by Kyra Whitton
She didn’t care. Let them have their midnight cult meetings under the moonlight but leave her out of it.
Her mind ran through the possibilities of what they wanted her for. The more distance she put between herself and that fairy circle, the more she felt like she needed answers. So many things didn’t make sense, starting with the woman just showing up in the middle of nowhere. And the crows. How had Alec known about the crows?
When an arm snagged her around the waist, she let out a scream quickly silenced by a hand.
“Shh, it’s Alec,” he whispered.
She immediately quieted and whirled on him. “What the fuck is going on?” she demanded.
“Now is not the time nor is it the place.”
“The hell it isn’t!”
“I’ll explain, but we have to get out of here.” He held out a hand.
Evie hesitated, but eventually placed her own palm against his, and he hurriedly tugged her after him. They wound through the darkness to a shallow gorge cut by a deep creek gushing through the woods. At its shore, he oriented himself, and pulled her along behind him.
The pain in her leg and hip became more than she could manage any longer. Grimacing, she collapsed on the fallen leaves. She wrested her hand from him and massaged her thigh, gritting her teeth to keep from sobbing.
Alec knelt beside her. “We have to go, Evie.”
She nodded and followed him stiffly, her leg screaming with every step until it buckled, dropping her to the dirt.
“I don’t think I can keep going,” she said. It was almost as much of a challenge to keep her voice from betraying the pain as it had been to sprint through the forest.
He didn’t miss a beat. Bending down, and sliding an arm around her waist, he hauled her to her feet. “Lean on me.”
They continued like that for what felt like hours, hurriedly hobbling through the forest until white headlights blinked above.
“Here.” He hefted her up against his chest, not waiting for her to wrap her arms around his neck before he sprinted toward the beams.
Why was she allowing him to carry her like a sack of potatoes? The irritation lasted less than a second as the pain in her hip and thigh dissipated. Embarrassment that she needed the help at all took its place.
The break in the trees grew near, a gap high above where the shadowed arbors opened for an indigo sky. The road.
Alec followed it, sticking to the cover of the trees, never straying into the open. He approached a dark car pulled off to the side of the road, hidden in an overgrown ivy bush. As they drew nearer, the lights blinked on. He carried her right up to the passenger side door and yanked it open before lowering her to the ground.
She obediently climbed in, fastening her seatbelt as he jogged around the hood. She massaged her leg as the car roared to life and he pulled out onto the nearly-abandoned road.
“Where are we going?”
“Do you have your ID?”
Her hand instinctively went to the small purse still looped around her shoulder. “Yeah, why?”
“Good.” He turned left on the next road and hit the gas.
She recognized it as the one running toward the back gate. It was the same gate she used to leave for Manhattan only a few days before.
“Where are we going?” she demanded, again.
He glanced up into the rearview mirror. She turned around and saw nothing but darkness behind them.
“What did they tell you?”
She rolled her eyes and slumped back in the seat. “I don’t know. Nothing that made sense.”
“What did they tell you, Evie?”
“Um, the woman—who is she?” When he didn’t answer, she continued, “The woman said something about it being time to go home. She told Iain her faith in him was always well placed, before that. None of it made sense. After I ran, Iain caught me, but all he said was that he was taking me ‘back.’ Back where?”
Alec pushed out a frustrated breath and slowed to go through the gate. Under the bright lights, Evie could make out the uniforms of the gate guards and the military police standing guard with their rifles. Briefly she considered opening the passenger door and rolling out of the car. It would hurt; she’d likely bang herself up pretty badly. He might try to grab her. But she couldn’t make herself do it. Too many questions remained, and since none of the answers seemed to end with her immediate death; she intended to try to get them.
“Evelyn, I need you to trust me.”
“Trust you? Why the hell would I trust you?”
The car rolled slowly through the rundown little town situated on the north end of the base. It didn’t even have a stop light, just a couple of stop signs that kept traffic from entering the main drag. The depressing little bars had full parking lots, those lots housing the only other vehicles in town.
“Because I got you away from the situation in which you unwittingly placed yourself.”
“You sound like an over-pretentious prick,” she grumbled.
“Are you really more interested in my grammar right now?”
“Well, you aren’t answering any of my other questions!”
He shot a glance at her but turned his gaze back to the road. The lights of the regional airport glowed ahead, and the silence between them stretched into uncomfortable. She could feel his annoyance and hoped it matched her own.
But then, as they approached Manhattan, her resolve began to wane. She let go of her anger and murmured, “Look, I’ve trusted you enough to get into the car, right? That may have been the biggest mistake of my life, but what can I say? I’m young and stupid. But the least you could do is make up some sort of answers to my questions so I can feel a little better.”
He sniffed with amusement. “I’m taking you to my place.”
Evie wasn’t sure why she wasn’t uncomfortable with the idea. “Why?”
“Because it will take her longer to find than if I were to take you to your house.”
“But who is she?”
The shadows shifted in the darkness as he clenched his jaw. “She goes by many names.”
“That isn’t an answer,” she chided.
“I don’t really know.”
Evie opened her mouth to say something else, but he quickly added, “I have my suspicions, though.”
“I’m really not in the mood for guessing games.”
“When I knew her, she went by the name Mora,” he murmured.
Something akin to regret seeped into his tone, and Evie couldn’t help but wonder what the story was there.
“And now?”
“It’s better if you don’t know.”
Evie threw up her hands and groaned. “Are you always this difficult to talk to?”
She didn’t receive an answer.
Alec slowed the car as they entered town, and then made a left turn into one of the residential streets. The street lamps glowed yellow at odd intervals down the street, and she recognized the general area as being close to the campus. When he pulled into the crumbling drive of a little Queen Anne cottage, she couldn’t hide her surprise.
“This is where you live?” she muttered in disbelief.
Even in the shadows of the large oak trees flanking it, she could make out the tiny details of the gingerbread. It seemed entirely too ornate, too delicate, too cultured for such a large, surly man.
He hopped out of the car then, skirted the hood as he came around to open her door. Her hand was in his and he was pulling her out onto the grass before she even managed to snap her mouth closed. Hand at the small of her back, he escorted her, up three wooden steps to the front porch. Their footsteps sounded heavy on the planks, especially her uneven ones. Alec shot a look over his shoulder, and then one to the darkening sky above before stabbing the lock with his key.
The front parlor was cast in heavy shadow and Alec made no move to remedy it as he pulled he door shut behind him and threw the heavy lock into place. Evie couldn’t make out much other than the rows of bookshelves linin
g the walls and the heavy, leather chesterfield sofa dominating the far wall. It was a masculine room, dark and warm, but sophisticated.
He brushed past her into the hallway, leaving her to stand awkwardly at the door. She considered following him, but remained rooted. Her hand slid around her waist and her thumb massaged the small of her back where the ache spread. The seconds ticked by as her mind bumbled through her options.
Stay or leave.
She needed little time to consider her answer.
Chapter Nine
Alec emerged from the back room with a brown Army towel cradled against his chest. As he approached Evie, he unfolded it, revealing the baseball-sized silver apple wrapped inside. “Here.”
Evie lifted an eyebrow but extended her hand for the trinket as he held it out, towel still cupping it from the bottom. As her fingers grasped the delicate stem, he cupped the underside with his free hand.
When he opened his eyes, it was to the gray light of morning and the lapping of the loch over smoothed stones. The setting was familiar, one he came across more than a few times over the years. And though the pebbly beach was simple, it was one of his favorite destinations, the serene lull of the water and sparsely populated shores a comfort. When he could, he hoped to come to this spot, always feeling a bit of comfort with the vast wilderness surrounding it.
He let out a long breath, and, his legs like jelly beneath him, turned to scan for Evelyn.
She was curled up on her side, her head resting on her outstretched arm, her body cradled by long, green grasses.
As he approached, she stirred, stretching slightly before her eyes fluttered open and she took in her surroundings.
She shot up into a sitting position. “Where the hell are we?”
Alec offered his hand.
Surprisingly, she clapped her palm into his and allowed him to haul her up.
“We need to move. I’ll explain what I can along the way.”
She rubbed her temples, fingers distorting her smooth brow as she frowned at an invisible spot across the lake. “Yeah, sure, whatever,” she mumbled, her thoughts clearly elsewhere.
He pressed her toward the north shore of the loch where he knew they could skirt a small inlet and head into the mountains. He kept his attention on her from the corner of his eye so she wouldn’t notice he watched her. The limp in her gait was almost non-existent, but he wanted to be sure he was aware of how difficult moving was for her so he could slow down if needed. She wouldn’t appreciate him hovering and he suspected her pride would keep her from saying anything if she experienced any more discomfort.
He also knew he would have to wait for her to ask questions rather than supplying her with answers right away. If he had learned anything after her visit to the emergency room, it was that Evie was too stubborn to listen to anyone’s advice but her own. Otherwise, neither of them would be traipsing around the wilderness of that place.
As they approached the tree line, she broke the silence. “I thought you were going to explain.”
Exactly as he had expected. “What is it you’d like to know?”
Annoyance bubbled off her. “How about you start with where the hell are we and how did we get here?”
Eyebrow quirked, he turned to look down at her. She mimicked the expression satirically.
“You don’t remember, then?” At her blank expression he murmured, “Interesting.”
“Are you always this unbelievably obtuse?” she demanded through gritted teeth.
Most of the short hair at the nape of her neck had escaped the ponytail holder meant to keep it secure. It curled under, tickling just above the line of her shoulders, and wisps stuck out, framing her face like a dark halo.
“We’re in the Otherworld.”
Her expression didn’t change.
“On the other side of the veil. We crossed the hedge. Passed through the shade.”
She rolled her eyes. “Saying the same non-answer in a different way doesn’t make it any clearer.”
“Do you know nothing of ancient mythology?”
“Not a lick.”
He stopped and spun around to stare her down.
She almost kept walking past him up the shallow incline of the path but took two steps back to stand toe-to-toe with him.
“What do you know of plane geometry?”
She scrunched up her face. “What does geometry have to do with geography? Here I thought I should worry that you had drugged me. Clearly, you are the one who is on drugs.”
“What do you know of plane geometry?” he repeated.
She clenched her jaw for a moment, holding his gaze without blinking. “I don’t know. I majored in history. I was a history PhD candidate. I didn’t exactly spend a lot of time in the math lab.”
“But you do know what a plane is, don’t you?”
“You mean the thing that flies through the air?” When Alec didn’t even crack a smile, she let out an exasperated sigh. “Yes, I know what a plane is.”
“And you know what a line is?”
“What do I look like, a first grader? Of course I know what a damn line is.”
“Imagine that the world that you know is a line. It travels infinitely from one direction to another, time its trajectory.”
Evie increased her frown.
“This, where we are, The Otherworld, is a plane. That line runs along that plane. We sort of passed through the invisible barrier that separates the line from the plane known as The Veil. And here we are.”
“Yeah, none of that makes a damn bit of sense. What about the universe? All of space? Does that somehow fit onto your imaginary line? Are you saying this whole place is bigger than the biggest thing in… well, ever?”
“No. Just that time is linear and this place… it is not. It just is, and it has been since it was created by the gods.” He held out his arms, as if to encompass their surroundings.
“The gods?” She harrumphed and started her ascent back up the path.
“Yes, the gods,” he snapped. He quickly closed the distance she put between them and matched his stride to hers. “Like the one you encountered in the middle of those woods.”
“I really have no idea what you mean,” she said loftily.
“Oh? The murder of crows that turned into a woman didn’t send off any internal alarms?”
Evie pursed her lips but didn’t say anything for a moment. “You seem to know an awful lot about this woman you know nothing about.”
Alec narrowed his eyes. “I didn’t say I didn’t know anything about her,” he grumbled.
Evie shrugged and pulled the elastic from her hair, ruffled the dark locks. She then gathered them back up and rewrapped the black tie so only a minimum would escape.
“So, what’s the story, then? Are you some sort of demi-god? Sent to the great Line known as Earth to protect us lowly mortals from the clutches of the almighty gods?” she mocked.
“No.”
A dozen steps later she badgered him again. “Well, then what are you?”
“I’m the same as you,” he answered simply.
“Then how did you know about this place? And all of this? I certainly know nothing about it, so I don’t see how that makes us the same.”
“Wrong. You remember nothing about it.”
She barked a single laugh. “Right. I take it you know this because we were what? Friends? Enemies? More?” Her lips curved wickedly at the last.
Alec briefly contemplated answering her but decided against it; the more she figured out on her own, the better. She wasn’t exactly taking to the information he had provided, anyway.
She sighed at his silence. “All right, let’s say I believe all of this”—she waved her hands around to include their surroundings—“What exactly is the game plan? What are we doing here? And you better not say camping, because after my last experience in the woods, I am over that.”
“We’re looking for a way out.”
“But didn’t we just get here?”
“So, then why are we leaving?”
Alec looked down at her. “Throwing them off the scent.”
“I fail to see how that works.”
“Neither of them know that I have been using the Otherworld for quite some time to keep out of Mora’s—her—grasp. It’s possible they’ve figured it out now. Or at least Iain has, though it’s only a matter of time before he tells her. But even if they have, they’ll have to guess at best where I have you here or when I have taken you back.”
“What do you mean ‘when?’ Like time travel?”
“Exactly like it.”
She stopped dead in her tracks. “Right. Well. As nice as this has been, I’m just going to…” she pointed behind her with her thumb, the rest of her fingers curled into a fist.
Alec’s hand shot out, wrapping around her other forearm. “I’ll have you back soon,” he told her quickly before she could disappear into the forest. If she lost herself in the woods, he wasn’t sure he would ever be able to get her back out.
She stared up at him, her lips twisted to one side as she worried her bottom lip between her teeth. “I don’t understand. You brought me here only so you could take me back? How does that keep me out of their ‘evil clutches?’” She made air quotes with her one free hand. “I’m not even sure why they… Wait. Why were you there?”
Alec let her arm drop from his hand and turned back to the path.
“Hey! Wait up!” She skipped a few steps to catch up. “You can’t just avoid me! You brought me here, the least you could do is tell me why.”
“It’s incredibly complicated.”
“You don’t say,” she muttered.
“Look, I’ll get you back with enough time that we can come up with a plan to keep you safe.”
“And why exactly is it your job to do that?” she asked, with more than a little condescension.
“Because I didn’t keep you safe the first time!” He whirled on her, the anger he felt at himself projecting itself on her.
****
A few beats of her heart passed in silence before he whispered, “Is that what you wanted to hear?”
She almost felt sorry for him, for the clear hurt written across his face. Perhaps she shouldn’t have pushed him. She’d always had a knack for being difficult, but was she not an unwilling participant in all of this? Shouldn’t he at least tell her what was going on?