Vision Quest (25 page)

Around them, the fire flickered low. Blaze kept his legs locked around Arik, and they rested, cheek-to-cheek. The fire combined itself into one ball of flame, and it skittered over to Blaze.

Happy ... happy ... long time ... love ... love ...

"What's it saying?" Arik sleepily asked.

"That it was good for Goat Man, too."

Arik pulled away, but Blaze laughed and wrestled Arik back down. "Jerk," Arik huffed.

"Please don't. I think we're stuck like this."

Arik rolled his eyes but he kissed Blaze, light and loving. "Not so bad, being stuck with you for eternity. Though, please tell me the fire was the last surprise?"

Blaze grinned, waggling eyebrows, and had to laugh when Arik looked stricken. "I can promise you this,
Iubire: Vom vreme fericire și greutăți, dragoste și pierderi, de viață și de moarte în flacăra inimii celuilalt."

"What does it mean?" Arik asked softly, eyes shining.

"It's a vow." Blaze tucked Arik's hair behind one ear. "That we will be together, united by fire, come what may."

Arik smiled. "
Te iubesc,
Blaze."

"
Te iubesc
, my Arik. For always."

by AF Henley

(The poem that started it all)

An ember lit, by chance or plight,

A coil of smoke into the night,

Mere seed of light, but promise born,

In patient pause—a wink—no more,

Will mourn in solitary heat,

A smoulder amidst the grass and leaf.

And seek, by sky, that fated sigh,

Anemoi breath of proffered life.

One puff on light, one single flame,

"Arise now, phoenix, conquer grave."

And one to same, then two to few,

Few to many and many to slew;

Where icy blues had forced their reign,

Hold is lost to growing flame.

Branch, twig, lain, ill-found too close,

Fodder to the encroaching host;

Consumed. And both, to one become

The fuel, the flame; two chords, one song.

Twitch ear of fawn, and eye of owl,

Flight urged to leg and wing of fowl.

To air, the howl—sky-reaching rage,

Once weak, now strong, once bound, uncaged,

Disastrous glaze, to bright the night,

Hell fury masked as candlelight.

Sparked delight, and siren's song,

Do press Aiolos' mounts along,

To bring on atmospheric charge,

And tease the roil: entice, enlarge!

So flare! In brilliance! Final peak ...

Falter, extinguish. Spent and weak.

In silence blackened fields will lie,

Laid bare and breathless, eye to sky,

Ravaged, mined. But rains will roam,

On ashen litter and darkened loam.

The birds will loom and drop their seeds,

Waiting earth will devour the feed.

Souls breed. And nest. And dig and drone,

Claim new holes and furrows home.

And from the turmoil, new transpires;

The gift, a promise, cleansed by fire.

Henley was born with a full-blown passion for run-on sentences, a zealous indulgence in all words descriptive, and the endearing tendency to overuse punctuation. Since the early years Henley has been an enthusiastic writer, from the first few I-love-my-dog stories to the current leap into erotica.

A self-professed Google genius, Henley lives for the hours spent digging through the Internet for ‘research purposes’ which, more often than not, lead seven thousand miles away from first intentions but bring Henley to new discoveries and ideas that, once seeded, tend to flourish.

Henley has been proudly working with LT3 since 2012, and has been writing like mad ever since—an indentured servant to the belief that romance and true love can mend the most broken soul. Even when presented in prose.

Comments, kudos and signature card requests are happily received at afhenley.com.

Kelly Wyre enjoys reading and writing all manner of fiction, ranging from horror to romance. She used to work in advertising but is now happily chained to her writing desk and laptop. Kelly relishes the soft and cuddly and the sharp and bloody with equal amounts of enthusiasm. She's a coffee addict, a workaholic, a chronic night owl, and loves a good thunderstorm. Currently Kelly resides in the southeastern United States.