Black Blood (Series of Blood Book 4) Emma Hamm (popular novels txt) 📖

“Ordering me around like I can’t make my own decisions.”

Lydia eyed the wheelchair. If she had been a little more stubborn, she might have slid onto its cushions and retreated to her room. But the book in her hands seemed to sing of hidden secrets and lost moments.

She groaned.

“I should not be reading another woman’s diary about falling in love with a man made of shadows!” Lydia blinked a few times. “On second thought, that isn’t that far off from a fairytale.”

The book held answers for her. She worried her bottom lip as she stared down at it.

“Oh fine,” she grumbled.

Curiosity had always been her greatest downfall. Lydia licked her thumb, flipped a page, and read.

Chapter 5

Line by line, she devoured the secrets which lay within the pages. A word here and there glowed. Golden dust rose from the words until it spilled out of the book into her lap like fog from the ocean.

“What?” she murmured to herself.

Her hands smoothed over the vellum pages, but found no trace of rune or etched spell. The book was not ensorcelled.

She recognized this magic. It was the same as the web of time in her mind although these strands were golden rather than silver. Her brows furrowed as she tentatively reached out.

Her chest clenched as though she were about to do something wicked and forbidden. Perhaps she was. This diary contained the innermost thoughts of a woman long dead. Prying like this was…

She shook her head. Over-thinking was useless.

In her mind’s eye, Lydia reached forward and grasped the strand of time firmly. She steadied herself with a deep breath and tugged hard.

Being disconnected from her body was impossible to describe. Everything simultaneously stopped and began. No longer limited by flesh and bone, she could create and destroy with a single thought.

Lydia could travel any lifeline she wished. Rich or poor, powerful or weak, no future was off limits. Time was the ultimate playground.

The golden thread tangled all around her, thrumming with pleasure. The deep aching call a request she could not resist. Lydia melted into the golden light and immersed herself in the magic.

She fell to her knees beside a lake. If this had been reality, her knees would be bruised and her palms bleeding. Jagged edges of stone jutted into her skin. The water lapping at their rough peaks had not softened their knife-like points.

Lydia licked her lips and pushed her corporeal body to a standing position. At least here she could still use her legs. Pale strands of her long hair tangled across her arms and in the tines of her antlers.

“Where am I?”

The water of the lake glowed bright green. The rough stones surrounding it were speckled with white and blue. Trees that looked like men held their arms to the sky.

She blinked as the tree nearest to her shifted.

“Good lord,” she whispered.

The distinct shape of a woman was carved into one of the trees. Voluptuous curves made of birch bark molded beneath an impossibly beautiful face. Her arms raised high while yellow leaves burst into color all around her hands and through her hair.

A real Dryad, Lydia realized as tears pricked her eyes. She never thought she would have the pleasure of seeing them in their true form. Now here she stood within an entire forest of Dryads and Ents.

Soft humming swelled in the air. The sound started with a light melody joining with guttural bases.

They were singing to each other.

Birch women lifted their voices to the heavens with bird-like song. Oak men called back with rhythmic beats of ancient stone beneath mountains. Willow women’s haunting melody echoed across the lake as their brethren sang.

Tears fell down Lydia’s cheeks. Her soul fairly flew with the beauty swirling in the air all around her. This memory was now hers as well.

A tingle of static danced down her spine. Lydia turned so quickly that the wind whistled in the prongs of her horns.

Streaks of color burst into view. It looked like a tear made by claws, hovering in the air. Thousands of riotous colors glittered in the marks as they grew wider, eventually coalescing into a round portal.

Lydia watched with rapt attention as a delicate foot parted the colors. The toes spread before touching the ground. All at once, the rest of the woman’s body plunged through the portal and into the symphony of song.

The air in Lydia’s lungs whooshed out of her chest. So this was Sil. This paragon of a woman who had been her predecessor.

They shared signature antlers, but that was where the similarities ended. Where Lydia’s hair was white, Sil’s was metallic strands of the finest silver. Where Lydia’s skin sparkled in the sunlight, Sil was light.

The other woman was impossibly tall. She was easily seven feet with a curved body that would have made even a priest sin. Silk fabric fell from her shoulders in twin waterfalls, tied at her waist, pooling at her feet.

Lydia had never seen such a woman before. A Goddess, Pitch had called her. If there were such a thing as a Goddess in other dimensions, this woman was one of them.

Twinkling diamonds hung in strands from the prongs of Sil’s antlers. They caught the sunlight and fractured it into hundreds of colors that danced all around her. Her face was perfectly sculpted with high cheekbones, incredibly full lips, and slanted eyes almost too large for her face.

It was the look of wonder that resounded within Lydia’s own chest. Sil may be beautiful, but something as simple as a song made her breathless.

“How wonderful,” Sil’s voice sounded like bells. “How incredibly wonderful.”

Lydia agreed. Her eyes devoured the woman who glowed like the sun. Lydia was a mere candle to Sil’s beauty.

Sil raised a graceful hand with fingers dipped in silver to cover her mouth.

A rustling in the brush had Lydia turning on her heel. Fear made her heart thunder even though it was a memory. She could not be harmed in this vision, but Sil could.

There were more trees behind