Before the Dawn (20 page)

"And what about me?" This question came from
Meran.

He suddenly didn't seem so suave anymore.
"Well, you have just disappeared as mysteriously as you appeared.
But it doesn't matter. I'll find someplace you can stay where you
will be safe and you don't have to worry about all of this."

"What about my parents?" she asked. "Will
they still not remember me? What about the life I was going to have
before I met you? What about all the years I lost while I was
dancing in that ballroom?" Each word out of her mouth sounded more
and more bitter. It was disconcerting because she appeared like a
teenager, but the rage Trevor was seeing in her eyes was that of a
woman's. He suddenly realized that although time had not touched
her physically, she had continued to age in her mind. And she was
pissed off at Raven.

"You know, I learned a lot of things while I
was in your brother's Court." The look she gave him was cold, and
that actually seemed to affect him because he sort of flinched
before he controlled his expression. "And, yeah, that's one of the
things I learned. He's your brother and the one most likely to
become Crown Prince while you're the screw-up."

"Now wait a—" he tried to make some protest,
but she just cut him off.

"However, the really interesting thing I
learned was that
you
started all of this," Meran almost
hissed. "It's all
your
fault. You’re the reason why we got
so much time stolen away from us. So what are you going to do to
fix this mess you've made of all our lives?"

Raven now looked very pale and he was clearly
biting back words as angry as Meran's. To Trevor’s complete
surprise, he chose to remain silent and merely looked out the
window, ignoring the two humans who were staring at him and waiting
for answers.

"Typical." Meran sat back in her seat, still
furious. Then she turned to Trevor. "What about you? What are you
planning to do?"

So he told her, everything he knew about the
whole thing. About how he actually didn't remember any of it and
the only memories he had were actually Raven's. Meran filled him in
on some of the things she knew. She told him more about Aline and
the person her friend had eventually become as the Prince's wife.
She also recited, in a flat unemotional voice, what the Prince had
done to her just because he didn’t like the closeness she shared
with Aline.

"He's evil, Trevor," she said with a shudder
when he asked her about the Prince. "Actually, he and his people
don't really have a sense of right and wrong because they're too
powerful to ever have to worry about the consequences of their
actions. But that guy is evil. As soon as Aline was completely
caught up in his spell, he made sure to marry off our other friends
to his Lords so they wouldn't be around as much. For some reason,
though, he was never able to do the same thing to me and I remained
by her side as much as possible, until he separated us, too. The
last time I saw Aline, she had changed so much. I didn’t even
recognize her anymore." She grew very somber. "I'm afraid that even
if we did succeed in rescuing her, it would be another person we'd
be bringing back."

That didn't sound very encouraging, but
Trevor smiled at her. "Well, I guess we'll just see. We can't leave
her and the rest of your friends there either. None of them ever
wanted to get caught in that spell."

She nodded but didn't say anything more.

They spent the rest of the drive in silence,
each thinking their own thoughts.

***

Chapter 21

Trevor scrounged up something for Meran to
wear and then decided to make a late breakfast. Raven, who still
seemed to be brooding, followed him into the kitchen and looked
irritated when Trevor just ignored him and concentrated on
preparing some food instead. His little silent drama actually
lasted up until the scrambled eggs were done, but then he finally
broke.

"Who does she think she is anyway?" he
suddenly exclaimed. Trevor merely raised an eyebrow at Raven's
belligerent tone. "I never deliberately intended for things to come
to this point. It was not like I decided to cast that first
enchantment years ago purely because I wanted some kind of
amusement. No, if blame is to be cast somewhere, she actually has
her share of it!
She
was the spoiled little princess I
overheard wishing for true love and romance, and I merely gave her
what she asked for! I thought a few nights of dancing in the
underground with the Lords of the Strangelands and she'd have
enough romance to last her ten lifetimes!"

Trevor looked at him disapprovingly. "Man, I
don't think you're getting her point right," he said as he divided
up the eggs into the three plates that contained the slightly
overdone bacon pieces he had fried up earlier. "You could have
not
granted her wish. You could have just ignored it as the
fancy dreams of a young girl and moved on to other stuff. But you
didn't. You technically started all of this. Now she's a mess and
God only knows what Aline has become in all the time she's been
with your brother. And don't forget that there are people out
there, like me, who had our minds played with so we'd forget all
about people who were important to us. I don't remember a thing
about what happened except for what you showed me, but I saw enough
to make me certain that you owe us your help."

What Trevor didn't say out loud, what he
didn't even want to think about too much, was how Raven's memories
of him and Aline had made him feel. It reminded him of the pain he
used to see in Vera's eyes after they lost their baby, like
something integral to herself had been ripped away. And he had not
felt the same way. He knew at the time that he was missing
something because he just couldn't seem to feel the loss as keenly
as she did. Now, maybe he was going to find out what that missing
thing was. Maybe it had also been ripped away from him all those
years ago and he had just forgotten all about it.

Meran showed up in the kitchen then looking
freshly showered and slightly saner than the last time they saw
her. She gave Trevor a twisted little smile. "Thanks," she said,
"for the clothes."

He nodded. "No problem. Here. Have something
to eat." She quickly helped him set up the small kitchen table and
they both sat down. She ignored Raven the whole while, which caused
the black-haired Prince to scowl at her fiercely, but Trevor
decided to give the guy a break for now and invited him to join
them with a look and a gesture.

Raven’s mouth settled into firm, thin lines
before he condescended to sit down with the two humans, brushing
back his coat like it was a fancy cape and adjusting his collar as
he did so. Honestly, Trevor thought that the guy was acting like a
real ass. But he was too hungry to make a comment about it at the
moment, so they all spent the next several minutes in silence while
they ate. Well, Meran and Trevor ate. Raven just sort of pushed his
food around his plate and nibbled on the smallest bit of scrambled
egg he could spear with his fork.

Trevor’s food was more than half gone by the
time he felt ready to talk again. "So," he looked at Raven, "how
soon can you get me to where Aline is?"

Raven's eyes slid to Meran, who was still
intent on ignoring him, before he chose to answer. "Tonight," he
finally said when Meran refused to meet his gaze. "It's Samhain and
the doorways would be open. It would make it easier to slip you
into Silverhaven without my having to cut a way for us to the
underground." He looked thoughtful for a moment before he continued
speaking. "You know, it's a very great coincidence working in your
favor that seven years have gone by since Benwyr first cast the
enchantment that set things in motion."

"Why do you say that? What's the significance
of that?" Trevor asked.

"Because it is the way of our magic that for
a spell of this kind to last, it needs to be renewed every seventh
year while the doorways are open. You may not remember it from last
time, of course, but it took three nights for Benwyr to work the
enchantment, and he still needed to cheat so your precious Aline
would allow herself to be ensnared by it. So you have two nights
left to find a way to break it before the fourth day dawns." He
frowned. "Events falling into such a pattern don't do so by
accident. I think it's my mother's meddling again. I wonder what
else she has done."

Meran spoke then, but not to Raven. "I'm
going with you," she told Trevor.

Before he could even say anything, Raven had
already reacted to her statement. "You most certainly are not!" he
snapped. "You will stay here where you will be safe."

She just looked at him with an expression on
her face that froze the air solid between them and very calmly
replied, "I'm going to help my friends. If Trevor, who doesn't even
remember Aline, has enough of a heart to help her escape from the
Prince, then how can I just sit somewhere and be safe when I know
he'll be risking his life?"

Raven seemed to be struggling for words as he
and Meran glared at each other. Then his gaze flicked to Trevor,
who he felt his stomach lurch, and when he blinked, he saw that he
was sitting in the living room. "And stay there!" he heard Raven
yell in his head before he even thought of standing up from the
couch.

"Asshole," Trevor muttered under his breath.
Then he nearly jumped out of his skin when a sharp ringing sounded.
He realized it was his cellphone and he took it out of his jeans
pocket to answer it. However, he hesitated for a moment when he saw
the name flashing on the screen. Taking a few deep breaths, he
finally answered the call on its fifth ring and said, "Hello,
Vera."

He heard her let out a soft sigh. He thought
she sounded sort of relieved. "Hi," she said softly. "I was afraid
you weren't going to pick up."

"I almost didn't," he admitted. "How have you
been?"

"Recovering," she answered with a little
catch in her voice that he knew always happened whenever she tried
to smile as she talked. "How about you?"

Oh, man. Where should he even start? So,
instead, he just told her, "I moved back to my old hometown, the
one I lived in when I was sixteen, you know. I needed to get away
from things."

She was very quiet for a minute and he just
listened to her breathing. He wondered why she had called him. Her
letter had made it clear that she never wanted to have anything to
do with him again, but here she was on the other end of the line.
Finally, she spoke again, and what she said really surprised him.
"Be careful."

"What? Why?" he asked, confused. "What do you
mean 'be careful'?"

"I—I'm not really sure." She gave a nervous
little laugh that was quickly smothered by another long silence.
"But," she hesitated for a second before continuing, "But I had
this dream about you, and you were in danger for some reason. And
you looked really young in the dream, and the dream seemed, I don't
know, real. It was really strange. I woke up feeling like I just
needed to talk to you. Just—it's silly, I know, but promise me
you'll take care of yourself." She paused, as if she was getting
enough of the strength to keep talking and, after a short while,
she said something that must have cost her a lot to say, "I do
still care about you, Trevor. And I want you to be happy. It took
some time, but I just finally realized that I wasn't the one who
could do that for you."

"Vera, don't." He closed his eyes when a
sudden familiar pain stabbed at his heart. "Listen, I'm sorry I
couldn't be better for you." And he really was sorry. He had loved
her so much. "What I did, how I failed you just when you needed me,
I can't even begin to say how sorry I am for that. Believe me, if I
could have done it, I would have been exactly what you needed. But
I—" he stopped. He didn't really know what to say anymore because
he knew there were no words that would make it all better between
them.

"It's all right, Trevor," she said, and he
hated the fact that she sounded like she was comforting him. He
didn't deserve that particular kindness from her. "Just promise me
you'll look after yourself, okay? And, this feels important for
some reason, but I also wanted to tell you that what's been lost,
well, you can't ever really get it back. So, just remember that,
and be careful, all right?"

Her last few words sent a chill through his
body. It took a while before he found his voice in order to give
her a response. "Take care of yourself," he managed to choke out
before he said, "Goodbye, Vera." And he knew it was the last time
he would ever say those words to her.

She didn't even say goodbye. She just hung up
without another word and he sat there looking stupidly at his phone
for several minutes, feeling like crap. After a while, he got up
and decided to check if Raven and Meran had killed each other yet.
He found Raven on his knees, holding on to her hands like he was
begging her for something, while Meran gazed down at him with a
doomed expression in her eyes. They both looked incredibly
anguished, and Trevor backed away from the kitchen door without
attracting notice to himself. He was certain that there was a story
between those two, and he didn't think it was one they wanted to
share with anybody else.

He didn't know what to do with himself after
that. There was no way he could do any writing with the way he was
feeling right now, and anything else he could think of doing seemed
pointless. To his surprise when Meran gently shook him awake later,
he found he had fallen asleep at his desk. A glance at the clock
told him that he had slept most of the day away and it was now on
its way to early evening.

"I'm sorry," he apologized to Meran somewhat
sheepishly. "I haven't been a very good host. I hope you made
yourself at home while I was asleep?" He tried to wipe the drool on
his chin without being too obvious about it.