by Zara Zenia
I glanced at the cobalt sky and sighed.
“I love you, Ariana,” Jinurak whispered in my ear. His cool breath tickled against my cheek and made me quiver with fresh desire.
“I want you to come home with me.” He continued to run his hands through my hair, gently attempting to coax me out of this devoid sleep.
“I want to go home with you too.” I locked eyes with him and felt an eruption of pleasure take hold of me.
“The dragon is gone, the trolls are gone, we don’t have to worry anymore. It’s just me and you against the world. Now that we have each other, anything is possible,” he said.
I concentrated and then groaned. I was having trouble leaving the space no matter what David tried to do to encourage me.
He shifted his weight and his face became etched in determination. “I think I need to do something powerful enough to make a substantial difference.”
“Do it,” I said with an enthusiastic nod. “Whatever you need to do, I’m willing and ready.”
“I realize now that just telling you how much I love and care about you isn’t going to be enough to wake you, love.”
“Okay,” I said. He still had my full attention as I stared at him expectantly.
“I need to evoke enough strong and positive emotions to convince you to shake off your mental slavery.”
“That sounds great.” I continued to focus on him, not yet fully grasping what he was trying to tell me.
“It’s true Ariana.” His gaze on me didn’t waver. “I am in love with you. Madly, crazily, can’t think about anything else in love with you. My feelings for you are so over the top that I find myself not being able to keep up with them. I’m chased by a constant burning need and desire for you and it’s a thrill that brings me joy and I never want it to stifle.”
It was then that I finally heard the voice of his heart speaking to me. It was then that I realized the earnest value of his words. His features were as sincere as they come.
“You really do love me, don’t you?” I whispered.
Jinurak nodded. “I love you more than anything in the world, virtual or real, between the planets, moons, stars and the skies. My love for you knows no boundaries. It has no limits. I am willing to go to the ends of the galaxies to prove my love for you.”
My heart pounded with longing. I felt my cheeks burn with desire. I felt a tingle building in my heart. I wanted him in that moment and everything he embodied connected to my soul in that very instant.
“I love you too, Jinurak,” I proclaimed, wishing I could shout it from the tops of the trees and scatter the words as a whisper through the wind that would carry for centuries to come. “I love you more than I could ever put into words. You are my saving grace. You are my everything. The fact that you are here now, telling me these wonderful things is enough insurance for me to trust you with every fiber in my being.”
I snaked my hands around his neck and roped him in. I pressed his warm, masculine body next to mine. He felt so rugged, so solid and strong. He was a foundation that I could lean on that would never waver or crack. The potential of our relationship began to skyrocket. I was bouncing through the clouds with elation.
Jinurak leaned down and pressed his lips to mine. I was hit with the most sensationally magical experience of my entire life. Pleasure tingled up and down my spine. I wanted to melt into his arms and have him kiss me forever.
It was the most remarkable moment between us when our connection was finally physically solidified. I knew after that I would be able to wake up and follow him wherever our path may lead. I was ready to go out into the open, exposed to all the wonderment that love had to offer, for it was love that lit the way.
No matter what, love always won and conquered all. I hoped that one day Nora Morse would realize that there was nothing she could do to enslave love. It always found a way to light up the world. Jinurak and I were bound by eternal passion and ecstasy. There was nothing in the physical world that could break that or stand in our way now.
Chapter 17
Jinurak
I didn’t want to stop kissing Ariana, but we had to get out of this trapped virtual fortress before we both became stuck in here forever. I glanced over her shoulder and noticed the trio of flurrying round colors beginning to resurface.
I smiled and pulled away, nudging my chin in the direction of the three fairies that I knew Ariana viewed to be her friends at this point in the game.
“Looks like we have company. Somebody wanted to say goodbye after all.” I grinned so that Ariana wouldn’t feel threatened as she turned around to discover who I was referring to.
Her jaw slackened in shock as the fairies began delicately fluttering around her.
“What are you doing back here?” Tears shimmered in her eyes. “I thought you had…abandoned me.”
“We would never abandon you, Ariana,” the little blue one said with a fond gaze flickering in her tiny, beady eyes. “We transitioned you to be with the one true love that you belong with above all the rest.”
I knew that the fairies were referring to me and as I looked at Ariana from the corner of my eye. A spark of recognition lit up in her face and she finally understood that the fairies were giving her enough time and space to realize that she loved me too and wanted to start a new journey with me by her side.
I was ready to take it to the next level with her, and I felt a rush of adrenaline as Ariana nodded.
“Thank you,” she said. “For at least coming back to say goodbye so I could get the closure.”
The fairies nodded to her in acknowledgement and smiled. “We are happy to oblige your feelings, but we came back for another reason too,” the gold one said and met my gaze.
Ariana noticed the exchange and turned around to give me a curious stare. “What are they talking about?”
“We will need their help in order to unlock the fortress and leave this virtual space safely without mental damage,” I explained. “It’s a precaution that we need to take to ensure that we get out of here without falling into any of Nora’s traps that she might have rigged to keep us locked in here.”
“Where is she?” Ariana still looked bewildered in response to Nora’s disappearance. “Wouldn’t she be here trying to stop you from taking me?”
“We are going to hunt her down, love,” I promised. “It might take some time but don’t get discouraged.”
Ariana gave me a smile as if she wanted to take my word for it, but given the circumstances, Nora couldn’t be trusted and even I wondered whether she was going to pop out from behind the hedges with another dragon in tow, ready to spew its hot lava fire on us.
I turned on my communication device and the same familiar static crackled in my ear at first. I pressed the receiver button on the side.
“David? Are you still there? Can you hear me?”
There was a brief few moments of silence, but in my head they seemed to linger on forever. I glanced between Ariana and the three fairies who stared at me with watchful expectancy etched into their features. The fairies continued to hover overhead with their radiant glowing colors shimmering under the sunlight.
“I’m here,” David said after several excruciatingly crawling minutes.
“Thank goodness.” I breathed out an audible sigh of liberation. “I found Ariana safe and unharmed, but we are still locked in the virtual world.”
“You were able to find her? Fantastic!” David was one of the good ones. “She’s doing alright?”
“She is safe with me for now, but we are going to try and break away from the fortress now. The AI’s are going to aid us in that effort, but I am hoping they can also try and help free you from the trap you are in,” I explained.
“How are they going to do that?” David sounded optimistic.
I glanced at the fairies, unsure of what the plan was going to be yet. “What is the first step we should take?”
“We can help you by shutting off the traps. They are connected to a power
grid inside the game. Its hidden in here so that you wouldn’t be able to find it on your own,” the blue one explained.
I clenched my jaw and balled my fists. “Of course, Nora would have to raise the bar and prevent us from getting through the traps,” I said begrudgingly. I should have known it wasn’t going to be that easy.
“If we didn’t have your assistance, we would never have been able to get this far.” Ariana stared at the three fairies as if she wanted to dedicate her entire life to repaying their dedicated services to her.
I understood where she was coming from and how she could feel so inspired and compelled by their selfless acts of kindness.
“Yes.” I nodded in agreement. “Without you all to help us, by the time we figured out where to find the power grids to switch off that are linked to the traps, it probably would be too late for the rest of them still out there in the real world trying to find the virtual world chambers.”
The fairies beamed at our compliments. I could tell that they really wanted to absorb them and relish them as much as possible but unfortunately, time was of the essence and we needed to act fast. David, though, was still locked in a trap and needed to be released as quickly as possible.
“The two of you can head toward the hedge behind the fallen dragon,” the blue fairy instructed. “We will work on getting the sequences of boxes in the electrical grids shut down.”
“Thank you so much,” Ariana said with a tone of compelling gratitude as she cast her three flapping friends a noble little bow.
“Come on,” I said and took her hand. “We better do what they said before we find ourselves under heat and trouble if Nora decides to resurface.”
Ariana visibly shuddered at the mention of Nora’s name. She nodded without a second thought and spun on a heel, jogging with me back in the direction of the spiky hedges.
When we passed the dragon, Ariana slowed to a crawl to creep around it, glancing at it as if she expected it to get up and burst a row of flames at her body.
“It’s dead,” I reassured her. “It can’t hurt or haunt you anymore.” I left out the part that it never existed in the first place, because in the virtual world it was a monstrous beast.
Ariana met my gaze and I noticed resilience flickering in her eyes. My heart pounded for her, and the blood in my veins pulsed for her. I would do anything to protect her and there was no limit to my immeasurable love harbored for her, and only her.
“Okay,” she whispered softly as if she finally realized that safety was only a few steps away.
If only it were that easy. I wanted to keep her innocent and pure, but I knew now that she had seen too much. She was a perfect match to be my princess because she had struggled and stayed resilient through the stress and turmoil. I admired her more than any other woman I had ever met and there was no other comparison besides her. In the end, Ariana was the one my heart beat for.
She kept my hand clutched together with hers. It was warm and feminine cradled against my skin. It was intoxicating to have her so close to me when I had yearned for her love and affectionate embrace for so long. It was surreal to have her standing next to me, regardless of the stressful circumstances we were currently under.
I clutched her hand as hard as I could squeeze it, vowing to never let her go because she was too important to me, a massive asset that brought amazing quality of life to my psyche.
“Come on,” I urged. “And look out behind you for anything out of the ordinary, but hopefully the fairies have the digital aspects under control.”
Ariana nodded. She kept up with my pace which was an encouraging factor that reassured me. She didn’t break her stride once and her stamina was incredible.
I didn’t know if it was from a combination of her adrenaline skyrocketing or maybe her endurance had been built up long before she had met me. Either way, I was impressed.
As soon as we reached the row of hedges, I glanced through the thick, pointy brush. “The portal to leave the game is there,” I said, “but we have to hear from your fairy friends before we can exit. We can’t take the risk that it’s been intercepted or toyed with in any capacity.”
“That’s fine,” Ariana said. She was barely even out of breath from running all the way back across the lawns. “They will come. I trust them with my life. I know they won’t let us down.”
“Fantastic,” I said and looked toward the castle, making sure those pesky trolls didn’t come back.
I heard my walkie talkie receiver begin to crackle again. I lifted it from my belt. “David? Is that you?”
“It’s me,” he said. His voice sounded like it was coming from inside of a wind tunnel.
“Yadav?” I pressed one hand over my ear so I could hear him better and concentrated on his voice. “Are you there? I can barely hear you.”
“I’m here,” he acknowledged. “I’m still in the trap. The door hasn’t opened yet.”
“The AI’s are working on it,” I assured him. “Just hold tight.”
“Are you still in the virtual world?” he asked.
I flickered my gaze to Ariana who was looking bleakly back at the castle but wrung her hands together anxiously. She shifted her weight and looked as if she wanted to pace around just to keep herself busy.
“We’re still in here,” I said. “The AI’s are working on that too.”
“Okay good.” David exhaled slowly and appeared to be satisfied with that answer.
His trust and overall faith in the rest of the world was one of the things that set him apart and boosted his demeanor, but it was also a dangerous quality to have.
I definitely kept my guard up more often than Yadav did, but he knew the criminals when he saw them and knew how to bypass their little games to catch them in the act. Nora was an exception to that rule, unfortunately. She gave him, and all of us for that matter, a run for our money.
“I will reach out in another few minutes,” I said to him. “I don’t want the battery of my receiver to die.”
“Good thinking,” Yadav said approvingly. “I’ll turn my receiver off and will turn it back on in about five minutes. Does that sound good to you? But if anything else comes up before then, you will definitely be the first to know.”
“Thank you, that sounds like a great plan to me,” I said and switched the device off.
Ariana was looking a little troubled and her cheeks weren’t as cherry as they normally were.
“How are you holding up with all this?” I whispered in what I hoped would reflect as a soothing tone.
I gently cupped my hand over her shoulder. She looked like she was on the cusp of a panic attack, but I didn’t want to point that out to her just in case it sent her over the edge.
She gave me a distracted look and kept flickering her gaze back to the castle. “I’m worried for them.”
I frowned. “What do you think might happen to them in there? Should we go and help them?”
Ariana looked conflicted. Her forehead wrinkled slightly. “I don’t know. Maybe if they aren’t back in a few more minutes…”
I took a deep breath. “If you trust them, then I have no reason to doubt them either.” I gave her a gentle smile splashed with empathy.
Ariana seemed to relax a notch or two. “How did I get so lucky to find you?”
I tossed her a grin and tenderly nudged her shoulder with mine. “I’m the one who found you, remember?”
Ariana chuckled and rolled her eyes playfully. “Whatever we can do to lighten the mood of this preposterous situation, right?”
“It is absolutely preposterous,” I agreed with an earnest laugh.
“I hope Nora gets pay back for the hell she’s put us through.” Ariana balled her fists and a dark expression shadowed over her otherwise beautiful features. She looked thirsty for revenge.
“Me too,” I said, but to make her feel a little better I added, “honestly though, love, I’m so beyond thrilled to have you safely with me against the odds that at the moment, all I can think a
bout is how lucky I am. Fate did a number on us for the better today.”
The beaming smile on Ariana’s face was something that I never wanted to forget, and I tried to make a mental picture of it to engrave in the private corners of my mind. She was radiantly beautiful and glowed even more when I gave her a compliment booster.
I had a pins and needles, tingly type of feeling as we waited to hear back from the fairies, or at least see their return. I didn’t know what to expect, but I knew that David, along with the rest of my troops who were undoubtedly in traps at this point and needed us now more than ever.
A few minutes later, we saw the pink and the blue fairy frantically flying toward us with a wild look reflecting in their tiny, beady eyes. They buzzed around us, waving with urgency back toward the castle.
“What’s the problem?” I asked and took a step toward them.
“We can’t seem to get the main frame switchboard released. It has some kind of deactivation issue,” the blue one said in a worried tone.
“Deactivation issue?” Ariana mirrored the puzzled expression of her blue fairy friend.
“Yeah,” I said. “What does that mean exactly?” My heart pounded because I was expecting the worst but hoping for a reasonable solution to the problem.
“It appears as if Nora has put on a code on the portal to explode the entire fortress and the outside castle on the island as well.” The pink one spoke so softly that I could barely understand what she was saying, but what I did hear was an absolute nightmare.
Ariana’s voice reflected sheer panic. “What are we going to do? We are never going to get out of here. She’s going to kill us all!”
“Try to calm down, love,” I said and gave her a comforting look.
I immediately took my communicator device off my belt again and twisted the on button. “Yadav? We have a little um…” I cleared my throat and shifted my weight. “We have a little problem here.”
“How little?” There was a slight joking tone to David’s voice, but now wasn’t the time and he would soon learn the gravity of the situation.