Fantasyland 03 Fantastical (44 page)

“
Fuck!
” Noc thundered, shoving the
new clip in his gun.

“
Bloody hell!
” Tor roared and both
men moved closer to me.

We carried on swinging, stabbing and
firing.

“You got any ideas?” Noc asked Tor as the
creatures kept at us in an increasing wave.

“Don’t give up,” Tor answered Noc.

“Shit,” Noc muttered, aimed, fired and
another toilroy collapsed in a ball of sparks.

They kept coming at us, we kept fighting, my
arms were getting tired but my body was singing from the adrenalin
surging through my system.

Salem screamed and shook his massive body.
Noc moved out from under cover, I saw his hand wielding the axe
swoop up then down and blue flashes flew out. Salem shuffled
further under the cover, closer to Tor and me.

“
Noc!
” I shrieked. “Get back
here!”

He rounded the horse, a vickrant flew low,
legs aimed at Noc’s back. They connected, Noc started to fly back
but Tor charged forward and with a powerful upward swing, the
vickrant exploded.

Both men moved back under cover, Noc
finished his clip, dropped his gun and advanced, both hands on the
axe, he swung back and forth, tearing through the stream of
advancing toilroys.

“This is not,” he grunted on a swing, a
toilroy disappeared, “goin’,” another grunt, another swing, another
toilroy vanishing, “our way, man,” another grunt, another toilroy
gone.

Then the vickrants stopped swooping but this
was because the toilroys had surrounded us, closing in from all
sides. Salem shifted, pressing me to the rock face as Noc and Tor
moved around the horse, Tor at his head, Noc at his flank and they
kept fighting. They did this without word and I was cut off from
the action.

“Let me help!” I shouted over the horse as I
watched them battle on.

“Stay safe!” Tor shouted back.

“Tor! I can help!”

“
Safe!
” he bellowed.

The toilroys pressed closer, blue sparks
flew, dancing around, lighting the surface of the rock but where
one evaporated, three more were there, pressing in.

“Gods!” Tor exploded on a mighty swing that
took out four toilroys but four more were instantly in their
place.

“God damn it!” Noc roared, slashing two
toilroys with an axe but three surged in to fill their emptied
space.

I watched the advance over Salem’s back as
my man, his horse and his twin were forced to close ranks as the
toilroys relentlessly pressed in.

We were losing. Losing.

Shit!

I closed my eyes, rested my forehead against
Salem’s glossy fur, he pressed closer, pushing my back into the
rock and I whispered, “Please, please, please, please, please.”

I heard Tor grunt and then I heard Noc
growl.

Then I heard an almighty shriek pierce the
air or, I should say, what sounded like about thousands of
simultaneous almighty shrieks. I automatically dropped the daggers
so I could cover my ears against the loud, hideous, ear-splitting
sound, my head snapping back, my eyes shooting open and I saw a
pink wave of light washing toward us, blue sparks blazing in its
path, so many, the sky lit bright with blue and pink, illuminating
everything all around us, saturating it with color so bright, I
winced.

Then, suddenly, all went dark and there was
nothing. No vickrants, no toilroys, no nothing but the sounds of
the sea washing on the shore and our heavy breathing.

“By the Gods,” Tor muttered.

“Holy fuck,” Noc whispered.

I fought to catch my breath as the darkness
and silence permeated my consciousness.

Then I ducked under Salem’s neck and
cautiously approached Tor. As I did, his body went alert (or,
more
alert), his arm shot out, caught me at the waist and he
yanked me behind him.

“Who’s there?” he called into the
darkness.

For several seconds, there was no
answer.

“Show yourself!” Tor commanded.

I put my hands to his hips and peered around
his large frame.

Then my body froze as Tor’s froze under my
hands and I felt Noc and Salem go still when a soft, pink light
illuminated the space in front of us. The light came from a glowing
orb that hung suspended over a woman’s upturned hand.

My mouth dropped open.

The woman aimed her sightless eyes in our
direction.

“Harold tells me you need some assistance,”
Clarabelle remarked.

I stared.

Then I smiled.

Hur-fucking-
rah!

Always

“We haven’t much time,” Clarabelle whispered
to me urgently.

We were in her trailer, which was in the
middle of no-fucking-where, having got there after Clarabelle
righted Noc’s seriously dented SUV using magic (which, let me tell
you, was way freaking cool). She rode with Noc as Tor and I
followed on Salem (drizzle or no, pregnant or no, after what
happened there was no way in hell Tor was letting me out of his
sight).

Her trailer was totally freaking cool. It
was all witchy, illuminated solely by fairy lights and flickering,
scented candles, these sending shafts of light from the
varied-colored crystals and pretty stained-glass symbols hanging
all around. There was a big, crystal ball sitting on a fluffy, pink
pillow on a table, cushiony, velvet-covered, plush furniture and
scarves hanging over lamps, the purpose of which I didn’t know
seeing as none of them were lit and the old woman couldn’t see. I
could only guess that a witch had to decorate like a witch. Maybe
it was a rule.

Clarabelle and I were standing at one end of
her tiny living room, her hands holding mine, both of us were wet
through. Noc and Tor, also both wet, both standing feet planted,
arms crossed on their wide chests and both glowering identical
glowers at us were at the other end. I could hear Salem snorting
his impatience outside through the still open door.

I looked down at the woman whose face I knew
but who was someone I didn’t know but I knew I could trust and I
would like if I’d had the chance to get to know her better. Her
eyes were pointed at me, unseeing, but her fingers were working
through mine as if she could read my thoughts through my skin.

“I want this,” I assured her.

“You must be certain,” she replied.

I looked at Tor. His glower intensified. He
was getting impatient.

I looked back at Clarabelle and held her
hands tighter. “I’m certain.”

“There is no coming back,” she warned
me.

“I –” I began, starting to glance again at
Tor.

“He explained he made a deal with the witch
on the other side,” she reminded me swiftly. “He gave her much
gold, he had to, her power was depleted in casting the spell to
bring him to you. It will take decades for her to replenish it. In
the meantime, she will be vulnerable. And there are many powers at
work in her world, not all of them good and it is very dangerous
for a witch to be vulnerable. For her efforts this night, she’ll be
a target. He has offered her his protection but in that world, as
they are here, these powers can be insidious. She may end up
needing his gold to buy safety.”

Wow.

“Uh –” I started.

“What I’m telling you, Cora, is that she
cannot bring you back,” Clarabelle went on to explain. “I know of
only four witches in his land who have this kind of power and your
prince found the only good one. You do not want to strike bargains
with the others. Not
any
of them.”

“Minerva,” I guessed.

“She is one,” Clarabelle nodded. “But there
are two others in Hawkvale. They plot, this I know, what they plot,
I do not. But they keep their heads low and both are arguably worse
than The Shrew.”

Fantastic.

Plotting witches worse than The Shrew.

Brilliant.

Still, my mind was made up.

I moved closer to her. “I promise, I’m
certain. I know what I’m doing.”

Her unseeing eyes slid in the direction of
Tor then back to me.

“Love,” she whispered her accurate guess,
her lips curving up.

“Yes… love,” I whispered back, my lips doing
the same, “and our family,” I added, moving one of her hands to my
belly.

“Ah…” she breathed, her lips fully forming a
smile.

“Can we, just… wait a few minutes?” I
requested. “My parents and my best friend are on their way –”

“We can, if you want to battle the
hewcrows,” she cut me off to reply. “The she-god is working to
mount her next offense.” Clarabelle moved closer to me too. “She’s
more powerful than me, my dear. It took great effort for me to
vanquish her army. I have enough magic to send you both and his
horse back, I do not have enough to beat back the creatures she’ll
send in her second wave
and
send you back. This magic would
replenish faster than what it will take to move you between worlds,
but it would still be years before I can build up enough to ensure
you and your love’s
safe
return.”

Her emphasis was not lost on me and my eyes
shot to Tor as my heart clenched.

“There isn’t time to wait for Mom, Dad and
Phoebe,” I told him, though he had to have heard, he was only a few
feet away. Still, I watched his jaw clench.

“I’ll explain it, tell them you wanted to
wait, Cora,” Noc said to me and my eyes moved to him. “Just get
this done.” I swallowed and bit my lip. “Go, baby,” Noc urged
gently.

I nodded at Noc, my eyes shifted to Tor and
he lifted his chin in an “it’ll be all right” that, for the first
time seeing that from Tor, didn’t make me feel all right.

Then I looked down at Clarabelle.

“If you expend all your magic, will that
mean you’re vulnerable?” I asked her.

She didn’t answer but her face said it
all.

“When my father comes, tell him I told him
to give you the money…
all
of it,” I told her.

She shook her head. “I am a certain kind of
witch and this is about love. And the kind of witch I am a witch is
a protector of love, amongst other things. I have vowed this. It is
my duty. This I do as my religion, Cora, dear. So, that’s –” she
started to refuse and I squeezed her hands and I did this gently,
but firmly, making my point.

“
All
of the money, Clarabelle,” I
stressed. “You must promise to take it all. I can’t go unless I do
my bit to keep you safe and maybe you can use that money to stay
safe.” She looked ready to protest again so I said, “I can’t use
it, honey. So you might as well and, trust me, my Mom and Dad are
so
not going to take no for an answer so you might as well
save your energy.”

She gazed at me seeing nothing for a long
moment before she nodded.

“Let’s get this done,” I whispered, her
hands grasped mine tightly and she nodded yet again.

Then she said softly, “Harold has told me,
if you could find a way to tell his Circe that he is doing well, he
misses her and she is always in his thoughts, he would appreciate
this greatly.”

“Absolutely, Clarabelle,” I whispered.
“Please tell Harold we’ll do that as soon as we can.”

Clarabelle nodded again. Then she got ready
for business and straightened her shoulders.

“You and the prince mount his horse,” she
ordered, let me go and Tor moved to me.

Hooking me with his arm around the waist, he
guided me to the door and gently moved me in front of him down the
trailer’s rickety steps, joined me at my side when he’d descended
and he walked us to Salem.

“Cora, I must know that you’re sure,” he
whispered to me and I tipped my head back to look at him as he
stopped us at Salem’s side.

“What choice do we have?” I asked.

He turned me into his front and his arms
curved around me.

“I stay here, in your world, with you.”

I stared up at him.

“But the hewcrows –” I started.

“We’ll fight them back,” he stated
firmly.

“And if she sends something else?” I
asked.

“We’ll beat it,” he declared.

I kept staring but said no more.

“Cora, we will win.”

“They almost beat us with the first wave,” I
reminded him.

“We will win,” he repeated.

“You can’t know that,” I told him.

“I do,” he replied.

“How?” I asked.

His hands lifted to frame my face and his
head dipped so he was all I could see. “Because, after these last
weeks, I know I will allow nothing to keep you from me. I will not
go down fighting. I will stay standing until I taste victory.”

I pressed into his strong body, my hand
lifting to curl around his neck and I whispered, “Tor.”

“Now, I must know, are you certain you
choose my world?”

“You would stay here with me?” I asked.

Without hesitation, he replied,
“Absolutely.”

I smiled into his face, feeling the weird
sensation of my heart singing just as it broke.

“Then that’s good enough for me,” I
whispered, his hands grew tight, his face asked his question and I
turned my head to Clarabelle who was standing outside the trailer
next to Noc. Tor’s hands dropped but his arms circled me again
right before I called, “Send us back, please.”

She nodded. Noc looked at his feet. Tor’s
arms grew tighter.

Then he let me go and moved us closer to
Salem but I pulled slightly away, looked at his beautiful face and
whispered, “One second.”

Then I ran to Noc, threw myself in his arms
and gave him a big hug. He immediately hugged me back.

“Cora,” he whispered in my ear.

“Thanks, Noc,” I whispered over his
shoulder.

“Can’t say it was fun, babe, but I
can
say it was an experience.”

I smiled into the darkness.

Then I said softly, “Sorry about your
truck.”

“Shit happens,” he replied and I held on
tighter.