Unedited.

Tried not to make this so long. I got a comment on another story that it can get boring and, honestly, I have to agree. This isn't too short but not too long. Hope you like it.

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   Rebecca felt herself flailing wildly, arms and legs kicking in every direction. She was surrounded by darkness. Freaked out she tried to reach for something, anything. It was hopeless. She just felt air around her — cold air that whipped around her painfully. In the end, all she did was flail blindly, speed picking up. She had no idea how long she'd been falling. It could've been a few minutes, it could've been hours.

Why? Why had she been stupid enough to do this? she wondered, her fear turning into self-hatred. She was afraid of heights. Driving over a bridge in a car terrified her. And she'd jumped down a hole, without knowing how deep it was. She didn't even know what would meet her at the bottom. A concrete wall? An ocean? Nothing?

Self-preservation had yet to kick in. The smart thing to do was to stay still and not panic or flail around blindly in the darkness. If she was screaming she didn't even know. She could hear nothing but the wind whipping around her like a roar, so loud it was almost deafening. It felt like she was falling and she'd never stop.

Mikael. This was all his fault.

She was going to hurt him if she survived this — though she wasn't very confident she'd actually survive. How successful she'd be was in doubt, but she wouldn't stop trying until he felt the fear she did now. Rebecca didn't care if it took hours.

She kicked her foot out, catching nothing but air—

"Reach out!"

She jumped, looking around frantically, before she realised it was pointless. Darkness surrounded her, there was no chance of seeing anything.

"Damn it! Quit screaming and reach out!"

Mikael. The voice definitely belonged to him. And it sounded close. Frantically, she tried to find her voice, though it seemed impossible considering she was still falling. "Mikael! Where are you? I can't see!"

"Reach out!"

I am and it's not doing anything, she thought. It wasn't so much as reaching out, as it was flailing in fear though. "Tell me where you are! I can't see!"

She heard a frustrated sigh. "Oh, for god sakes . . ."

When something gripped her ankle, she screamed loudly, kicking wildly. Everything seemed to stop, her sense of vertigo dissipating. She drew in panicked breaths, throat raw. "Mikael!" she yelled desperately. Her voice seemed to echo loudly. "Help me!"

Again there was a sigh. In the darkness she tried to find him, but it was pointless. One second he was to her left. The next to her right. Pinpointing the actual direction was pointless—

"Shut up and quit screaming. I've got your ankle."

Rebecca glanced around. "What? Mikael?"

Mikael sounded bored and more than a little frustrated. "I've got your damn ankle. Now stop screaming."

Rebecca shut her mouth, completely unaware she'd been screaming. "Where are you? I'm not touching the ground, in case you haven't noticed," she said quickly, voice desperate. She was dangling in thin air. Mikael could drop her. Any minute now.

Again he sighed. "I'm going to levitate you. Try not to move, otherwise I might drop you. And there's hard concrete under you."

Before Rebecca could even blink, the hand on her ankle was gone. Then she was falling down again. She was too out of breath to scream.

The next few seconds went by in a flash. There was Mikael's amused voice muttering, "3 . . . 2 . . . 1 . . ." Then she was no longer falling, her whole body freezing in mid-air. Mikael's words ran through her panicked mind, and she forced her body to go still.

"Mikael," she whispered, voice sounding terrified to her own ears. "If I'm floating please don't drop me."

The only sound she heard was his voice. "Have a little faith. I'm going to put you on the ground. Then I'm going to jump. I won't land on you."

Rebecca was completely on board with that plan. She didn't want to fall, she wanted to stand on a flat surface that was stable. "Hurry," she whispered.

She squeezed her eyes shut, wrapping her arms around her middle, as she felt herself floating. Later on, when she wasn't freaking out, she'd realise how cool this was. That'd have to wait though. She wasn't done panicking.

When her body hit something solid, she almost collapsed in relief.

"I'm letting you go. You're on flat ground."

She barely heard Mikael's words as she sagged on the concrete. It was cold and she was still surrounded by darkness, but she didn't care. It was flat ground and that was all she cared about. Narrowly, she avoiding kissing the ground in thanks.

"I'm jumping. Heads up."

Rebecca wasn't paying attention, so when she felt a body thump on the ground near her, she jumped in shock. "Mikael?" she whispered aloud. "Please tell me that was you. If it's a demon I'm going to ki—"

There was a quiet laugh beside her, before she felt a foot kicking her thigh lightly. "It's me. If it was a demon you'd know."

Since that sounded like something he knew from experience, Rebecca said nothing, still too busy gasping for breath.

He stopped laughing, speaking quietly. "I'm going to hold out my hand to pull you up. Grab it."

Rebecca did, reaching out blindly until she felt a hand. She latched onto it like a lifeline, letting Mikael pull her up. "You can see?"

"No. I've just done this before." His hand went to her hip, steadying her shaking legs. Rebecca quickly stepped away.

She stood on the spot, too afraid to walk in case she'd fall down a pothole. "What if I told you I was afraid of the dark?"

"I'd tell you to get over it. Stand still while I grab something to light."

Rebecca was way ahead of him. She listened to him walk around, his footsteps loud and heavy. "You could at least be nice, you know. I just jumped down a black hole. Literally. I thought I was going to die. That was the most terrifying thing I've ever done in my life. And I'm never doing it again."

"I'm sorry," he said. "Heads up."

Suddenly there was light in the form of a fire. Rebecca blinked heavily trying to take everything in. Mikael was holding a lantern, the end of it alight. She wasn't as shocked as she should've been. "Uh, can I have one? I can't see too well."

Mikael bent down, picking up something else. He stared at it and she saw his eyes flash gold. Then the end of the stick he held caught fire. Rebecca couldn't help but flinch. "Are you going to take it?"

Rebecca blinked, grasping the stick with a shaky hand. "It's not going to burn me, is it?"

Mikael shook his head. "The end of it will burn. Unless you put your face into the fire, you won't get burnt."

"I'm not that dumb." Still, she fumbled slightly with the stick, unsure of how to hold it. The stick felt hot in her palm.

"Let's hope not." Mikael started to walk forward and Rebecca followed, moving the fire so it light the floor. From what she could see there was no potholes or anything she'd trip on.

As they walked she glanced around. They were in a tunnel by the looks of it. The floor was flat but the roof above them curved around. The side walls were covered in deep cravings, most of them words Rebecca didn't know. It appeared to be another language entirely.

"Can you read what the walls say?" she asked, watching Mikael saunter along the tunnel.

He shrugged. "A little. It's in Faelk — no one speaks it anymore."

"Faelk?" It sounded like a swear word.

"It was the language used centuries ago. I don't want to waste any more time."

"Does that mean you're not going to tell me what it means?" Rebecca asked, though she could already guess the answer.

Mikael was silent.

Rebecca sighed. "Okay then." Then she followed him as they turned a corner. "I thought this would be more exciting. I could walk through a sewer if I wanted to explore tunnels."

He raised an eyebrow. "This is a maze, Rebecca. There's only one right way. Turn the wrong corner and you're lost."

"Still boring," she muttered, a little letdown by it all.

"Don't say I didn't try," Mikael said, turning another sharp left. "And I lied. I'm reading the carvings on the wall. That's how I know where I'm going."

Rebecca walked quicker to keep pace with him. "Let me guess. They say left and right? Don't go this way — it's a trap?"

"I'm not even going to answer that," she heard him say, as he shook his head. "What's with the scar on your stomach?"

Rebecca balked at the spontaneousness of it, gaping at him. Going on the defensive was her instinctual reaction. "Excuse you?" she snapped, wondering how he'd seen it in the first place.

"I saw it when I carried you to the nurse, after someone knocked you out. Don't answer if you don't want to. It was only a question."

To him it was only a question. To her it was so much more. Instead of responding, she glared at the back of his head, following behind him slower.

He sighed. "Don't go there. Got it."

Rebecca said nothing.

They walked around a few more corners in silence, though Mikael seemed complacent whistling a song to himself. Rebecca hated to admit she was a little jealous. She couldn't whistle, she just blew air.

With nothing else to do, Rebecca waved the Fire Stick (as she'd named it) around to see everything. The carving lined everywhere, on each surface of the tunnel. She could make out the pictures on them — though some she segregated looking at. They varied in gruesomeness. In one image, spanning at least a metre of the left wall, a man was getting speared through the chest. In another, there was two naked bodies as close as they could get.

The tunnel was really just . . . a tunnel. It reminded her of the cave she'd visited years ago, where ancient cave paintings were. They'd been much less violent. All the ones in this tunnel depicted death in one way or another.

Before they'd jumped, Mikael had said it was all an illusion. But that didn't add up. You couldn't just make up a giant tunnel that was supposedly a maze. It wasn't possible.

Then again, none of this should've been possible and yet it was.

Whatever, she thought. She wasn't going to worry about it. It wasn't her problem how the illusion worked. There were things in life that just happened and you let them. Now was one of these times—

Rebecca screamed soundlessly as she ran into Mikael's heavily muscular back. His arm reached out, holding her around the waist until she was stable. Rebecca made sure to step away quickly — it irked her, how touchy feely he was.

"Why have we stopped?"

"We're at the end."

Rebecca walked to the side of his, to get a better view. In front of them was a large black wall. "We can't walk through that. Or is it an illusion again?"

"Step back." Mutely, Rebecca stepped back, watching Mikael warily. "Further than that. Otherwise you'll get hit in the face."

She gaped at him. "You're going to hit me?"

He sighed. "No, I'm not going to hit you. My wings might though."

In a stupor, Rebecca stepped back. "Wings? You have win—"

The words died in her throat. Mikael had turned to face her, his shirt on the concrete next to him. Rebecca stared at his chest, hoping he couldn't see her blushing in the light from the fire. He didn't even seem to notice her looking, so focused in what he was doing.

His eyes opened as a pain looked crossed his face. The iris of his eyes were gold. Then Rebecca watched in wonder, as something changed. There was a sickening crack and then she saw shapes forming from his sides. As they got bigger and took shape, she realised they were wings. He'd been serious.

"Oh my god . . ."

Finally he relaxed, and he stared at her, smirking slightly.

Rebecca just gaped at the sight of him. He looked . . . powerful. His chest was muscled, everywhere, which didn't come as a surprise. Then there were the wings, a light grey colour. They looked soft, almost like they were made of feathers. Still, the tips of them, reaching higher than his head, looked as sharp as a blade. They should've looked feminine, but on him they had the opposing affect.

After opening her mouth a few times, she managed to stutter, "Do I . . . have wings?"

Mikael shrugged, his wings closing slightly. It looked painful. "You will. Can't say when though." He flapped them, twice. "A mortal can't get it. You show your wings the portal will open. Now, are you ready to exit your first portal?"

He didn't have to ask twice. Rebecca immediately walked forward, ducking under one of his powerful wings. Behind him, the black wall was no longer there. Instead, she could see an array of trees. The sun was peeking through the top of the canopy. Beyond the tree line, she could see houses, a large lake.

"Do I just walk through?" she asked.

Mikael nodded. "Just walk. Wait. Give me your stick." Rebecca did and watched him put the fire out mentally, doing the same to his, before dropping both sticks haphazardly to the ground. "Now you can go."

When he stood there, Rebecca turned to watch him. Right before her eyes, she watched his wings retract as if they'd never been there. "Does that hurt?"

He shrugged. "A little. You get used to it." He reached down, pulling on his shirt. "Hurry up, you have to go first. Otherwise you won't be able to get through."

Rolling her eyes Rebecca turned and walked through the wall. She felt like she was breaching a barrier of some kind.

When she was on the other side, she turned around. She couldn't see back through the invisible wall but she knew Mikael was there. Unsure what to do, she stood waiting—

All at once she felt hands grab her, pushing her to the ground. Rebecca fought with vigour, trying to fend them off. She hissed there were at least three of them.

Oh god, she thought, this couldn't be happening.

"We got her. His Grace will be happy. He thought we were useless."

"Mikael," she wheezed out, unsure of why. She bucked in their grip, trying to dislodge the arm they had pressing into her spine. Did she want him to save her? To find out if they'd captured him too?

One of them laughed cruelly. "Oh, we've detained your Lover Boy. He'll be joining you."

Rebecca fought against the panic that threatened to consume her, but it was futile. Everything around her was going black, vision spotting dangerously.

The last thing she remembered wasbeing thrown over someone's shoulder like a ragdoll. After that, she lost consciousness.