Worlds Apart (37 page)

Taylor pushed himself to his feet. “The fuck I have.”

Once Taylor reached the hall, he came to a grinding halt. Maybe the way to deal with madness was to play along with it. If he’d really lost his mind, he needed to find it—fast. Taylor took the stairs two at a time and flew into his room. The plane lay on the floor. As Taylor bent to scoop it up, he saw a book poking from under the bedside table. He dropped the plane on the bed and pulled the book out.

When he opened it, Taylor slumped onto the bed with a groan. Roo hadn’t been lying. He read quickly and his heart almost stalled on Stephanie’s last three words.
Wish me luck.
It was what he needed too.

Taylor pulled out his mobile and called his parents.

“Hey, how are you?” his father asked.

“I’ve been better, Dad.”

“What’s wrong?”

Taylor swallowed hard. “I was sorting out Stephanie’s room and there was a book, she’d written a story.” He licked dry lips. “Do you remember me having a friend I used to play with in the garden?”

His father sighed. “Yes, your imaginary pal, the one we never saw and whose name we never knew.”

“Mum never saw him either?”

“You can’t see someone who’s not there. We thought you’d grow out of it, and after Stephanie…vanished, you never mentioned him again. Why do you ask?”

“Stephanie had written about me and the boy. She said she’d gone over the wall to look for him.”

There was a short silence. “We looked the other side of the wall. So did the police.”

“Yeah, I know.” He sighed. “How did you get to know Niall?”

“He knocked on the door one day and asked if he could help with the garden. He came every now and again for years and then when we were ready to leave Sutton Hall, he offered to take care of everything for us. Why?”

“Did you like him?”

“Yes. He’s a good lad. Trustworthy. What’s happened?”

Taylor heard the worry in his father’s voice and didn’t know what to say.

“Are you all right, Taylor?”

“No. Not yet. Love you.”

He heard the gasp before his father replied, “We love you too.”

Taylor didn’t say that often enough. He ended the call. There was only one thing he could do to try to make things right. Grabbing the plane, he left the house and made for the wall.

As he walked through the debris of the garden Niall had worked so hard on, Taylor faltered. He’d been tempted to tell his father everything but the words had dried up on his tongue. Taylor still searched his brain for a way to explain everything to himself but continually came up blank.

He reached the tree house, climbed up and stepped onto the wall. All he could see on the other side were trees and then the land fell away to drop to the River Wharfe in the valley below before it rose up to heather moorland. As a boy, Taylor remembered thinking Niall’s family must camp somewhere in the woods.
I looked.
Taylor exhaled. He
had
looked but he’d never found anything. He’d never pushed Niall. Why not? Taylor had always been inquisitive, so why hadn’t he wondered more about a boy who always seemed to be there when he wanted him?

Taylor walked along the wall until he reached the place where NT had been carved into the rock. One of the stones was missing. Had Roo slipped and fallen? Taylor could see the stone lying on the other side. So it hadn’t dropped into Faeryland, but that didn’t mean Roo hadn’t.
I’m nuts. This is crazy.
He put down the plane and sat on the stone with the carving. Seemed only one way to do this if he was going to find both of them and put things right. He jumped.

And landed hard on the ground facing the view he saw from the top of the wall. He almost gave up then. This was ridiculous. He climbed back up and hauled himself onto the wall. He jumped slightly to the right then to the left, and both times landed exactly where he’d expected to land. All he needed to do was break his ankle and he’d be in trouble. His mobile was back in the house.

Taylor perched on the wall, fingering the carved letters, and looked at his toy plane. If all this crap was true and he still couldn’t convince himself that it was, then the plane could have flown some distance before it went through the rip or tear or whatever.

I can’t fly, but I went through.
A tree. Taylor stiffened. There’d been a tree. But there was no tree close to the wall.
This is such crap.

Taylor picked up the plane in a rage and threw it.

It didn’t land.

Fucking, fucking hell.

Before thinking could stop him, and before he lost track of the point the plane vanished, Taylor flung himself after it.

He landed with a thud facedown in soft grass.
Grass?
Taylor lifted his head and looked around.
Oh Christ.

Niall had been in the room while the police talked to Taylor. Being invisible took its toll on his body, but Niall needed to hear. Even knowing it was all over between them, he couldn’t walk away, not that walking anywhere would be easy. There was an old story about a faery who’d died on this side, and the dust of her body had worked magic for the mortal she’d loved.

If Niall died in this house, he’d likely be swept away and thrown in with the garbage.

If he returned to Faeryland, he’d live, assuming his mother allowed it, but for what purpose? To be ridiculed for loving a mortal who despised him? To be forced to do his mother’s bidding? To spend his time wondering had he done things differently, might he have caught his star?

But what happened to him wasn’t important now. Taylor and Roo were all that mattered. Until Jonas told Taylor he’d tracked her
to
the wall but not back, Niall had clung to the hope that Roo hadn’t found a way into Faeryland. Now he was certain she was there and his choice of what to do had vanished. Roo had done nothing to deserve any of this. She was sweet and kind, and he wasn’t going to let his mother hurt her.

When Jonas told Taylor he’d lost them both, Niall had held his breath.
The fuck I have
Taylor had said, and though Taylor hadn’t seen the smile on Jonas’s face, Niall had. Jonas probably thought he was doing the right thing in pushing Taylor, but if Taylor followed Roo into Faeryland, that just gave Niall another problem. Hard enough to get one mortal out, let alone two.

Taylor stamped out of the house and down to the garden, carrying his plane, and Niall followed at a slower pace, each step more and more painful. Niall paused to pick several peapods from the wreckage of his plants and pushed them in his pockets, then climbed into the tree house and slumped to sit, exhausted, on the wall. He watched Taylor try time after time to find a way through and fail. Even if it was only Roo Taylor wanted to help, Niall loved him even more for that. But if Taylor found a way through, Niall would have to follow and send him straight back. He needed Taylor to give up and go back to the house, and then he’d go after Roo.

Taylor threw the plane, gasped when it disappeared and then jumped.

“Oh shit,” Niall said and followed.

He landed on top of Taylor who let out an
oomph
of surprise and collapsed beneath him. Niall rolled off onto his back and braced for the fist in the gut or on the chin. Instead Taylor kissed him and Niall’s eyes and mouth opened in wonder. The scent of him, the feel of him rocketed Niall into instant arousal. Taylor’s eyelashes stroked his cheeks as softly as feathers while his tongue dipped into his mouth. It was the gentlest, most seductive kiss they’d ever exchanged. Niall could feel Taylor’s erection pressed against his thigh, and the knowledge that Taylor still wanted him made his heart leap.

“This is unbelievable,” Taylor whispered. “Everything I thought I knew has been turned upside down. I came looking for you and Roo. I didn’t think I’d find you. I didn’t think any of this was true until I landed here. I’m not dreaming, am I?”

Niall pinched his butt.

“Ouch. Still, I might be dreaming I’d been pinched.”

Niall smiled. “You sound like Roo.”

Taylor sighed. “We have to find her.”

“
I
have to find her.
You
have to go back.”

“I’m staying with you.”

“It’s too dangerous.” Niall rolled to a sitting position. He felt stronger already.

Taylor glared. “You want to find Roo and keep her for yourself?”

“No, idiot. I’d never do that. Go back to Sutton Hall and wait for Roo. I’ll find her and get her out of here.”

“I’m coming with you.”

Niall groaned. He should have known he wouldn’t be able to make Taylor go back.

Taylor gasped. “Oh Christ. What the fuck are they?”

Niall turned. Two stabilos bounded toward them. He pushed himself up, and as Taylor stood, he shoved him behind him.

“Keep quiet. Copy me,” Niall whispered.

As the creatures bounded closer, Niall bowed, relieved Taylor did the same.

“Good afternoon, Evestes, Shanta.” Niall bowed again to each of them. Taylor dipped his head.

“You not been here long time,” Evestes rasped.

“I was visiting my friend.” He gestured to Taylor.

The stabilo sniffed Taylor who held himself rigid. “Why you bring him here?”

“We’re looking for another mortal. A female.”

Shanta roared right in Taylor’s face and he flinched. Evestes laughed. A stabilo’s version of a laugh.

“She kicked Shanta in balls,” Evestes said. “Oisin took to city.”

Niall was disappointed Oisin hadn’t sent Roo back to the mortal side. He pushed a handful of peapods into Taylor’s hand and offered those in his to Shanta. Taylor gave his to Evestes.

The stabilos yipped with pleasure. They lay down and carefully opened the pods with one claw and then skewered an individual pea and raised it to their lips.

“Until next time,” Niall said and bowed again.

Taylor did the same.

“What the hell were they?” Taylor asked when they were well away from the creatures.

“Stabilos. Employed by my mother to deter us from searching the hinterland for ways into your world. Specifically to deter me, but they amuse her so they remain. If they catch any faeries and return them to my mother, they’re rewarded. I’m the only one the Stabilos seem to tolerate. Probably because I treat them with respect.” He smiled at Taylor. “They like peas.”

“So I see.”

Niall strode toward the hill, Taylor beside him.

“Why did you change your mind about me coming with you?” Taylor asked.

“Because you’d found your way through once, you’d probably find it again. You’re safer here with me than on your own.” Niall didn’t add that he wanted Taylor with him, that he felt stronger with him by his side. He should have tried harder to persuade him to return.

“If your mother didn’t want you to get out of Faeryland, why didn’t she seal the tear or rip or whatever it is?”

“She can’t.” Niall smiled and walked faster.

“You have your energy back,” Taylor said.

“Not all of it.”

“Is it connected to that tattoo?”

“Yes. It’s her hold on me.”

“So are you still dying?” Taylor whispered.

“Yes, but not as quickly, unless my mother has something else planned.”

Taylor grabbed his arm, swung him round and smothered his face in kisses. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”

Niall pushed him away and held him by the shoulders. “You have nothing to be sorry for. Because of my love for you, you and your parents lost your sister. You should hate me. I deserve it.”

“I didn’t believe you. I should have trusted you.”

“I was expecting too much. This is all my fault.” Niall strode on. He’d lost Taylor now but he could at least try to get him and Roo back to safety.

“I don’t hate you,” Taylor said at his shoulder. “I love you.”

Niall stumbled to a halt. Three words a world too late. Niall had failed and could never return to the mortal side. He turned to face Taylor.

“You lost your sister because of me.”

Taylor shook his head. “Your mother kept her when she could have let her come back. “

“Because of me,” Niall said.

“You were a kid. This is down to her, Niall, not you.” Taylor slipped his hands around Niall’s waist. “I remember playing with you. I remember sharing comics, kicking a ball around, games of hide and seek in the woods, eating peas and strawberries in the garden, making snowmen, having snowball fights. You were my best friend. You still are.”

Taylor pressed his forehead against Niall’s and Niall’s heart ached.

“I don’t deserve you,” Niall said. “I should have left you alone.”

Taylor pulled back to look Niall in the eyes. “What’s happened is done. What matters is what we do now. What’s the plan?”

Niall’s shoulders slumped. “I have no plan.”

Chapter Twenty-Three

Roo folded herself tighter and tighter like a piece of origami, wrapping her arms around her head and pressing her face into bent knees. She’d been dragged away from the queen and thrown into this dark space where she could hear things slithering and hissing. Roo wasn’t good with anything that slithered, especially if it hissed as well because that could only mean one thing.
Sn
—
Oh shit. Not even going to think the S word.
In retrospect, telling the queen that she loved her son hadn’t been the wisest move. Classic case of not being good enough for her boy. Well, if Niall was a prince, Roo could see that was true.