The Dreamer: The Book of Godspells

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Kiffen looked up and stretched out his arms, as if something was going to emerge from them. And indeed, something did: ashen gray and pearl white feathers. I wondered if they were the same feathers that formed the Wingsors—they looked identical.

Cae did the same, and before I knew it, we were both gently snatched up, much more delicately than by the Snaws, and placed back on the grounds of the dreamworld's earth. The swift movement felt almost unreal, like it didn't even happen. One moment I was standing on top of the mountain, and the next, my legs were firmly on the ground in front of what looked like a big green maze, my body being released from any wind caught within.

I stood there, frozen or paralyzed—I wasn't sure which, or if the words were synonymous. That was how much my body and mind were unsure of how I felt. It was like I had an out-of-body experience, having apparated from one place to another in the blink of an eye. The Cabras too apparated as if they were never there at all.

"What are you thinking about?" Colik asked me. He seemed fine.

"Not about you, if that's what you think." It took me a moment to get back to my senses, my feelings, my ability to think straight within this world again. Colik laughed.

"Interesting idea, you thinking—about me, about anything. I'd be scared to know what could possibly be going through your head right now."

"Why do you even care?" I asked, annoyed.

"You're too quiet. I think this is the longest you've gone without commentary or asking a question since I met you."

"Then enjoy it while it lasts, I guess," I snapped at him.

"I tend to."

"I don't know what to say to that," I admitted, and Colik snorted.

"Just because one says something doesn't mean there always has to be an answer. Sometimes, words don't have to be said to be understood." I nodded, feeling that tightness in my chest again as he stood next to me. I didn't understand how the Broken Woods had anything to do with us, our own brokenness of feelings. I saw the greenery again, a big bushel of what was unknown to me. Were these more foliage of secrets, of tricks I had to resort to going through?

"What makes the woods so... broken?" I glanced over at him again. He acted so innocently about humans, and yet who didn't ask about things they didn't truly know about?

"Did you not notice? Back in the Locks, and now?"

"Notice what?"

"The way your heartbeat matches mine anytime we are near each other?" He said and pointed down at his heart. Still walking, he then pointed at mine. I saw his heartbeat, slow and steady. It looked calm. Then I put my hand on my heart, feeling my own heartbeat too. Slow and steady. Calm, and by the looks of it, in unison with his.

"How?"

"We don't even have to touch each other and yet, look at what is happening between us."

"So... it linked us?"

"Have you ever heard of the angel effect?"

"The butterfly effect?"

"No, exactly what I said. The angel effect."

"No, what is that?"

"The brokenness comes from the broken wings of angels."

"You mention angels as if you are one."

"Are you saying you don't believe?" he asked me. He was picking up the pace now.

"Believe in angels, or..."