“You have a phone now, remember?” At least he’d claimed to have one.
“Phones don’t work in Bellgard.”
“You’re crazy.” I edged toward the doorway again.
“No, but what I am about to do is.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning you are coming with me. You can do it willingly or not. I cannot allow you to come to harm.”
“You wouldn’t hurt me.” I wanted the words to be true, but standing there in my pajamas as he discussed taking me with him no matter what made it hard to feel safe.
“No. I would not hurt you for the life of me, but I will take you with me by any means possible.”
“Not yet. I’m calling Professor Morgan. Maybe you are right. Maybe someone else knew I was here or something.”
“If you are going to do it, do it quickly.” He stared out the now closed window.
I ran into my room and grabbed my phone. I still had the professor listed as a contact from sending him pet updates. I pressed send. The phone rang and rang before it went to voicemail.
I hung up. What kind of message would I leave? Hi, it’s Ainsley. Did you send out a hit on me? “Maybe this is all a prank. Someone playing a trick.”
“On Mendel parchment? You think your friends happened upon it? The embossed crest is impossible to come by in your world. It must be applied by hand.”
“In my world?” And then he went and sounded crazier.
“Pack a bag if you want to bring anything, and I suggest you do. We may be there awhile.”
I shook my head. “I’m going home instead.”
“Home?” He narrowed his eyes.
“Yes. To my mom’s place.” My stomach churned at the thought of facing my step-sister again.
“In Chapel Hill?”
“Yes…” Clearly he didn’t have a memory problem.
“No. You cannot do that. There is a gate in Durham.”
“What?”
“In Duke Gardens. Forget it.”
“I know there are gates in Duke Gardens and lots of other places, but what does that matter?” I should have been running, but instead I was standing there listening to him. James put me in some sort of trance—walking away from him seemed impossible.
“Get your bag.”
I blinked a few times. I had to snap out of it. Just because James was attractive and seemed genuinely nice did not mean I could trust him. Instincts could be wrong. I’d learned that the hard way. “You are going to need more proof than a little piece of paper to convince me to go anywhere with you. You sound crazy.”
“Also, I suggest you put on jeans and a coat.”
“James, are you even listening to me?” Did he really expect me to follow him blindly? I wasn’t that naive.
“It is you who fails to listen.” He rushed past me into my room. He pulled a duffel bag from the closet.
“What are you doing?” I watched with my mouth hanging open as he stuffed clothes into the bag.
“Packing for you since you are being so bullheaded.” He walked out of the room. I chased after him down the hall to the bathroom. He tossed in my toiletries.
“Stop!”
“No.” He turned to me. “Do you value your freedom? Your life?”
“Of course.” I crossed my arms.
He put his hands on my shoulders. “Then come with me now. You will likely lose one or both if you do not.”
“If I’m dead I don’t need my freedom.”
“Now is not the time for these games, Ainsley. We need to go.” He threw the bag over his shoulder. “I will wait right here. Get changed.”
“I’ll get changed, but not to come with you.”
He said nothing, so I hurried back to my room. Getting out of pajamas was a smart idea. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do, but anything would run smoother if I were dressed.
I walked out of my room and right into James’ chest.
He returned his hands to my shoulders. “Why are you fighting me on this?”
“Besides the fact that you are crazy?” Might as well lay it out there.
“So that is the real issue?”
“You think you are from another world. That’s beyond crazy.”
His face lightened. “What if I could prove to you I’m not crazy without taking you anywhere?”
“How?” I put a hand on my hip.
“Go into the backyard with me. To the garden.”
“Why, so you can bury my body?” I didn’t really believe he would hurt me, but he was freaking me out.
“We have been over this before. If I wanted to kill you would I really do it outside?”
“If I agree to go into the garden with you, will you leave me alone? I don’t want to stay here. You being crazy aside, I don’t like that the office was broken into.”
“Yes. If you still refuse to believe me, I will let you go home, or wherever it is you want to go, as long as you leave the house.”
“Deal.” I gestured for him to start down the stairs. “You first.”
He nodded before heading down. I followed a few steps behind. He went right out the back door and straight back through to the garden. I was sure it was once a beautiful garden, but it had now fallen into disarray as though no one had attended to it in years. He walked right past an old fountain. Even under the ivy snaking around it and moss covering it, I could still see it was once beautiful. At another time I would have loved to see it running.
I glanced around me. “Ok, we are in the dead garden… anything else I need to see?”
“One second.” He pulled out what appeared to be a key carved entirely out of an iridescent crystal. “One more second.”
He tugged a thick layer of ivy and moss off the back gate to reveal a small keyhole.
“I didn’t think this gate opened.”
“You weren’t supposed to. That is the point.” He inserted the key and opened the wrought-iron gate. “Come look.”
“Fine.” I walked over to where he stood and saw what appeared to be a waterfall made of light. I blinked a few times. “What the heck?” I stepped in, blinking rapidly as I was hit with bright daylight and an absolutely breathtaking garden. I walked in further, desperate to see more of the exquisite garden in front of me. Unlike the overgrown one behind us, this one was in full bloom, it was wild and full of vibrant colors unlike anything I had ever seen before. Yet despite the shocking bright hues and neon colors, the flowers seemed so real. So alive. “This place is unbelievable.” I stepped in further and touched a flower. It was real, as real as anything, yet it couldn’t be. Nothing in nature was that bright even in the most tropical rainforest in the world.
“You have not seen anything yet.”
I turned at the sound of James’ voice, and watched as the gate slammed closed behind us. “What is this place?”
“Home.”
“This is Bellgard?” I glanced around me at the colorful flowers and the trees that seemed to stretch on so far I could have sworn they were touching the vibrant blue sky. “Not much of a fortressed city.”
“No.” He stepped toward me. “Bellgard is my city, but Energo is my world.” He bent down and picked the bright purple flower I’d been admiring. He handed it to me.
I accepted the flower, surprised I could feel it in my hand. “I must be dreaming.”
“This is no dream.”
“I am.” This wasn’t reality. The temperature was at least ten degrees warmer. Instead of shivering, I wanted to remove my coat.
“My horse is not too far off, but we will have to walk to get to him. I left him in the closest village.”
“Your horse?” I raised an eyebrow. “Ok, did you put drugs in that wine?” I walked back to the gate and tried it. It was locked. “Open the gate, James. Open it.”
“No.” He shook his head. “You have already done the hardest thing. You have stepped through the gate. You might as well explore the rest.”
“Yeah… not happening.” Despite my des
ire to see more, I couldn’t. Either I was losing my mind, or James had already lost his. Neither possibility was a good one.
“But I showed you my world is real. That was the deal. You told me if I proved it to you, you would stop arguing.”
“So you expect me to ride off into the sunset with you on your horse now?” I blinked a few more times. Eventually the colors would return to normal. “This is a trick. We are in a special garden in Charleston with accentuated colors.”
“And the bright light? Was it not just night?”
“I am obviously losing my mind.”
He returned to the gate and opened it.
I stepped through back into the night. “This is insane.”
“It is real. Just as the threat is real.” He held open the gate.
“I should run away right now. I should run and never come back.” The logical side of me was already planning an escape.
“Yet you have not moved.”
“You told me you would make me come whether I wanted to or not.”
“Have I chased you?” His eyes connected with mine.
“What are you doing? Why do I feel like I’ve known you months instead of a day?” I crossed my arms over my chest. I didn’t like the sensations he made me feel. I didn’t like the need and desire that seemed to get grow stronger the more time we spent together.
“You do the same to me, which is why I want you to come. I want you safe.” He held out his hand.
I glanced between the dark house and the shimmering wall of light.
He nodded. “I can see you want to.”
“Stop pressuring me.”
“What are you so afraid of?”
“You can’t really be asking me that question. Right now I’m wondering if I’m high or something.”
He smiled slightly. “You are sober.”
“I may never talk to you again after all this.”
“What happened to all those kisses you wanted?” He smiled suggestively.
“That was before you made me hallucinate.”
“You are not hallucinating.” He spoke softly, but the intensity of his eyes reminded me that he was still being serious.
“Then why do the flowers in there look so vibrant? It’s like they are glowing.” I pointed through the gate.
“Colors are different where I come from. As an artist, I would assume you would appreciate it.”
“I never said I was an artist. I study art history.”
“And you don’t create any of your own?”
“I do.” Although I hadn’t worked on a single project for months.
“Then why deny it?”
“I am an idiot.” How was I even considering following James? He was a near stranger, and I had no idea where the gate really led.
“No you are not. Don’t say that about yourself. You are about to experience something new. I can promise it will not be an ordinary trip.”
“You wouldn’t really let me walk away, would you?”
“I have to protect you. Everything I am doing is for your own good.”
“That makes you sound even more frightening. It sounds like what crazy people say.”
“Frightening?” He stepped toward me. “Do I scare you?” His eyes bore into mine.
The truth slipped from my lips. “No. You don’t.” I was more afraid of my attraction to him. I shouldn’t have still wanted him, but I did. Hopefully that would stop once I came off this strange trip.
“We should go. We want to get to Bellgard before it gets dark.”
“Before it gets dark… so it really is day time there?”
“You can’t tell?”
I knew walking back through the gate might change my life forever, but there was an urgency to James’ voice that rang true. There was always the chance he was crazy, but maybe he wasn’t. Maybe he was telling the truth. Besides, would I ever get an experience like this again? I took a deep breath and walked back through the gate. He let the gate close behind me. I looked up at the bright blue sky. It was an unnaturally deep blue. “I’m really doing this.”
“You are, but if it helps you’re not alone.” He held out his hand.
“If this is all an elaborate hoax or trick, please try to keep me alive.”
“The only reason we left when we did was to keep you alive.” He grabbed my hand. “Come on. There is plenty more to see.”
“Fabulous.”
“No complaining. I am going to have a lot of explaining to do about why I brought you with me.”
“Why?”
“Because we are not supposed to bring in people from your world.” He started walking, and for one reason or another I let him lead me.
“But Charlotte and her brother are from my world. And the neighbor’s son.”
“Liam, Debbie’s son, yes. Charlotte and Kevin are from both worlds.”
“Oh…”
“It is not worth explaining all the details now, but their dad is from your world. Their mom is from mine.”
“I should have insisted on meeting the owners before I moved in.” I’d been so relieved to have a place to stay, I hadn’t questioned things nearly enough.
“And what would have changed? You had no idea I was from another place when we first met.”
“Still, I might have gotten a clue.” Maybe it would have sent off a red flag or something. Then again the fact that people were willing to let a stranger take care of their house should have set off red flags anyway.
“There is no reason to look back. It will not help.”
“But looking forward might not help either.”
“Who said it would?” He tightened his hold on my hand. “Look at the now. Focus on the moment. It is the only way to live.”
“Just get me through this alive, okay?”
“Do we have to rehash the same conversation again?” He glanced over his shoulder. “Come on. We need to go.”
“I can’t go. I’m going to get fired.” I hadn’t even thought about work. I wasn’t due in at the law firm until Monday, but I had two shifts at Yogurt Love coming up.
“I have taken care of that already.”
“How? How could you have taken care of it?”
“As you pointed out earlier, I have a phone. While I waited for you to change, I called you out sick. Isn’t that what people do when they would rather be someone else other than work?”
I laughed despite the situation. “Yes. It is.” I had no proof he’d called, but with everything else going on, my jobs were the least of my worries.
“You are good for a few days. I might have you back by then.”
“Might?”
“Yes. I am sure you understand that word.”
I sighed. “Yes, unfortunately I do.”
14
James
The timing was less than ideal, but it could not be helped. I attempted to hide my panic from Ainsley when I found the parchment with her name, but no amount of pretending could make it less frightening for me. It was impossible to know if we were being watched. I still did not know where the enemy waited. The sooner I got us inside the walls of Bellgard, the better.
I barely knew the girl, yet I already cared for her. No one should have known that. I refused to believe she was being targeted because of me, but in some ways that would be the least frightening possibility. The other possibilities involved my father’s followers knowing about her for another reason. If I had more time I would have tracked down the professor myself to make sure he was who he seemed to be, but it would be faster to find Stan. On a vacation or not, he could be found.
After a period of denial, Ainsley finally accepted that staying home was not an option. I only hoped that when all was said and done she would not hate me. Either way, my decision was the right one. I could not leave her alone.
We left the garden behind us and moved into an open field. If we hurried, we could make it back to Bellgard before dark.
“It’s much warmer here.” She pulled off
her coat.
“There is some positive thinking.” I held out my arm to take the coat.
She shook her head. “I can carry it myself.”
“I can put it in your bag if you prefer.” I carried both of our bags.
“I can take that too.”
I shook my head. “No. I have it.” There was no chance I was turning it over.
“Why? You don’t have to play chivalrous games with me.”
“There is no game here. I know you are capable of carrying it, but you have had a long enough night as it is.” Eventually she would get used to being treated the way she deserved.
“You haven’t slept either.”
“No, but I am not in a new world for the first time.”
“You were once.”
“I was.” Years and years ago. I grabbed her coat.
“When?” She made a face, but did not reach to take the coat back. I took that as a win.
“The very first time I was young. Very young, and all I did was step inside for a few minutes. I spent months in Charleston in High School. Like I told you.”
“Why were you here this time? I mean the other night.”
“To get wasted at a bar where people don’t know me.” I looked away. It was not something I was proud of.
“No, be serious. Tell me the truth.”
“That is the truth. You saw what happened the night I showed up.”
“But why did you come back today? Or yesterday?” She looked up at the sky. “This whole night and day thing is confusing.”
“You get used to it eventually.”
“But why were you there? I don’t believe it was just to fix a bassinet.”
“No.” I stayed alert as we crossed through the open field. “We will be at the village where I left my horse soon.”
“Maybe this isn’t the best time to tell you, but I’m really not a fan of horses.”
“Not a fan? They are beautiful animals.”
“They are very beautiful, from afar.”
“Have you ever ridden one?” I watched her closely. She had so many little tells, but I was only beginning to understand them. I knew so little about her childhood, and I sensed I would need to understand it more fully before I really understood her. As much as I disliked dwelling in the past, occasionally it was necessary in order to fully understand someone.
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