Bolts of lightning rumbled and crashed in the sky. The clouds were different shades of violet, streaked with dark gray across the night. Evette looked up, her vision blurring as the rain mercilessly fell, forcing her to blink rapidly.

It was not a dream, or a vision. It was something much more. She was immersed; utterly overtaken by the view of the lightless yonder hung high above her head. The sky was a place so dark and so lonely that it brought tears to her sensitive eyes. She balled her fists, but she did not sit up from where she laid on the dirty, blood soaked ground. The choice was hers— she could move, and she could free herself from the sticky mud that pressed uncomfortably at her back—but she chose to remain still.

She was trapped inside the darkest part of her mind. The part that was gloomy, and frightening, and crawling with evil that even she did not know existed. It was the only place where Eve felt that she belonged. No one had told her how she was indeed her own worst enemy. It was not the ground that kept her frozen in place, it was her own degrading conscience that weighed her down. There was, and had always been, a fire inside her soul, blooming with hope and possibilities. The flame still flickered there deep inside, and no matter how strong the wind may have been, it was not extinguished.

Evette's clothes were soaked from the cold rain, and she shivered when a flake of snow gently touched her cheek as it fell. The rain turned to snow momentarily, and she was grateful to finally be able to blink away all of the droplets of water that had fallen.

She had touched darkness time and time again; it seemed inescapable in recent moments. Evette had always felt the painful, throbbing anger in the presence of shadow that made her feel wronged in the most vile of ways. The darkness that now felt ever-consuming did not make her want to roar with anger, it instead saddened her beyond all words. It was the sorrow; the tears, and the type of pain that made one want to curl into a ball and slowly fade away. That merciless sorrow could not be duplicated. It was one of a kind; rarer than any polished stone.

Unrivaled and unbidden, more violet lightning enveloped the sky, its deep rumble echoing in Evette's ears. She winced, unarmed and afraid. No weapon could shield her from the colorful, godly bolts of energy. It quickly became her favorite sound. It was exhilarating to witness such power engulf the heavens.

The lightening grew brighter, slowly thundering closer and closer as it advanced. Evette was blissfully entranced, but she had never in her life felt so terrified and vulnerable. She was no match for such horrific beauty.

The thick clouds parted, pitch black darkness peeking through. The clouds swirled and shifted until they were spinning in quick circles, spreading wide enough to reveal more of the sky. The sight took her to a fragile nirvana, a place where she momentarily started to forget about all of her earthly troubles.

A deafening screech sounded from somewhere behind the clouds. A menacing creature swept across the hidden sky. The heavy flap of its unseen wings struck fear in Evette's heart as it zipped through the air, hidden away behind the puffs of smokey gray clouds.

As Evette heard another clamorous shriek, she forced herself to stand from the mud. She pulled herself up, placing her weight on her bent knees before clumsily standing. She stumbled backward, whirling her head around in all directions as she attempted to follow the sound of creaturely wails that seemingly drew closer. Her breath came out in pants, fast and unmistakably loud. Hale began to pelt down, along with rain and flakes of thick snow. It was a dark, meticulous void, that transcended time and space. She looked in all directions, and found nothing. No humans, no elves, no landmarks of any kind. The flat ground was bare, and the horizon was stripped of color. It felt so real. Evette wondered if she had indeed been sentenced to live a lifetime imprisoned by such a dreadful darkness.

Her boots slid deeper into the heavy mud, pulling her to the ground. She stepped free, and groaned when her joints began to stiffen and grow sore from the weight of the brown substance. She tightly hugged herself, her drenched, cream-colored overshirt rippling dryly at her elbows. Eve searched her belt for her sword, but as expected, it was missing from its sheath. She glanced down, searching for even the smallest of wood twigs to defend herself from the winged creature that began to descend from the sky, the dark clouds sealing shut after a long tail slithered away from the portal at its back.

The remembrance of Noel's green eyes always reminded Evette of her guilt; the sight of Narcisse's brown eyes made her slip back into the comfortable darkness within herself, while the blue eyes that belonged to the spirit who had given her power were cold and mysterious. Green, brown; blue, they had all overwhelmingly been fixed on her at one time or another. She had visions, and looked upon faces unseen, and heard unwarranted warnings. A powerful spirit had promised her that he would meet her in a forest, and she had promised the same after they first met. She had learned more about the world in the past seven days than she had in the seventeen years she spent in the company of few royal elves. She never once found truth in their tales, and standing below a ghastly beast who consumed the sky, she realized that nothing could have prepared her for what she was now witnessing.

Evette shielded her eyes from the bright lightening that crashed all around her, as hale continued to beat down on the tops of her shoulders. She was defenseless, and weak; completely overtaken by fearful thoughts.

Never in her young life had Eve ever laid eyes on something so menacing. Its wings were made of bone, strewn together by dark, radiating magic. Strands of lightening ricocheted off of its bones to create a forcefield strong enough to lift its body. The dragon roared, its exposed skeleton magically shifting as it reached down with four thickly clawed limbs to touch the ground just feet away from where Evette stood. The ground shook as the beast lowered itself down, wings outstretched.

It towered over Evette, and she gasped when it huffed, a visible breath leaving its hollowed nostrils to become condensation in the air. Shadow curled around the wide, pale bones that were held still by the darkness that loomed inside of its frame. It breathed without the help of fleshy lungs, and moved gracefully without the help of muscles or tendons. The only lively element of the dragon's body were its violet eyes. They were larger than the circumference of Evette's head; speckled with flakes of silver.

Green, brown, blue; violet. They were the portals that took Evette to other worlds filled with comfort, and dread, and mystery. Just staring into the eyes of the dragon who invaded her inescapable, nightmarish dream, took her to another dimension. Its eyes scanned over her, somehow able to process all that it was witnessing, unbothered by the two optic nerves that dangled behind its eye sockets.

Evette fell backwards, her body landing uncomfortably in the wet mud yet again. She frantically kicked her legs, digging herself deeper into the soggy dirt as she quickly moved away. It was a waste of her energy to try and get away, as there was nowhere for her to hide from the pile of bones that swiftly moved closer. Before she knew it, the creature was standing before her, and Eve cried tears as fat and wet as the pouring rain.

The impossibly large dragon bent its long neck down, gently tilting its ribbed skull to the side, so it could soak up the image of Evette on her knees, hands clasped in front of her torso, a quiet prayer on her lips.

She silently begged, eyes shut tight for a moment or two before she felt strong enough to reopen them and come face-to-face with an open jaw that swayed off its hinges. Sharp, cracked teeth hung in mid-air, and Evette told herself to be strong the moment her eyes glanced back and she stared straight through the throat of the monster. She could see its tail from where she sat, and wondered why the sharp tip wagged gently. If Eve did not know any better, she would have assumed that the creature's tail wagged because the beast was amused or playfully excited, but she certainly knew better. The winged serpent was not amused. It was mildly mannered, but not kind or polite. It trapped Evette between its two front legs, forcing her to glance up nervously. Tendrils of thin bone spiked at the top of its head and at the places where small slits on either side of its skull helped it to process external sound. It purred a radiating, bone trembling, low growl that echoed in the wind. It was a mystery how a towering skeleton could move with such vivaciousness. It inhaled Evette's scent, and it instantly knew her innocent fear.

Adrenaline and fear coursed through Evette's veins. A conscious part of her knew that the dreamscape she was involuntarily thrust into was not a complete reality, but she acknowledged that it could still hold an odd permanence if she allowed it to. She could be forever trapped inside of this empty, shadow-bound reality if she lingered between life and death just a few minutes more.

Eve felt the rain wash away the blood that dripped from the cut at her collarbone. The painful sting reminding her of the reality she would have to return back to once she awoke from her gloomy slumber.

She wondered if anyone would indeed miss her. It was a thought that came and went every few seconds, and each time it did, she tried to push it away. There was another world awaiting her; another beast on the other side who wished for her to return to the land of the living, but she did not want to allow herself to believe it. She thought that if she held no expectations, she would never be let down. To Evette, hope was a bottomless pit of disappointment, and she refused to allow herself to indulge in it further.

She wished to stay in the dark world that enveloped her, regardless of the undead creature who met her glowing eyes. The red had faded from her irises, and the wings that unfurled at her back were no longer covered in feathers that ran crimson. Evette was herself again.

Evette found reassurance in the deep violet eyes that stared, unblinking. They were melodic, and alluring. They compelled her as they darted over her skin, hypnotizing her with dark precision. She lifted her right hand absentmindedly, suddenly forgetful of the fear that ached in her heart.

Eve's twitching fingers betrayed her. Her palm pressed against the dragon's nose, the hard bone cool to the touch. The beast lowered his head further, its body following. It bowed at her feet as she weakly stood again.

The skull of the creature was as tall as Evette. She touched the nose of the bone dragon, and felt a familiar heat surge through her. Her skin glowed, and her eyes flickered as the magic of fire and lightening bloomed all around her like precious flower petals. She was freed from the the mark that sizzled on her palm. All signs of the blemish were erased, and the wound at her collar was stitched closed by a thread of shadow.

Every blemish, and every imperfection was turned flawless. Evette was freed from her blue-eyed, creaturely creator, who had intended to use her as a pawn. Though, the restraints at her ankles that chained her to Narcisse remained, as she wished for those to stay. The alluring dragon allowed Evette to bind her life to a wolf, as he knew that the brute would not get in the way of his mysterious plans.

The cold monster was not just a dragon of bone—he was a man. Evette could see his young, dead eyes shimmer at the sight of the flames that thundered through her. Eve may have touched darkness in the past, but now, she had touched true darkness. She had been freed from her woes by a dragon of shadow and death. If Evette could stare into the violet eyes of the beast for the rest of her eternal life, she would forever feel whole. Or so she thought.

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