Fantastical

  Wow. That sounded cool.

  “That sounds cool,” I said quietly but a strange flash in his eyes made me think it was anything but cool so I asked, “What?”

  “It is nothing,” he muttered, turning his attention to his coffee cup and therefore I knew he was also totally lying.

  So I repeated, “What?”

  He took a sip and his eyes came to me. “It is nothing, my love.”

  But his eyes were troubled.

  I didn’t need troubled eyes. We had enough trouble.

  So I repeated, sharper this time, “Tor, what?”

  He held my eyes a moment then he looked to Phoebe, “She returned?”

  I looked back to Phoebe to see her nod but she replied verbally too, “Yep.”

  “Did she wish to return?” Tor asked.

  This was an interesting question and his stress of “wish” made it more so.

  Phoebe shook her head. “I don’t know, I mean, I’m not sure.”

  “Do you know how she returned?” Tor went on.

  Now that was an excellent question.

  Phoebe shook her head again. “No, but I can ask Brianna to ask Marlene.”

  “Please do so,” Tor murmured then, eyes locked on Phoebe, he finished, “Immediately.”

  “Righty ho,” Phoebe whispered because my friend might be a nut but she was far from stupid but even an idiot could read Tor’s intensity. So she immediately pushed herself up, put her cup down on the coffee table then turned and then twisted to hang over the arm of the chair to grab her bag from the floor and get her phone.

  Tor took another sip of coffee and it wasn’t hard to read that he was doing this to avoid me even though I was pressed to his side.

  “Baby,” I called.

  “Mm,” he murmured.

  Totally avoiding me.

  “Uh, Tor,” I called again and he turned his head to me. “What aren’t you telling me?”

  Finally, he answered, it was just not the right answer.

  “What it is is not for your ears.”

  “Tor –” I started warningly.

  He put his mug down on the side table, twisted his torso so he was facing me and placed his other hand light on my hip. “Cora, it is not for your ears. Trust me.”

  “Uh, big guy, do you think there is anything that has to do with any of this that I shouldn’t know?”

  “Yes,” he replied immediately. “This.”

  “I’m a big girl, I can take it.”

  “My love, I don’t want you to take it.”

  “I’m not certain that’s your choice,” I returned.

  He held my eyes and I held his right back.

  Then he sighed.

  Then, as Phoebe got up, murmuring into the phone and moving toward the kitchen, Tor spoke.

  “If this world your friend’s friend’s friend knows is, indeed, Korwahk and this Circe was claimed by the king of that nation, I have concerns.”

  “What concerns?”

  “Korwahk is in the Southlands, far away from Bellebryn and Hawkvale. Things are very different there, uncivilized, some would consider it primitive but it actually isn’t. It is only different. What it is, is savage.”

  I sucked in breath.

  That didn’t sound good.

  “Do you think she’s been –?” I started.

  “What I know is, any warrior of the Korwahk Horde, most definitely their king, gets his wife one way.” He paused, I leaned in closer, he saw he wasn’t going to get away with not telling me the whole story so he finished, “He hunts her.”

  “Oh my God,” I whispered, leaning back.

  “Yes,” he muttered his agreement.

  I just stared at him.

  On a sigh, he kept talking.

  “This Wife Hunt is well-known, my love. It is even attended by spectators who travel far to watch though I cannot understand what they would get from this. To my culture, this practice is sordid although it is perfectly acceptable in the Southlands and has been happening for centuries. Women are gathered, paraded through the warriors of the Horde, let loose, the warriors hunt them and claim them by fighting their brothers-in-arms for them and then, if victorious, they take the women on the spot.”

  “Oh my God,” I whispered again. “Take them as in…?” I trailed off, hoping he got me without me having to say it and I knew he got me when his fingers squeezed my hip and he nodded. “Oh my God,” I breathed it this time.

  “I would assume this is also not common practice in your world,” he stated.

  Hunting women and raping them?

  “No!” I cried.

  “It is not in my land or any of the countries of the Northlands,” he muttered then his eyes caught mine. “She, this Circe of this world, if she was switched before the Hunt, would endure that, love. I’ve no doubt about it.”

  Oh my God!

  I looked away and closed my eyes, now worried about Circe, a woman I didn’t even know!

  “Cora,” he called and I looked back, opening my eyes. “As I explained, this concerns me but Dax Lahn has declared his union with this Circe is the beginning of The Golden Dynasty. He is said to brag greatly of her beauty and spirit. It is said he cares deeply for her. He is known and what he is known for is being brutal, unforgiving and that he has the strength of ten men. There are many who think he is a god on earth, an unbeatable warrior, a formidable ruler, a cunning leader. He has great strength but he also has great intelligence. Even so, he rules a savage land with savage practices. Yet, the reports state his bride is adored, not only by her king but by his people. It is said she holds noble magic and is goddess to his god. He is said to display tenderness toward her, even publicly, which is not always the practice of the warriors of that Horde but definitely not a characteristic he has ever shown. And it is said she brings him humor.” He leaned closer to me. “Perhaps it is somewhat like us. Perhaps, sweets, he or she has found a way to break through. Perhaps she is pleased she carries his child and wished to return.”

  “I hope so,” I whispered.

  “As do I,” he whispered back.

  “Welp!” Phoebe called from the doorway from the kitchen. “The gig is, Circe’s alternate universe guy, who, Cora, by the way,” she looked at me, “apparently is also way hot.” She took us both in and continued, “It was him that found a way to get her back. She was at a party and just,” she lifted her hands and even with the one holding her cell phone, she wriggled her fingers, “melted away.”

  “Bloody hell,” Tor muttered.

  But all I could think was, melted away.

  I didn’t like the idea of the blue mist and I wasn’t conscious to see that. I certainly didn’t want to melt away.

  “That’s the bad news,” Phoebe announced then stated, “The good news is, when she was gone, her Dad and the alternate universe Circe found a witch here who knew how to bring her back. They just never got the chance since the here Circe came back on her own somehow.”

  Both Tor and I straightened but it was me who said, “Really?”

  She nodded, coming to stand behind my armchair and putting her hands on the back of it. “Yep, Brianna is calling Marlene now to get the full scoop and to tell her about you. Brianna’s gonna sort it all out and we’re gonna meet them for coffee later.”

  “Excellent,” Tor stated and my head shot around to him.

  “Excellent?” I queried.

  He looked to me. “Of course. This is good.”

  “How is this good, Tor?” I asked. “We don’t have magic in our world! This witch is probably a charlatan or something!”

  “Uh, we so totally do have magic, girl,” Phoebe put in. “You were at Selena’s party with me when that chick put the whammie on that other chick for flirting with her boyfriend and she fell down the stairs.”

  “Her ‘whammie’,” I lifted my hands and did quotation marks even around my coffee cup before dropping them and reminding my friend, “consisted of her pushing the flirting chick down the stairs.”


  “She wasn’t anywhere near,” Phoebe returned.

  “That was what she said but the other girl said she was totally there because she felt her hand in her back and she saw her at the top of the stairs when she was on her way down,” I fired back.

  Tor (wisely) cut into this exchange stating, “There is no harm speaking to this Marlene and then to this witch.”

  I looked to Tor and told him, “Okay, you’re right, honey, but what if we find out there is magic in this world. This woman is untried. What if she messes it all up? What if she sends us to, I don’t know, some other place? What if she sends you someplace and sends me someplace else? What if Circe isn’t in Korwahk but some other savage, barren place with primitive hordes? What if one of us gets sent there? I don’t want to go to a savage, barren place with primitive hordes!”

  Sensing my rising panic (though it was hard to miss), his arm around my back shifted up and his fingers curled around the back of my neck as he leaned close and said gently, “There are many what ifs, my love, but this is also the only hope we have. Right now, we are powerless. But if there is any possibility this witch can control the blue mist then we must speak to her, ascertain if she can control it and, if she can, convince her to use it to send us home.”

  I stared into his eyes thinking he was right at the same time thinking that sucked.

  Therefore I sighed, Tor knew that meant I was giving in and he grinned, giving my neck a squeeze and pulling me to him until my cheek was resting on his shoulder.

  “You guys are totally cute,” Phoebe announced, smiling brightly at us then her eyes slid to Tor. “Dude, you are, like, crazy hot in a scary macho way but, still, you know how to work the cute.”

  I couldn’t help it, I was freaking out but still, what Phoebe said made me giggle.

  Then her phone rang, she jerked it up, looked at it and said to us, “Brianna,” then she flipped it open, put it to her ear and wandered back toward the kitchen ordering bossily, “Talk to me.”

  Then she disappeared.

  Then I heard Tor mutter, “Your friend is very strange.”

  Then, still freaking out but also still unable to help it, I wrapped my arm around his abs, pressed close and burst out laughing.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  You Hold the Other Half of My Soul

  We sat in the coffee house; Tor resting back against his chair, legs straight out, ankles crossed, sipping regular coffee, calm as you please; me with my legs crossed, foot bouncing, fingers of one hand tapping on the table while slugging back my third latte (decaf due to confirmed pregnancy – yikes!), not calm by a long shot but wired like I’d actually had a shitload of caffeine.

  “Love,” Tor called and I turned my head to him, surprised to see his eyes on me. A minute ago, he was taking in the bustling environs of the coffee house and the busy slick sidewalks outside with avid interest.

  “Yes?” I replied.

  He leaned in as his hand came out and covered my tapping fingers, his fingers wrapping warmly around mine.

  “Calm,” he said quietly.

  Yeah, right. Calm.

  We were waiting for Brianna and her friend to show at the same time we were waiting for Phoebe, who was hanging at my place, having volunteered to hand Noc his packed suitcase personally and see if she could pump him for information.

  I wasn’t all fired up about this controlling blue mist magic business and I wasn’t because anything could go wrong. What if the world this Circe had been to wasn’t the Korwahk on Tor’s world? What if there were a bunch of worlds and Tor and/or me were sent to one of those – where there were savages and mighty kings with the strength of ten men?

  Not to mention, what if Phoebe did something to alert Noc to the fact that all was not right with the Cora he knew and set him to doing something that would not bode well for Tor and me? And, I should mention, I wasn’t hip on Phoebe being involved in any of this, especially not Noc investigating the other Cora. My friend wasn’t exactly a super-sleuth. She was an administrative assistant, like me. And she couldn’t be swept away to a safe fairytale land, like me. She would be stuck behind, maybe considered an accomplice in whatever Cora was up to… or something.

  But Phoebe had no qualms about wading in and actually seemed excited to be in on it all.

  Then again, as I had mentioned before, Phoebe was more than a little nuts.

  But too much could go wrong. I wasn’t all fired up to be at the mercy of blue mist magic or whatever Noc was doing with Cora but I was equally not fired up about sticking my nose in where it might not belong. And, it had to be said, I had no interest at all in melting.

  “Tor –” I started, his eyes slid to the side and his jaw went scary hard.

  I looked to where he was looking to see a man holding a paper cup with a cardboard sleeve staring at my crossed legs as he passed by. Tor moved, the man’s eyes moved to Tor, his face blanched and he hurried away.

  I looked at Tor to see him turning in his seat in order to continue scowling frighteningly at the man’s back and I twisted my hand so I could squeeze his fingers.

  “Honey,” I called softly and his gaze sliced to me.

  “Although your garments are becoming, Cora, I do not like the amount of skin they expose,” he growled.

  “Tor –”

  He cut me off with, “You have lovely legs.”

  Wow. That was nice.

  I smiled at him. “Thanks, baby.”

  His face went as hard as his jaw. “Too lovely,” he went on. “And they are mine and I do not like that other men gaze at them.”

  Oh boy.

  “Tor, this is how we dress in my world,” I told him something he had to know for I was wearing another little dress with a light cardigan and high heels but there were other women around us in Capri pants, mini-skirts, skintight tees or tops with huge-ass cleavage. It wasn’t like he was blind.

  “I am aware of that, Cora, but that does not mean I have to like how you dress in this world.”

  I held my breath, waiting for him to say something Tor-like to piss me off, like I had to go home and change into something he preferred, say, a floor length granny ball gown that covered me from neck to wrist to ankle. But, surprisingly, he did not say this. He let my hand go and his eyes slid around the room. Then the anger faded from his face and it grew pensive.

  “Tor?” I called and his eyes moved back to me. Before I could ask what was on his mind, he told me.

  “Why are you not taken in this world?”

  “Sorry?” I asked.

  “You are very beautiful,” he stated as if this was fact and my belly melted and continued to melt as he carried on. “Far more beautiful than any woman I have seen not only in my own world but especially in this one. There is no compare.”

  “Tor,” I whispered, my heart growing light.

  “This does not make sense to me. If the Cora of my world had not been destined for me, men would fight battles for her. They did write songs and poems to her beauty. She might not be likable but that didn’t mean her beauty was not desirous and greatly admired. You hold not only her beauty but a kind heart and a sharp wit. It is…” he paused, “strange that no man has claimed you.”

  Jeez, I loved this guy.

  “Um… the dating game is different in this world and –” I started.

  “Dating game?”

  “Uh… wooing,” I explained, “you know, courting.”

  He shook his head and stated, “Rubbish.”

  I tipped my head to the side and replied, “No, honey, it’s true.”

  His eyes held mine. Then he leaned in, reached across the table between us and again took my hand. I studied the look on his face and twisted my body to face him, leaning in too, giving him my full attention.

  When he had it, he spoke. “Cora, I have been thinking about this, noting your men’s response to you, your people’s response to us, and it occurs to me that there may be other powers at work here.”

  Great. Other power
s at work. Fantastic. Just what we needed.

  “What do you mean?” I whispered.

  “You are not claimed in this world. This is unnatural. With your beauty, your character –”

  “Tor, honestly, it’s different here. It’s totally natural. Good women constantly –”

  He shook his head and squeezed my hand. “It is unnatural.”

  “Tor –”

  “I’m a man, in your world or mine. Believe me, my love, this is unnatural,” he stated firmly.

  Okay, I couldn’t argue with him being a man. He was definitely that.

  I leaned in further and asked, “What are you thinking?”

  “People observe us,” he remarked, I pulled in my lips and bit them because I’d noticed this too. “It is strange. I could understand men gazing at you; you’re beautiful, this happens in my world too. But the way their eyes are drawn to us, not only men but women –”

  “I’ve noticed that too,” I told him.

  “Something is not right about this,” he told me he was feeling the same thing I was feeling.

  “Why do you think that?” I asked.

  “I don’t think it, sweets, I feel it.”

  Oh boy.

  Yeah, he was feeling the same thing I was feeling.

  “And what do you feel?” I asked hesitantly.

  “You do not have destinies written in the sky in your world, do you?” Tor enquired and I shook my head. “And therefore, souls are not split in this world.” I shook my head again and Tor studied me. Then he said softly, “Cora, I think you hold the other half of my soul.”

  I sat back swiftly, my heart clenching then beating madly and I stared at him then I said in a high-pitched voice, “What?”

  His hand tugged mine and I leaned back in. “Minerva’s magic is blue.”

  I shook my head but kept my eyes on his. “I don’t get it.”

  “The vickrants aren’t born, they are made. Same with the toilroys. And the hewcrows. Minerva creates them. That is why, when struck, they bleed blue magic. That is why I was offended when you suggested I bled blue.”

  “That’s a saying in my world, Tor, about royalty –”