First Kiss

by Tara Brown

  Her eyes find Bash behind me, “Strange pet for a girl such as yourself.”

  I shake my head, “He is not a pet.” My tone is dangerous. “I am the one you want.”

  She smiles wider, “Excellent. One such as you only has one hope in the world.”

  A scowl has permanently claimed my face, “What is that?”

  “True love. Only true love has a chance at saving something like you.” She nods at him, “Your Highness.”

  “What am I?”

  Her eyes find me again, “A daughter of the black blood. You’re in a dream right now but soon, my love, you will awaken and you will have to make a choice.” She looks past me, again at Bash. “The only thing that can save something like you is him—true love.”

  I am about ready to just pull her friggin’ hair out, and mine, and maybe burn the village to the ground. I am so tired of non-answers and half answers and no answers. I open my mouth but she shakes her head, “Just give it a moment. It’ll settle in here in a second. The fact you have found us means he has found you, and you are close to the surface.”

  “Can you help me?” I ask.

  She shakes her head, “No. I can only tell you that when you awake, you must not fall for the traps they lay.” She looks back at Bash, “You must go and find her. Keep her safe.”

  I turn and watch as Bash runs into the woods, away from me. I look back at the woman. She walks towards me. Her dark hair and dark eyes seem familiar. She is stunning, and yet, the most frightening thing I have ever seen.

  She lifts a pale hand up to my face, running her fingertips down my cheek. “You are so special. It is time for you to awaken and claim your rightful place amongst us, protector of the king of wolves.” She leans in, pressing her ruby-red lips against mine. They are cold and suddenly I am in the dark.

  I am alone in the dark, looking up at the night’s sky. There are stars everywhere but I cannot lift my head. I have a horrid feeling that I am lost in the woods and none of it was real. I have gone crazy like my mother. I have killed myself in Lakeland and none of this was real.

  My breath is ice and my body is stone. I am alone in the dark. I watch as a star shoots across the sky. It doesn’t go in a straight line. Instead, it arches and drops. I watch it fall, getting brighter and brighter. Suddenly, it’s in my face and I can feel the heat of it as it lands. My eyes shoot open and I am in a dark room. The light is burning me inside. My body doesn’t want to move. I am frozen still, but there is a warmth there with me. I blink, forcing my eyes to focus on the stone ceiling above me. A star is carved into the ceiling. I can barely make it out in the gray light.

  “Erralynn?” I turn my head, wincing at my sore neck. Bash is there, hovering next to my face. I smile as a tear rolls down his cheek, “I found you.”

  I scowl, “What?” He lifts me to a sitting position and scoops me up into his arms. He is acting like I am a fragile thing.

  He cradles me to his chest, “I have searched so long. I am sorry it took me this many years to find you.”

  I push against him, “I was just with you!”

  He shakes his head, “No. You have been asleep this many years. I have searched high and low.”

  I open my mouth but I feel something. The star in my brain flashes its bright light, and I remember something I did not before. “There was an apple and I was a girl.”

  He nods against my face, “Your sister fed you an apple with a spell. You fell into a deep sleep and she hid you, slowly using your dark magic as her own.”

  I shake my head, “But I lived. I lived a decade in another world. You were with me.” When I turn to see him, I see it. The scars are just fading.

  He shakes his head, “You have

  not left this room in ten years.”

  I look around at the small stone room. It isn’t real. It can’t be. I can’t be here. Tears stream my cheeks, “It was real. I was in another world. I was there with friends—Lune. You were there. It was an old house at the end of a lane. I was cursed. There was a life there—you have to remember that.”

  “I am so sorry it took me so long to find you. None of that has happened. It must have been a dream.”

  I shove at him, “I remember things I can’t possibly have made up, like the Internet and TV and college. Things we do not have here.”

  He nods, “It was a dream.”

  I struggle from his grip, trying to stand but my legs are like a newborn fawn’s. I fall to the stone floor, a sobbing mess. “I remember Sam. I remember Rosie. I remember it all. Baylor. She is dead in that world and my mother has claimed her body and her magic. I remember. Do not tell me I don’t remember.”

  He wraps himself around me, holding me tightly. “I know someone who can explain.” He lifts me up and carries me outside. The shocking cold of the outdoors hits like a ton of bricks. It is dark and there is snow on the ground. He climbs onto a horse and holds me tight to him. I fall asleep again, scared I may never wake or when I do, it will be some strange future I cannot help but imagine.

  Chapter Twenty

  “She is still sleeping.” I stir hearing Bash speaking softly.

  A woman sighs, “Wake her, Your Grace. She needs to wake up. We need to get her away from here before the witches realize we have moved her. Or worse—that we woke her.”

  I open an eye to see a small room in which a fire and candles are making all the light. I am home, I assume. Unless Lakeland has started using candles to light the rooms. Bash kneels in front of me, “You’re awake.”

  I nod, “My head hurts.”

  A glass is passed to me by a small female hand. I look up to see Heidi there. I smile, ”Heidi.”

  She returns my smile, “Your Grace. I am so happy you are awake.” Her eyes dart to Bash’s, “I didn’t expect you to know me.”

  I shake my head, “Are we back in Lakeland?”

  She looks confused, “Where?”

  “Lakeland? You came with me and my mother there. Bash was there and Alex and Tim, your son, and Lance. We were in Lakeland for a decade.”

  She shakes her head, “You have been sleeping for a long time; your dreams are confused with your realities.”

  “No, I remember things clearly. I remember you.”

  “That is odd, considering you have never met my son, Tim.” She helps me sit up. I take the drink she has and take a sip of it. “What is the last thing you remember?”

  I look at the fire, just as a memory I have not seen in ages, finds its way to the forefront of my mind. I have a thousand memories, but the one that stands out is so clear compared to the others. “I was ten. My mother was at the house with me. She was angry about something. Baylor had done something or wasn’t doing something. She called her a waste of a life. It was cruel. I found Baylor weeping. She looked at me and whispered, ‘Run, run Lynnie.’ I ran to the kitchen but it was empty. Cook wasn’t there, no one was. Mother came in and handed me an apple, smiling like she had never been angry. She looked wild, positively medieval in fact. Her hair was everywhere and her eyes were darting about. She stroked my head and smiled, but I could see the rage beneath it. She told me she had apologized to Bay and she was sorry for shouting. She said she wasn’t herself lately, and I must be a good girl and obey her. The apple was her way of making amends. It was my favorite kind, the red ones that are crisp and sweet. Mother was still pregnant and blamed her moodiness on the baby.” I look down at my hands, “My hands were so much smaller then. The apple was so big and red. She asked me to take a bite and I did. The room turned sideways and I watched the apple roll across the floor, away from me. When I woke, I was at Mary’s house.” But the truth is that Mary’s house is somehow not the way I recall it. Everything feels like it’s in a pile that must be sorted.

  Heidi’s eyes dart from me to Bash again. He sits next to the fire. Heidi puts her hands on mine, “My dear girl, it was your sister who put a spell on you. She locked you away in the tower, asleep inside of a casket made of glass. You have been there this many
years. Your mother is missing and we fear she is dead.”

  “I remember it being my mother who gave me the apple. Why does it matter? There is no spell. I was in Lakeland—I was a Lake girl. A curse girl.”

  Heidi and Bash have the same confused look. I see a mirror on the wall. I struggle to get up and walk across the cold floor to it. I stumble and twitch as my muscles flex and strain. I can feel them working hard to get me across the room. When I make it to the mirror, I am stunned. I look exactly the same as I did in my dream. I am twenty still, or again. I don’t know which it is. But in this dream or reality—whichever it might be—I am pale and weak. My hair has no luster and my eyes are dark as if exhausted. The bags under my eyes are heavy and I am almost not recognizable. “How have I become this?” I ask the mirror.

  A face appears in the mirror. She is me, and yet, not. She is beautiful where I am dull and lackluster. “Lynnie, you are awake, finally. You must stop her. She has stolen most of my magic.” She gives me a look, like I should know the story.

  I shake my head, “What are you?”

  She sighs, “Mother has cursed me to walk in a world that is not ours and with little to no magic. I tried to save you. I tried to make you run. Look how you have aged. I didn’t believe the mirror when I checked up on you from Lakeland. Lynnie, you must run. Mother discovered I did not have the black blood when I turned eighteen. The prophecy said that one of us would have it. One of the daughters of the moon. You and I and Rosie are not father’s daughters. We are the daughters of the blood moon. That’s why Mother has cursed you. She knows it will be you who has the dark magic she seeks. She cursed you to sleep, so they might harvest your magic on the blood moon, without you even waking.”

  I gasp, “Who are you?”

  “She might not look like you, child, but she is you. We’ll get you a bath and clean you up. You’ll see the difference a hot meal and a hot tub can do.” Heidi comes to stand next to me, but I can’t see either of us in the mirror. “You are a special girl, Lynnie.”

  I point at the mirror, “Not me—her. Who is she? The face in the mirror, I know she is not me.”

  The girl in the mirror laughs, “I am your sister, you fool. I’m Baylor.”

  Heidi and Bash both stand next to me, “What girl? That is you.”

  Baylor laughs harder, “They cannot see me. Only you can. I cannot come through the mirror, because I don’t have the magic. You have to bring me through. My magic is so small and weak now.”

  I look at Bash, “Can I have a minute? I think I’m in shock.”

  “One minute. We must leave, Erralynn, before your mother comes and discovers you awake.” He and Heidi leave the small room. I look back at the mirror, and she is still there.

  She smiles at me but I shake my head, “How did I live a whole other life? I have lived in Lakeland for a decade. I loved Sam and was best friends with Lune. I sang and Mary beat me. I remember it—I was there.”

  She gives me a long stare before answering. “Dear God, you have seen my life. Lynnie, I am there—here—I am in Lakeland. I love Sam and I am best friends with Lune. I sing at the bar and Mary has beaten me since I arrived with Mother.”

  I shake my head as silent tears fall from my eyes, “But I saw it. Rosie was there. You came and pushed her through the mirror.”

  Baylor looks as lost as I feel. “They tricked me—Mother and our aunt. They made me do the spell for the portal, but I thought I was saving you from the deep sleep you were in. They said that you had been cursed by the moon to punish Mother for her anger at me. She said she was so sorry and we should all work together to save you. I didn’t know at the time, Mother had put you in it. I suspected but our aunt had always been so kind to me and she was there at Mother’s side. She told me we had to do it. We had to save you by making the portal to take you to a place where you would be safe from magic.”

  “You worked at the Lachlan mansion for Bash?”

  She scowls, “No. I have been there, but it’s a dirty, old, rundown shack now. The ruins are disgusting. I’ve been there with Sam before.”

  “Heidi, Lance, Tim, and Alex—they weren’t there with you?”

  She shakes her head, “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I fear you have been with me the entire time, but no one could see you. You have shadowed me perhaps. Either way, it doesn’t matter now. Mother cursed us both. I have been forced to live in this hellhole and you have been forced to sleep. You will be her greatest adversary, I believe. I found a book once, at our aunt’s.”

  I start to laugh, as frustrated tears seep from my eyes, “I know. I remember it.”

  She cries with me, “Lynnie, she has done something to your memories. You must look deep into your own eyes and call the veil to be lifted from your face so you may see the truth of everything.”

  “You’re alive, Bay, and you don’t want me dead?”

  She sobs, covering her face. “My sweet sister, I was a fool. I never wanted you dead. I just wanted your future. I have wronged you. I wanted to be queen and to be the most powerful witch. I want to help you now, but I am trapped here. I need your help. Ask the veil to lift. All I know is you must look deeply into your own eyes to gain the power.”

  I shake my head, “I don’t know how.” But she is gone, and I am back to looking at my tired self in the mirror. I lean into the reflection and stare into my dark eyes. They are hazel almost, instead of blue and green. “Lift the veil from my eyes.”

  Nothing happens. I blink, “Lift the veil from my eyes.” Again nothing happens. Bash comes into the room. “What are you doing?”

  “I need to lift the veil from my eyes so I can free Baylor.”

  He looks confused, “Your sister is evil; she is not in need of being freed, only killed. I’m so sorry. We have suspected her of being the evil witch for some time, and we have reason to believe that she has killed your mother. A woman came and found me in the woods a fortnight ago. She told me of the place where I would find you. She knew of my search to find you, and of a cursed tower where you had been hidden away. She told me it was time for you to awaken and end the curse put on this land. Your father is believed dead as well. I am sorry.”

  I shake my head, “How do I lift the veil from my eyes?”

  He sighs, “There is no veil. You must find a way to accept the changes in the world we are in. I know it’s a lot for you, but I’m here for you. I have searched for a decade for you.”

  “Because we are engaged to be married, and you are the secret Duke of Red Falls?”

  His eyes flash, “How do you know that?”

  “I told you, I have lived this. I have lived this life already. I know in my heart I love you more than anything in the world, even though the last time I truly recall seeing you in this world was when I was ten. I also know you are a wolf and a man. I know my kiss healed your scars when you found me. I know your brother and my sister were to wed. I know the King of Norland, Erik, is your cousin. I know Heidi is my servant and Tim is her son and Lance is my driver. Alex is your best friend. I know a great many things there is no way I should know. I know about a world that I have no right to know about. One where science and technology have brought them from one Dark Age into another.”

  His jaw drops, “You have been able to watch us all this time?”

  I shake my head, “I have lived it.” I point to the mirror, “I can see my sister in the mirror. She speaks to me from the land I lived in once, and yet, it seems it was her and not me at all. I know if I can find my magic, all of it, I can bring her out of the mirror.”

  He slumps onto the bed, looking more confused than I have ever seen him. “Your magic is within you. You are a born witch. It is there. But I beg of you, do not lift any veil or do any bidding for your evil sister.”

  “I don’t feel my magic. I think she’s right—I think I have to lift the veil.” I smile at him, “I trust my sister. My mother is the evil one. She is the one here doing the wicked things. She has you all fooled. Help me find
my magic.”

  He shrugs, “When we were young, Baylor sang and magical things happened. I remember watching her once. She grew a flower from a seed by humming a song to it.”

  I remember her doing it, just not him watching with me. I nod and turn to the mirror, closing my eyes. I place my hands on the mirror and start to hum. But nothing happens. I can’t even carry a tune.

  I look back at him, “Baylor sings, not me.”

  He sighs, “What do you think your gift is?”

  “I don’t know.” But I think I do. I turn and look at him. “Humor me for a moment.”

  His eyes shine like he wants to say something as I step closer to him, but he doesn’t. I lift my hands to his face, running them down his cheeks. There is fear in his eyes, but it is matched with a fire I recall. I pull his face down as I lift up into the kiss. Our lips meet, softly at first but as my tongue grazes his lips, we are both caught up in it. His arms wrap around me, lifting me up into him. My hands slide up around his neck as our mouths make love to each other, true love.

  The flash of light happens in my head again, like the star is awakening. I kiss him harder and try to force myself to envision my sister there in the room with me. A fire shoots from the ceiling down on me. I fall backward as it fills me with something I can’t explain. When the bright light is gone, I see the terror in Bash’s eyes. I want to say something to him, but I fall toward the mirror, my hands slipping into the glass. They are grabbed and pulled into the glass that has become liquid. I jerk back, dragging something back with me. Bash seizes me, pulling me into his arms.

  I look at the girl on the floor in front of me. She lifts her face, and tears instantly stream down my cheeks and hers.

  “You freed me!” she cries out.

  Suddenly, I see it all. I reach my hand for hers and we touch for a moment only. The veil lifts when our eyes meet, “Look into my eyes, Sister. Take the last of the magic so she can’t.” She smiles and slowly starts to become particles, pieces of dust. The vision of her fades to nothing and then drops to the floor as a pile of ash. I scream but Bash covers my face and body with his. He holds me tightly as I sob into his arm.