Fantasyland 03 Fantastical (12 page)

Oh my God.

Ouch times, like, a
thousand
.

“I asked Dash how he felt,” Noctorno
continued. “He said the minute he met her, it was indescribable.
The instant connection. The pull. Now it’s constant. He can barely
stand to be away from her and she feels it too. I know he’s
wounded, bleeding deep somewhere no one can see because he told me
that being separated from her is like what he would imagine it felt
like having a limb removed. You need it there. You can’t live
without it. When it’s gone, the phantom of it remains and when you
notice you don’t have it close enough to touch, it drives you
slightly mad. She can leave him for hours, days, even weeks but any
longer, he starts dying inside. Minerva has her, she has her and
while she does, my brother is dying inside.”

God, that sounded beautiful. I wished I had
that.

It also sounded awful.

Poor Dash. Poor Rosa.

“We should have that,” he informed me.

“We don’t,” I informed him.

“Why?” he asked.

“I don’t know.” And I sure as heck didn’t,
except the part that I wasn’t from this freaking world!

“I do,” he replied.

Really? He did?

“You do?”

“Yes, Cora, I do.”

“Then why don’t we have it?”

“Because to have that pull you have to have
a heart. You have to be able to fall in love. He fell in love with
her the second he saw her and she the same. And, as you know, the
minute my eyes hit you, I fell in love with you.”

Whoa! Wait.

What?

What, what,
what?

Before I could verbalize my question, he
kept speaking. “But you didn’t fall in love with me because you
have no heart and then you proceeded to kill my love for you and
twist it into something else entirely. And you keep doing it. Every
bloody time I see you. Every time I speak to you. You twist it
until there’s nothing in it to recognize as anything even close to
what it once was.”

“You loved me?” I whispered, looking into
his harsh, moonlit face.

“Don’t,” he clipped shortly.

“Are you saying you loved me?”

His arm got so tight I couldn’t breathe and
his hand in my hair twisted so it wasn’t gentle anymore. Not even a
little.

And as he did these things, he barked in my
face, “
Don’t!
”

“I –”

“Play your game but don’t you ever,
ever,
Cora, play with that memory.”

Oh.

My.

God
.

He used to love me! And, obviously, he’d
told me. And, just as obviously, I’d spurned that love.

Or, more aptly, the other me spurned his
love.

Oh. My.
God!

His arm gave me a shake. “Am I
understood?””

“Tor –”

He lost it and I knew it when his hand
twisted in my hair, I cried out at the pain and he roared, “
Am I
understood?”

“Yes!” I shouted.

At the same time I shouted, Salem threw his
mighty head back and whinnied loud.

Noctorno’s head shot to his horse, his body
went statue-still then he looked over my head to the mouth of the
cave.

“Gods!” he yelled, let me go but grabbed my
hand and dragged me behind him as he sprinted to the antechamber.
He went so swiftly, I nearly stumbled twice on the way.

“Noctorno!” I cried and he yanked back the
pelt and hauled me through so roughly and with such force, I went
flying.

“Hurry, finish dressing,” he ordered.

“What?” I asked, confused.

“
Dress!
” he thundered.

I jumped and ran to my clothes.

I was bending to snatch up my skirt when he
commanded, “Meet me at Salem.”

I looked up and saw him dragging a sword off
the wall.

“Salem,” I agreed, nabbed the skirt, tugged
it on, grabbed the vest, shrugged it on then bent and snatched up
my belt. I wrapped it around my waist on the run and saw that
Noctorno had already disappeared.

I fled the space and saw him saddling
Salem.

“In there,” he jerked his head to the space
where the wood was kept. “Arm yourself.”

Arm myself?

I skidded to a halt three feet away from
him. “With what?” I asked stupidly.

“It doesn’t matter,” he answered curtly,
cinching the strap under Salem’s proud chest. “Just as long as it’s
sharp and you can wield it.”

“Right,” I whispered, ran to that space,
snatched a lethal looking knife off the wall and ran back out.

When I arrived, Salem was saddled, a sword
in a scabbard at his left side. Noctorno put his hands to my waist,
hefted me up, wasted no time swinging in behind me and this was
good.

Really good.

For I learned what all the fuss was
about.

Vickrants.

Everywhere.

Their near transparent wings flapping
hideously, their claws reaching, their scaly skin glistening, they
were filling the cave.

“Hee-yah!” Noctorno barked as he dug his
heels in, Salem’s mighty flanks bunched and we bolted out the mouth
of the cave, vickrants following in a swarm. “Home, Salem,”
Noctorno yelled over the wind rushing in our ears and the branches
slapping at our bodies, vickrants darting through the trees and
making passes at us, so close, I could feel their vile, cold,
leathery wings and smell their stench.

Yikes. I forgot their stench.

Fetid. Hideous.

“Take the reins,” Noctorno commanded,
extending them to me.

“What?” I cried.

“Take the reins,” he repeated.

“I don’t know how to steer a horse!” I
yelled.

“Take the bloody reins, Cora!”

I took the reins.

He immediately pulled the sword out of the
scabbard and with one arm locked around me holding me tight to the
safety of his body, the other one struck out with powerful swings
and blue sparks and sharp hisses met his blows.

A smaller vickrant landed on Salem’s neck,
claws digging in, the horse screamed his fury but kept charging
ever onward through the dangerous rock and scrub. Noctorno was busy
swinging so I leaned forward with my knife, lifted it high and
stabbed at the foul creature. Blue sparks flew back into my face,
the thing shrieked and fell away.

Whoa.

I did it.

I
did
it!

So I decided to do it some more.

Okay, so I clearly wasn’t as gifted with a
knife as was evidenced by the practiced swings and thrusts that
Noctorno performed with his sword but it didn’t matter. When he was
swinging right, I concentrated on anything that got close on the
left. Same with his left, I went right. When he was circling his
sword overhead, anything went.

The creatures shrieked, yelped, sparks flew
and this happened not only from the shaft of Noctorno’s sword but
the sharp blade I carried.

Jeez, I was like a real warrior
princess!

Totally cool!

The problem was, there were lots of them, as
many fell back, there were more charging in. This lasted a long
time. It lasted so long, Salem had made it down the mountain to the
road. It lasted so long, it continued down the road. It lasted so
long, Salem, Noctorno and I were breathing hard, sweating and, I
couldn’t speak for man or beast, but I was scared shitless.

They just wouldn’t go away.

We finally hit a village, not the one we
were in for dinner, a different one, just as picturesque but not on
the river and it was asleep.

The horse’s hooves clattered sharply against
the cobbles and he raced us directly to the church at the other end
of the village.

To the church then, no joke, straight up the
church steps, then, still no joke, he reared back on his hind legs,
Noctorno leaned deep into me, I reached out, dropping my knife and
grabbing Salem’s mane, the horse’s powerful hooves beat down the
door and then he tore inside.

Yes, the horse tore inside a church.

The vickrants disappeared in an unholy (no
pun intended), loud, ear-splitting screech of shrieks.

Salem stopped dead center of the church;
Noctorno dismounted instantly and just as instantly dragged me off
the back of the horse.

Then his hands were on my biceps and he was
shaking me.

Shaking me!

Again!

“Stop shaking me!” I shouted through my
labored breathing.

“
What did you do?
” he barked, still
shaking me.

Oh God. Was he going to blame me for this
too?

“Nothing,” I answered.

“
What did you do?
” he thundered,
still freaking shaking me.

I grabbed onto his arms and screamed,
“
Nothing!
”

He stopped shaking me only to toss me away
from him with such violence I went flying and stumbled into some
pews, banging my thigh on the side of one so hard the pain beat in
and radiated out instantaneously.

He advanced on me and I lifted a hand, palm
out and cried, “Stay back!”

“Did you throw out the bones?” he asked, his
voice quieter but no less scary.

“Wh… what?”

Then he lost it again.

“
Did you throw out the bloody bones,
Cora?
” he raged.

I shook my head. “Yes, I… you mean when I
tidied?”

“Gods!” he bellowed. “Do you
want
Minerva to find you?”

“No!” I yelled. “I don’t know what you’re
talking about!”

He got close, my breath fled and I shrunk
away, cowering, stupid, stinking, weak
cowering
away from
his big, powerful body and his bigger, more powerful rage. I dimly
heard Salem’s hooves on the wood floor of the aisle and felt him
get close to us but my concentration was on Noctorno and trying,
and failing, to force air into my lungs.

“You know,” he gritted between clenched
teeth.

I sucked in breath, shook my head and
whispered, “I keep telling you –”

He reached down and wrapped his fingers
around my arm again, hauling me up and he gave me a shake that
snapped my head back so hard, I saw stars.

Salem whinnied.

Noctorno’s body went still and I heard him
draw in a sharp, hissing breath through his teeth.

“Stop playing that damned, bloody game,” he
warned, his face close but I was still blinking away the bright
lights in my eyes.

“I… I… I swear, God, I swear,
I’m
not.
”

He shoved me away again and the small of my
back hit the sharp edge of the top of a pew. I whimpered but he
strode away.

He stopped at the door and looked to his
horse.

“Do not let her leave.”

Salem snorted.

Noctorno turned and jogged down the steps,
disappearing without looking back.

Minerva

“Get out of my way, Salem,” I commanded.

The horse snorted and shuffled across the
space at the front of the church, blocking the doors with his
massive body.

“Get out of my way, Salem!” I shouted and
the horse snorted again, his front legs buckled like he was going
to go down on his knees then he reared up and snorted again.

“I’m leaving!” I announced.

Salem whinnied what sounded like
frantically.

I planted my hands on my hips and looked the
horse in his eyes.

“You saw him!”

He blew through his lips and his mighty head
swung side to side.

“He shook me! He nearly snapped my goddamned
head off!”

The horse moved closer to me and butted the
side of my head with his nose.

I grabbed it and pulled it down to catch his
eyes again.

“I don’t care about Minerva,” I told him, my
voice suddenly low and trembling. “Right now, the devil I don’t
know is way,
way
better than the devil I do.”

A soft, apologetic whinny.

I shook my head. “I have to get away from
him. He’s mean, he’s bossy and he won’t believe I am who I am.”

He shoved his nostrils in my neck and
blew.

I felt tears sting my eyes and wrapped my
arms around the beast’s necke.

“He hurt me,” I whispered.

That got me another blow making his horse
lips quiver.

“You have to let me go.”

Salem was still.

Then he pulled his neck from my hold and
twisted it to look down his body at the open church doors.

Then he looked back at me.

Then he shifted his big bulk so he was
facing the doors and butted me with the side of the saddle.

Oh my God. Was I reading him right?

“You… are you…” I paused then whispered,
“going with me?”

He threw his head back and whinnied then
twisted it to look over his shoulder at me and jerked it up and
down in an obvious affirmative.

“Are you serious?”

He whinnied a “someone’s gotta keep you
safe” whinny.

So… totally…
awesome!

I surged up his body, threw my arms around
his neck, gave him a huge hug and whispered, “Thank you.”

Then I ran to the doors, snatched up the
knife I dropped, shoved the hilt between my knees as I retied my
belt tighter around my waist. Then I shoved the knife into my belt
and approached the horse.

It took me three tries to heft myself into
the saddle, I was not a seasoned rider and, mind you, I had ample
fabric hindering me straddling a horse (so much for my kickass
outfit, I had to get myself something that said “warrior
princess”). Unfortunately, the minute I got up I realized the
stirrups were way too low so I had to dismount, cinch them higher
and do it again (this time, it took four dratted tries).

But I got on that beautiful beast, touched
my heels to his flanks and off we went, out the door and into the
unknown.

* * * * *

I felt the bed depress, I opened my eyes in
exhausted confusion, saw Noctorno sitting on the bed, his hips in
the crook of my lap and he was leaning over my body with a hand
what I guessed was in the bed behind my back.