by Tara Brown
There is a single star in the sky. It's close to the moon. I look back at the door. It opens as my finger touches the star.
Suddenly I'm freezing. The wind whips around me.
I'm standing on a hillside. I look around. It's the hillside from the picture.
"Who are you?"
I turn to see a woman holding a basket. She's dressed funny. Like in my memory. She wears full gathered skirts with an apron. In the dim light of the night I can barely make out her face until my eyes do their thing. Then I can't help but notice she looks familiar.
"Who are you?" She asks again. I take a step forward.
"Rayne. Rayne Phillips. Who are you?"
She takes a step towards me, "Elise. I'm Elise. No one is supposed to come through that picture but Fitz and Willow."
I look down, "Willow is dead."
She drops to her knees, "No." The basket tips, spilling dark berries to the ground. I bend and pick them up.
"She is." I say.
"How?"
I grip her basket and try not to cry, "Lucifer. He took her light. Who are you?"
She smiles at me, "The guardian. I was sister to Willow."
I frown at her outfit, "Why are you dressed like that?"
She laughs, "I am frozen. This place was made for Willow and Fitz. It's where they could come and be with each other, without the world to interfere."
I shake my head, "I don’t understand."
"I sacrificed myself for her. She saved my life so I came here for her. One of us must be here for the magic to remain. I hold the picture open like a portal."
"Can anyone come through?"
She shakes her head, "No. You have to have true love for Willow or Fitz to be able to do it. Only love for them will permit a person's entrance. The love must be the purest kind of true love."
I pass her the basket, "This is like a fairytale."
She snorts, "There is no such thing as a fairytale. They are old tales, told over generations. Sometimes they get twisted but they're always just stories."
I raise an eyebrow, "Either way I need to get out of here. But not in the weapons room at Fitz's. I need out another way."
She laughs, "You need Willow's portal."
"Where does is come out?"
"My house."
I stop and think, "Wait so you leave when they come here and then the rest of the time you're here?"
She nods, "Yup."
"If she's dead you won't be needing to stay then?"
She shrugs, "I'll have to ask her and see what she wants me to do. Her and Fitz may want to stay here forever."
"She's dead Elise."
She shakes her head, "Her light is gone. That doesn’t make her dead. Witches don’t die, per say. They shift. She's not in human form but she is still here, somehow. Make no mistake about it. She is here. This place can't exist if she doesn’t also exist."
I cover my eyes and shake my head, "I can't do anymore riddles right now. Please just tell me how to get out of here."
"The star of course. The way you got in. The star on the left is his and the star on the right is hers."
I look up at the two stars in the sky, one on either side of the moon.
"Just reach up and press your finger on the right star."
I look at her and nod, "I'll come back to free you."
She shakes her head, "No. I need to stay here. I need to keep the secrets here safe."
I am confused but I look back and press the right star. Instantly I am in a small room. It's a tiny living room, cozy like my house. I walk to the front door expecting to see a world like no other with magical pixies fluttering about. Instead, when I step out I see a busy street with cars and trucks zooming past. I am standing on a sidewalk in a city. It's dark and noisy. I turn back to the door but it's locked. I realize I'm holding a sword and have a dagger on my belt. I look like a freak. I turn and walk. I have no phone or keys or car. I wish I were back with Elise.
I look up as I walk, "You wanted me to met Elise, you wanted me to have Ellie's weapons, now what?"
There is nothing. Figures. The dead sparkle and float around me but say nothing.
I ran, I got my weapons, and I saw the weird magical portal where Fitz and Willow lived. I don’t know what else could possibly happen but I feel pretty ready for anything.
I walk until I see a bus stop. I look at the map.
I'm downtown Boston.
"Fuck."
An old lady looks at me and shakes her head. My face flushes red and I continue on. I need a payphone. I need to stop jumping into the ocean and losing my phone, or leaving it behind.
I could call Mona but she would have no way to come for me, if she even remembers me. Damned Constantine.
I could call Michelle but her phone is probably in with a nun. The Earth Witches won't help me and the Water Witches brought me to Wyatt. They clearly have some directional issues. I don’t trust Fitz, not yet. I don’t have anywhere to go. I'm exhausted. I can feel my body doing its twitchy thing. I have to call someone before I randomly kill.
I wish Wyatt were here.
Instead I phone Constantine, dejectedly.
"Really?" He answers in a gruff voice.
"I need you." I almost squeak it out.
"You ran away."
"You put me in a cell and you ate three Water Witches."
He chuckles, "Someone has been learning about her past."
"I'm downtown Boston at the corner of Water and Congress and freezing. I got my sword back. You know the one you drove into my side."
"Be there in a minute my love." He sounds fierce.
He hangs up and I frown. How the hell is he here? I roll my eyes. Sneaky bastard.
The minute feels like an hour and the cold wind doesn’t improve my mood.
By the time the huge black SUV pulls up, I can't feel my fingers.
He grins and pulls up to the curb. I jump in and crank the heat. He frowns at me.
"Pretty certain the rule about one's console in a vehicle, is that guests to the vehicle don’t touch the console."
I roll my eyes, "That’s just the stereo."
His dark eyes are searching me. I shake my head, "Unharmed."
"No new evil?"
I shake my head again and huddle into the hot air blowing from the dash.
"Can I die of frostbite or exposure?"
He laughs, "The only thing that can kill you is the devils and the evil and of course the beheading. But I have seen you thin as a rail, starved, dehydrated to the point your eyes are dried shut, and bleeding from malnutrition and sickness. You have the ability to suffer, endlessly. Even after all of that someone still has to cut your head off."
"How exciting. So are you going to tell me about the first time you met me? Not as Ellie but as the other me?"
He glances at me sideways and pulls away to merge back into the traffic.
I grin, "You can't storm out of the room. I have you trapped Constantine. Now spill."
He laughs. He's beautiful when he smiles and laughs.
He drives out of the city, "Are you hungry?"
"Yeah. Starved."
He pulls of the highway and drives to the MacDonald's in Chelsea. I glare at him, "How rich are you?"
He shrugs, "I don’t know exactly. Do we count land or the money that’s yours that I keep safe for you?"
I tilt my head, "Stop messing with me. For real how rich?" He has money that's mine? Interesting.
He shakes his head, "Few hundred million I suppose. Why?"
I point as he pulls into the drive-thru.
He laughs, "You've never eaten here have you?"
"No, of course not. She never permitted things like this." I can't say her name.
His dark eyes sparkle, "You're in for a real treat." He laughs.
"You're cheap."
He holds up a finger, "No, impatient. Now shut up and let me order you dinner."
I listen to him order things I can't even imagine. Fillets and
shakes and diet soda and fries. She would have a stroke.
He pays a lady in the window and charms her with smiles and his dark magical eyes.
They pass us bags of food. Bags. For two people.
I have to put some of it on the floor. They pass us a tray of drinks and a stack of napkins that seems like it should be for a family of eight. The food actually seems like it's for eight people.
"Thank you my dear. Have a pleasant evening."
She blushes, "Have a good night."
He drives, "Hurry. Pass me the fries. They don’t taste good once they’ve cooled."
I frown and pass a hot packet of fries, "No-my-god, you eat this a lot, don’t you?"
He stuffs his face and talks with several fries hanging from his lips. It's comical, "Yeah. It's addictive I think. Have something. I recommend the fish fillet."
"You have money that’s saved for me?"
"Yes of course. I invested your dowry for you, just as I said I would when I received it."
His lips glisten from the hot oil. He chews and sips the diet soda. "Only the second time though."
"You got paid to marry me?"
He nods, "Not the first time. You were a poor orphan the first time we met."
I sigh "Good to see things have changed."
The SUV stinks.
"This stuff smells terrible."
He laughs, "Have some."
I take one of the four fry packets and stuff some of them in my mouth. It's salty and tasty. Instantly my mouth waters for more. Soon I look like him. Stuffing food into my face and drinking. She would be ashamed of me.
"The first time I saw you, you were in the Van Helsings castle. I went to their castle to exact revenge for my uncle Vlad. They had murdered him, mercilessly. You were a sight to behold."
I blush and stuff the delicious fish fillet into my mouth. The sauce is a miracle.
He shakes his head, "Not a good site. I'd never seen anything so disgusting and horrid in all my life. It was cruelty times a thousand. As a vampire I have always done things that were unsavory. I've eaten children, raped women, killed whole villages. The early years are something I can never forgive myself for."
I want to be disgusted but I understand the hunger. I nearly shrug it off, before I scold myself mentally.
"What I saw when I entered that tower made me sick, the image haunted me for years. I couldn’t be with you, not without thinking about it. I rescued you from their evil clutches and ran with you. I never got my revenge for what they did. I ran. You weighed nothing more than a few pounds of bones and ripped skin."
I gag a little and put my fish down.
He winces, "Sorry. At any rate it was bad. You were full of poison and dying. The first couple devils had cleansed their evil in you. You were brimming with it. I brought you to my castle in the mountains and hid you. It took a half a year to get you to the point I could be near you, without seeing the images of horror. You fell in love with me quickly."
I laugh, "I wonder why."
He smiles brightly, "I was your champion. It turned out you were an orphan, raised by a mother who was rejected and considered a witch. You had lived alone with her in the forest. She had died and the Van Helsings took you. I was taken by you, no doubt. You were a little vixen. You tempted me for some time with sex and love and not in that order. I couldn’t do it though. I always saw you the way you had been."
I felt a tear slip down my cheeks. The memories are locked away, but I see a flash of something. His face. The pity in his eyes was devastating.
I bury my sorrow and open another burger.
He looks at me. His face hardens, "I fell in love with you. I have loved you ever since."
I shake my head, "How did I die?"
He presses his lips together and furrows his brow, "This is something I've been meaning to talk to you about. The twenty-first birthday isn’t just a guideline for when the evil has to be eaten." He looks panicked. My stomach curdles from the fast food.
"What?"
"You have an expiry date. You die on the eve of your twenty-first birthday, sacrificed or not. The deal Lucifer made was soul for soul. He and Lillith would either give their souls for the soul of their child. Or they would give their child for their souls. The grim reaper comes for you if they're not dead by then. He came and stole you from my bed, from my arms, the eve of your twenty-first birthday."
The air sparkles with the dead. My stomach rumbles. I feel tears choking me in my throat. He sees my face and pulls over. I leap from the SUV. I bend forward and heave and gag until all the MacDonald's is gone. Sweat and tears mix, dripping from my face.
Everything feels slow and hopeless. It feels so big I can't grasp any of it. Definitely not any hope.
I will die anyway.
Even if I get the devils, I die. I feel a mound of napkins pressed into my palm. I grip them and try to cry and throw up at the same time.
I wipe myself and sit on the step up into the SUV. The cold wind doesn’t wash me clean.
I die anyway.
It doesn’t seem fair.
His warmth is around me. He scoops me up and puts me back into the car. He grabs the bags of MacDonald's and tosses them into the ditch.
"Hey."
He glances at me, "What?"
"Don’t litter. Willow will kill me from the grave. Littering and eating that trash."
He chuckles and then stops himself, "From the grave?"
I look down and the tears are back. I cover my face with the napkins and sob uncontrollably.
He holds me tight and kisses my forehead, "You stink. You always stink now. Ocean, sweat, old clothes, throw up, fish filets."
I laugh cry.
"I just don’t know what to do or who to trust. This world feels too big and too overwhelming. Wyatt seems like he's genuinely on my side and Fitz and Willow had a secret world and you. You're in it for yourself it seems and then you're nice to me. I don’t know what to think."
He grips my arm, not hard but firm. He lifts my face, "When have I been in it for myself? I have lived over seven hundred years and loved you for nearly all of them. I get a meager year or two and then you die. Every time. I wait for the signs you've been born again. Then I track you like a bloodhound. I am lucky to get a year or two. Last time I found you before the change. I made sure you and I would get at least four years. Only this time I find you handfasted to a Van Helsing."
I look up at him, "But you betrayed me."
He shakes his head, "No. I have never betrayed you Ellie."
I pull back, "Rayne."
He closes his eyes, "Sorry. You were Ellie when it happened, in my defense. I never betrayed you. We ran out of time before we found the way to end it. You made me promise I would do anything I had to, to get the information about how to stop it. Trading you for information was the only way. I knew you would die in a couple months anyway. I traded you and they told me about the deal Lucifer made and about the seven devils."
I frown, "Why would they tell you that?"
He grins, "Fitz. He wanted it to end too. He never saw it as fair. He and Willow had started their little romance and his family suspected something. He needed something to convince them that he was still team Van Helsing. I gave him you and he gave me the answers. I knew this time we would succeed."
I shake my head, "I remember panicking. I remember the feeling of the betrayal."
He looks sick, "Compulsion. You knew about Fitz and Willow, you knew where I had all my darkest secrets and things we couldn't let them torture out of you. You made me compel you to forget everything except the fact you loved me and we were happy. You remembered the story we made up for you. Well with a few additions I thought would be fun. Like my office." His corners of his lips play with the possibility of a smile. He shrugs, "Anyway, I think you still remember it all. The alley and the marriage and the old house that stood just where my new house stands."
I feel the confusion on my face.
He nods and sighs, "Pr
etty much how you're supposed to feel."
"Can you remove it? The compulsion?"
He shakes his head, "You handfasted. If I didn’t know any better I would say young Wyatt knows more than he is letting on. I would almost guarantee he knows that handfasting you keeps you in the dark. It also prevents you from living off my sins, which is better for everyone."
I want to shake my head and say no, but I have a horrid sinking feeling it's true. All of it.
"We need to go to Burlington. I want Mona and that’s where the witch is who can break the handfasting."
He leans in and kisses my forehead, "I'm so sorry. We have so little time."
I climb in, "You knew who I was all along?"
He nods, "I wanted to tell you who you were, but Lillith forbid it. She said the only way to succeed was to let you grow like a normal kid. You needed love and purity for the quest. It's all of us against Lucifer this time. The Witches, Van Helsings, me, you and Lillith."
He closes my door and walks around to his.
He climbs in and looks like he's exhausted. "The Nixie. They've been trying to help you piece it all together. They want you to succeed. It's what Lillith wants. Them and the Witches. Well the Earth and Fire Witches. The Air Witches want you to die and take the sin."
He starts the SUV and drives.
As always I feel overwhelmed. "Why do they want that?"
He sighs, "I don’t know. They're difficult. Made of the Angels. Almost no Fae in them. Earth and Fire and Water all have a lot of Fae in them. The Air Witches are puritans. They have only Angel with a tiny bit of Fae in them. It's how they fly. Because of it they don’t have the same attachment to the Fae. They love Lillith. I don’t know their exact reasoning. Angels protecting Angels I guess."
"Can I borrow your cell?"
He hands it to me without asking me why. I think he would give me anything in the world. I wish he could give me more time.
Chapter Twenty-Five
The small house looks the same. I bang on the door one more time but nothing. She wasn’t at the Italian restaurant and she isn’t home.