by Helen Scott
“Sorry, I know it reeks,” Vivienne said before she started humming under her breath. The melody was soft and soothing, even with the bitter mixture being rubbed on his temples. After a moment, she started interspersing words. He couldn’t make them out, which was odd considering she was less than two feet away from him.
The scent seemed to dissipate the more she sang, and his body became heavy. Alec knew this was what she was going for, but there was a small tendril of panic slithering up his spine at the thought of being there completely defenseless and unable to protect Ellie or Vivienne if something were to happen. As she continued to sing, the anxiety began to lower until he felt like he was floating on a cloud, weightless and relaxed. Slowly the sensation of flying rose within him, and the feeling of air brushing over his skin as he moved became more apparent.
He flicked his eyes open, only to be greeted by the ground rushing underneath him. It wasn’t any ground he’d seen before, though. The trees were different from any around them, and the ground itself looked gray at first before becoming a snowy white. He had no idea where he was, but the air was quickly becoming too cold to fly in, so he landed. It wasn’t graceful, and his foot caught on something, making him stumble and fall.
After righting himself and getting to his feet, Alec took in the world around him. He was supposed to be in Ellie’s mind, but this wasn’t what he’d expected. Maybe some kind of cloudy woo-woo landscape, but not a full-on forest with mountains and lakes. Why would all that be in someone’s head? Ellie was nowhere in sight, of course, because why would this be easy? He supposed it made sense in a way. Ellie was a complicated woman. Going into her mind wasn’t something that he should have expected to be simple.
A breeze ruffled his hair and stung his eyes, bringing with it the sound of voices, as if someone was whispering to him.
The first full phrase he caught was, “She’s waiting for you.” The next he could have sworn was MacLeod’s voice calling to him. “Find her, lad. She needs you to bring her back to life. Don’t let her stay here.”
It was all very unsettling. Clearly Ellie was there somewhere—it was her mind, after all—but why hadn’t he just gone straight to her? A rustling sound drew his attention, and he carefully moved toward it, trying to be as silent as possible. As he peered around the tree, he saw some kind of creature writhing on the ground. It looked like it was made of twigs and branches. He couldn’t see its face.
“Ellie?” he asked tentatively.
Its head twisted around much further than any head ever should, giving him a horror-movie vibe that was only accentuated when he saw the white waxy mask that covered its face. He backed away. Whatever this was, it wasn’t Ellie. The caw of a bird drew his attention, and when he found it among the trees, it hopped along the branch, coming more clearly into view. A raven. It reminded him all too well of when Ellie had been lying on a bed on the Isle of Skye, dying in front of him, just as she was now in the real world, until the ravens and crows came with the fae woman and took her to Tír na nÓg. The big bird spread its large, sooty wings and flew a few trees over, cawing as it looked at him.
Alec shouldn’t be distracted by birds. He needed to find Ellie and get her to realize this was all in her head. When he started to walk toward what looked like a break in the trees, the bird’s sharp call came again, only this time it seemed angry, if a bird could seem angry. He turned to look at it, only to find the thing in flight, heading directly at him.
He tried to duck to avoid a collision with the sharp black bill that protruded from the bird’s face, but it just circled his head as he moved, and eventually landed on his shoulder, cawing loudly in his ear.
As he thought, he wondered aloud, “Okay, I get it. You’re not a real bird. Are you connected to Ellie?”
The bird gently nibbled at his ear, pulling his earlobe in one direction while he was walking in the other. He stopped in his tracks. Was the bird trying to lead him to his soulmate? Stranger things had happened, he supposed, and it would be better than just walking in a random direction and hoping to run into her.
Alec turned toward the direction the bird had been pulling, and started walking. Occasionally, the bird’s black beak would tug gently on his earlobe, as though it was course-correcting him as he moved through the forest. When they broke through the trees, he got his first good look at the mountain in front of him. When he paused and looked around, partially to try to gain his bearings, partially to see if there was any other option, and partially just because he was amazed that this all existed in someone’s head, the bird tugged on his ear, pulling him toward the rocky incline he’d been hoping to avoid.
The gravel crunched and slipped under his shoes. He wasn’t exactly dressed to go hiking, but he’d fly if he had to. He just wasn’t sure how this raven would feel about flying on his shoulder. The thought stuck with him, though, and he shook his wings out from their glamor.
As soon as his wings were visible, the bird took off from his shoulder, its claws digging in as it took flight. Alec pushed off the ground and followed the circling motions of the bird as they climbed higher in the sky. The air was cold on his skin as they moved through the sky, the moisture from the low-hanging clouds occasionally condensing on his skin. It felt like it was going to snow, which was somewhat interesting since when he’d last been outside in the real world, it had been snowing once again.
The raven banked and circled around to the top of the mountain where is seemed to plateau before coming to a peak on one side. As they began to descend, his eyes locked onto a form hovering in the air, surrounded by light. Once his feet touched the ground, he took off at a sprint toward her.
Chapter 19
Ellie looked different, the light that held her limbs in place seeming to cast strange shadows on her face. A long cloak made of animal pelts and feathers hung from her shoulders. Most of the material had fallen behind her back, highlighting the dirty clothing underneath. She was still wearing the same clothes she was in real life, but they were torn and ragged, with edges ringed in mud or dirt. He’d love to hear what had been going on in here while they were trying to save her from the outside, but now was not the time for that.
“Ellie?” he whispered as he came within reach of his fiancée.
Her eyes snapped open, and a sharp, angry gaze held his own for a moment before softening. “Alec? Are you real?”
“I’m here, kind of. What’s going on?” he asked, gesturing to the fact that she was suspended in the air by some kind of symbol that had wrapped around her, not to mention the blood that had pooled under her body. Before she could respond, he added, “And where’s your necklace?” He hoped that if he could get the necklace back on her in here, then the effects would transfer through to the real world.
“On the platform,” she rasped at him. She nodded her head to her right, but her eyes stayed fixed on him, as though they didn’t quite trust he was there.
Alec turned and found the platform she was talking about, the small metal medallion glinting in the strange light that shone around them. His fingers clasped it, but he couldn’t lift it. The metal stuck to the rock like glue. He scraped his fingers around the edge and tried to lever it up, but he had no success. Finally, he gripped the fine chain that held it around her neck and pulled. At first, he was scared he was going to break it, but when the thing felt like a lead weight in his hands, he tugged harder, using all his strength to try to get the thing to move. The more he tried to move it, the heavier the chain became, as though it was almost actively resisting him.
“What the hell? It’s like it’s Mjolnir or something.” He glanced back over his shoulder to a confused Ellie and added, “Thor’s hammer. Only one who is worthy can wield it. Is it glued to the stone?”
“No, she just set it down,” Ellie said, sounding tired.
“She?” Alec asked, starting to feel uneasy.
“The Cailleach, or my grandmother. I’m not really sure which.”
He wasn’t sure what to say to th
at. First there had been the creature in the forest, and then the raven, and now her grandmother? How many people were strolling around in her head right now? Alec shook the thoughts off. They weren’t important, and if the necklace wasn’t going to budge, then it wasn’t important, either. What was important was getting Ellie to figure out a way back to the real world. “Ellie, do you know where you are?”
“Purgatory.”
Well, that was just about the last thing he had expected her to say. “No, you’re not in Purgatory. We’re not dead. You’re in your own mind. Vivienne is helping me talk to you right now, but you need to wake up.”
“Wake up? I am awake. How could I be talking to you if I was asleep?”
“I’m in your head. Vivienne sent me in here to try and bring you back out because you’re sick.”
“Sick?”
“Not sick, really, but you’re injured and we need you to wake up.”
She shook her head, squeezing her eyes shut. “I don’t . . . It’s too much. You, Granddad, my parents, it’s all too much.” Her voice cracked at the end, and he moved to stand in front of her once more.
Something intense had been going on in her head, and he knew it was important, but not as important as trying to get her out of the inner sanctum she’d erected and back into the real world. He reached up and pushed some of her tangled hair out of her face before wiping the tear that streaked down her cheek away with his thumb. “Come on, love. I need you to come back to me.”
“Don’t you think I’ve been trying to get out this whole time? It’s not like I would choose to live like a caveman if I was actually given the choice, but I wasn’t. I just landed here and have had to hunt animals to survive, not to mention fight for my life more than once.”
Alec could tell that she was frustrated with his questions, so he got right to the point, or tried to, at least. “What are you stuck in?”
“I don’t know. The Callieach drew it on the ground and then kicked it toward me, and it just kind of stuck and wrapped around me. She said I could get out of it if I use my powers, or maybe it was if I accept who I really am? I’m not sure. She dinnae exactly leave step-by-step instructions.”
He reached a hand out and touched the beam of light wrapped around one of her wrists. It sizzled at his touch but didn’t hurt him. Wrapping both hands around it, he tugged, trying to loosen it from her wrist, but it didn’t budge. He got the feeling that nothing in Ellie’s mind would happen just because he wanted it to. Everything was under her control. She just didn’t realize it yet.
“Okay, so what have you tried so far?”
“Not much. I drained most of the power I’d taken before I arrived here when I was fighting the masked nightmares.”
Alec didn’t know what masked nightmares were, but he was starting to understand that this hadn’t been a pleasant experience for her. “Your physical body is still in the shop, in the back room, exactly where you were. You can still access electricity if you try. It’s all around you.”
“Why are you making this so much harder? The whole time I’ve been here, I’ve tried to draw magic, but I’ve only ever been successful when a storm came through, and that was barely enough to make sparks between my fingers, let alone anything else.” She sounded exasperated as she spoke, as though this should have all been obvious to him.
“How much power do you have left?”
“About enough to make a ball.”
He knew she meant one of the balls of electricity that she could form in the palm of her hand. They were about the size of a large grapefruit and completely deadly for mortals and the undead. She’d used them as weapons before when she fought Circe. If she could only make one, then she was more drained than he’d hoped.
“What if you draw the power through me? Could I act as a conduit?”
“I’ve never tried anything like that before. It could hurt you.”
“Immortal warrior, remember? Besides, if I do get hurt, I can always have Hal heal me.” He shrugged, trying to downplay how much he wanted her to agree to this, and how nervous it made him.
She stared at him for a moment, and he realized what was so off about her—the emotions he saw in her eyes were less than a tenth of what they usually were. Her large forest-green eyes had been one of the first things about her that captivated him, and now it was like they were keeping everything locked away. Even though he knew that she wasn’t fully herself, he was still more drawn to her than he ever had been to any other woman. She was beautiful. His heart squeezed painfully at the love he felt for her. He wouldn’t let her die in there. No way, not on his watch.
He reached up and caressed her face. When she leaned into his touch, he moved even closer so their bodies were almost pressed against one another. “Please, Ellie. Just try,” he whispered as he dipped his head toward hers, his lips brushing against her own as he tried not to let any of his own fear or worry show through.
When she kissed him back, his heart soared, just like it had the first time, and every time since then. Their connection was just as strong and pure as ever. Alec felt a pull as she tried to draw power through him, but he couldn’t tell if it was working or not. When the kiss broke, he rested his forehead against her own, silently willing her to realize that she was in control.
“It worked, a little.” Her mouth turned up in a small, timid smile.
“Because of the kiss?”
“I dinnae ken, but you’re welcome to try again.”
He didn’t need to be asked twice. This time the kiss wasn’t sweet or gentle. Oh no, this time he let his vicious need to have her come back to him take control. He cupped her head, and his tongue swept into her mouth, tangling with her own as she moaned ever so quietly at his touch. His hands crushed her to him as much as they could, given her restraints, and when she began nipping at his bottom lip, he almost growled in response. By the gods, he loved this woman. He broke away before the kiss became something else. They had limited time and needed to focus.
“More.”
That one word set his blood on fire for her, and he willingly gave her what she asked for even though he knew he shouldn’t. What he should do was back away and force them to talk about it until she realized that this was just a construct in her mind, but as her tongue plunged into his mouth, she consumed all his senses. He could feel the frustration at not being able to touch him radiating off her through her kiss as she nipped harder and sucked his bottom lip into her own mouth, the anger slowly taking control of her actions.
He pulled back and, placing both hands on the side of her head, tilted her face down so he could kiss her forehead.
“Ellie, if you come back to me, I promise I will kiss you as often and as thoroughly as you desire, but this isn’t real. Everything here is in your head, including me. The real me is out there, waiting for you, but the real you is dying and it’s killing me. Taking your necklace off in here, well, it was the same as taking it off in the real world. Your wounds have opened up again, and Vivienne is struggling to control the bleeding. If you don’t figure a way out of here soon, there won’t be one.” Alec sighed, laying all the cards on the table so she knew exactly what was going on. The time for being nice and trying to ease her into understanding was over. “Your grandmother is dead, has been for years. So is your grandfather. I’m sorry, but whatever you saw in here, it was just your mind’s creation.”
She nodded with downcast eyes. All he wanted was to make her smile again, to bring the light back to her and see her eyes filled with life.
“Were you able to draw any more power?”
“A little.”
“Okay, that’s a start. Maybe you can use it to—” Something tugged at him, pulling him away from Ellie. When he turned to look, there was nothing there, but the sensation persisted.
It was Vivienne.
She must think that Ellie was close to bleeding out completely, so she was staying true to her warning and pulling his consciousness back.
“Ellie!” Alec
shouted as he was pulled further away. “You control all of this. It’s all in your head. If you want something to change, then change it. Don’t accept anything as it is. You have the power to create your own reality.” He took a gasping breath as he fought against Vivienne’s pull, but the world before him began to fade. “I love you. Come back to me!” He had no idea if she’d heard the last part, or any of it, really. As soon as he’d been pulled away, she’d started crying. The last thing he saw was her body shaking with sobs as she hung limply in the air while darkness swallowed everything around him.
“Alec!” Vivienne’s voice called just above his head.
He could feel his body in a way he wasn’t used to. Everything felt heavy, as though there were an almost crushing weight sitting on his chest. His eyes popped open, and the world snapped into focus, with Vivienne’s mismatched eyes being front and center as she leaned over him.
“Why did you pull me out? I was so close to saving her!”
“She’s dying, Alec.”
The pity in her gaze cut him on a level he didn’t understand, but as he rolled to his side to get up, he saw what the witch was talking about. His soulmate was ashen, the floor underneath her was soaked with blood, and her body hung even more lifeless than before.
“Do a blood transfusion.” He had no idea where the idea came from; maybe something he’d picked up in Ellie’s head.
“I can’t. It could kill her. We don’t know what your siren blood would do when mixed with fae blood.”
“If she’s dying anyway, what harm could it do?” He pleaded with the other woman.
“Alec . . .”
“Leave me the supplies and I’ll do it myself.” He pulled out his phone and began to search the Internet for an instructional video on how to do a blood transfusion.
“It won’t save her,” she said as she broke the circle, easing some of the pressure that had been weighing him down.
“How do you know? How can you tell me that I can’t even try? She’s my life, my everything, and I’m not going to damn well let her die locked in her own version of hell inside her mind.” He bellowed it more than he’d intended, but the good doctor relented and began to pull clear tubing and sterile needles out of her bag.