“Cold?” a voice whispered.
I blinked open my eyes but all I saw was darkness. Was I dreaming? I felt the bed for Cassius. He was still next to me but I couldn’t see him.
“I can make you warm.” The voice chuckled. “Shall I start a fire? For both of us?”
“What?” I reached out in front of me, unable to even see my hand. “Who are you?”
“Darkness,” it hissed.
I would have laughed if my body hadn’t chilled in that very moment and then, nearly wept with the rightness of it. “Darkness, you say?”
“I am Darkness. Your other half. Hello.”
Did it just say hello?
Frowning, I reached out this time, my fingers came into contact with something, the Darkness rippled in front of me, and then like a mirage, the Darkness turned into a face. The beautiful face of a man. He grinned. “Come a little closer.”
I tried, but my feet felt like they were stuck to the ground.
“Mated.” He shook his head. “That is unfortunate for you. If you were free to choose me, I’d make you warm. Now, you must stay cold. Grounded.”
Black feathers surrounded his shoulders, attached in weird haphazard ways all around his muscled body. “Now, if he was gone… you would be mine.”
The idea thrilled me, but I had no idea why.
“I’m extremely powerful…” His eyes became pensive. “All you have to do is embrace the power…” He shrugged. “The power in every Dark One…”
“Cassius, he has this power too?” I asked.
“For a while.” The man shrugged. “He used it for a while, but his friends–” He spat the word. “–brought him back.”
Confused, I tried to search for something familiar, but the room was still blanketed in black and the man in front of me was growing by the minute. “One day… one day you will call upon me in your time of need. Then, I’ll prove my loyalty. And then, we’ll be together.”
The way he said it made it sound like a mating, but I already had Cassius. I didn’t understand. Was I just having a nightmare? A weird dream?
“The power is always at your fingertips… imagine, you could save all you love, all you care about, by simply allowing the darkness to overcome the light. A Dark One is born with both, but it is your choice. Always your choice.”
The idea that I had a choice was… life changing. Because my entire life, choices had been made for me. Even Cassius.
“Yes.” The Darkness continued speaking. “Even your love chose for you, he chooses for you even now… Do you have a mind of your own? Or are you a puppet?”
“I’m not!” I shouted. “I’m powerful.” Darkness swirled around my body.
“Yes.” He nodded approvingly. “You are.”
The Darkness suddenly warmed my body, singed me from the inside out, intoxicating in its warmth I allowed it to spread, when suddenly I was punched, or it felt like I was getting punched in the stomach.
“Wake up!” Cassius shouted.
I fell on to the floor and looked up at him. “What was that for?”
White eyes glared back at me as the smell of smoke filled the air. I scrunched up my nose as Cassius put out the fire on the bed spread. When I stood to lo
ok at the damage, I gasped. “What happened?”
The entire bedspread was singed.
The pillows, ash.