Worlds Apart (33 page)

There was no mistaking the look of raw hope on Niall’s face, and Roo began to tremble. Niall couldn’t be that boy. Couldn’t really be a faery. Just Stephanie’s imagination. Except everything told Roo that Niall was Taylor’s boyhood friend and he was more than a boy. Why had the attic looked empty to her and full to Taylor? Where had the book gone? And the biggest question of all—why didn’t Niall tell Taylor who he was?

Niall took the plane from Taylor and, as their fingers touched, Taylor caught his breath.

Time seemed to hang. No one spoke while thoughts whirled. At least they did in Roo’s head, random images and fragments of memory spinning in a centrifuge while she tried to grab them and turn them into sense. Or nonsense.

Niall’s speed in the garden when he’d chased her.

The sandwich he’d made that had been exactly what she wanted.

His sudden appearance at her tent. Those voices.

The strangeness of his bedroom.

His silence now.

Roo gulped. And the very first time she’d seen him, she’d thought she’d seen wings. She raised her head and stared straight into Niall’s eyes. His lips were pressed tight together, but there was a wistful expression on his face that made her stomach lurch.

Oh my God.

Taylor took the plane from Niall, unfastened the string and tossed both aside. “Maybe it was mine. I don’t remember.”

Roo heard the disappointment in Niall’s exhalation. He needed Taylor to remember but he couldn’t tell him? Was that what was wrong?

“I need to see this book of Stephanie’s,” Taylor said. “You obviously didn’t put it under the bed, so where is it?”

“I don’t know,” Roo said.

“Well, bloody think where you put it,” Taylor snapped. “There could be a clue in there, something to tell us where she might have gone.”

Roo swallowed hard. “She went over the wall.”

“I already told you, we checked. The police went through those woods on their hands and knees. They found nothing.”

Roo chewed her lip, but she had no choice. “She went into Faeryland.”

She risked a glance at Niall. He was staring at Taylor.

Taylor scowled. “This isn’t a fucking joke, Roo. Some bastard likely raped and murdered my ten-year-old sister. That boy could be the clue.”

“I’m not joking,” she whispered. “I know it sounds crazy, but you have to believe.”

“What planet are you on? Faeries at the bottom of the garden?” Taylor gave a snort of annoyance.

“Let me show you something,” Roo said.

“What?”

“In the garden. Maybe you’ll remember then. Bring the plane.” She walked to the door. “Please.”

“Niall? You coming?” Taylor asked.

But when Niall tried to stand, it was obvious he wasn’t up to walking that far. “I’ll stay here.”

Taylor turned at the door. “Don’t think I’ve forgotten I want answers from you. If what happened in the shower was some mental thing because of the people or person you’re hiding from, I can help. If it’s medical, I’m taking you to the hospital whether you like it or not.”

“Wow, Taylor. You almost sounded as if you cared,” Roo said.

“You’re both pissing me off, so don’t push it,” he snapped.

Taylor quickly dressed and followed Roo down the stairs and out of the back door, the plane clutched in his hand. If it hadn’t been for the sudden chill of the morning air, he might have tried to convince himself he was still asleep. The sex between the three of them had been fantastic, but since Niall had freaked them out, the world had gone crazy.

Roo headed toward the door leading to the walled garden, Taylor on her heels. He liked that she was a bit weird, but believing there were faeries at the bottom of the garden? No, that was a step too far. He could just see himself telling the police. Pitying looks and a suggestion he visit a shrink.

Taylor followed her through the door in the wall and stiffened as he took in the garden beyond. “What the hell?”

“Oh my God,” Roo whispered.

It looked as though someone had run amuck with a scythe. Hardly a plant remained standing. Flowers and vegetables had been tossed everywhere. Taylor was rigid with fury.

Roo gasped. “Who’d do something like this?”

“It had to have been done overnight. It was fine yesterday evening.” Taylor bent to pick up a decapitated flower and then dropped it. “Bastards.” He exhaled. “Right. I need the truth out of him now. Looks as though whoever is after Niall has found him.”

Taylor turned to go back to the house and Roo caught his arm. “Please. Let me show you the wall.”

“What about the damned wall?”

“I can’t remember.”

“Look, this has gone far enough,” Taylor snapped. “We need to talk to Niall.”

Roo tugged him forward. “I was on the wall and I nearly fell. Well, I did fall and Niall caught me, but I saw something. I just can’t remember what.”

She gave up on tugging him and ran to the bottom of the garden. By the time Taylor climbed into the tree house, Roo was already on the wall and wobbling. His heart lurched into his mouth.

“Be careful,” he called.

Roo made her way along the stones with her arms spread like a tightrope walker. Taylor was torn between following her or going back down the ladder and getting ready to catch her. Still, she might fall on the other side and then he’d be no use at all. He looked down onto the other side. Shrubs and forest. A boring sort of Faeryland. He tossed the plane into the air and watched as it hit a tree and tumbled to the ground.

A spike of pain in his head made Taylor tremble and he grabbed at the tree house roof.

“It’s here,” Roo said.

I did throw a plane over this wall. Not just now, before.
He gulped.

Taylor made his way to her side. Something had been carved into the stone. Letters entwined. He crouched and ran his finger down the grooves. NT. The marks weren’t new. Had he made them? He didn’t remember doing it, yet his heart pounded as though it was trying to tell him something. Roo stared at him as if she expected some massive recognition.

“T for Taylor,” she said.

N for Niall?

As if a wave washed over him, memories flooded back and Taylor sat before he fell. Niall had been his boyhood friend. A friend who’d vanished at the same time as his sister. Not a bloody faery, well, not the supernatural sort, but maybe a bloody murderer.
I’ll fucking kill him.

“Taylor,” Roo said.

He wanted answers—now. He stood and made his way back along the wall, climbed into the tree house, down the ladder and ran across the lawn.

“Taylor,” Roo shouted.

He turned to glare at her. “Are you in on this? What the hell are the pair of you doing? Trying to fuck up my head with lies?”

He stalked toward the house.

Roo scrambled to her feet. She had
not
liked that look on Taylor’s face. Roo thought he’d be happy to remember. She needed to get after him fast and stop him from doing something stupid. As she took one small step, a stone gave way under her toes and she fell.

A shriek burst from her lips as she nosedived to the ground on the wrong side of the wall. Roo collapsed in a heap with a long groan. She lay facedown, eyes closed and didn’t move. Gradually, the pain from the impact faded, didn’t return when she wriggled her fingers and toes, and Roo sighed with relief. When she opened her eyes, the sigh died on her lips.

She lay on soft, lush grass in bright sunlight. Which was wrong. There should be forest on this side. She rolled onto her back. The sun was high in the sky and it was warm. Had she been knocked unconscious? Lain there until lunchtime? She didn’t think she’d banged her head.

Roo pushed herself into a sitting position. She was next to a tree in the middle of a grassy plain with a hill in the distance. No forest anywhere near and no wall in sight.
Am I dead?
It didn’t look much like heaven, but at least there were no everlasting fires or pits of tar or little red men with horns and pitchforks. And if it was heaven, where was the welcome committee with tea and scones? In Roo’s heaven there were always warm scones, strawberry jam and clotted cream. If you couldn’t have what you most longed for in heaven, what was the point in believing in it?

So unconscious and dreaming?

Maybe.

Her stomach rumbled. That didn’t seem like something she’d dream.

There was only one other explanation, and no matter how hard Roo tried to back away from it, it kept surging into her head.

I’m in Faeryland.

Niall really does have wings.

Shit. Shit. Shit.

She rose to her feet and bent to brush her knees, pulling down Niall’s crumpled and dirty shirt. Roo felt a waft of wind blow over her bare butt and groaned. Why hadn’t she put panties on? After taking a couple of steps to test she could walk without falling over, Roo realized her mistake. She spun round and looked for the crushed grass at the foot of the tree where she’d landed, bit back a sob when she saw it and stepped back. If she landed here, the way back was from here. Roo spread out her arms and turned in a circle, feeling for the wall.

It wasn’t there.

Panic bubbled in her throat as fear tightened its hold, and her heart thumped faster. She yanked a white button from the top of Niall’s shirt, placed it on the grass in the middle of where she’d fallen, checked she could easily see it and began to explore.

There was no wall. It wasn’t invisible. It wasn’t there. Roo groaned. She supposed it made a strange sort of sense. Invisible walls in the middle of fields were death traps.
Don’t think about death traps.
Roo looked at the gnarled tree on her left but had no way to climb it, particularly without shoes. The nearest branch was out of reach. Would Niall realize what had happened and look for her? But maybe he couldn’t come back. Maybe this was what he was running from.

She didn’t know what to do. Stay where she was and hope Niall came? Scream and run round in a circle? Or head out to try and find someone who could show her how to get back, hoping she met a kind faerie and not some flesh-eating monster?

Roo looked over her shoulder just in case. Instinct told her to stay where she was, that it was her best chance of rescue. She’d watched the documentaries on the TV, and they always said—stay with your car, stay at the first spot someone would look for you. But the emergency services weren’t rushing to her rescue, Taylor didn’t know about this place, and Roo suspected Niall couldn’t come back.

She began to walk toward the hill.

The farther she moved from the tree, walking through the ankle-deep grass, the more worried she became. What if she couldn’t find it again? It might be the only tree standing on its own here, but once she crested the brow of this hill, there might be a plain dotted with isolated trees. Roo sighed and kept going. “
If you could kick the person in the pants who’s responsible for most of your trouble, you wouldn’t sit for a month.”
Roosevelt’s words made her smile. It was her own fault she was stuck here, so up to her to get herself out again.

So what should she say when she met someone? Tell them she knew Niall or not? Might not be an issue. This place was like a huge deserted oasis.

Ah, maybe not.
As Roo reached the top of the slope, she dropped down into the grass, lay on her belly and stared at the scene below. She might as well have wandered onto a movie set. A mile or so ahead of her was a high stone wall and behind it a city with red-roofed houses. A large castle topped a central mound. Beyond that was a huge body of water.

Roo didn’t hear anyone come up behind her but she felt a draft of air on her backside when something lifted the shirt. Her heart stuttered as she rolled over and then sat up to face three guys in their thirties holding spears, three horses behind them.
Not good, not good, not good.
She hadn’t heard a thing. Roo clenched her fists to stop her fingers shaking.

The nearest man, who had silver hair to his shoulders, and only one arm, brought his spear to her throat. “What are you doing in the hinterland?”

“I fell in by accident. If you could just show me the way out, I’d be very grateful.”

A black-haired guy smiled. He had teeth like her dentist. Much too white and even. “There is no way out.”

Roo bristled. She pushed the spear aside with her fingers and stood. “Of course there is. If there’s a way in, then there’s a way out.”

“Only if we want to let you go,” said the third guy who was shorter than the other two.

She couldn’t outrun horses. “I’m a lot of trouble,” Roo said.

All three of them laughed.

Taylor slammed back into the house and raced up the stairs. When he flung open the bedroom door, Niall wasn’t there. Nor in the bathroom.

“Niall!”

Taylor didn’t wait for a reply. He ran up to the attic, glanced inside and blinked. Must be dust in the air or something, because everything seemed to shimmer for a moment. There was no sign of Niall so he went back to the ground floor.