Teaser

There was a sensation as if the world was shaking. Evangeline thought as if she was walking onto a shaking bridge. She was gasping and dizzy when the sensation stopped abruptly and she was standing still again.

She glanced around and the corridor was familiar to her. She had been here before, in this emerald, shining corridor that looked as if it had been carved out of a garden. The floor was smooth, worn down by the passage of thousands of years of royal feet.

Light came from glinting chips of jewel in the wall and at the end of the passage was multicolored curtain swayed back and forth as it moved by wind. As she drew nearer to it, she saw that the curtain was lined up with delicate baby roses in pastel green, pink and blue.

She swallowed back the acid taste in her throat. "My Queen." She said. "I'm here."

The curtain rustled aside, and a blond lady stepped out into the hallway. She wore a beige short knee dress with a gold pendant clung around her neck. "I'm Lia, The Queen's attendant. You can follow me, my lady."

She followed Lia through the curtain of baby roses. She hunched her shoulders in the hopes that the thorns would not touch her skin. Evangeline blinked in surprised as soon as she stepped into the Queen's chamber. It looked entirely different from the last time she had been here.

The Queen reclined on a white and blue pastel divan. The floor stretched with clear crystal and she could see the water flowed beneath her feet and the flutter of schools of fish. She imagined the floor breaking up suddenly, giving away and she would plunge down into the darkness, cold and deathly. She shook her thoughts away.

Strings of dangerous looking thorns hung from the ceiling and she wondered how The Queen walked around the room with all the thorns dangling from the ceiling.

Lia went to stand beside the Queen. The Queen sat up straight. She was beautiful as she always been, her dress was meticulously draped down to her ankle, her hair like a scarlet dawn as she arranged it gently over one white shoulder.

"Well, Evangeline," she said. "Might I inquire as to your business here?"

Evangeline thought back desperately of her request. She bit her bottom lips. "I know this might sound absurd to you, My Queen."

The Queen arched one of her defined eyebrows, but she kept her silence.

"You told me if I ever needed your help, I could ask you for it."

"And you told me you wanted nothing from me," said the Queen. "That was the recollection of my memories."

"I did." Evangeline said. She glanced at Lia briefly. "But, things change."

The Queen stretched her legs out luxuriously. "Very well. What is it that you want from me?"

"I want you to grant me the permission to go to the earth."

The Queen bored her green eyes on hers. The chamber was silence followed by the sound of water beneath her feet, crying in their agony just like her request.

"You must think I'm powerful indeed to grant your wish, Evangeline." The Queen said. "You know it very well you and him are from entirely different world. You can't go to his world. It's impossible and it's beyond my power to grant yours."

"I know it's impossible, but I know you hide some tricks behind your sleeves." Evangeline had not been able to control her reaction of the man that the Queen mentioned.

"Perhaps I do have the power," said The Queen, "but you are aware of the prices for it, aren't you?"

"I do. I don't care about the prices. I just want to see him." Said Evangeline.

"This is not the first time I have heard of this request and I believe all of the requests I granted, not all of them could pay the prices."

"If you thought I won't be able to pay for the prices, I won't come here."

For a moment their eyes locked. The Queen was indeed beautiful, but there was something flashing behind her jade eyes, something that made Evangeline thought of darkness.

At last The Queen spoke. "Evangeline, my daughter. You would lose him for the rest of your life."

"I know!" Her hands trembling at the thought of losing him for the rest of her life. She swallowed back her thoughts. This

has to be it, this was the only way to save him. "Please, let me see him." Said Evangeline in a low voice.

The Queen hesitated as she looked at her. "You're alright with this?"

"If it means saving him," Evangeline said. "I would gladly accept it."

The Queen sighed. "Very well my daughter." The Queen shot her a superior look and turned her attention to Lia briefly. "I will grant you your wish. Please be aware Evangeline Rosewood. For you to go to the earth, you won't be able meet him again in the dreams nor will he remember of meeting you."

"Yes, My Queen."

"Evangeline Rosewood, on my command you're allowed to go to the earth for only 49 days and when your deal is over, return to me intact and we will speak again."