Page 55 of Psycho Beasts
Chapter 11
Sadie
HIS NEST
Blessed sun god.
My senses were overwhelmed.
The sounds of a thunderstorm—the patter of rain, the crash of thunder, and crack of lightning—echoed around the room, unnaturally loud.
If I hadn’t known better, I’d have thought we were standing in the middle of the storm.
I tipped my face back, and my eyes widened.
Across the ceiling and walls, there wasn’t a single window in the room, dark clouds creating the illusion of torrential rain slamming down.
The only sources of light were glowing neon raindrops and a massive black marble hearth that blazed with soft, red flames.
That wasn’t even the best part.
The ceiling was low, and the biggest bed I’d ever seen was built into a platform on the floor. It was covered in fluffy white blankets and pillows.
It was plush.
The massive hearth blazed so large it almost took up an entire wall.
I was dumbstruck by the sheer coziness of the room. I didn’t know what I had expected, but it wasn’t this.
Xerxes towered next to me, covered in muscles, bruises, and dried blood. He handled knives with deadly precision and was a cold soldier most of the time. For sun god’s sake, the man had worked for the evil fae queen.
Yet he blushed as he showed me his fluffy bed?
There was a long pause as he stared at me and I stared at the illusion of rain streaking down the walls.
Finally, I realized he was waiting for me to speak. “Could you make it snow?”
I didn’t know why it mattered; I liked the rain just fine. Before I could take back my impulsive statement, Xerxes said loudly, “Enchantment, snow.”
Suddenly, the illusion on the walls transformed from rain into big, fluffy snowflakes.
They piled into banks, and the familiar crunch of boots across fresh powder echoed. My hair blew on a cool phantom breeze as the wind howled and branches clattered.
For the first time in months, my shoulders relaxed.
I sighed heavily and closed my eyes, losing myself in time and space until I was perched atop an evergreen.
There was something freeing about being above the world. Something that felt like home.
The wood creatures chittered. The cold bit into my bones, and the snow drifted around me.
Nothing was more peaceful than a snowy forest; it was violent and comforting.
It was the sheer exhilaration of being alive.
Serenity wasn’t the absence of conflict; it was the stillness within chaos.
A warm, callused hand touched my arm, and it jolted me back to the present. It was too tempting to get lost in the past. To forget all the awfulness of life and sink into daydreams of a cold forest.