Heroine

Ch 35 - Fireworks and Bombs

My bingo card had almost all of the bottom line crossed off.

"What's my prize?" I asked Adam as I checked off the gnome square.

He snickered. "Love the confidence but you haven't won yet."

"I only have glow worms left."

"Well, I only have nixies and dragonflies." He smirked at me. "Or centaurs."

I would love to see a centaur. But my stupid ass would probably ask if I could ride it and get trampled to death.

The forest changed as we rounded a corner. The trees were shorter, older, and covered in a variety of colorful flowers.

"Look closely at the trees." Adam smiled at me knowingly.

I studied them and noticed they looked kind of like statues. I saw a face in one of them and then I saw the faces of all of them. They weren't trees at all. They were some kind of people.

"Dryads." Adam smiled at me. "Wood nymphs. I've only ever seen them like this."

I swear I saw their eyes move. "They look like they're dancing."

"Maybe they are." Adam shrugged. "It's just much slower than we do."

He grabbed my waist, pulling me close to him before he spun me around, making me feel like a princess at a ball. We danced around the trees to the sound of the wind blowing through the leaves. He whipped me out with one hand and then rolled me back into him until I was wrapped up completely in his big arms.

He made my knees so weak as he looked down at me, I don't know if I could stand without his support.

"Close your eyes," he said with his eyes locked on my lips.

I let a gasp escape my mouth and I blushed at the sound. I closed my eyes thinking he was going to kiss me.

He was not.

He turned me around and led me down the trail, keeping his hand around my waist.

"No peeking," he whispered. We walked a couple more paces and he let go of me. "OK, you can open them."

Towering over us was a crystal wall the size of a small skyscraper. I could see straight through the crystal as if it were glass.

It was full of water and colorful fish and plants. A massive aquarium in the middle of the mountains. The jagged texture of the crystal made it look like the water solidified there and was going to collapse at any moment.

I walked closer and saw little pixie-looking things swimming around in it. They looked like little mermaids the size of my forearm. They peeked at us through the glass. I put my hand on the wall and could feel the cool, rough texture of the crystal. It went deeper underground, but the water got so dark I couldn't see anything.

"This is God's Cup," Adam said softly next to me.

I turned to him with awe on my face. "This is..." I had no words. "How?"

He shrugged. "Magic."

I laughed. He always did that. "Are those mermaids?"

"Nixies," Adam answered as he checked off the nixie square on his card. "They take care of the water nymph eggs until they hatch."

"That's so sweet." I watched them swim around. They trimmed bits of the kelp-looking plants and carried them under to where I couldn't see. I watched one of them open its mouth, revealing rows and rows of razor-sharp teeth, to bite the head off of a bright yellow fish.

"Woah."

"Yeah, they won't bother us," Adam said confidently. I looked up at him confused. "You want to go to the top? Go for a swim?"