Kierran

I knew something was definetely wrong when Summer started talking to someone I could not see. My surroundings changed, and instead of the dark and cold maze, I was back at the wyldwood.

Illusion Summer was still beside me, but she was experiencing her own illusion, and it worried me not to know what was happening to her.

A hooded figure appeared, I couldn't see his face, but my instincts told me I better watch out, so I unsheathed my sword and took a fighting stance. Summer was obvlius to the danger ahead of us, she kept talking.

"She will die, Iron prince, and there's nothing you can do to change that" The figure sneered.

I shook my head.

"You refuse to see what is in front of you. Look at her" I didn't "Look at her! She will die tomorrow!"

I gritted my teeth "No, because I'll protect her!"

Summer turned to me then, a confused expression on her beautiful face. "Who are you talking to?"

It took all my self-control not to pull her to me and make sure she was there, real. She barely knew me, I had to do this the right way, so I just put my hands on her shoulders "No, Summer, who are you talking to?"

She told me what she was seeing and I just told her where I was. The figure didn't take his eyes off us.

I felt some of the weight lift from my shoulders when she told me she was talking to her mom, that didn't seem dangerous.

"Tell me, prince, how much longer will you keep fooling yourself?" He took a few steps forward "What will you do when she leaves you? You won't be able to do anything to save her" He glanced at Summer. She took off running and before I could do anything, she vanished.

What the hell? "DON'T LEAVE!" I yelled, but there was no point, she wasn't there. I glanced around, hoping that was just my mind playing tricks but with no luck.

Where was she? Where had she gone?

"See?" The creature hissed "You're useless"

I was ready to fight that thing and cut off its head.

He laughed "How can you expect to lead your people one day if you can't keep a single girl safe?

Dude, that was a low blow.

"She trusted you, everyone trusted you to find the way out, but you didn't"

Against my nature, I closed my eyes, pushing the voice inside of my head that told me to fight, aside. This isn't real! It's just an illusion, remember? You forgot about that!

Summer's voice broke the silence "Kierran, I'm here"

"You won't leave?" I didn't care about looking weak right now. As a faery prince, I could never, ever, let someone see my letting my guard down, but it left me amazed how Summer had changed that. She made me feel more... human, normal. I wondered if this was how Father had felt when he met Mother.

"No, I won't"

Then, her lips where on mine, giving me their calm and making me relax. She broke the kiss first, but I wasn't ready to let her go.

I rested my chin on her head and kissed her there. "That wasn't nice" And that was a huge understatement. Telling her the whole thing would only make her nervous, and now, more than ever, I needed her to have faith.

Summer wanted to continue talking to her Mom, so she dragged me along with her through what she thought were streets, but for me, they were just paths of the maze.

Suddenly, she froze, I was about to ask her what was wrong but she wasn't looking at me. Oh damn.

Now it was her. I was beginning to wonder if this was some kind of test both of us had to pass.

She kept talking and walking, and I followed her. Something interesting was that she never crashed against the walls or tripped over rocks, so I guessed the layout of the illusion had to be designed according to the maze.

I was worried. In my illusion, I had been about to lose it, for a brief moment, I had thought it was real. What if Summer was forgetting that too?

The answer was obvious, and it filled me with panic. She would stay trapped in her mind.