by Amanda McGee
Tristan’s bedroom!
Tristan lay curled around his pillow with nothing but a sheet loosely covering his body. I noticed his shirtless chest and my thoughts derailed, exploding into a million inappropriate pieces. I fumbled around my hormone-addled brain trying to remember why I had crept in here in the first place.
If he would have heard my several faint, frightened knocks on his door moments before I wouldn’t have had to stalk into his darkened room.
Though we made it back to Tristan’s unharmed, the thought of leaving James alone with potential danger lurking kept me awake. I had slept like a rock the night before but after the day I'd had I figured it was more of an involuntary state of unconsciousness. Insomnia was now on my list of enemies along with Katerina and Haliwick. They were all trying to kill me.
“Tristan,” I whispered, afraid to touch him. “Tristan, wake up…please.”
“James is fine,” he grumbled.
“How did you know?” I asked.
I was taken aback.
Can he read my mind? Man, I hope not.
I kept my secret love for him hidden away in there. There, I pondered my infatuation with Tristan and wondered how on Earth—or Haliwick—my affections had grown so rapidly. I blamed my dreams. I meet him there and was free to love him because he wasn’t real. Now that he was a bona fide part of my actual reality, I had jumped ahead of schedule.
Mouth open, I stood frozen, afraid to budge or think or speak. I couldn’t back out of the room, I was there, I was committed, and he was, for all intents and purposes, awake. Were I to continue moving forward I would be in Tristan’s bed with him.
Now there’s a thought worth having.
A knowing grin spread across Tristan’s sleepy face.
Really? Can you read my mind?
No response. I relaxed as much as possible considering my close proximity to him. I decided I had better be on alert just the same. If my feelings got out who knew what would happen.
Someone might actually be happy! The horror.
“You aren’t. That. Hard to read,” he said, stretching.
“It’s not like I can call him. Why don’t you have phones? A world of magical beings and no one thought a phone might be necessary some day?”
A pillow flew from the shadows and smacked me across the shoulder. That was one way to stop my ranting.
“Hey!” I said, feigning insult.
I felt bad for waking him but worry consumed me as usual. Tristan, unlike me, seemed to be able to sleep peacefully. But then again, insomnia had a way of detaching you from reality so my guilt was short-lived.
“Firstly, it is the middle of the night,” he said. “Secondly, phones exist. I just don’t have one. Thirdly, don’t you possess a power that tells you when someone is in danger?”
“I haven’t figured it all out yet and I don’t know if my visions apply when I am not in them.”
“I will go check on him so just relax.”
Tristan crawled out of bed, still shirtless. His pajama bottoms hung low on his slender hips, revealing every inch of his toned stomach and framing the deep V of his lower abdomen. I had once heard that area referred to as something that “makes smart girls stupid.”
Now I understood.
A flush of heat reddened my cheeks. I wasn’t sure if I had said the words out loud but I knew my breathing had become irregular. I turned to face the wall as he reached for a t-shirt that was lying at the foot of the bed.
Lucky shirt.
I would like to believe that I turned away to give him privacy but I suspected it had more to do with my heart and mind going haywire at the sight of him, coupled with the disappointment of having him cover up. Pulling my gaze from the floor, I found myself staring Tristan’s reflection in a mirror. In the moonlight, his back muscles flexed when he pulled his shirt over his head.
Oh, come on!
“Is something wrong?” he asked with a chuckle.
“Tired, I’m just tired,” I said, feeling awkward. “I’m sorry to wake you. I waited as long as I could but I’ve been up all night worrying and I don’t know how many more sleepless nights I can handle.”
“It’s no problem,” he responded placing both hands on my shoulders to calm my rambling. “You waited longer than I figured you would.”
I suspected Tristan would be compassionate regardless of my reasoning. I had considered waking up Blaze, who was asleep on the couch, but decided that at least some of us should be allowed the luxury of a good night’s sleep.
“Where are you going?” Tristan asked, noticing that I was following close behind.
“With you. Don’t waste time arguing.”
I walked past him and caught him grin out of the corner of my eye. I had predicted he would not put up much of a fight and, once again, my assumption was correct.
The night air was just as warm as it had been several hours ago even though the sun was long gone. For a moment, I was not in a strange land; I was at home. I longed for Knox and the salty breeze that hugged me while I relaxed on my front porch. I longed for my bed and my room. I longed for my own clothes, my Jeep, for Kate.
Oh, Kate. This story will break you for sure.
I could only hope that she had been too busy to call. If she realized I had been missing for a few days, I imagined she would have dipped into full-on panic mode. A panicked Kate was like Bigfoot: you weren’t sure it existed but if you did manage to stumble upon it, it scared you to death.
“Thinking too hard again I see,” he said.
“You have to stop looking at me like that,” I blurted.
“What?” he asked.
My mouth dropped open. I had said too much. Once again, there was no turning back.
“I’m sorry. How exactly am I looking at you?”
The words had rolled off my tongue as if speaking had become an involuntary action. Tristan paused with a shocked reaction and I struggled for a clever explanation.
Sleep deprivation? Caffeine withdraws? Psychological disorder?
There was no way out of this. I stared at the ground, considering my options. I could have said what was on my mind or just ran away. I would’ve looked like an idiot either way.
“When you look at me I can’t decide if I’m coming or going. This has never happened to me before."
Cringing, I could not believe I had said such a thing.
Tristan’s face was tilted downward but I could see the handsome grin that melted my stubborn heart. My cheeks were so flushed my entire body felt the effects. I had, on more than one occasion, believed Sadie would be the one to spontaneously combust but now I feared it would be me.
“Maybe that is a good thing,” he said, looking straight into my eyes. “You seem to have a problem with over thinking so maybe it is the universe’s way of telling you to take a break.”
“What’s the point?”
“The point, my dear, is so you may be able to experience life instead of letting it play out in your head. Live in the moment! Laugh, sing, or act like an idiot…but just try.”
“Why do you care?”
My biting remark took us both by surprise. Tristan’s gaze left me and returned to the ground.
“That didn’t come out right,” I added. “I just mean why do you care about me? In a few days you won’t see me again. In a month or two you’ll have forgotten me altogether. So all of this seems a little pointless, don’t you think?”
Tristan continued to look downward, dragging the toe of his right sneaker in a semi-circle around his left foot. His brow was creased, his eyes squinted, and his lips were pushed together in a straight line. He wasn’t ignoring me. He was thinking. I could wait forever to hear his reply.
“I don’t think I could forget you.”
Tristan had yet to look up. He focused his attention on the dirt his shoe was fiddling with. Something told me he wasn’t finished with his response. I couldn’t think of anything to say, so I waited.
I had no sense of time in this world. I was
uncertain if it was because of Haliwick or how Tristan made my brain short-circuit. My eyes rotated back and forth following the path of his black Converse.
Is that an actual Converse? How could they have American shoes here?
Why I continued to be surprised by anything anymore puzzled me.
“I feel a connection to you,” he said but with eye contact this time. “You dropped out of the sky and into my life less than two days ago but somehow it feels like I’ve always known you.”
Before I could respond, he held my upper arms between his hands.
“I miss you when you aren’t right by my side. You’ve been on my mind every second since you arrived. I don’t know how it’s possible. Does this make any sense?”
“More than I’d like to admit.”
“Why wouldn’t you admit to something like that?”
“Sometimes life is better in your head. Reality has a way of disappointing.”
“Not always, Alex.”
“Tristan, where could this go? We are smack-dab in the middle of some Shakespearian Sci-Fi tragedy where no one lives happily ever after.”
Tristan looked deep into my eyes, somehow revealing the full extent of his disagreement with my cynical remark. His right hand slid around my waist and came to rest on my lower back. My heart pounded, I was used to that by now. My ears fell deaf to the sounds of the forest around me. His left hand delicately caressed my face and every nerve in my shaken body flew into hyper drive.
Spontaneous combustion in three…two…
“But right now, we are just two people standing in the middle of a forest,” he whispered.
There was no stopping it. As soon as his lips touched mine, I was incapable of resisting.
A few sleepless hours ago, I had been determined to ignore the chemistry. My feelings for Tristan were formed the second I had laid eyes on him in my dreams, yet I still managed to carry on with my life. Now that he stood before me, there was no reason to give in and risk heartbreak.
Or so I had convinced myself. Pre-kiss.
Face-to-face with Tristan, the attraction was much stronger than I had estimated. No dream ever made me feel this way. With my eyes closed, I felt his hand slide across my shoulders and down my back. His soft, full lips massaged mine, giving the impression that I knew what I was doing. I became lost in him, all of him, right down to his intoxicating earthy scent.
Gah, he even smells like nature…manly…nature.
My useless knees buckled under the pressure, though my body felt weightless. He caught me and pulled me closer just as I expected he would. I had feared he was too perfect and now I was certain of it. Time slowed to a near stop, the world around us blurred. I had never felt such intense serenity. Our bodies melded together, fitting perfectly into one another as if we were constructed for the purpose.
This would be what sent me over the edge—not the vindictive witch, not the alternate realm, not even insomnia, but my all-encompassing love for Tristan.
His chuckle broke my trance. He was no longer kissing me. I had no idea how long I had been hanging from his arms like a swooning damsel in rapture. Before embarrassment devoured me, I knew I had to say something. Anything.
“This. You. Ahh,” I said, separating myself from him.
Now I really did have a speech problem.
I turned away in an attempt to stop the quivers plaguing me from head to toe. Once I felt myself return to some semblance of normalcy, I twisted around on my heels to face him.
“It’s not fair,” I said plainly.
“I know it’s not but it’s what we have been dealt, Alex. Don’t shut down.”
This went deeper than my usual fear of a broken heart; it was a literal ‘from different worlds’ situation. Our story could never end happily. We would not walk hand-in-hand into the sunset because our distance could not be traveled by plane or automobile. Once I was gone, there would be no second trip, no visiting, and not even a chance at a long-distance relationship.
I resumed our walk to James’s, leaving Tristan alone in the darkness. I could not allow the conversation to continue. The hurt was already becoming excruciating. The disappointment on his face only made it worse.
The shuffle of Tristan’s footsteps behind me grew louder. Before I could turn back, he was silently by my side. Relief somehow replaced the ache in my soul. I looped my index finger through his. It was certainly not a big romantic gesture but I hoped it was enough to convey that I was sorry.
“I’m sorry, too,” he said, staring down the dark path.
While the kiss would hurt eventually, it was the most freeing experience of my life. Whether it ended now or later, the emotions would be there either way.
“See, safe and sound,” he said, pointing up the hill to James’s house.
I looked at Tristan with a raised eyebrow. His notion that a quick glance at the exterior of James’s home would reassure me was almost laughable. Thankfully, he was a fast learner and without a word he began the trek up the hill.
I walked behind him. There was no view of him not incapacitating. My eyes ran a path from his alluring bed head, down the insanely mesmerizing inverted triangle of his shoulders and torso, stopping as I reached his lower half, certain that my mind would wander off a cliff.
This was why he lived here and I lived in Knox; because being with him was a dangerous distraction.
Without much of a plan or a heads-up, our rag-tag group of mystical do-gooders was about to face an evil opponent who didn’t care if we lived or died, much less if we returned home. Our bodies were gradually weakening with each passing hour thanks to a discriminating atmosphere designed to kill Haliwick trespassers. There was enough against us without me getting sidetracked.
I hiked the rest of the driveway with my eyes on the ground.
“I’m going to use my key and try not to wake him,” Tristan said as we approached the front door.
Haliwick was silent in the pre-dawn hours. Our breathing was the only sound for miles until Tristan turned the key. Compared to the early morning hush, the bolt’s click was thunderous. Tristan pushed the door open without a creak.
I had yet to master the art of stealth, especially around Tristan, so I decided to stay put. I lingered in the foyer while he jogged upstairs to check on James. The impulse to peek behind the closed doors in the hallway was tough to resist.
Tristan sauntered down the staircase displaying a silent thumbs-up before my urge to snoop overcame me.
“I’ll bet you’ve never given a thumbs-up before in your life,” I said.
“Did I not do it right?” he asked, closing the door behind us.
“No, it was fine. I have done many unusual things lately. I blame Sadie for most of it. You know, I actually skipped the other day. Yep, just skipped right along behind her.”
“She seems to have that effect on people. Her personality is fascinating. Maybe we could all learn a bit from her.”
“I already have. I was in such a dark place when she arrived on my doorstep. Without much effort, she had me talking about my mom and acting like a teenager again. Of course, being rescued by a handsome stranger helped a little.”
Ugh. Why did I say that?
He smiled timidly reminding me of the first time I saw him in that field of flowers. I’d noticed rugged confidence in that stranger and now I could see it again despite his bashfulness.
I felt the tears begin to well up behind my eyes. I put a stop to them at once. There was no reason to cry. I had been through it before. One way or another people would leave. Only this time, it would be me.
“Now that you know James is safe, you should try to relax,” Tristan said. “We are almost home...”
A rustling in the trees diverted him. Quite frankly, I had stopped listening anyway.
Tristan maneuvered himself directly ahead of me with one arm extended behind him, holding onto my left side. I clutched his back and peeked over his shoulder, not because I was frightened but because he wanted to p
rotect me and I wanted to let him.
I had the benefit of having a legitimate reason to be close to him without confusing things. Surprisingly, I liked how it felt to let go and lean on someone else for a change.
Even if the leaning was physical rather than emotional.
We shuffled towards Tristan’s house without a single stumble. His patio lights glowed dimly in the distance. We increased our speed from a shuffle to a full-on sprint. When we were nearly out of the tree line, several dark figures stepped onto the trail in front of us.
Our abrupt halt stirred a cloud of dust between our visitors and us. The sun had not yet begun to rise, which further impeded visibility. The faint outline of at least five people blocking our path emerged as the dirt began to settle.
“Do you think they saw us?” I whispered.
“I think they were waiting for us.”
From somewhere behind us, more brush crackled under the weight of unknown footsteps. My entire body twisted around to stand back-to-back with Tristan.
“Tristan, we are surrounded. What should we do?”
“How are you at throwing a punch?” he asked, hopefully joking.
****
Chapter Sixteen
Blaze pounced from his hiding place in the tree line without warning, like a Marine on a stealth mission. Tristan placed a hand over my mouth to quell the scream about to erupt from my lungs.
“Where did you come from?” I asked, slapping Blaze on the arm. “You almost gave me a heart attack!”
“I heard you guys leave,” he said. “When you weren’t back I decided to look for you.”
“That was stupid, Blaze,” I said. “You shouldn’t be out here alone. Wait! Why didn’t I see this coming?”
“What? Me jumping out of the bushes?”
“The attack,” I said. “Why didn’t I see this?”
“Katerina must have found a loophole,” Tristan said. “This is why some people are secretive about their abilities. It would be easy for someone to use it against them or work around their power.”
“Or she blocked my power,” I said. “Maybe that’s why I couldn’t see her coming when she attacked us at my house.”