***
He’d been nearly a mile away when he’d heard FayeLynn’s scream. A switch deep inside him flipped. He felt a raging need to protect her and the child from Drake.
It was a hell of a time to realize he should’ve brought some weapons along on the trip. The only thing he’d seen was a rock and he grabbed it. As quietly as possible, he snuck around behind Drake and brained him.
The sound of stone connecting with bone was the most satisfying sound he’d ever heard.
“He won’t give up,” Alvin told FayeLynn. “We have to find a safe place to hide until the baby comes.”
She was breathing hard and he knew she wasn’t going to be able to keep up the pace much longer. “Maybe there’s a cabin or something out here.”
They hadn’t seen a single dwelling since they’d dropped into The Realm. The Dark Forest was mostly uninhabited and only used by hunters and trappers. He’d have to find another solution. “I figure something out,” he said, slowing the run to an easier jog. “I have to.”
“We should’ve stayed in my world. This is too much.”
Alvin stopped and she nearly tripped over him. “That would’ve been more dangerous.”
Her face was streaked with dirt and her breath was coming in short gasps. “I’m not sure how. At least there would’ve been hotels.” FayeLynn still didn’t understand how The Folk or their magic worked. “This is madness.” She bent at the knee and gulped air. “What about our stuff?”
Except for the matches in Alvin’s pocket, the collapsible bucket, a flashlight and two headlamps, all their gear was behind them. He’d double back and get it when he was sure FayeLynn was safe. Not before. “Let me worry about that. How much farther can you walk?”
“Not much.” She rose to her full height and placed her hand on her side. “I’m sorry.”
Alvin wasn’t an expert on babies, but FayeLynn’s stomach was growing fast. They needed to get closer to the palace before it was too difficult for her to travel. If his calculations were correct, they were about fifty miles from the city. If they walked four or five miles a day, they could be there in just a few, short days. With Drake already on their heels, it was too much of a gamble to keep moving.
“When we find a good spot, we’ll bed down and wait for the baby.”
“But what if Drake finds us?”
“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. At this point, we have to make sure you’re safe and comfortable.”
He wasn’t sure how he was going to do that with little more than a tarp and some oatmeal, but he’d figure out a way. He had no other choice.
“How did he find me?”
“He’s powerful. I’m sure he’s using his gifts along with tracking.”
“That means he can find us again.” Her eyes were serious. “That scares me.”
“Every day that we stay away from him, we’re closer to the goal.”
“He’s so much darker than I remembered,” she said. “His eyes were so cold.”
A cold wind blew through the trees making a whistling sound and Alvin shivered. He hoped the weather stayed good. While most of The Realm boasted a very temperate climate, it was autumn, and that could mean early snow storms.
“The goal is still the same. We’ll stick to the woods for as long as we can. This rain will make our tracks hard to follow, and I’m hoping we got a decent head start.” He hadn’t heard Drake behind them and he’d been listening closely. “But a horse could catch up to us quickly so we have to be aware of our surroundings at all times.”
“I should’ve listened to you when you told me not to fall asleep.”
“You had no idea.”
“No.” She shook her head. “I didn’t.”
He wanted to avoid all the towns on the way to the palace on the off chance someone might recognize him. Even though he looked different with his long hair and beard, he resembled his father enough to make it a serious worry. He hoped FayeLynn would have the baby sooner rather than later. The longer they had to wait, the more it upped the chances that he’d be discovered and tossed out again, leaving FayeLynn alone.
He couldn’t let that happen. Not again.
***
They walked long into the night. The clouds had moved out, revealing a clear, pitch-black sky, and Alvin navigated using the stars. The moon was so bright; they didn’t need the headlamps or the flashlight which was a blessing. Either of those could’ve given them away easily.
She plodded behind him barely aware of what was two feet in front of her. Every part of FayeLynn’s body ached. Each step sent stabs of pain up her legs and into her hips. Her belly felt as if it weighed more than the rest of her body. She dozed between steps. “I can’t go any further, Alvin,” she said after stumbling over a large tree root and skinning her knee for the third time in less than an hour. “I have to rest.”
“Just a little while longer.”
“I can’t.” She’d stopped worrying about their lost gear hours ago. The only thing her tired brain could concentrate on was putting one foot in front of the other and now she wasn’t even able to do that.
“Okay,” he said. “Let’s cover ourselves in leaves and sleep for an hour or two.”
An hour or two wasn’t going to be enough but maybe it would help. She folded to the forest floor and began scooping piles of leaves and moss on top of herself. They were wet and cold and smelled moldy. Because her belly was so large and so round, it was impossible to cover it. “It’s not working,” she said.
“Turn onto your side and I’ll help.”
FayeLynn was asleep before he finished.
***
She was alone. Surrounded by miles and miles of desert sand, there was no place to hide when the heavy hoof beats thundered toward her. Astride the coal-black horse, wearing a black mask and a black cape that fluttered behind him, Drake held the reins in one hand and a large sword in the other. His black eyes gleamed and even though he was still at least fifty yards away, she could see them clearly.
Clothed in only rags that covered less than a bikini, she couldn’t seem to move out of his way. It was if she was paralyzed, totally incapable of making her muscles follow the commands of her brain.
Just as she was sure the horse would trample her, Drake pulled back on the reins and it slid into a stop, flinging dust and bits of grass into her face and blinding her. She tried to wipe the dirt from her eyes but she was still paralyzed. She heard Drake dismount and she felt him getting closer and closer to her. Every hair on her body stood on end.
When Drake grabbed her wrist, she gasped.
***
“It’s only a dream. Wake up!” Alvin’s voice cut through the dust and the dirt and the fear and finally reached her.
Drenched in sweat making the leaves stick to her skin and her clothes, she took a deep breath of the cool air and tried to still her mind. “Thanks,” she said. “I’m sorry I woke you.”
“Was it him?”
“Yes,” she whispered as if he carried the power to hear her voice even when she’d wakened from dreams of him. “He was trying to take me.”
“He won’t stop. He may have sent that dream just to scare you even more.”
“He can control what I dream?”
“Like I’ve told you, he’s incredibly powerful. I wouldn’t put anything past him.”
“If he can insert himself into my dreams, can he use the same power to figure out where we are?”
Alvin looked worried. “Again, he’s incredibly powerful. Since his father’s execution, he’s practiced the Dark Arts. Most of The Folk want nothing to do with that kind of energy but he revels in it.”
FayeLynn wasn’t sure she could ever be fully at peace again. “Can I block him?”
“Not without a lot of practice and we don’t have the time to build those skills before the baby comes. We’re talking years.”
“I can’t wait for this to be over so I can go home.”
“Me, neither.”
> High above the stars gave off a cold white light. FayeLynn briefly wondered if her father was looking at the same night sky. She didn’t doze off again until the first light bruised the eastern sky.
***
It had been three days since Drake had tried to kidnap her, and they’d walked until her feet were covered in blisters. They’d stopped only to drink and sleep for an hour or two. Without their gear, they were forced to eat whatever they could find. They’d eaten berries and leaves and some fat grubs Alvin dug from underneath the moss.
They’d come too far to go back and collect the gear, and she was too tired to even worry about it.
But halfway through the fourth day, after an exhausting trek thought the forest with very little rest, FayeLynn saw it first.
“It that a cave? There in the rock face?” She placed a hand over her eyes to shield them from the sun. About twenty feet above the ground, she saw a small, semi-circle cut into the rock.
“I think it is,” he said. “Stay here while I check it out. Yell if you hear or see anything strange.”
She sat down on a rock, the warmth soaking into her backside. It took Alvin some time to figure out the best way up the rock face. He climbed, his feet swift and sure, until he was standing on the ledge outside the cave. He smiled, waved and then ducked into the opening.
A few minutes later, he emerged and gave her the thumbs up. Even from where she sat, the smile on his face was impossible to miss. He climbed back down and stood beside her. “It’s perfect,” he said. “Follow me.”
The climb wasn’t as easy as Alvin had made it look. By the time she reached the ledge, her hands were scraped and bleeding. She paused before going into the cave and looked down over the Deep Forest. “It would be hard for Drake to sneak up on us here. We can see for miles.”
“Exactly. There’s a stream right over there. We’ll be fine here until the baby comes.”
For a city girl, who’d always had a soft bed and central heating and air, FayeLynn was surprised at her excitement. “It’s perfect.”
Alvin spent the rest of the afternoon hauling up leaves and moss to use for beds. He’d taken off his shirt and fashioned it into a sack he used to carry berries up to the cave. After climbing down one last time for a bucket of water, they were set for the evening.
“I’d like to avoid building a fire if we can tonight. I only have a few matches and we’ll need a fire when you go into labor.”
FayeLynn wrapped her arms around her knees. “The weather is warm enough. I’ll be fine.”
“Are you sure?”
She nodded. “The leaves will keep me warm enough.”
She watched the sun dip past the horizon, washing the Dark Forest in orange-white light.
“It’s beautiful here,” she said. “I know why you love The Realm.”
Since she’d been here, the place had grown on her. When she’d left her world, she thought she’d miss her cell phone, thought she’d be miserable without WiFi, but the opposite was true. For the first time in her life, she’d been busy living, and it was exhilarating.
“Really?” Alvin knitted his brow and looked at her. “You don’t miss Netflix?”
“Just Daredevil.”
As the evening faded from gray to the dark purple of night, they went into the cave and lay down. Without the stars, the darkness was absolute. Instead of being scary, it was quite cozy. “Good night, Alvin.”
“Night, FayeLynn.” His voice reverberated off the stone walls and comforted her. “Welcome home.”
She smiled in the dark.
***
With each passing day, her stomach grew. Stuck with only the clothes she’d been wearing when Drake found her, they were not only tight-fitting but they were torn and tattered and covered with mud and dirt. She had no idea how wonderful running water, not to mention hot showers were when she was in the human realm.
Alvin was determined to keep her inside the cave until the baby came. Every day, he climbed down the rock face and found food and water. In the back of the cave, several hundred feet into the rock of the mountain, he fashioned a bathroom so that FayeLynn’s feet would never have to touch the ground until they started the march to the palace.
Surprisingly, she wasn’t bored. She’d gotten used to the quiet of The Realm and she was thankful for a hiding place. As her stomach grew, so did her resolve to get the baby to Alvin’s father and save him from Drake.
He was bad enough in dreams; she couldn’t imagine co-parenting.
***
She was being stabbed. Repeatedly. Someone was cutting her in half with a dull knife.
Her first thought was that Drake had found her and decided to cut the baby from her womb with the curved sword he carried in her dreams.
“FayeLynn, wake up.” Alvin’s voice dragged her from sleep. The nightmares were so common that both of them had grown used to waking in the middle of the night.
But this was different.
She was covered in sweat and in excruciating pain. She tried to sit up but it hurt too much and she fell back to the floor. “I think the baby’s coming,” she said. She reached over and grasped Alvin’s hand. “It’s time.”
He bolted upright. “You’re sure?”
Instead of answering, she groaned in agony. The leaves underneath her were wet. “My water has broken.”
“As soon as I get a fire going, I’m going to get water. I’ll be right back.” He scrambled to the entrance, clicked on a headlight and put on his boots.
“Can you go without the light?” Even though the cave felt safe, the Deep Forest had seemed the same way until Drake materialized. “I’m afraid he’ll see you.”
“It’s too cloudy to use the moon. I’ll be careful.”
“Hurry,” she said, through gritted teeth. She watched him go, hands clutching her stomach. The contractions were coming closer and closer together. She wished she were at home, in a hospital room with doctors and nurses who’d done this before. FayeLynn longed for her mother, a woman she’d never known but who she felt so close to here in The Realm.
In addition to the pain wracking her body, she was terrified that something would happen and Alvin wouldn’t be back. What would she do without him?
Another sharp burst of pain filled her abdomen and she screamed. Her voice, shrill and desperate, echoed off the walls of the cave. She sounded like a trapped animal.
She had no idea how long Alvin was gone but when she saw the outline of him blocking the light streaming into the door of the cave, she wept with relief. “The baby will be here soon,” she said. “I’m sure of it.” Another strong contraction hit her full-force and she screamed. Her body was being twisted into two pieces. “It hurts,” she moaned.
Not only did it hurt more than she’d ever imagined it would, she was scared.
Alvin knelt beside her and took her hand. “I’m here.”
She squeezed his hand and looked into his eyes. “What if something’s wrong?”
“You’ll do just fine.” He kissed her on the brow. “In just a few minutes, we’ll have a healthy baby boy.”
It had been exactly five weeks since she’d seen the pink lines on the pregnancy test. She’d gone from being a regular girl, waiting tables and waiting for her life to start, to being in another realm, hunted by an incredibly powerful man.
“Any idea what you’re going to name him?”
She’d bounced around ideas in her head as she’d walked but nothing seemed to fit. “Maybe I need to meet him first.”
“You are one of The Folk,” Alvin said.
“What does that mean?”
“In The Realm, it’s very bad luck to choose a name for child before it’s born. In the human world, people do it all the time.”
Despite the pain, she smiled. “I want my son to have a name that fits him.” Another contraction gripped her, as if the child agreed.
“Squeeze as hard as you need to,” Alvin said, placing his hand in hers.
She did.
Less than an hour later, an overwhelming need to push flooded every cell in her body. “He’s coming,” she said.
“I’m right here.” Alvin’s voice was low and soothing. “Everything is going to be just fine.”
More than anything she wanted to believe him.
Neither of them knew much about childbirth. Sure, she’d seen movies, but now that it was really time, she realized how inadequate they were. She’d give anything for YouTube and an iPad, but in The Realm, there was no such thing as either.
“I need to push,” she groaned. “I have to get him out of me.”
“Then push. As hard as you can. I’m here.”
FayeLynn heard the quiver of fear in his voice. “On three. One, two three.” She pushed so hard she saw pinpricks of light behind her eyes. She fell back onto the bed of leaves and heaved in breaths like a panting dog. “Again on three.”
Alvin stayed with her and after two more pushes, he said, “I see his head. Just a couple more times.”
She pushed with all her might, imagining her stomach muscles pressing all the way down until they pressed against her backbone. Then she wiped the sweat from her eyes and pushed again.
Her baby slipped free of her and into Alvin’s waiting hands. For an agonizing moment, there was nothing but the sound of her heavy breathing in the cave.
“Is he okay?” FayeLynn asked. She heard the desperation in her own voice and for the first time she realized how much she wanted the baby.
Finally, the baby began to cry, loud, throaty cries. Alvin turned to her, his eyes shining in the low light of the cave, and said, “He’s a beautiful baby boy.”
FayeLynn wept with relief.
CHAPTER 8
Alvin had never held a baby but the one in his arms now was perfect.
A tiny pink face, rosebud mouth and skin as white as milk, he felt the tiny pea-size beginnings on his Wing Ridge on the boy’s tiny back. After FayeLynn delivered him, he’d cleaned up both of them and placed the baby in her arms. She’d fallen asleep, and in the soft, gauzy light in the cave, she looked like a princess. His princess.
He had no idea if she felt the same way about him but he hoped that she did. The trek through The Dark Forest had been long and difficult but they’d bonded, becoming closer each day. FayeLynn was a part of him now and he wasn’t sure how he was going to let her go when the time came. Alvin tried not to think about it but he was acutely aware of it.
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