Dancing on Strings

In The Blood

Mai hit the grass with enough force that she feared she'd break her wrist or nose as she felt them crack off the ground.

Groaning, she lay still for a long moment, carefully twitching her fingers.

After that moment of stillness however, the numbing pain faded and she blinked, slowly easing herself back so she sat on her heels, looking around.

Her eyes widened.

She was in an empty grassy plain, nothing but the stars above, a few rocky clusters and miles upon miles of grass that blew in the cold wind which tossed her clothing around; tail gone, legs and white dress returned to her.

The only thing that broke the flat horizon was a door.

Freestanding, it was bigger than any of the doors in the castle.

Made from heavy, dark wood, iron curling over it like ivy with a handle made of burnt metal.

Mai stared up at it where she knelt at its foot; the wind howling passed her, tearing at her loose hair and gown.

Was...

Was this it?

The door?

She quickly looked around.

She didn't know where she was. She hadn't been here before.

Was this the edge of the world?

The final frontier of Reve's world, created to lock out those who would equal his power and stop him?

She looked back up at the door, then quickly got to her feet.

The wind screamed at her as she reached for the handle.

"WAIT! IT'S A TRAP!"

The voice reached her barely a second before the owner did and Mai didn't have time to look around before a body slammed into her, toppling her to the ground with enough force to wind her, making her shriek as her head bounced off the grass.

The body around her let go, shoving up to look behind them and Mai looked up.

Her eyes widened.

"Griffin?" she whispered.

Griffin looked back at her, his mismatched eyes wild like his hair, the cogs in his face and chest unmoving.

"Come," he ordered, grabbing her arm and dragging her from the floor, running for one of the rock clusters.

Shoving her down behind them, he dropped down beside her, peered over the top for a moment, then flattened back against the rocks.

"I don't think he knows you're here yet," he said, running a hand through his hair.

"You're alive?" Mai said stupidly, staring at him.

He shot her a grim. "Sort of."

"Sort of?" she copied, reaching out to touch him.

He caught her hand and pressed the back of it to his lips.

"Not quite alive, no quite dead," he said.

"So the same as always," Mai said and he snorted.

"Yes and no. Reve's magic didn't truly wipe me from existence. That bit of enchantment wasn't supposed to kill. Not his style, remember? It was only supposed to send you to the halls below."

"But he said—"

"He assumed it would spur you to give up your freedom to save my life."

"You should have seen him, Griffin. Angelique said he was devastated. He doesn't seem to know you're still alive."