killed would be so much worse that it hurts to contemplate it for a second.”

“Then don’t,” He smiled slightly in the darkness. “Don’t think about that, because we’re all working hard to make sure that doesn’t happen. There’s no need to pre-mourn something that may not happen.”

“That sounds like something Grandpa would say,” She shook her head slightly, moving his own with it.

“Well, that makes sense, since I’m pretty sure he said it to me at one point or another,” Ford teased. “He’s given me more lessons than I could list out, given the opportunity.”

Mia laughed lightly, and relief washed through Ford. She wasn’t irreconcilably broken by the magic. He had the urge to make her laugh harder, but he resisted for the sake of keeping the conversation on topic.

They didn’t have forever in here, after all.

“How long until the air runs out?” Mia suddenly whispered, as if reading his mind.

“Don’t worry about that, take as long as you need,” Ford told her.

“All right, but that doesn’t mean you’ll have me all to yourself in the dark forever,” Mia whispered mischievously. His eyebrows flew to his hairline. “You still haven’t told me what you said you wanted to. I haven’t forgotten.”

Ford’s face burned. His worry about Mia had temporarily overshadowed his reason, but… well, he did have things he wanted to tell her. The opportunity just hadn’t presented itself… until now.

“Is this really the right time?” He murmured more to himself than to her.

“I can’t know that until you tell me whatever it is,” She reasoned. “But you’ve already piqued my interest.”

Ford chuckled lightly. “Are you sure?”

“Again, I can’t be sure or not sure until you tell me. We’ve got a few moments before I feel ready to go back out there again anyway!” Some playful frustration crept into her tone, and she leaned to nudge his shoulder with hers.

The movement was enough to really make it sink in how close they were… which was too close for Ford’s thoughts to continue functioning quite normally.