Take Me To Your Reader: An Otherworld Anthology (35 page)

He dragged himself away from her mouth, leaning over her as he caught his breath. Although she realized that his forearms glowed bright enough to hurt her eyes, she longed for him to kiss her again.

"
I'd enjoy nothing more," he said. "But our time together has once again come to an end. They're ready to transition you."

Alarm made her eyes go wide.
"What? Right now?"

He nodded and got to his feet, reaching down to help her up.
"I've brought you to the established coordinates. We've just been summoned."

"
Summoned?" She looked around, then up to the sky. "How?"

"
Telepathically. As the
Dem-shyr
, I can be contacted by anyone involved in your care."

"
Oh." She thought about that for a moment. "Do they also know your thoughts?"

"
No." He smiled briefly. "Another one of the perks of being the
Dem-shyr
."

Once again, she looked up at the sky.
"How does it work?"

"
It doesn't matter. I'll be suppressing your awareness before anything happens."

That made her anxiety surge.
"Suppress? You mean…I won't remember any of this?"

He looked away.
"No."

"
But—"

"
Please don't do this again, Kyr. It gets harder every time."

Her lips clamped together. In her mind, there hadn
't been any other times. Still, she could see that he wasn't happy. She didn't see any reason to press the issue.

Finally, she took his hand.
"You'll be with me?"

"
Always."

Swallowing hard, she nodded.
"Okay. I trust you, Ty. I don't want to make this any harder on you than it has to be. Do whatever you have to do."

He stood for a moment and held her gaze. She sensed there was much he was trying to communicate to her without words, but she couldn
't interpret it. It made her feel as though she was somehow falling short. When she heard his disappointed sigh, the feeling of failure intensified.

Before she could speak, he leaned down and brushed his lips against hers. She thought he was kissing her goodbye. Then she felt her senses dimming. He held her tight, not letting her fall when her limbs grew numb.

Where are we going?
she managed to ask him through thought.

"
We're going to a planet called Earth," he replied, leaning down to kiss her once more. As her eyes closed and her thoughts faded, he added, "And it is there that I hope you'll learn to love."