“And, ah…look, I owe you two apologies. The other night, before your date with Mark. I had no right.”
“It’s okay. Don’t worry about it.” Please leave, I’m hungry now…
“And, the night he left, I’m so sorry about that kiss.”
There was a change in the air. As if the temperature suddenly dropped ten degrees. And the late summer sun got covered with gray clouds. A stifling, almost dense darkness spread through the room. It came from behind me. I turned to see Mark standing there, his eyes blazing.
“What. Kiss.”
Hell! “It’s nothing. I was going to stop him…”
The darkness almost glowed out of Mark as he bellowed at Ralph, “You touched her without her consent?!”
Crap! I had to say something quick. Before he got deeper into this state. “Mark, it was a mistake. It’s meaningless.”
“Not to him.” Mark looked through me, but through the reflection in his eyes, I saw a fireball start in Ralph’s palm.
“Stop!” I stepped right between them.
“Step aside, sweetheart.” Mark’s voice was different. Metallic. Like that night when Erebus overcame him.
I spoke louder. “My opinion is the one that counts. Not his! And I tell you, it was nothing to me.”
For a moment, my words had their effect. The darkness started to recede. But then, it came back with vengeance, as a fireball started in his hand too.
“Move, Julie.” Ralph was by my side. “Don’t be part of this.”
He did not just do that!
I turned to him. “Please, go home.”
“No. I’m not leaving you when he’s in this state.”
“You dare?!” Mark’s voice roared through the house.
They faced each other.
I had to stop this. A powerful surge of magic shot through me, pushing them both to the floor and extinguishing the flames. My body shook from it. And deep down, I felt the plea of a small being, calling for me to get it to safety.
Yes. I had to protect her. From the both of them.
“Julie?” Mark was the first to rise.
Yes. It was Mark. His voice was normal again. Erebus was gone.
Ralph rose next to us and tried to pull him back―a move that Mark’s martial arts instinctively stopped. A moment later, Ralph was on the floor again, holding his wrist in agony.
“I’m sorry. Can you heal?” Mark said to him, but kept coming to me.
And then, there was a silence. A man from long ago was reaching out to me, deep inside my mind. I knew his voice: Ivan. “Careful!” he warned. “Guard the child!”
I moved back from Mark, shaking my head. “I have to go. I can’t stay here with you. I’m sorry.”
“What?! No. Please.” Mark’s eyes widened, moistening, as he realized the meaning of my words. “This wasn’t supposed to be like this. I don’t know what happened. Please, Julie. You can’t leave.”
“But I have to go.” My voice broke. I now put my hand on his. I was scared as hell—scared for what could have happened to our child.
Mark looked at me, eyes red. A tear now came.
“I’ll go to my parents’. It’s time they knew about the baby—they’re both doctors. I’ll see you again when it’s safe.”
“You need a ride?” I heard Ralph’s voice.
Was he mad?
Mark turned to him in rage. “You did this!”
I caught his sleeve. “Mark!”
My voice had a calming effect this time, thankfully, and the darkness didn’t come out again.
Mark turned back to me, his expression normal. “Stay,” he whispered.
With my hand on my tummy, I shook my head.
There was still light when I reached my parents’ house in Brooklyn. The place was empty. My parents were out—my dad had texted me that when I asked to come. I texted them and went to sleep in the guestroom that used to be my old room.
The realization of the gravity of what I had done, in the haste to find safety, came when I lay in bed: I had left Mark. I had left my husband.
I lay, staring at the ceiling. I didn’t even have it in me to cry. I’d lost Mark again. And for the same reason as before. Only, this time, I was the one who ran away.
What would it take for him to regain control? To be the man he once was? Was it even possible?
Slowly, the room became darker, as less and less light came through the window. I felt like the sun was setting, and I was setting with it.
My phone kept beeping as messages arrived. I knew they were from him, but it would hurt more to read them now. I needed time. Time to mourn my illusions that he had conquered the beast.
And to think, that this could have been a beautiful, romantic evening, with a home-cooked dinner—something I longed for, for such a long time.
Exhaustion took over. I started to drift off. But my dreams were restless when they came. Mark was calling out to me. Telling me I overreacted. Then, Ralph was saying that it was all just my mood swings. And I told him it was his fault. Then, the dream changed: I was back in Scotland, looking at Kendra’s diagram. She was trying to tell me something, but it was in a language I didn’t understand. And then Rick was laughing in the background.
A whooshing noise woke me up. The room was cold. The last images from the dream were still with me.
The whooshing noise repeated. I opened my eyes to see the curtains flying into the room. The window was wide open, and a chilling wind played with them.
With a wave of my hand, I closed and locked the window. Then, I turned back and pulled the duvet over my head. I cast a heat spell on the bed.
Fuzziness started to cloud my senses and silly, random images passed in front of my closed eyes. My body felt heavy and relaxed at the same time.
But just as I was drifting off, I felt the cold breeze again. I opened my heavy eyes.
The window was open.
“Oh, for crying out loud.” I waved my hand at it, angrily. “Now, stay closed! I’m going to sleep, and you better not wake me up again!”
But instead, it flew open. Angry, I got out of bed and walked there.
It was pitch dark but in the light of the streetlamp, I saw a man in a long trench coat.
I gasped. It was Rick!
He motioned me to come outside.
More Julie and Mark here
More Dragon Fire here