Falling

by Meredith Bond

  My focus entirely on the child, it was only as she dropped past that I saw that he’d pushed Erinne after.

  “No!” I cried, much more softly, even as I pulled the baby towards me.

  I couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t save them both.

  I either dropped my child and saved Erinne or… There was the sickening sound of Erinne’s body hitting the hard-packed ground.

  I couldn’t look. I couldn’t. Instead, I focused on the child as my magic drew her into my arms.

  “Daffid!” Huw’s enraged roar startled me. I glanced up for only the briefest second before turning and running for the stables. I had to leave—and never return.

  There was nothing I could do for Erinne, I told myself. There was nothing I could have done. I shook my head hard to dispel the tears that were threatening my vision.

  I had to protect my child. Our child.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Erin didn't want to go out on to the balcony. The sky… It terrified her. She couldn’t face it. It called to her, pulled at her—in very much the same way that Hugh was now pulling her out through the sliding glass door that Erin had never even realized was there. She’d never been able to even look at the windows that closely before. She’d never noticed it.

  And now she was stepping through it.

  “No,” she whispered.

  Why was she doing this? Why was she letting him lead her out here? The sky was so vast. It called to her, pulling her forward.

  “No!” she said with a little more strength.

  She had to stop him. He was doing something to her… Yes! That was it! Hugh was doing this to her. He was using magic to force her out on to the balcony!

  It took effort, but she pulled her eyes away from the sky and looked at him. He was furious. His eyes were flaring with his anger, and his mouth was pinched. Yet she wasn’t feeling it. How could that be? She always felt the emotions of others.

  Somehow, he was blocking her magic and forcing her to do his will at the same time. My God, he must be an incredibly strong Vallen! And she’d never known it. How long had he been manipulating her?

  The sky pulled her eyes away from him before he noticed her looking his way. She had to think. She had to do something.

  She was the high priestess, for God sake! Surely she could do something to get out of his spell.

  Kiss him.

  What? Where had that thought even come from? Why in the hell would she want to kiss him? she argued to no one.

  She put her hand out on the railing to steady herself. She was going to fall. She was going to die. She could feel it. Oh, God, this was it. He wanted to kill her! He was going to push her over… just as he had done before.

  The realization threw her for a moment, but that voice, that idea, whispered to her. Kiss him! You can remove his powers with a kiss and free yourself of his spell.

  The feeling was more insistent this time, more forthcoming with that explanation. She still had no idea where it was coming from, but hell it couldn’t hurt to try.

  “You want the truth from me?” she asked Hugh, with both hands now firmly holding on to the balcony. She took a deep breath and pried one hand free so that she could face him.

  “Tell me,” he said. His expression lightened so that he looked almost amused.

  “I did love you. And I respected you.” That wasn’t a lie, exactly, she reasoned with herself. She forced herself to reach out, put her hand on his arm, and not make it the death-grip that her fear was telling her to take.

  The sky was still pulling her, but she refused its tug and instead looked up into Hugh’s eyes. She even managed to pull her lips up into a bit of a smile. She leaned toward him. “Remind me of why I felt that way, Hugh,” she said, trying to make her voice sound sultry. This was her life at stake.

  To her surprise, he leaned toward her. Erin reached up and moved her free hand to his cheek. She looked deeply into his eyes as they came closer. The moment their lips touched, she changed her hand from barely touching his face to holding it to make sure he couldn’t move. With her mind and her magic, she pulled. She sucked his powers out, swallowing the burning, painful pinpricks as it filtered through her.

  That was when he started screaming.

  Chapter Thirty

  David woke up trembling, tears running down his cheeks. The sick feeling in his stomach didn’t abate even as he caught his breath.

  He wiped his hand down his face and took a deep breath. It would go away as he calmed, he told himself.

  He took two deep breaths and then bolted out of bed. It wasn’t going away. Medieval Erinne was dead. He had to make sure the contemporary one was alive and well.

  He broke every traffic law getting to her apartment. He ran a red light, two stop signs, and nearly hit a pedestrian. When he finally got to her building, he parked in the “No Parking Zone” directly in front of the door and bolted up the steps. He didn’t want to wait for the elevator but climbing eighteen floors was beyond him. He ran the moment the doors slid open on her floor then stopped when he saw that the door to her apartment was open.

  Erin would never leave her door open.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  David burst into the apartment, jumping down the four steps from the door. He stopped in the center of her living room, not able to comprehend what he was seeing.

  Erin was standing on the balcony, lips locked on Hugh’s.

  She was kissing him. Why in the hell was she kissing him? Why was she out… How could she possibly be out on the balcony?

  Had she lied to him this whole time? Had she played him like a fool? Everything inside of David began to crumble. Pain burned through his chest.

  And then the screaming began.

  For a second, he wondered if it was he who was screaming, but it wasn’t. It was Hugh.

  What the hell was going on?

  “What have you done to me?” Hugh shouted, shaking Erin so violently her head snapped back and forth on her neck like a rag doll.

  She leaned back away from him, caught in his grip. “I took your powers.” Her voice was hoarse, but it was clear.

  “You fucking bitch!” He shoved her to the edge of the balcony, pushing her against the railing.

  “Hey! Get your goddamn hands off her!” David shouted, starting to run forward. He was not going to lose her. Not again!

  “Stop!” Erin shouted, and suddenly David couldn’t move. He blinked. It didn’t seem as if Hugh could move either. They were both frozen by her magic.

  Ducking out of Hugh’s grip, Erin stepped back into the safety of the apartment. “Now get out!” she said, this time directly to Hugh.

  Slowly, David felt his limbs softening as her magical grip began to let go of him. Together they watched Hugh walk out the door. “And never come back!” she called after him, although David had a feeling there was no magic in that command.

  The moment the door had closed, Erin all but collapsed into David’s arms. He held her, tightened his grip, and held her some more. He never, ever wanted to let her go.

  “Oh God, Erin,” he whispered into her hair. “You scared me hella bad!”

  She giggled. “Hella bad?” she asked, looking up at him.

  He shook his head. “Sorry, teenage habits come back to haunt me when I’m not paying attention.”

  “Oh,” she said. “Well, I can tell you I was a hell of a lot more scared than you.”

  “We can compare how scared we were later. Right now I just want to hold you.”

  “Yes. Don’t let go. Not for a long time,” she said, snuggling into his arms.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  When they finally separated, Erin took one glance out the windows and gave a shiver.

  David stepped up to them and pulled the blinds closed again while Erin asked, “What brought you over here just in the nick of time?”

  “A dream,” he said, joining her on the sofa facing away from the window.

  She looked at him questioningly.
r />   He looked down at his hands. “I probably should have told you this before, but it didn’t seem….” He gave a little shrug. “I’ve been having dreams of our past life. Today, I dreamt that Huw returned and went in to see the baby you’d had. He lured you out onto the battlements and—” He stopped and closed his eyes.

  “And what?” Erin whispered.

  “He threw the baby over,” he said, his eyes still closed. “I was able to save her with my magic, but as I was doing so, he pushed you over as well. I…” Tears were streaming down his face. “I couldn’t save you,” he whispered. He put his fingers to his eyes as if he could stop his tears by pressing against them.

  Erin’s breath caught in her throat, and she remembered the thought she’d had when she’d been out there facing that sky. This had happened before! Suddenly everything made sense. “Well, I guess now we know why I’m afraid of falling,” she said. “I’ve already done so.”

  David nodded. He was clearly still trying to pull himself together. He gave a final sniff. “Yeah.”

  Erin suddenly found herself smothered by David’s embrace again.

  “Oh God, Erin, I’m so sorry! I couldn’t… I couldn’t…” He was crying again, this time for real and not just a few tears.

  “It’s okay. Shhhh…” she whispered, comforting him. “You couldn’t help it.”

  “I couldn’t. I would have had to drop the baby. I didn’t even see him push you over. I’m so sorry.” He took a trembling breath, trying to stop his crying.

  She pulled back from him, wiping his tears away with her thumb. “It’s all right. I love you. And I know that you love me.”

  He nodded vigorously. “I do. I love you so much.”

  “And we’ve been given this second chance.”

  That made him smile. “Yes. And I am not going to screw this up.”

  She gave a little laugh. “Neither am I. And happily, we don’t have Hugh to worry about any more. I sucked out his powers and got rid of him—for good.”

  “That was amazing! How did know you could do that?” he asked, wiping the last of his tears away.

  “I didn’t. I mean… somehow, I did. It was like there was this voice in my head telling me what to do. It was weird. But luckily I listened to it because it sure worked!” She paused. “I mean, it was kind of gross kissing him, and it was painful feeling all of his powers shifting through me. But I did it.”

  “It hurt?”

  “Yes!”

  He ran a hand down her face. “I’m sorry.”

  “It’s okay,” she smiled. “I lived. And now he’s powerless.”

  “So, do you have his powers now?” David asked.

  Erin shrugged. “I don’t know. Honestly, I don’t care. All I care about is that he doesn’t.”

  “I didn’t even know he was Vallen,” David said.

  “Neither did I. Not until I realized he’d used magic to get me out onto the balcony.”

  David nodded. “I was wondering how you got out there.”

  “He…” she paused. “Let’s just suffice it to say, he was horrible, and I’m really glad he’s gone.”

  “And you were amazing. You managed to save yourself. You had the presence of mind to do so even though you were out there, facing that drop.”

  “Well, your distraction really helped,” she said. She started caressing his hand with her fingers. Somehow, she just couldn’t keep from touching him.

  David shook his head. “I’ve always felt that it was up to me to save everybody. I came here expecting to save you, but you did it all on your own.”

  Erin cocked her head. “Why do you need to save everybody?”

  He moved slightly away from her on the couch. “Because I couldn’t save my own brother.”

  “But that wasn’t your fault,” she argued.

  “No. But ever since then, I’ve felt that need,” he shrugged.

  “And so you saved Shawn, and you were here to save me.”

  He nodded and shrugged.

  “But you know it’s best when people save themselves, right?” she asked. “It means that they can take care of themselves and gives them the confidence they need to go on.”

  He just looked at her questioningly.

  “If you had come in here and saved me, instead of me saving myself, I would have been shattered. I wouldn’t have felt myself qualified to be the high priestess, if I couldn’t save myself from someone trying to control me with their magic,” she explained.

  “Oh. I guess that does make sense,” David said. “So, it’s just as well that I didn’t really do anything.”

  “Well, you did. You distracted Hugh just long enough for me to think of what to do.”

  David nodded. “Yeah, I guess I did. So I did help, but you did the real saving.”

  Erin slid down a little on the sofa and snuggled up to him. “And now, I just want to forget about the whole thing.”

  “Sounds good to me,” he said, bringing his arms around her.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Would you mind stopping by the house on Sunday? Oh, and bring David too! He’s such a nice boy,” Erin’s mom had said in the most casual, off-hand way a few days later. She supposed her parents just wanted her to check in so that they knew she was doing okay.

  They did that every now and then. It was actually kind of nice.

  Most parents called once a week or every few days, some even as little as once every few weeks. Erin’s parents asked her to stop by at home, especially if they hadn’t talked for over a week. She liked it.

  What she didn’t expect, though, was that they’d said the same thing to all six of her siblings, asking them to bring their spouses/significant others as well. The house was packed when she arrived.

  Aside from her four brothers and two sisters, there were four spouses and Dylan’s boyfriend, who he’d been with for the past year and a half. Four of her sibs had kids, so there were also nine children between the ages of five months and thirteen years. They were either lounging around the den with the adults or running around like crazy just beyond the partially open sliding-glass doors which led out into the sunny, warm back yard.

  “Oh my God!” Erin breathed as they came in. She turned to David. “I swear I did not know my entire family was going to here! I am so sorry.”

  David was looking a little shell-shocked, but he managed to give her a smile. “It’s okay. Is this your extended family or just your immediate one?”

  Erin looked around, trying to see if there were any of her dozens of cousins there but didn’t see any. “Looks like just the immediate one. You know, youngest of seven.” She shrugged apologetically.

  “Erin!” her oldest sister Susie nearly shouted so that just about everyone in the room turned around to stare at her.

  “Hey Erin!” a bunch of people shouted from various points in the room.

  “Hi, sweetie,” her mom said, coming over and giving her a kiss and a hug.

  “Hi.” Erin gave a little wave after her mother released her. “Um, everyone, this is David.” She turned to her boyfriend. “I’m not even going to try to introduce them all.”

  He laughed. “That’s all right. I think I’ll manage.”

  “We’ll introduce ourselves,” Dylan said, coming over to give her a big hug. He then held his hand out to David. “Dylan. I’m number six.”

  David laughed as he took his hand. “Nice to meet you.”

  Dylan half-turned around and peered through the crowd, which had gone back to whatever they’d been doing before. “Jared is around here somewhere. He’s my SO.”

  David gave a nod of understanding. “I’m sure I’ll meet him.”

  Erin’s mother clapped her hands three times, paused, and clapped three times more. It was the rhythm she’d always used when they were little in order to get their attention. Once everyone had joined in, she knew she had everyone’s attention—just as teachers did in elementary school. Like when they were little, it worked to get everyone quiet quic
kly, even the little ones.

  “Now that Erin’s here, I wanted to tell you all why your father and I asked you to come today,” her mother said. “You all know that you—or most of you—are Vallen. Some of you who’ve married into the family aren’t, I realize, so I would encourage you to speak to your spouse when you get home. Those of you who are, first of all, I want to thank you for keeping your knowledge to yourself as I’ve requested. You have done an amazing job of that, but today everything is going to come out into the open. No more secrets in this family.”

  “Wait, some of you knew…” Erin started.

  “Erin, I’m married to a Vallen,” Susie said with a pointed look. “Of course I know all about them.”

  “But then why…” Erin started.

  “Because I told her and Mike not to, that’s why,” her mother explained.

  Both Mike and Susie nodded apologetically. Other elder siblings had similar expressions on their faces.

  Erin just humphed and crossed her arms in front of her chest. She couldn’t believe her sibs had been holding out on her!

  “This is all in the past now,” their mother said, taking control of the conversation again. She turned and gave Erin a proud look. “What you all couldn’t have learned from anyone else is that the seventh daughters of our family have, until your grandmother, always become the high priestess of the Vallen.”

  “What?” Susie exclaimed.

  It was Erin’s turn to give her sister an “I knew something you didn’t” smile.

  Their mother interrupted this little exchange by ignoring them and continuing, “Now, my mother felt that with the spreading of the Vallen all over the world, it wasn’t really practical anymore to have a high priestess. So as not confuse us, she raised my siblings and me as ordinaries. Well, Erin has decided to revive the tradition of having a high priestess, only she’s adapting the role for the modern world. She’s decided to start a non-profit where Vallen from all over the world can learn about our people and get help with their magic.” She looked over for confirmation from Erin.