Strays: A Romantic Fantasy Adventure

Every morning had become a ceremony.

Ivy’s eyes would flutter open, lingering on the border between asleep and awake, to find Zero watching, waiting for her to initiate the ritual. Her body would effortlessly pull itself up, floating above him, and she would press their foreheads together, eyes closed. Sometimes, there was something different. Something new. Her hand on his jaw, or his on her thigh. Their fingers pressing against each other. A final encore of the dance the night before, a convergence of two souls.

Of the light.

The warmth.

The flames.

Then they would come back to themselves.

A whole becoming separate.

Each half taking from the other.

Making each other's sacrifice their own.

Zero didn’t reach out for her again after that morning in the den. But his eyes would tear into hers at each departure.

Fire.

They would ask.

More

But she couldn’t.

Please

She would fall away and scurry from the heat. The blaze he had offered filling her entire being and burning out of control, her lungs fighting for oxygen, blood like lava through her veins, setting her aflame.

Why

And she would answer in words that were not uttered from her tongue.

It’s still too much

And he would accept. He would let her get away. He would wait.

Until she could control the flames.

And she would come to him.

Ivy skipped along the path, weaving side to side, spinning and dipping, the song of the birds and breeze around her guiding her body along. It was a beautiful day, the sky so clear without so much as a hint of clouds over the horizon.

Ivy loved the ocean. How vast and endless it was. The way the blues of the water changed along with the sky. The waves that lapped passed her legs, pushing and pulling her around as if it wanted to play a game. The feel of the sand beneath her feet, soft but hard, an ever-changing sensation.

The girl’s eagerness to arrive built ever higher, her petite body barely able to contain it all. She couldn’t wait to get there, not just because she wanted to see the ocean, but because of who she wanted to see it with.

She spun to face the boy who followed along at the back of the group, and bounded over to him, her feet barely touching the ground. Like magnets, their hands found one another and intertwined seamlessly. She admired his hand, large and always so warm, as she swung them back and forth.

Soon, they would walk like this, but in the sand and waves.

It seemed so sweet.

Romantic.

She so looked forward to it.

“Do you like the ocean?” Ivy asked, excitement bubbling from her.

“It’s okay,” the devil replied without much thought, his temperament much more reserved than the vivacious girl beside him. “It’s a lot of water. A lot of people.”

Her smile grew and she giggled at his simple answer. “There are a lot of people. Have you seen what the women wear at the beach?”

He shrugged. “I haven’t paid much attention.”

Violet eyes sparkled as she gazed up at him. “They wear bathing gowns, and they’re absolutely darling! They’re a special dress with bloomers underneath. Maybe I can get one now that I don’t need my cloak? I’ve always wanted one, but we never had the coin and Sakura thinks they’re ridiculous.”

“They are ridiculous,” the woman interrupted as she walked further ahead with Ren.

“No, they’re not!” the girl argued. “They’re cute.”

“They’re a disaster waiting to happen is what they are.” Sakura glowered back at the pair, unwilling to budge on her decision. “Those foolish women are gonna drown wading out in that water with all that heavy fabric on, and I’m not gonna let you be one of them. It makes no sense to wear all that when it’s easier to swim without anything on.” Her ears twitched towards the man’s whispers, and she smacked his arm as she turned her distaste towards him. “Shut up! What is wrong with you?!”

Ivy watched the demon chastise the snickering angel with a pout. “Well, I like them,” she mumbled before looking back at the devil, her mood brightening once more. “I also like to run in the waves and build things in the sand. Have you done that?”

“No.”

“Why not? It’s so much fun. We can do that and a lot of other fun things while we’re there.”

“I can’t.” He peered at the girl; gloom washed in blood red. “I have to be careful so the angels don’t see my eyes.”

“Oh.” Ivy looked down at her feet, disappointed in herself. She hadn’t even thought of the angels that swarmed through the city, and the complications that they could create for the devil if they discovered him. She had been so thrilled for herself and the wonderful fantasy that she had played over and over in her head, that she hadn’t considered Zero and his own limitations in a place with those who wanted his head as a trophy. “I guess it would be a bad idea to do all that. What did you normally do when you went there?”

“Walk. A lot. Look for Sakura and then leave. Ren would talk to people who had seen her fighting with angels, but she was always gone when we got there, so we were never there for long.”

Ivy wondered how many times their paths had crossed over the years, just missing one another. How close he had been? How many roads he had walked just after her? How would things have been different had they met one of those times?

“I wish you had found me sooner,” she confessed quietly, mourning the time lost.

His grip tightened. “I have you now.”

The girl continued staring at the ground, the heat rising from her chest. Though Zero didn’t speak often, and even when he did it wasn’t much, he was so much better at expressing himself than she was. Ivy felt as if all she did lately was stumble around, floundering for air, while the boy next to her held all the confidence and spoke what he felt without a second thought. She wanted to do the same, but the words only smoldered on her tongue under his gaze.

She felt pathetic.

“You’re not.”

Her head whipped up towards him, surprised, as he smiled down at her.

“You’re beautiful.” His eyes soft and sincere, looking at her like there was nothing else. “So don’t feel that way. It’ll be okay. You’ll get it. Just like I did.”

She tried to hold his gaze, to be more like him.

But the blaze was spreading throughout her body, and she couldn’t keep it contained under the heat of his stare.

Ivy turned back to her feet and nodded. “Thank you,” she forced, her voice a squeak. “I’ll keep trying.”

Ren slowed his pace, Sakura following along, and looked back at the pair. “Time to shine, my little angel. You know the drill.”

Zero grabbed the hood of his jacket and pulled it over his head, casting his face downward. They caught up to the angel and demon, keeping a short distance behind them, as the dirt path turned to stone.

They could smell the salt from the ocean, taste it in the air as more people began to pass, making their way from the city as the group entered the outskirts.

Golden City was aptly named, a marvelous and expansive metropolis filled with colossal, white structures, magnificent with their detailed stained glass and domes with sturdy columns under tall arches. Multiple rivers entered the city, having been turned into slow moving canals that fed out into the ocean. It was bright and extravagant, the only place on land acceptable for those who were of the heavens and the more affluent beings of the land.

“You need to move back more,” Ren instructed, his voice missing his regular cheer, and Zero complied. “You should go back with them.”

Sakura brushed off the request. “I’m fine where I am.”

“Suit yourself. Move a little more, you two.”

They did and Ivy peeked up at the devil, his head and shoulders hunched miserably while his attention was set on the back of Ren’s boots, following his steps carefully. She then looked at the pair in front of her, their gait set, firm, and determined, the complete opposite from their seemingly carefree attitude from earlier. The woman never did like coming to Golden City, so that was no surprise to the girl. But this time she was different. Instead of being irritated and cranky, she seemed on edge, as if waiting for something she was dreading to happen.

What that could be, Ivy hadn’t a clue.

Her eyes wandered away from the pair and to the bustling street around them.

And she suddenly understood.

The girl attempted to swallow the dread that was building, faster and faster, to no avail.

There were so many people, all swarming through and around them, most of them paying the group no heed.

But the angels...

They were looking.

The angels were looking at them.

Each and every one of them. The ones in plain clothes and Guard uniforms, the adults and children, every pair of sky-blue eyes watching.

They were stopping, their heads turning and following them.

They were talking.

They knew.

They knew there was a devil.

Ivy’s heart was in a panic, completely out of control. Her chest hurt, and her head was light. The blood coursing through her veins had turned to ice, muscles frozen. She felt as if her body would collapse into itself.

She was terrified.

The girl thought about running. She could turn around, pulling the boy along with her, and still make it out of the city with relative ease. They could keep going and not stop. They could escape.

Zero could get away from this place, from the angels.

Zero would be okay.

She just had to take the first steps in the right direction.

And she had to do it now.

“It’s okay. Don’t be afraid,” the devil reassured without looking at her, his hand tightening around hers, keeping the girl at his side. “They’re not looking at me.”

Ivy tracked their glares.

Where some of them would point.

Zero was right.

They were watching Ren.