Thin strands of yellow thread that might have once been the web of some alien spider fluttered across the rocks as the wind whipping into the cave tore at them. I touched the edge of one, and it stuck to my finger. Then I raised the gleaming rock in my palm and upon closer inspection found the half-destroyed remains of a web glistening with rain.
Shuddering and expecting to see a glow-in-the-dark plant spider or something even worse ready to leap at me, I wiped my finger against the rock to get the web off. I then stepped across the mouth of the opening to the other side. Far below the cave, the purple river was almost black. It rushed its banks like a jilted suitor, determined to destroy and spoil everything that had once shaped and tamed him.
Ahmose stepped up beside me wearing dry clothing and holding another gleaming rock. He’d let his own inner light dissipate, and I found I was slightly disappointed. I wanted to touch him while he was lit up again. When drops of rain struck the rock he held, they hissed and disappeared as if the stone burned like fire. Curious, I reached out to touch it and found it warm, but it didn’t burn my skin.
“I’ll wait here,” Ahmose said softly. “You go ahead and change.”
Nodding, I left him standing there in the opening of the cave and moved to the shadowed spaces in the back. Inside the depths of the dark mountain cavity, I felt vulnerable, unfocused, like I had wandered into some kind of dreamworld. Tia and Ashleigh were strangely quiet considering the events of the past few hours, but they joined their energy to mine to create new clothing.
Sand spun around us, whipping my hair dry in its wind. When the storm abated, I wore a supple linen tunic in green, a color I suspected had been selected by Ashleigh. This was accompanied by comfortable leggings and soft-soled shoes. A belt with golden discs of diminishing sizes cinched my waist and swung in perfect synchronicity as I moved.
The green scarab sat at its center. I pondered what it symbolized, and for a moment felt that it was a very beautiful but, at the same time, very solemn, shackle. It was a reminder to me that I belonged to a man I didn’t remember, and I resented the idea that I had no choice in who I loved.
Carefully, I removed the gemstone and placed it in the quiver to keep it safe. I knew I should feel guilty about my newfound relationship with Ahmose, but I didn’t. The girl who loved Amon was gone. Maybe forever. I ran my hands down my body and over my hair, surprised to find it hung long and loose down my back instead of in one of Ashleigh’s complicated updos.
Happy to finally be warm and dry, I headed back to Ahmose, feeling inescapably drawn to him. All the pieces that made up my new being coalesced and moved, shifting toward one thing. Ahmose. I was a mass of iron filings, and he was my magnet.
When I reached him, I wrapped my arms around his waist and pressed my cheek against his back, clinging to him. “The barriers are down,” he said quietly, cupping my locked hands and pressing against them.
I turned my face, my chin jutting into his spine. “What does that mean?”
“The fact that I no longer have power over the storm means that Seth, or at least his minions, have seized control of this land. We can no longer expect that our journey will be easy. Fortunately, we are nearly ready to leave this world.”
With a snort, I said, “You call what we’ve been through easy?”
“Relatively, considering everything.”
As if to prove his statement, the wind whipped frenziedly. It howled through the cave as if it were a fettered beast that had finally been let off its chain, and caused a small avalanche of rocks to tumble over the lip of the cave. I remembered the haloed moon and dread filled my frame. I hoped a storm was all the moon warned us of. The idea that Ahmose could be ripped away from me was unthinkable. My fists clenched against his stomach. I wasn’t going to let that happen.
“It’s a bad wind that doesn’t blow good to somebody,” I murmured softly and then realized that the thought hadn’t been my thought. It had come from Ashleigh. We were bleeding together again.
“Agreed,” Ahmose said distractedly as he stared into the stormy night. He took my hand and drew me in front of him. He tucked my head beneath his chin. My arms remained locked around his waist. Absentmindedly, he stroked my hair, his fingers wriggling through it to knead the soft flesh at the nape of my neck.
Lighting struck again and again, brightening the landscape with cruel lashes. I looked out at the land and then back at him. When the light fell on his face, it shadowed Ahmose’s features and for a moment, he looked like his brothers in death. Still handsome but with dark hollows that made him seem more like a seductive demon of the night who only rose from the coffin to seek out the one he wanted to carry away with him to the grave.
He looked down at me, and the remoteness in his eyes, the fatigue and worry I saw in them, melted away until all that remained was the bright, cool luster of contentment.
“Come, love,” he said. “There is nothing we can do until the storm abates.”
“And what if it doesn’t?”
“I can still sense its power. This storm will last until the morning. We’ll take our rest and head out once again tomorrow. Nebu assures me we are close to the jumping-off point.”
I nodded and followed him deeper into the cave. The unicorns were sleeping standing next to each other, angled so one of them faced one way and the other faced the opposite direction. “Why do they sleep like that?” I asked.
“They each guard different directions. That way no one can sneak up on them and catch them unawares.”
Ahmose positioned his big body up against the wall of the cave, drawing his cloak over the two of us. I sat beside him, cradling my head against his shoulder. Even relaxed, I could feel the corded muscle of his arms through his shirt. The gleaming stones that shone like pewter, combined with the subtle light coming from the coats and manes of the unicorns, painted the cave in dreamy, romantic softness.
My head nodded sleepily, and my thoughts became unfocused, and still I couldn’t help but stare up at the finely wrought features of the man holding me as if I was the most treasured thing in the world. Finally, I slipped into the quiet space between wake and sleep and heard low voices speaking. They soothed and comforted me. It was like falling asleep when someone you loved was reading a story.
“You both need rest, Ash,” Ahmose said.
I could see him and hear him and feel his touch, but somehow I knew it wasn’t me he was looking at. “I know,” my mouth said. “There’s just…there’s just somethin’ I need ta know.”
“What is it?”
“Who do ya love?”
My dream self looked at Ahmose and saw his shining moonlight eyes. That they appeared stark, and distant, like he was keeping secrets, might have been my imagination.
“What are you asking me, Ashleigh?”
“It’s quite a simple question, handsome. I’m askin’ which o’ us do ya love. Is it Tia, Lily, or me?”
“Does my affection need to be limited to only one of you?”
“Does ours? I thought you didn’ so much like sharin’ with yer brothers.”
His body tightened for a moment, and his expression became as dark as a sea that had suddenly been chilled by a distant storm. It made me shiver. But then, as quickly as the storm within him had risen, it abated, and all was calm on the surface once more.
“My brothers are a hurdle we’ll cross when the time is right.”
“Lily might believe she loves ya now, with yerself all dashin’ and strappin’ an’ smiles an’ sweet, sweet kisses, but how do ya expect to hurdle Amon if she ever remembers herself?”
“I suppose in that case she’ll have to weigh her options and make a choice.”
“She’s not the only one decidin’, ya know.”
“I’m aware of that. How could I not be?”
“It might help ya, lad, to have someone in yer corner, so ta speak.”
Ahmose smiled. “Are you in my corner, Ash?”
“I don’ think I can rightly say. Amon is a
handsome sort.”
He paused, touched his finger to the tip of my nose, and then asked, “And who would you choose, Ashleigh?”
“It’s not fair to ask me that question when ya haven’ answered my own.”
Exhaling, he picked up my hand and entwined my fingers with his. “I’m not sure it’s possible to separate out how I feel about each of you,” he said. “I respect all three of you. I care for all three of you.”
“But do ya love all three?”
Ahmose smiled softly, but it was a haunted thing, a slipshod and sad imitation of the happy expression he wore before.
“Ah, we have our answer, then, don’ we?” My heart hurt in my chest like a hot stone had been set in the space where a heart should go.
I continued, my mouth wrapping around the words carefully though they numbed my lips as I spoke. “Vera well. If it’s a drownin’ ya intend, don’ torment me with shallow water, love. Jus’ get the breakin’ o’ my heart over with quickly.” I taunted him with words to add more fuel to the fire. Gave him leave to let his tongue slip recklessly and beat me with the truth. I was nothing to him except the sad, pathetic remains of a girl long ago uprooted from history.
That I was intoxicated by his nearness; that I longed to touch and be touched by him; that I considered him finer than precious gemstones in all their faceted, sparkling splendor, and his arms more comforting than the softest nest in a fairy glen, made no difference. His next words would vanquish me as certainly as he did his enemies. They would be a knife driven through me that would undo me utterly. Tears leaked from my traitorous eyes and trickled slowly down my cheeks.
Ahmose cupped my face and wiped away a tear with a thumb. “You wore a crown of apple blossoms in your hair the day you hid in the tree.”
“I…yes, I did,” I replied, startled.
“Did you know the man would have killed you as easily as he did the tree?”
“Better the trouble that follows death than the trouble that follows shame.”
“He would have shamed himself, not you. If I had been there, I would have killed him.”
“But ya don’ like killin’.”
“No. I don’t. But any man that would have spoiled the sweet innocent you were—the sweet girl you are—isn’t worthy of walking the face of the earth, or any other place, for that matter.”
Gently, he trailed his fingertips over my forehead, dislodging the strands of hair that stuck to my tearstained cheeks, and tucked them behind my ear. My wrung-out heart thumped once, but the sound was shallow, ruptured, like a stick hitting the torn skin of a drum.
Fairies could die of a broken heart. And once they found someone to love, they could never love another. I’d never thought that would happen to me. How could I find someone to love in the netherworld? Had the fairy tree gone to all the trouble to save me just so I could perish on this lonely planet? Unloved and unwanted?
I wished Ahmose would just get it over with. Get all the hurt done at once instead of trying to rub honey all over the knife he was going to skewer me with. Each stroke of his fingers was a torment. A reminder that I was simply wearing the face of the real girl he loved. The one who could touch him back and hold him in her arms. What could I offer a man like him? What did I expect?
Finally, he spoke, “Ashleigh,” he said. “Believe it or not, there are things I don’t know. Paths I cannot see. Most of the time when you speak, I know it’s you. I know Lily’s voice. And Tia’s. But sometimes there’s a mixing. A blending of souls. The different parts of you, the things that define Lily or you or Tia, are all things that interest me. They are pieces that I’ve come to love. I know this isn’t what you want to hear. Not exactly.
“But there’s something else I want you to understand. I’ve traced the life paths of all three of you. I’ve watched you grow up. I’ve seen the choices you’ve made. And I’ve spent the most time watching yours. Hours, no, days, in fact. During the weeks we were apart, while I was supposed to be guarding the afterlife with Asten, I followed your path.
“I know you. I know the person you were as a mortal. I know the impish fairy version. And I know what you are now.
“So if you are asking me if I could love only the slight-framed Irish girl with the curly red hair, the one who stomps her foot when she’s irritated and narrows her green eyes with temper—if you want to know if I could spend hours tracing the patterns of the freckles on her shoulders and kissing her apple cheeks and the sweet mouth that draws up like a bow hiding the most beautiful present when she smiles, then the answer is yes.”
A little gasp escaped my lips. “Are ya certain, then? ’Cause once ya say it, I’ll take ya at yer word.”
“Why do you think I’ve been sacrificing much-needed sleep night after night just to sit next to you and listen to your stories? Even when I do sleep, I chase you in my dreams like an eager puppy. I long to lie in a meadow of clover, my head in your lap, with you threading your fingers through my hair, and fall asleep with the lilt of your voice caressing my ears. The truth is, you’ve been in my thoughts since you first spoke to me.”
I placed my hand on his cheek. “And ya’ve been in mine.”
His smile was quick and tender. With eyes half-closed, he kissed me, and it felt like it was at once different and new. This kiss was distinctive. It was mine and no one else’s.
“You taste like strawberries, heather, and fairy dust,” he murmured, his stubble rough against my cheek. Ahmose whispered sugared assurances, tickling the soft skin behind my ears, and mending the little hurts in my heart with all its tiny leaks. Soon, they were stopped up, and the love I felt for him was trapped inside, full to bursting and pulsing through my veins once more.
I wrapped my arms around his neck, squeezing him tight, feeling like the happiness would erupt out of my body and rain down sparkling joy on everything around us. Ahmose closed his eyes and held me loosely, content as I explored his cheeks and jaw with my lips, leaving a trail of soft fairy-wing kisses behind as I went.
Cupping his hand around my head, he pressed me to his chest and hummed a light-hearted tune, one I remembered from when I was a child. It reminded me of summertime naps in patches of wildflowers, eating ripe berries straight from the bush, and dipping my bare toes in ice-cold streams. Smiling, I closed my eyes and drifted to sleep feeling like somehow everything would work out and I’d get to be with Ahmose like that forever.
It was the sweetest of dreams. But, it turned out, that forever didn’t last as long as I hoped.
I woke with a jolt. Ahmose was gone, and the predawn air crept into the cave, silent, and with a cold bite that seemed somehow threatening. The glowing rocks had gone dim, and the only light came from the thin, orange moon winking through beat-back clouds. It stretched through the opening of the cave, tingeing everything red like it was the rising floodwater of hell.
The unicorns were awake. They shuffled quietly, as nervous and jittery as if they sensed a far-off stampede. “What is it?” I asked Nebu. “Where has Ahmose gone?”
Before Nebu or Zahra could answer, a dark figure entered the mouth of the cave. “Lily?” Ahmose said. “We need to go, quickly. We are being hunted.”
“Hunted?” Immediately, I rose and picked up Ahmose’s cloak. After shaking it out, I made my way over to him, handed him the garment, and began strapping on my harness. He turned me around to help, and then I felt the solid weight of his cloak as he placed it around my shoulders.
“Is it the same beast that made a try for us before?” Tia asked, asserting herself.
“I’m not sure,” he said. “But whatever it is, it seeks our destruction.”
Ahmose kissed my forehead quickly and gave me a boost onto Nebu’s back. “Nebu’s the fastest,” he explained. “If something happens, I will tell him the path to take, and we will separate so I can draw off the beast.”
I placed my hand on his arm. “No, Ahmose. We do not separate.” I said, back in control of my body.
He tried to give me a reass
uring smile. “We will avoid it if we can.”
We can take to the sky, if we must, Nebu said. The distance to the edge is not too far.
Ahmose nodded, agreeing with Nebu’s assessment.
We set out from the cave, following the path only Ahmose could see. The half-moon peeked over the top of a layer of clouds that were moving quickly across its face. Ahmose stopped often, constantly changing course, but whatever he saw left his expression grim. A strange bird cried out from the dark trees, hooting like an owl but with a screeching sound at the end. I wasn’t sure if that was the natural sound or if the animal had caught something else and silenced it with a deadly talon.
Even when the sun rose, thick mist licked the tops of the trees, making the sunlight that did touch the ground seem sinister and strange. Ahmose had summoned his weapon from the sand and his fingers twitched toward the handle every time he heard a sound. There were hollows beneath his eyes, and his handsome face looked haggard and worried.
Though the storm had passed, the trees were still drawn into themselves. With flexible limbs raised and leaves rolled up, they reminded me of tall ostriches tucking their heads in the sand, hoping no one would notice that the bulk of their forms was obvious to everyone. The spiny green plants that resembled aloe had wrapped themselves so tightly that they looked like tall sticks just planted into the ground. It was eerie seeing them. They stood in their beds like rows of unmarked graves.
As the sun rose higher, we came to the crest of a hill and looked down into the valley just as the first animal burst into a clearing. It stood up on its hind legs and sniffed the air, shifting its head back and forth. It was huge. If a velociraptor and a saber-toothed cat had a baby, it would look like this animal. Its skin was armored, which was likely why the stinging needles from the plants couldn’t slow it down. When it turned its head toward us, it bellowed again, spotting its prey.
I saw the flash of not one set of glow-in-the-dark eyes but two or perhaps more, set in its face. It looked like something out of a Godzilla movie. Where was the giant lizard when you needed him? “Ahmose?” I called out. “I think we’re in trouble.”