Behind the Mask

Prologue: Lost memories

Mel

I was walking for hours; I didn’t know where to go. I didn’t even know where I was. There is no one anywhere near, all I can see is an arid landscape. I was not in Avalon’s Realm, it couldn’t be. It doesn’t look like anywhere I’d ever been or even seen before. So, where was I? Were these the unclaimed lands? The No one’s Realm?

How did I end up here?

Was I cursed?

It just felt like some kind of limbo. It felt so empty, and being here made me feel empty inside too. As if the landscape could penetrate my soul.

I inhaled deeply, the air entering my lungs was thick and heavy.

The land surrounding me seemed dry, like in a desert. Sand, rocks in different shapes and sizes, shadows, pieces of semi-destroyed and eroded objects also could be seen; pieces of trails, wheels or parts of it, iron bars. Maybe it was an old railway, which surely was abandoned centuries ago, perhaps even before the war.

It looked like a cemetery of memories, of things that would better go forgotten. But the forgetfulness, the oblivion couldn’t grasp some memories,  they were too strongly engraved in my depths. 

They were unfading through time, through tears, through all the pain. Some memories persisted and haunted us. There was no escape from them. 

I looked up, realising that the scariest part of this unknown landscape was the sky. The dark, cloudy sky was blazing with thunder. I’d never seen clouds that grey before and they covered the sky completely, not even a glimpse of it could be seen.

I felt lonelier than ever.

Lost, bleak.

I screamed at the nothing at the top of my lungs. I screamed like never before. ‘Because a princess can’t scream and has to behave in a dignified way’, the words of my former tutor still pierced my mind.

I sat on the floor and screamed again and again, and when my voice was about to be gone and my throat felt scratchy and dry, just like this landscape, I brought my hands to my face and started crying.

There was this thought in the back of my mind, this feeling surrounding me. The feeling that I’ve found something precious. Something better than anything else.

However, I couldn’t pinpoint, remember, what it was. I tried to wrack my brain over and over. But nothing. 

Not remembering it, not being able to see it, only increased my sensation of loss.

I knew it was there, somewhere in that desert world. My uncanny oasis. But I couldn’t remember where it was or even what it was.

There was no Oasis, it was only a mirage.

Mirages are illusions, I reminded myself. There was nothing to be found.

But I know there is. I started walking again, looking around. Grey, thundering sky, but no rain.

Only nothing and this sensation that I’ve found a treasure, but my hands were empty.

I’ve found what I was looking for, but I had nothing.

I only had a disheartening sensation, and a scenery of emptiness surrounding me.

I woke up with a jolt and sat up on my bed.

I was sweating and crying.

I’ve had the same dream yet again.

The dream about something that I found, but I couldn’t see or even remember. About something I got, but I couldn’t take.

A dream about him, my faceless mate.

 A/N: Guys, this book starts two months after Lea's coronation as the Fae Queen. The epilogue of Torn Between Mates jumped three years in time, so the events in this book happened before it and Lea isn't pregnant yet.