by Angie West
Chapter Two
They All Come to Grandview
Mike was back? My mind tossed the question around like a ping pong ball on steroids but I refused to throw it out in the open like that. Of course Mike was back. Why wouldn't he be? After all, I'd known he was coming, hadn't I?
Claire hadn't made any secret of the fact. If anything, I'd had ample reminders that Mike would soon be back in Terlain. And not just Mike, but the entire Roberts clan. Claire's parents and sister and brother-in-law would have been traveling with him. But somehow, in my mind the only news that really mattered was Mike's return. It wasn't a welcome revelation.
For months, since I had found the package he'd left at the portal-the place in the woods east of the village of Lerna, where two worlds collided and commingled-I had been trying to reconcile his impending arrival. And yet I still wasn't prepared, not really, not if Claire's announcement had been enough to rock me to the core like this.
I took a deep breath, fully aware of the fact that I lingered somewhere between desperation and panic. Pulling myself back to the situation at hand, I managed a tight smile for Claire's benefit.
If the wide-eyed look she gave me was anything to go by, she wasn't fooled, not one bit. But then, I hadn't expected her to be. She knew I was less than thrilled with the idea of running into her only brother again. And we would run into one another, I realized with a pang.
"Aries?" She caught her bottom lip between her teeth for a second before taking a deep breath and spreading her arms wide. "I can't change the past," she began in typical Claire fashion, going straight to the heart of the matter. "But I know that my brother won't care about any of it."
"You can't know that," I argued before quickly looking away, focusing my attention on some vague, distant point on the shore that I hardly noticed. I was very much afraid that right then, pain was naked in my eyes for all the world to see.
"I do know it," she insisted gently but fervently, letting her arms fall to her sides and taking a step forward.
I glanced at her then, silently telling her to stay where she was. When I was hanging on by a thread was the last time I wanted sympathy from anyone, even Claire, though I knew she would only be put off for so long. Sooner rather than later, she would hug me. I frowned and folded my arms across the blue-green lace at my chest, cold all over in an instant.
Our eyes clashed and memories of the night we were taken by Kahn's guards stretched between us, bonding us in an odd sort of way. We had become good friends, kindred spirits even, in the time that had elapsed since the nightmare had passed.
Logic dictated that we would have become friends on some level regardless, even if we hadn't gone through hell and back together, because I'd been in love with her older brother, with Mike. Hopelessly, stupidly in love. Even if by that time he'd already been long gone.
But not anymore. The whispered thought flowed through my consciousness like a flower unfurling toward the sun. No! I narrowed my dark eyes and lifted my chin a notch. It didn't matter one damn bit that Mike Roberts was back. I wouldn't let it matter. He wouldn't hurt me a second time and I?I had nothing to give him now, even if I had been dumb enough to be so inclined.
"Give him a chance," Claire suggested in the same hushed, easy tone that plainly said she held out hope I would listen to reason.
Wasn't she in for a surprise. I snorted rather uncharitably, in control of my emotions again and not in any mood to play nice and be reasonable.
"I think I'm ready to call it a night."
"Sure." She nodded. "We can head home now."
"No." I shook my head ruefully. "I think I'll stay in the cottage tonight."
"But-"
"Claire, I'm just not ready to see him. Not yet, okay?"
"I guess I already knew that." She sighed and bent to palm a small, intricate purple shell before plucking it from the sand and slipping it into one of the satiny cups of her bikini top. "Either way, you don't have anything to worry about tonight. They won't arrive at our house until sometime tomorrow morning, so there's no reason why you can't come home and have dinner. You have to," she rushed on when I would have opened my mouth to form some polite refusal. Clearly, she had no intention of giving me the chance to beg off.
"I thought you said they've already come back, that they're already here."
"They crossed the portal today but decided to spend the night in Lerna. Mom and Dad are tired and I guess Megan isn't feeling too hot, either," Claire explained. Her voice was tinged with worry. "She hasn't had the baby yet, you know."
"She's close, though, isn't she?" I asked, easily recalling past information Claire had shared with me about her sister's due date and doing some quick math. I winced. Megan Roberts was damn close.
Claire nodded dismally. "I think they were trying to wait until she delivered. Obviously that wasn't possible." She bit her lip again. "I hope crossing the portal hasn't hurt the baby."
"I'm sure the child is fine." Or at least as sure as I could be without ever having crossed the portal myself. "Ashley didn't suffer any ill effects from crossing and she's done it twice," I pointed out with calm logic. "And she was four the first time, wasn't she?"
"Five," Claire corrected absently, gazing out over the lake. "You're probably right, of course. But I think I'm pretty much doomed to worry about them all night, especially since they're spending the night in Lerna."
"Well, I have to agree with you there. Lerna isn't the safest place to seek lodging for the night. Still, it's safer now that we've secured it." I shrugged.
"You mean what's left of it," she muttered.
"Yes."
It was a shame. The town of Lerna had once been a thriving middle-class community that rimmed the forest where the portal was located. Quaint shops had lined a red brick paved downtown surrounded by peaceful, friendly neighborhoods and landscaping that boasted careful attention to detail and pride of ownership. Nowadays it looked like a bomb had gone off in the center of town. Concrete sidewalks had literally been scoured and left to litter the streets in crumbled, broken heaps.
The stores no longer glittered in the evenings with antique gas lights and warm laughter. Kahn's men and his beasts had raided the town more than a year past and cut a wide swath of destruction through the once-beautiful wooded city. What they hadn't broken or killed had been looted. Thinking about those early days of the revolution was enough to start a slow burn in the center of my chest. I took a deep breath and forced my hands to unclench at my sides.
"Your family isn't alone, I take it?" It stood to reason that Claire and Mark had sent people to meet the Roberts and guide them in. After all, how else would Claire be aware of their arrival in Terlain?
"No, they aren't alone. Mark and a dozen men are with them. I think some of the nymphs are with them, too."
"Oh?" I covered my surprise with well-practiced nonchalance. None of the nymphs had mentioned making a trip to Lerna to retrieve Claire's family.
Claire smiled. "Everyone is curious about the man who stole your heart."
I spared her a single glance before turning back to the lake.
"I have no heart."
