Chapter 265 | You Look Beautiful
At that moment, the clicking stopped and Selene froze, while Mira slowly looked ahead and Lyra’s eyes widened with excitement.
The front of the train had reached the peak, and for one impossible second, they hung above the world.
Selene whispered, "Why did it stop?"
Dexter looked down, at the very far down. He immediately knew what was coming and glanced at Selene.
Selene seemed to have sensed it and her grip immediately tightened. "Dexter."
"Yes?"
"What’s happening?"
Dexter blinked his eyes. "Nothing much..."
The carriage immediately tipped forward, and Selene’s face changed. "Dexter?"
Mira’s eyes widened, and Lyra grinned as gravity took them.
The train plunged with a violent whoosh, and Selene grip tightened as she closed her eyes tightly and let out a silent scream.
Mira squinted her eyes and her smile widened as she giggled happily while her hair flapped backwards through the air.
Lyra laughed and screamed happily. She couldn’t scream aloud, but her mental shriek detonated directly inside Dexter’s head.
’AAAAAAAAAAAAAA!’
"LYRA, NOT IN MY HEAD!"
The train accelerated, and wind slammed into them as Selene squeezed Dexter’s right hand with both terror while Mira’s recovered hand crushed his left. Dexter laughed through the drop.
"THIS IS AMAZING!"
"You said you’d hold me!" Selene shouted.
"I AM!"
"Hold harder!"
The train reached the bottom and immediately shot upward again.
"WHO DESIGNED THIS THING?!"
"The same psychopath who designed the haunted house!"
The train entered the first turn, and their bodies shifted while Mira and Selene both squeezed his hands. Dexter was trapped between them, laughing uncontrollably, until the loop appeared and his laughter stopped.
"Wait."
Lyra’s eyes brightened, and Dexter stared ahead. "No one mentioned a loop."
Mira shouted over the wind. "It’s a roller coaster!"
They entered the loop, and the world flipped. Sky became ground, and ground became sky. For a moment Dexter was upside down, holding both Mira and Selene while Lyra’s delighted mental laughter assaulted him, and then they came around. Dexter blinked, his hair a disaster, while Mira looked equally stunned and Selene’s face had gone pale. Lyra looked ecstatic.
Dexter glanced at her. "You are insane."
Lyra grinned.
Another drop approached, and Dexter saw it while Mira saw it and Selene heard the rails changing. "No."
Dexter laughed. "Here we go!"
"No, no, no..."
The train dropped again, and Selene silent scream increased. But halfway down, something changed as her scream became laughter.
Wind whipped her silver hair behind her, and her eyes were open. The world rushing around her was little more than streaks of color—blue, green, white, gold—and she couldn’t see the roller-coaster tracks clearly or the faces below or the individual trees. But she could see something, and for the first time in a very long while, the darkness wasn’t absolute.
Selene laughed. Not because she wasn’t scared—she was terrified—but that was precisely why she was laughing.
Dexter smiled. "Still scared?"
"YES!"
Another turn threw them sideways, and Selene laughed harder while Dexter laughed with her. Mira looked across him. "You two are insane!"
Dexter turned. "You’re smiling!"
"I am not!"
"You are!"
Mira realized he was right, because a huge smile had appeared across her face. She tried suppressing it, but another sharp turn arrived, and she inhaled deeply before she suddenly smiled again.
Dexter grinned. "Got you!"
"Shut up!"
The train climbed another hill, not nearly as tall as the first, and Dexter’s hands remained occupied with Mira on the left and Selene on the right. He hadn’t released either of them once, and even when his body shifted violently against the restraints, his fingers remained firmly intertwined with theirs.
Mira noticed, and she looked down at their joined hands before looking at Dexter. His attention was currently on Selene, checking whether she was all right, and something strange flickered through Mira’s crimson eyes. Her fingers tightened around his.
Dexter immediately looked left. "You okay?"
Mira nodded. "I’m fine."
Dexter smiled. "Good."
He didn’t release her, and Mira didn’t ask him to.
The train plunged again, and this time all four were ready. Well... three. Lyra’s mental scream still exploded inside Dexter’s head.
’AAAAAAAAAA!’
Dexter winced. "WHY ARE YOU SCREAMING DIRECTLY INTO MY HEAD?!"
Lyra’s mental laughter followed.
The ride continued through twists, smaller drops, and another corkscrew. By the final stretch, Selene was no longer begging for it to stop—she was laughing. Mira had abandoned any attempt to pretend she wasn’t enjoying herself, and Lyra looked as though she’d discovered her new favorite invention. And Dexter? Dexter couldn’t remember the last time he’d laughed this much.
Eventually the train began slowing, and the station appeared ahead.
"That’s sad."
Dexter turned, because that had come from Mira. She froze while Dexter stared at her, Selene smiled, and Lyra slowly turned. Mira’s expression became blank, and Dexter’s grin grew monstrous.
"What was that?"
"Nothing."
"Did the great Crimson Valkyrie just ask the roller coaster not to stop?"
"I said nothing."
"I heard you."
"Your hearing is defective."
Dexter laughed as the carriage entered the station, and the brakes engaged with a loud clack. They stopped, and for a few seconds nobody moved. Then Selene breathed out.
"We’re alive."
Dexter looked toward her. "I told you."
She slowly turned her face toward him, and only then did she seem to realize she was still gripping his hand very tightly. Her cheeks reddened. "Sorry."
"For what?"
"Your hand."
Dexter looked down. "You didn’t break it."
"I might have tried."
"Then you’ll need to cultivate harder."
Selene smiled. "Thank you."
Dexter’s expression softened. "I know."
The restraint lifted, and Dexter finally released her before turning toward Mira. She was still holding his other hand, and Mira noticed while Dexter noticed her noticing. Neither moved for a second, and then Mira quickly released him.
"Help me back into my chair."
Dexter smiled. "Of course."
He wisely said nothing else.
---
The attendant brought Mira’s wheelchair beside the carriage, and Dexter carefully lifted her from the seat with one arm behind her back and the other beneath her legs. Mira wrapped her recovered arm around his shoulder.
"Comfortable?"
"Yes."
He lowered her carefully into the wheelchair and adjusted her legs onto the footrests. "There."
Mira looked up and seemed like she wanted to say something but stopped her self. "Thank you."
Dexter paused, because Mira didn’t thank him often, and his expression softened. "Anytime."
He turned to find that Lyra had just climbed from the carriage, her hair looking as though she’d fought a hurricane. Dexter stared, and Lyra stared back before touching her hair. Her eyes widened, and Dexter burst out laughing while Lyra glared at him.
’Don’t!’
"You look..."
’Dexter!’
"...beautiful."
Her eyes narrowed further.
"Extremely windswept, but beautiful."
She punched him, and Dexter laughed and dodged away.
Selene carefully stepped onto the platform, and Dexter immediately moved toward her, but he stopped when he realized she didn’t need his help.
Dexter watched as Selene reached them without assistance, her smile small but proud.
Mira looked down at her recovered hand while Lyra touched one ear, and for a brief moment, all three women seemed to understand the same thing. They were healing—not overnight, not magically, but piece by piece. Unmistakably.
Dexter moved behind Mira’s wheelchair. "All right." He looked toward the festival. "What next?"
Lyra immediately raised her hand. ’Again!’
Dexter stared. "The roller coaster?"
She nodded enthusiastically, and Mira immediately said, "Agreed."
Dexter’s eyebrows rose, and he turned toward Selene. Selene heard the silence, and her face changed.
"No."
Dexter laughed. "Two against one."
"You’re forgetting your own vote."
Dexter thought about it, looking toward the towering roller coaster and then toward Selene. "Three against one."
Selene looked betrayed. "Dexter!"
He laughed. "I’m joking."
She folded her arms. "You’re terrible."
"Yet you trusted me."
Selene’s expression softened. "I did."
Dexter smiled. "And?"
She hesitated before smiling too. "I’d do it again."
Lyra immediately raised both arms triumphantly while Mira laughed, and Dexter shook his head. "Not now. If we go again immediately, Lyra’s going to demand a third ride, then a fourth, and we’ll never escape."
Lyra pouted and looked away.
Dexter narrowed his eyes. "You were already planning that, weren’t you?"
No response.
"Lyra."
She began walking as she giggled.
"Don’t walk away from me."
She walked faster, and Dexter laughed before pushing Mira after her. Selene followed beside him.
The four moved away from the roller coaster together, with Mira resting comfortably in her wheelchair and Selene walking with more confidence than before. Lyra was already looking around for their next activity, and Dexter watched them.
And as Dexter pushed Mira beneath the afternoon sun, he found himself thinking the same thing he’d told Selene earlier.
He didn’t hope they would recover. He knew they would recover very soon.
And when that day finally came, he intended to make sure they had an entire world waiting for them.