The moment the song ended in her lips, it was like thousands of windows sprung wide open, letting in a drifting breeze from a far off place outside.

"You.. you opened a leyline. With your awful mouth sounds."

"Hey." she pouted. "Not cool. I did my best."

He took in the growing surrounding mist that fogged around them. "A leyline underwater? I didn't think it possible."

"When worlds open like this in different directions around us, I kind of stopped making sense of how things work."

He jerked his thighs, swimming upwards and taking her with him. Looking down at a greater distance, he noted "It's a forest of doorways."

She followed his gaze, "All I see are clouds of heavy fog from here" she turned to him, peering into his eyes the color of white opaque marble and wondering what he was seeing.

He said, "Close your eyes." and he laughed when she did as was told. Murmuring into her ear, lips brushing the shell of it, "I'm guiding you to the otherworld but you must not look. Never open your eyes, do you hear?"

She nodded. "I'm placing my trust on you."

"Just as well." He chuckled, "Did nobody tell you to never trust strangers?"

Shrugging, "I'm here for you."

He guided her forward with their hands linked, as they descended once more to where the doorways opened, and she felt a growing pressure against her skin. It must have been a sign of the delving depths they were sinking into.

Then, she heard the winds whistling as they passed by. Cool air threading through her hair.

A hushed quiet fell.

A new bewildering sense of awareness prickling through her spine and before she could form a train of coherent thought, her feet touched solid ground.

She heard someone else, fretting. "Oh no, he'd be back soon. What am I going to do?" Then he sucked in a sharp breath, surprise coloring his tone of voice. "My Lord Highness, I didn't hear you come in."

Suddenly, the wet red coat on her shoulders doubled in weight and she felt a cold glacial hand resting possessively on her lower back, "I didn't take the usual path." said the snow prince.

"Is it okay for me to look now?" asked River.

"Of course." he said, gesturing to the nervous older man carrying a shovel. "This is Pearce, gardener of this orchard."

"It's good to meet you." she greeted the old man with sweat dotting his forehead. His grey silver hair was in dreadlocks that fell over one side of his shoulder in a loose ponytail. "I'm behagthi."

"Are you now?" he asked, his tone going shrill. "Well, never have I ever." he started gripping her with both hands, shaking her hand with added enthusiasm. "A behagthi! In my orchard!" he looked frantically at the snow prince. "I have to tell my wife. Please don't go anywhere yet."

The snow prince said, "I'll be showing the behagthi along the orchards, Pearce. When you and your wife are ready, go ahead and come find us here."

He spun at instantaneous speed, dropping his shovel as he went. She watched the old man retreat at a speed that wasn't normal for a human like her can ever hope to possess. It's still unbelievable to watch, they really move faster than an Olympic track runner.

"We never get visitors." he said to her. "Come over here."

She followed, matching his walking pace. They went down the path between rows of apple trees.

"I must admit that I didn't think you would be able to make it this far." He said.

"Are there only ever apples in this orchard?"

"Other doorways have a world full of pears at an orchard, and another world filled with orange fruit trees."

"Different worlds?"

"Does that seem strange to you?"

"I guess I'd imagine if I were to watch over three orchards, I'd put it in the same world, you know, for efficiency and to save time."

"It isn't up to me where their souls prefer to go."

The fragrance of clustered apple fruit blossoms was in the breeze that blew past them. She could tell that the apple trees were old. It grew big and enormous that shafts of sun rays rarely fell past through the abundant canopy of leaves.

"It seems like we're in another world." she noted, watching how throngs of white butterflies flapped their wings in gentle languid motions. The sunlight touching its wings gave her a winking gleam of double vision that took her breath away.

His roughened grip held firm, like he was made of stone. "Do you like it?"

She hummed when they passed by a shade-free space and the rays of sun light hit directly on her face like a lingering kiss. "I do. I could stay here forever."

"We mustn't. I have to get back to my people sometime."

"You mean your people from the snow tribes. The very people that you're luring to their deaths with dream sickness?" she asked, searching in his expression for a bit of care, a bit of remorse or guilt.

He tipped his head up, shielding the sun away from his face.

"See those apple fruits? That is where they go when they fall to a dream forever."

She blanched. "Why collect them like this?"

"I have about 430 souls in this orchard. 593 in the orange orchard with 128 souls in the pear orchard. Pearce and his wife helps. Wouldn't have been able to secure the souls without them."

"Look at me."

Peering down at her, he looked every bit like an angel of vengeance with his white hair outlined in a glow from the sun like a halo, and the dramatic gaunt of his bone structure emphasizing his severe power and strength. She didn't doubt his inhumane abilities couldn't be less impressive than Crow and Aidan.

"How is keeping them in fruits good for your people?"

His brows lowered, "Death by mountain poison is slow and inevitable, it kills in a time-consuming stretch of time. It's a slow, insidious sickness that gets harder to bear over a long course of time, and when it does, I offer them an escape as they dream. To be free of it. Their souls come to journey in these fruits as a safe haven. Inside them are sugary and sweet like the fantasies they immerse in. Inside these fruits they can never feel hurt or pain, just sweetness. And I watch over them, making sure it doesn't get bruised or get targeted by other forces of nature that seeks to take advantage of its nourishment. Liona, Pearce's wife, she's a very skilled elder in keeping the orchard free from curious animals and pests."

"The souls stay here forever?"

"If they like, but most of them grow fully nourished and sustained. Once they do," he plucked a decayed apple fruit off the ground "Their souls leave the fruit and into the next world where they will be reborn again into a tribe." frowning, he said "Preferably, not the snow tribe. Therein lies only suffering."

"Right. Because of the poison."

"That will soon change."

"Something tells me you have a plan in mind."

"I've been receiving news about two tribes coming together. How they have come to combine forces and cooperation as a means in advancing technology, enhancing agriculture, a better way of life by integrating the tribes' collected sacred knowledge. I had been wanting to throw in my share for the uniting of tribes, however.." he trailed off.

"No one wants to come near you."

"They believe us to be a disease. A rotting pile of decay that needs to be cut off."

"What are you planning, snow prince?"

"My people are people, too, just like them. They just don't see it yet. They don't see us as people who are infected. Victims of Brumcia's cruelty. I need to.. I need to make them see. Otherwise, they won't know. They won't know how we suffer."'

"You don't have to worry about that."

"Behagthi." His brows knitted in confusion. "What have you done?"

"Let's just say that I made friends with Crow"

"That poor thief in the northern tower stronghold?"

"The behagthi in there, yes."

He chuckled. "No he isn't."

"Truly? I thought he was acclaimed to be some super obsessive paranoid crimelord. He is actually proud of the fact that no one suspects him. How long have you known?"

"I have always known." At her blank expression, he explained further. "He wasn't causing trouble in snow tribe grounds, his poison only ever sold to the outside tribes. I don't fault him for making money so long as he doesn't cause trouble. Snow tribe villages are poor thus whatever resources he made was sure to circulate around the village market. However, the universal laws holds true no matter what. When he expanded his notorious influence too much, we had no choice to put a stop to it."

"You know, Crow is fuming about you having found his private castle. He thought he made every precaution and measure to keep it hidden from prying eyes. How did you come to find it?"

Raising his brows, "Thought you would have figured it out by now. My powers invades dreams, the subconscious, those hidden desires." he said, drawing near her.

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"And what do you see in mine?"

Wet tendrils of hair clung to one side of her cheek and he brushed it back with a sweep of his finger, tucking it behind her ear. "I haven't seen it yet. The next time you dream, I'll be there."

"Hm. What are you hoping to see?"

"The truth to your words."

"Come and see, then."

"You would invite me in your head?"

"How are you constantly surprised?" she grinned. "Yes, if it will make you believe faster, then fine go ahead and find out."

"Any sane person would have tucked tail and run away from a cursed prince."

"Good thing, I'm a behagthi. We're not usually known for our common sense."

It was his turn to ask. "What's your name?"

She smiled mysteriously, walking the short distance to an apple tree and brushing the fallen dry leaves to a pile. "Help me out here, will you?"

He imitated her actions, going down on his haunches and sweeping chunks of dry leaves to a neat pile under the tree. "I believe I asked you a question." he said haughtily like a man who expected to be answered then and there.

"Hmm.." she hummed, focusing on her sweeping task by gathering bunches of dry leaves with her hands, "I thought I might make it interesting for you."

"How?" he said, gruffly.

When she was satisfied with the pile of leaves, she formed it to flatten like a bed and laid there flat on her back "There is a truth inside my head. It's something you will want to see and it's something you won't believe if I tell you. Come over and I'll let you in."

"This is an otherworld." he said, dropping to his knees next to her. "Aren't you at all afraid that sleeping here won't allow you back to where you came from?"

Chances of getting stuck? "It's nothing I haven't done before. I've slept in two worlds now, and so far, I've been able to travel between worlds just fine with you. Now, come here, and stop looking for reasons to worry, snow prince."

He laid next to her, falling to his side, facing her. "Is it always going to be like this?"

"Like what?"

"Me being the sane one. I imagine the other princes have their hands full with you."

She grinned, "I provide a healthy dose of inspiration in a boring world."

Her grin was infectious, he felt his mouth tilting in the corners "That is one way of putting it."

Sh rested her hand on her belly, and watched the bright rays of sunlight passing through leaves overhead. Then tilting her head to face him, she found they were inches apart.

He stared, not quite believing what he was looking at. "You are going to catch your death with your clothes wet."

She rolled her eyes, "It is going to take more than wet clothes to kill me. Now, hush, and let me sleep."

He held a confusing expression as she closed her lids shut.

Behind closed lids, all her senses came alive.

This place was a dream. The warm clean air, the overcrazed robins singing in frenzied chirping, the kiss of the sun on her cheeks. It wasn't long until she has fallen asleep, once again.

"River!"

She heard the snow prince shout, snapping her awake.

"W-what happened?" Rubbing the sleep off her eyes, she noticed the snow prince was on his feet in front of her, peering down. Disbelief written on his face. "Did you see my memories?" she asked.

He gave a slow nod.

"Did you see how the antidote was made?"

Another disbelieving nod.

"Then you know, now. You don't have nothing to worry about. We've got a schedule planned ahead for distributing the cure."

"That's not what I'm worried about." he said glancing up, alerting her to the fact that they were not alone in the orchard.

She followed his gaze, the enormous apple tree next to them had bent forward at a steep curving angle, its trunk bending flexibly forward in a curve. Her mouth fell open. The trunk should be snapping into two right now. But instead, the apple tree languidly bowed ever so carefully, twisting its branches and twigs together. Then, with a slight slow twist of the trunk, an apple fruit appeared dangling between her eyes like an offering.

River's back straightened as she sat. She leaned back further as thousand tree leaves rustled, twisting again to push an apple back across her face.

The snow prince was on his knees, staying close to River. He took great care to avoid the twigs and branches, so it didn't snap with him in the way.

"Help?" she asked him, unsure on what to do.

He crawled closer, observing the apple that offered itself. "This is one of the oldest apples. One of the stubborn souls who refused to be reborn." He said, watching her as though she was something made out of dreams, "It wishes to be reborn in you."

She felt like her eyes were at the brink of popping out. "It wants me to eat it?"

Doubts swam in his gaze, giving her a slight tilt in agreement.

"Where I come from, eating souls are something monsters would do. I'm not a monster. No way."

The offered apple pulsed with blossoming energy. It was red, lovely, and round as though drizzled with sunrise. An intoxicating fragrance wafted to her nose, beckoning her with the sweetness of a butter-filled baked biscuit. Its scent invited a vivid memory of her past, back to her apartment jam-packed with roommates who doubled as her co-workers because they worked under the same culinary blog. Her home had been nearly over-crowded but celebrations were always something she looked forward to. Their main chef always prepared a special kind of breakfast whenever any birthdays came up and it was her most favorite tradition in the world. In the morning, when sunlight washed the entire living room that adjoined the kitchen, and dust motes can be seen dancing freely undisturbed. The one whose birthday it is will be given a Southern surprise in a form of a plate full of scrambled eggs, buttermilk biscuits with a cream of gravy on top. The gourmet kind.

Her mouth watered in response.

"I wouldn't expect you to." the snow prince replied, "This apple has been around for ages more than me, been around even before my grandfather. Its soul has been nourished with timely forces that is beyond the extent of a grown planet, if you eat it, the soul will possess you in body, mind, and everything until there is none of you left."

She scooted back, retreating carefully. The apple had a much too powerful smell that opened memories she cherished in the past. But leaves rustled once again as it followed her movement, the dangling apple was now pressing its skin against her nose, tracing down a path to reach her mouth. Panic speared the walls of her throat and she swung her head away, "It wants to eat me? No way."

The gardener, Pearce, can be heard soothing the tree, asking it what was wrong. Since the lush of branches, twigs and leaves blocked him out of sight, he circled around to discover them. "My Lord Highness! The behagthi!" he cried in surprise. "Liona!" he called to someone far away.

"What is going on, Pearce?" asked the snow prince.

"The apple trees have been in distress lately, my Lord Highness. They say an eternal fruit is about to reincarnate right in the snow tribe."

"Impossible. Eternal fruits cannot be sustained in a tribe person."

"There have been whispers between the animals." he trailed off as an elder woman with graying hair and a curved back appeared. She wore a simple tunic and pants, a brown raw pelt wounded around her chest and a bandolier of pouches hung across one shoulder.

When she spoke, her elder voice was scratchy as if she had been shouting for a length of time, "It will not rise as a tribe person, my Lord Highness."

"No. It can't be." The snow prince muttered, his gaze searching for River then slid to Pearce's wife, "It's going to be reborn as a beast. The tribe won't be able to survive."

"Nor the other tribes, I'm afraid." said Pearce.

"Brumcia's Hells. She's spinning another chaos that can wipe us all out of existence."

Pearce gestured to her weakly, "The behagthi"

The snow prince gave her a slow once-over, shaking his head. "Can't you smell her mortality? Weaker than a babe's."

"Hey." she snapped.

He jerked his head to the apple offering itself, "Is this the eternal fruit in danger of falling?" he asked Pearce.

"Yes." At the same time, his wife next to him spoke up, "My Lord Highness, you are blessed by Brumcia."

"Cursed." he corrected.

"Liona." Pearce warned as though she was stepping out of line.

"Your strength," she said "Your extended mortality. Your life force itself is imbued with Brumcia's earliest powers back when she was only a maiden. A robust, goddess-blessed life force like that. Perhaps, yours will be enough."

Pearce added, "The apple will fall sooner, my Lord Highness. We don't have much time."

River reached to the snow prince, resting a hand on his arm. "You can't do that. You can't eat the apple."

"My tribe means more to me than I can say, River. We are tied in a bondage of suffering and poverty, I will not subject them to greater fear under the powers of a beast."

She scowled, staring down hard at her wringing hands. "Did you hear what Bla'keh said? In my memories?"

"What about him?"

"He's the guy from sun tribe that guided me to you. At the lake. It's his job as an elder shaman to translate prophecies and he just found out that the beast of a snow prince awakens today, possibly inciting a war."

"No more wars." Pearce reacted, his brows furrowing to a close.

River reassured him. "It won't happen. Bla'keh sent me to fix it. I think...no. I believe that I must eat this apple. Not you." As she looked at him, his words from before came echoing back, the mountain poison fills me at a full capacity.

The snow prince's eyes grew heated "It will consume you. This soul has the strength of a millennium. Your mortality cannot sustain it."

"Trust me. I've survived better odds."

His features turned conflicted, "Perhaps I should have seen more to your memories."

Tilting her head skyward, she hummed. Telling the apple tree her intentions as she reached for it. Grandmother always taught her that plants and trees have feelings. Whereas, her Grandfather reinforced this lesson many times when she has had to rely on nature on her own. Both of them had been highly superstitious, believing faeries and spirits lived in the forest and mountains. As she was a country girl through and through, superstitions colored her beliefs. It was a troubling issue that Dr. Malia was helping her grow more aware of, since she herself hadn't wittingly known that her choices and attitudes were shaped by unhelpful superstitions.

But she wasn't in the city anymore. She was in another universe rife with strange things and cursed princes. In this universe, Grandmother's beliefs might have a little ring of truth in it.

Once the tree heard her intentions, it shuddered in anticipation, bowing more deeply as it pushed the offered fruit closer towards her hand.

Plucking the apple off the tree branch, she rubbed the skin of it against her coat jacket before taking a bite. It was much like breaking open a sweet candy with bubbling juice dribbling down her mouth. It was much too sweet for her taste. "Oh god" she murmured.

That taste was too much on her tongue, she couldn't bear to chew it and so like a bitter pill, she swallowed it in one gulp.

Immediately, her sight grew in double vision, putting her in a dizzying sensation that numbed every senses. Before she could respond to the dizzying shut-off, the world set to right once more, recalibrating to an effective focus after a blur. Her sight had returned instantly.

Casting speculative glances around her, the world had never seemed so bright, it practically glowed with promise.

"River?"

Her gaze landed on the snow prince whose pale bare chest turned to a healthy blush of skin, turning caramel in complexion. His long, unbounded hair falling to the ground had morphed into brown curling hair like the color of macchiato blended coffee. And his opaque eyes was shifting until it appeared with dotted black pupils and irises the color of a stormy grey sea.

Shadows fell upon both of them, and she watched the seasons change in a fast forward movement of time. Trees decaying, leaves shifting red, the grass thinning out until the ground was covered in black dirt.

"River!" the snow prince called again.

At his call, she snapped back to the present like being pulled out of a memory trance. He had returned to his pale form as though the mind-boggling speed of time never happened.

Her claws were digging into the surface of the bitten apple, and she peered down to it. Taking it in, the way it seemed was normal and familiar like it had come from her own world. It confounded her how such an everyday food can hold such power over her mind and senses. Like a drug that dilutes the very fabric of reality. "Maksim Descansos" she uttered, "That is your name, isn't it?"

His features grew alert. He took her by the arm and studied it. The color was blanching out, its complexion turning to a pale white like his. He sighed, meeting her eyes. "Your hair.." he observed, catching a lock of it with a crook of his finger. Its potent ebony color was being drained into a lifeless shade of grey.

"She is growing old." she heard Liona gasp. When River looked to the elderly woman, she saddled closer to her husband with fingers digging into his shirt. Liona's wide-eyed stare never left River, unblinking. It was like she was watching an unexpected car crash she couldn't look away from. "You're going to die."

Maksim growled, "No. She will not."

He held the wrist that held the apple in a vise-like grip, caging her close as though the intention of letting go wasn't an option. Then he stooped his head down to take a bite of it. Sweet juices dribbling past his chin like a river-flow. He stilled for a moment. His head rising up slowly as he gave a hearty swallow, watching her as if for the first time. He sucked his breath, gaze darting to each tiny features in her face in detail, taking it in and drawing her deep.

Then, leaning much closer.

She dropped her apple, scrambling backwards with her heart lodged in her throat. Growing fearful.

But not at him.

There was a spark of intimate hope that ignited in her, and it sounded like a melody of spring coming to bloom.

She wanted none of that.

Maksim affected her like a drug. A poison overpowering her senses and mind until she felt slim and little. This was his power. He was a drug, she had to remember that. This was a true snow prince. A beastly serpent viper whose charms could seduce anyone to a version of reality per their own choosing.

The unwanted spark of hope that ignited in her was a powerful effect of his natural charms. For a hot second there, she would have thought that what she saw in his expression was pure carnal hunger. But she knew better. Princes like him had exaggerated abilities that mirrored their beastly counterparts. This was an effect. A natural effect. It could have happened to anyone. There was basically no shame in being affected from his powers. Nope, she wasn't embarrassed at all.

He moved fast in a blink of a second, his mouth was now a hair's breadth away from touching hers. "River Florencia" he rumbled in that deep gravelly voice of his. It sounded possessive like he was claiming it for himself.

"That's my name." she said, ending on a light note and hoping to blanket his barbed wire intensity with a small smile. "D-don't wear it out."

His breathing sped up, nostrils flaring. He seemed to grow in size, his muscles shifting and rippling.

In response, her heartbeat quickened at his all-encompassing nearness.

Inside, there was a deep knowing within her that rang like bells pealing as she formed a wild thought in her mind that couldn't be mistaken for anything but the cold hard truth, and that truth was River Florencia, her God-given name from the moment she was born, ultimately belonged to Maksimo Descansos, now and forever.

Until the end of time.

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