EXCERPTS | addymason

Nari took a swift glance at Kellen to be sure that he was still turned around. But, she figured that he was since the water nymph wouldn’t have shown herself if a mortal were able to see her.

Nari had forgotten that since there were no bodies of water on the higher vibration plane where the immortals lived - only aqueducts that served as the immortal's only source of water - that the water nymphs had been allowed to remain on the Earth. The condition to this was that they remain hidden from the humans. This had been accomplished by an enchantment. Any human eye that beheld them would, instead, see something other than the nymph and that they would forever be unable to prove that they had seen anything. The last she had heard, any human that accidentally encountered a water nymph would believe that they were facing a monster.

She had heard of a case that had been going on for years where the enchantment caused the human to see the water nymph in the form of a dinosaur-like creature whenever she was unexpectedly seen. She had even been given a nick name by the humans of “Nessie”, the Loch Ness monster. Even though she tried hard not to be seen, it did happen. To this day, it had still never been proven that “Nessie” existed.

Nari smiled and waved back at the water nymph and, fearing that Kellen would turn around any second, then quickly waved her away. The water nymph smiled and then abruptly disappeared and Nari figured that Kellen must be turning back towards her.

He had, indeed, turned- just as she was gesturing for the water nymph to go. She quickly turned it into a swatting motion, as if she were being attacked by a bug. She needn’t have bothered, though, because he was staring at the spot where the water nymph had disappeared. He had a look of excitement on his face, and, gesturing to the water, he said, “We are going to have us a good day fishing today if they are coming to the surface for food like that.” Nari let out a relieved laugh, realizing that he had seen the water nymph, but had mistaken it as a fish. He then took his pole from her, helped her to cast hers, and they settled down to have a less eventful time at fishing. He was blissfully unaware that any action had taken place anyway, she laughed to herself.

In the aftermath of their lovemaking, when he was lying with her in his arms on what he would forever think of as their bench, he knew that this ideal woman was perfect for him. She had been created just for him as his ideal of the perfect woman. In the dream, with her in his arms and a smile on his face, he drifted off to sleep again.

He startled awake to find himself in his own bed, with her smell still in his nostrils, but he had no way of knowing how long ago the dream had occurred. He relived the dream in his mind again, and, this time, he tried to look at it objectively with his wakeful mind - a mind that didn’t seem suspending in a shadowy realm with a surreal quality.

This dream had seemed more real than a dream should, as had all of the other dreams that she had been present in. The longer he thought about it, the more he became convinced that his dream - self had been right, that this perfect woman had been made in his mold of an ideal woman. He was now convinced, however, that it was she -or whoever had created her - that were trying to make him fall in love with her through his dreams so that they could get to the ancient Book of Druids. And so far he had played right into their hands by falling in love with her.

However, he had an advantage. Judging from her statement that he seemed different somehow, they obviously didn’t know all of his secrets, and so that meant that he might be able to use this knowledge to try and defeat his dream lover and her creator, even if it meant breaking his own heart in the process.

An excerpt from FATED

An excerpt from GUARDIAN