City of Secrets

Chapter 9: The Blue Hour

Ember felt at peace. She was submerged in a pool of water. Swathes of the silk fabric of her dark azure dress floated all around her. The water felt cool and soft against her skin- like velvet.

She knew she should have been fighting for breath, but somehow, she didn't need it. Her lungs didn't burn for oxygen, and she didn't fear the things lurking beneath. She felt numb, warm- safe.

The water rippled overhead, and sunlight broke and caught in the water. Tints ranging from aqua to sapphire to navy stained it.

Voices whispered all around her, and when she listened, she realized it wasn't many voices, but one.

She looked up to the water's surface and found rippling images looking back down at her.

Wake up, a voice whispered in her ear. Wake up, Ember.

A pair of arms wrapped around her. She turned around in the water. Air bubbles whooshed out in every direction, and she caught a glimpse of a small secretive smile across the curtain of drifting silk.

Silver hair gleamed a light turquoise color in the water. Green eyes the color of emeralds looked back at her.

He had changed, Ember realized, but somehow, she didn't feel surprised.

His face was now fuller, and his features had lost the harsh angularity that had once predominated his face. His cheeks bloomed with color, and his lips were pearl pink.

He wore white gear, but it looked bluish black in the water. Black Marks swirled up his arms. His gear shirt was torn and tattered, and she could see scars and other Marks beneath the open gashes on his shirt. There was one tear in particular, one right above his heart. A silver-gold Wedded Union rune shone on the skin there, and another on his arm.

The water shimmered next to her, and when Ember turned to look, she saw herself. There were two golden runes drawn on her skin- one above her heart, and another on her right arm. They were the same runes Jonathan had, and she stared on with mild amazement as the runes gave off an incandescent light. She looked back at Jonathan.

He held a bundle of something in his arms. It was covered by a blue cloth. Ember didn't remember when if the bundle appeared, or if it had always been there.

The bundle shifted in his arms, and the cloth suddenly fell away with an invisible current.

It was a baby.

Its black eyes studied her, innocent as a child's, but clever like a snake's. It had her thick black hair and Jonathan's pale skin.

Isn't he beautiful? Jonathan's lips moved, but words didn't come out. They echoed in her mind instead. He looked adoringly at their child, like a blind person who had seen the wonders of the world for the first time.

The baby reached out for her with its two chubby little arms. The baby's joyful giggle erupted in her mind as he saw her.

Ember felt something warm spread in her chest along with a surge of deep affection for the baby in Jonathan's arms. She reached out to touch them, her child and her lover. The water suddenly dropped in temperature, and she heard a crackling noise above.

The water was freezing at an alarming rate. The water overhead was already a sheet of ice, and she looked on with faint alarm as a wall of thick ice formed between her and Jonathan and the baby. She could still see them, but their faces and smiles seemed jagged and broken through the ice.

Look up, Jonathan whispered in her head. My beautiful one, remember.

Ember's head snapped up.