Arcadia Awakens by Kai Meyer

Author:Kai Meyer
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Romance, Fantasy, Young Adult
ISBN: 9780062092960
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Published: 2009-10-31T18:30:00+00:00

KISS OF DARKNESS

SHE KNEW FROM THE first moment that it was a dream.

She was lying in her bed, and the bed was surrounded by jungle. Moisture dripped from fleshy leaves. Orchids flowered in the twilight, the glowing eyes of the flowers watching her. Gigantic pod-shaped fruits pulsated in the shade like lungs, swelled, and then collapsed. A breath of hot air wafted through the undergrowth, stroking her hair back from her bare shoulders.

There was something missing, and only after a moment did she know what it was. Animal noises. The jungle was almost totally silent. Only the swollen lobes of the pods rattled and rustled, while a quiet squealing and cheeping came from among the leaves. It was a few more minutes before she realized that it came from the orchids as they discussed her with one another.

Something stirred behind the nearest trees; a black outline moved through the thickets, soundless, prowling quietly on soft paws. Rosa watched him, waited for him, because she knew he wanted to find her.

As he came closer she was amazed by his supple beauty. He moved out of the shadows like a blot of ink, and only in the twilight did he take on the shape of a panther. Keeping low as the big cats do, he prowled once around the bed before stopping at her feet and placing one black paw on the snow-white bedclothes. The orchids whispered faster, in frenzied excitement.

She was sitting upright now, the bedspread a high white cloud. She could hardly see over the edge of it. The panther’s eyes were glittering, and there was a silvery sheen on his black fur. She noticed everything about him: his quivering whiskers, his gleaming teeth, the pink tip of his tongue.

With a fluid movement, he jumped up on the bed and pushed himself under the bedspread at the foot end. It seemed much longer now, surely a good sixty feet long, and the panther was moving under it, a slight mound under that white cloud. Only now did she see that the jungle had vanished, and the bed had grown even larger, reaching to the horizon in all directions. The mound was coming closer, perhaps ten, perhaps a hundred steps away from her now, a wave that would soon reach her bare legs.

She was breathing faster, and the hoarse sound that the plants had been uttering a moment ago now came from herself, came warm and rhythmically through her lips. As she sat she braced her upper body on her arms, the palms of her hands firmly on the bed. Her blond hair fell from her shoulders as she laid her head slightly back, eyes half-closed in expectation of his touch. She felt him approaching under the covers, felt the mattress shaking slightly, as big as the whole world, and senses she had never guessed at stirred in her.

She dared not look down at herself, because she was afraid of waking up. Afraid that he might suddenly be gone, leaving her alone.

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