by Mae Doyle
Hanging on the walls were huge tapestries. They showed all sorts of creatures enjoying time outside, and between them were giant windows. These were cut directly into the stone wall of the room and stretched from my knees to the ceiling, which was vaulted and hung with giant chandeliers.
“I’d like to see outside,” I told the centaur, pulling him so that he had to walk with me. I knew that he could just dig in his heels if he didn’t want to cross the room with me, but he humored me, his hooves clopping along as I silently padded across the room.
“If you look outside, you’ll be able to see part of King Aruer’s realm,” the centaur said, sounding like a tour guide. “From this side of the tower you can see his apple orchards. Beyond them there are ponds and streams, and even farther on, there is a huge forest. Behind us, of course, are his gardens. I imagine that he’s out there waiting for you.”
A bird flew in the window and the centaur paused, slipping his arm from mine and ripping a piece of paper from his clipboard. The bird took it in its beak and flitted back through the window.
“Am I to assume that that bird is a messenger for the king?” I couldn’t help but keep the amusement from my voice. I should try to have fever dreams more often. They were awesome.
“Who else would we trust to carry messages for the king?” The centaur tilted his head and looked at me. “I know that humans used to use pigeons for a while.”
“We did.” For some reason, I blush. I don’t know what it is about this centaur that makes me nervous. It could be the way he’s looking at me like I’m a student in his class and failing or the fact that he seems to know more about Earth than he’s letting on.
The centaur nods and turns back to the window. “The king should be here shortly to check on you, Emily. After that, I’m sure that he will take you to get you something to eat if you’re hungry.”
On cue, my stomach rumbled again, and I flashed him a smile. “Thank you. And tell me your name, please? I don’t want to be rude.”
The centaur bowed. “Of course. I’m Goreon. At your service, Emily, if you need anything. Now, though, I’ll leave you. The king will be in to see you soon.”
True to his word, he left, shutting the heavy wooden door firmly behind him. I exhaled hard, looking once more around the room. It was enhanced, it had to be, that or I was really in a huge tower of a castle. When I looked straight down outside the window, I could see a castle below me, but I couldn’t believe that I was really up there.
Or that King Aruer was really coming to see me.
There were some birds flying and chasing each other in the sky and I watched them for a moment before turning away and going back to sit on the end of the bed. There wasn’t any other furniture in the room, not even a mirror or armoire, so I had no idea how I looked.
I felt like crap, so there was that. Just based off of that, I was pretty sure that I looked like crap, too.
As I sat, I suddenly realized that I should probably try to figure out how to defend myself. My parents had always told me that, if the time came, I would have to know how to protect myself. Frantically, I looked around the room for something heavy or hard I could use as a weapon, but unless I was willing to try to get a rod that the tapestries were hung on, I was out of luck.
I dropped my head into my hands and sighed, but a buzzing sound made me look up.
Magic.
I’d forgotten that I’d been given magic when Sara died. I grabbed a lock of hair, pulling it around to look at it.
Strawberry-blonde. Straight as a stick.
Maybe this wasn’t a fever dream.
Holding my hands out in front of me, I flicked my wrist a little, aiming at one of the tapestries on the far wall. This one showed a picnic, and it hung heavy to the floor, but it twitched to the side a little when I flicked my wrist.
I did it again, concentrating harder this time. My parents made it look so easy, but I knew that magic took practice. Swearing under my breath, I flicked harder, making the tapestry jolt to one side.
Standing up, I crossed the room at a run. There was something behind the tapestry. Something on the wall. It was brown and rectangular, and I hoped more than anything that it was a door.
I grabbed the tapestry and yanked it to the side, gasping out loud when I saw a door in the wall. Who the hell hides a door behind a tapestry?
Someone who doesn’t want anyone to find it.
The handle was cool to the touch, even though it was glowing slightly. That was the only thing strange about the door. Other than that, it looked like a normal door in a normal room, but where I was was anything but normal.
Debating, I tried to weigh my options. I could stay here in the tower and wait for Aruer to find me. Part of that appealed to me, and the very thought of him coming in to find me made me start to throb. I didn’t know what it was about him that made me want him so badly, but I couldn’t seem to get him out of my mind.
Or I could sneak through the door and make a run for it.
As much as I didn’t want to, I was beginning to think that maybe this wasn’t a fever dream.
Chances were very good that I really was in his realm like Goreon had said, but chances were also good that this was an enchantment. Etris had promised that she was going to come back and kill me.
If she was the one behind this and she had me kidnapped and hidden away somewhere, then it would be stupid of me to sit and wait for her. I closed my eyes and thought about the giant dagger she had had and the way she had snapped Sara’s neck so easily.
Through the door, then.
That was really the only option that I had if I wanted to try to make it out of this stupid tower alive.
Chapter 8
I pulled the door shut behind me and swore. The room, or hall, or whatever where I was was pitch black and freezing. I reached out and touched the wall, the stone cold and a little damp under my fingers. It didn’t feel very good, but it was nice to feel a bit more grounded.
Okay.
A light.
In my panic, I completely forgot about my new powers and I fumbled on the wall for a lightswitch. There wasn’t anything there, and it wasn’t until the cold was biting through my feet that I suddenly remembered that I was a witch with powers.
How many times was I going to forget that?
I sighed and held out my left hand, keeping my right firmly on the wall next to me. It took a few tries of me snapping my fingers before a spark flew from them. I immediately reached out with both hands and cupped them around the spark, carefully shielding it from any drafts. I blew on it, pleased when it grew, throwing enough light for me to be able to see that I was in a corridor, poised right at the top of some steps.
Thank goodness I didn’t try to walk any farther or I would have fallen down the stairs and possibly broken something, like my neck.
That would be a hell of a way to wake up from a fever dream.
Carefully guiding the light with my left hand, I reached back out for the wall and started slowly down the stairs. I didn’t remember being brought up into the tower, but I had a sneaking suspicion that these stairs probably mirrored the main ones. They were installed to allow someone to easily sneak in and out of the tower.
I just hoped that Aruer didn’t realize that I’d taken them.
The stairs curved around and around and I lost count of how many times I turned as I ran down them. My light was bright and made it easy for me to see, but at the edges of its light there were some strange shadows that were leaping and dancing.
My dad had always warned me to watch out for the place where dark and light meet because there were a lot of creatures who liked to live there. Thinking of my dad made my throat close up a little, and I had to push the thought of him away.
If Aruer really did take me to his realm and this wasn’t a dream, then I’d have to figure out how to get home as quickly as possible. My parents were sure to be a complete mess after losing both Sara and me, and I didn’t intend on staying here any lo
nger than necessary.
No matter how hot the god was.
That thought was intrusive, but it kept coming back, no matter how hard I tried to push it away. I reached the bottom of the stairs without any problem and found myself face to face with another door. This one looked like the exact twin of the one that I’d already gone though, so I grabbed the handle without hesitation.
Before I opened it though, I leaned up against it, pressing my ear to it to see if I could hear anything. Nothing. There wasn’t anything, not the singing of a bird, not the clomp of a centaur’s hooves, and certainly not the sound of an angry god or goddess who just discovered that their captive had escaped.
I pulled the door open and had to brush aside a tapestry to be able to exit the corridor. It was heavy, just like the one that I’d pushed out of the way earlier, and I turned quickly, shutting the door quietly behind me before pressing myself up against the tapestry and the wall to make myself as small as possible while I figured out where I was.
My heart sank. “No,” I whispered, stepping out from the wall. I let my left hand fall uselessly to my side, extinguishing the light that I carried there as I stared around the room. “It’s just not possible.”
I was back in the tower. The bed where I’d woken up was just across the room and the same tapestries hung around the space. There was a very good reason why the door I’d gone through had looked so familiar – it was the same damn door.
“You like that little bit of magic? Keeps people in when they try to escape.” Aruer’s voice made my head whip to the side. I hadn’t seen him standing there. Had he been cloaked or used some bit of other godly magic to keep me from seeing him?
“It’s a cheap trick and I don’t like it.” I lifted my chin when speaking to him to try to show him that I wasn’t afraid of him, but actually, my heart was pounding in my chest. My feet ached to walk over to him so that I could feel his body next to mine, but I gritted my teeth and did my best to stay in one place.
“As far as tricks go, I think that it’s a rather fun one.” Obviously seeing that I wasn’t going to cross the room to him, Aruer walked over to me. My body tensed as he got closer. There was energy radiating off him that I could feel from even across the room, and my body responded to it.
Flames licked the inside of my thighs and I felt my core melt into molten heat. Just being near him or any of the other gods was enough to make me wet, and this time I didn’t think that I’d be able to get away without it being obvious.
Aruer stopped a few feet from me. He was so tall that I had to lift my chin up to look at him, and from there, all I wanted to stare at were his lip. They were impossibly full and soft, and I wondered what it would be like to have him run his hands through my hair and kiss me.
Probably amazing. He quirked his lips into a smile and I blushed when I realized that I’d been caught. Ripping my eyes up to meet his, I tried to take a deep breath to slow the pounding in my chest.
“See something you like?”
“I’m not entirely sure what I’m looking at.” Frowning at him, I crossed my arms. It wasn’t cool in here by any means, but a breeze blew through every once in a while and made my nipples hard.
Yeah, that’s why they were hard. I could tell myself that all I wanted, but both of us knew the truth.
He dropped his gaze to my chest and smiled before looking back at my eyes. His were molten pools that swirled and sparked, and I leaned forward, wanting to get a better look at them.
Just a few steps closer and I’d be right up next to him. Just a few more steps and I’d be able to see what his lips tasted like.
I lifted one foot off of the ground before coming to my sense and slamming it back down. “Quit trying to glamour me into coming over there with you. I don’t want to be anywhere near you,” I snapped at him.
To my surprise, he just laughed. The sound throbbed through my bones and my veins and I had to tear my eyes away from the way his face lit up. He’s not that hot, I thought to myself, even though I knew that was a lie.
“I promise you, Emily, I’m doing nothing of the sort. It’s just that you don’t have a choice, you know.” He grinned at me. “And I can’t stay away from you.”
I watched as he lifted his face a little and sniffed the air. His eyes glowed for a moment as he caught the scent of something, but then faded back to normal. Well, if you can consider glowing pools of lava that I wanted to bathe in as normal.
“What do you mean that I don’t have a choice? And what the hell do you smell that you’re enjoying so much?” I lifted my nose and sniffed, but all I could catch was the scent of autumn on the breeze. It smelled good, sure, but Aruer looked like he was in heaven.
I laughed to myself. These gods didn’t have heaven. They had their realms, and if I was really in one, I wasn’t that impressed so far. A high tower? A sassy centaur? Yeah, I was ready to go back home.
“You’re my fated mate.” Aruer looked at me like I’d lost my mind. “I could tell from the time that we met outside of the church and then when I saw you earlier and Etris was going to kill you, I had to step in. I had to save you.”
“Fated mate? What crazy bullshit is that?” I thought back to the lessons that my parents had given us about gods and the goddess and I certainly didn’t remember anything about fated mates. I’m pretty sure that Sara would have eaten that shit up, but it sounded stupid as hell to me.
“You can’t possibly believe that, can you?” I asked him, when he didn’t answer.
“I don’t have to believe it,” he replied, a strange look on his face. “I can smell you. I can feel it. Every fiber of my body wants to be with you. Every atom of light coursing through my veins calls out for you, and I fear that I may die if I don’t get to be the one to lay with you. You are to rule my realm with me, Emily, and there’s nothing that you can do to deny that.”
“Uh, yeah, I can deny it. I do deny it, in fact. I think that this is all a fever dream or some shit and that I just need to wake up.” Just a few minutes before, the thought of falling down the stairs was enough to pin me to the wall in fear, but I had to get out of there.
The sight of an open window over Aruer’s shoulder caught my gaze and I narrowed my eyes.
“You don’t want to do that,” he warned.
“Why, because I’ll wake up?” I decided to ignore the fact that he obviously could read minds or at least my face and pretend that he had no idea what I was planning on doing. “You’re a dream, Aruer, in more ways than one, but I can’t just hang out any longer. I have to wake up and help my family, okay?”
He sighed heavily and turned to watch me as I walked past him.
Yeah, if this were real, he’d be jumping in to save me from myself, but the fact that he was totally cool with my trying to smash myself on the ground below told me that he was obviously a figment of my imagination.
A hot figment, sure, but…let’s be real.
I stepped up into the window and braced my hands on the sides of it before turning back to look at him. “It’s been real, dream Aruer,” I told him. “But I have to get to my family, you understand, right? There’s nothing else more important to me right now, and you can’t make me stay.”
I glanced down at the ground. It was dizzyingly far away, and as I looked, I swore that the ground seemed to drop away. We were high in the clouds, but I wasn’t going to let that stop me. I figured that if I didn’t wake up while I was falling that I definitely would when I hit the ground.
Wind whipped past me, the scent of campfire so strong that I almost looked around for one. Ridiculous. Of course the realm of the autumn king would smell like camping. And marshmallows. And long nights star-gazing with your family.
No, I couldn’t stay here. Not when I thought about my family. I cast one last look at Aruer to see what he thought of me taking the plunge, but he wasn’t behind me any longer. Even in fever dreams, gods are assholes.
Taking a deep breath, I forced myself to let go of the stone window fram
e. The cool air rushed at me as I fell, whipped my hair out from around my face and pinning my dress tightly against my body. I tumbled, head over heels, a few times, but finally straightened out so that I could see the ground coming.
But it never came.
I was falling, the wind shrieking in my ears, but no matter what, I wasn’t getting any closer to the ground. Screaming in frustration, I called out for Aruer.
“What have you done, Aruer!? Why can’t I leave here?”
Chapter 9
“You can’t leave because you’re under my protection. Also, because you’re my fated mate. Oh, and did you happen to forget the little detail that Etris wants to spill your blood?”
We were seated outside on a stone bench. Aruer handed me a cup, which I took gratefully from him. Made from fine china, it was warm, and I sniffed the dark liquid before taking a sip. It smelled dark and spicy and burned my nose a little bit, but it also made me feel warm and safe.
“This isn’t going to enthrall me, is it?” I decided to ignore what he said about claiming to be my fated mate. That was some bullshit if I’d ever heard it, but the chai was delicious, and I wanted to make sure that I wasn’t screwing myself over by drinking it.
“Not at all. Unless all it’s going to take to make you realize that you’re my fated mate is a little bit of chai, in which case I’ll have it for you all the time.” He watched me curiously as I took some sips.
Immediately, I felt my entire body warm. I’d had chai before, but not like that, and it hadn’t ever had the same effect on me. It was like slipping into a warm pool, where the water could lap lazily at your skin without making you cold. I shivered a little anyway, but that was just because the heat from the chai chased the remaining chill from my body.
“It’s good,” I told him, not wanting to let him know for sure just how delicious it was. “Did you make it?”
He shook his head. “No, I have staff who does it for me. It’s part of being king. The only problem is that I’m missing a queen.”