Rivals (Book 2 of The Warden series)

by Felicia Jedlicka

  “I think we would have ended up here eventually anyway. He just sped it up so he could get some peace.” Ethan helped her up, and she went through another bout of coughing, which he again patted her back to assist.

  “How could five hours give him peace?” she asked. “Doesn’t he know we’ll be arguing more after five hours than when we left?”

  “The time bubble doesn’t follow the same timeline as the prison. Come on.” Ethan ushered her upstream to change the subject. He didn’t want to delve into the question-and-answer portion of their excursion yet. “We’ll be safer if we can stay out of view. I know a few places we can go. No luxury hotels, though.”

  An hour later they found the first of his three spots: An old shack of a cabin, built between two mountainous rocks. The wood structure was so overgrown with ivy and moss that it looked invisible to the glancing eyes.

  Inside, the one-room structure held a fireplace with a cooking pot, a bed with moth-eaten sheets, a counter with base cupboards, and a single rocking chair accompanied by a banjo.

  Cori looked over the room with reserved revulsion. “Certainly not the Hilton.”

  “It’s a lot better than the other two places. Just be glad we got the river entrance.”

  “Yes, apart from almost drowning, I was just thinking that.”

  He smiled at her quip and moved to search the cupboards. “If we’re lucky… and we’re not.” He pulled out a can of lima beans.

  “I don’t suppose there is a change of clothes in there?” Cori asked.

  Ethan looked at her wet clothes. Her jeans were no doubt heavy with moisture and her t-shirt was bordering on being part of a bar contest. “Check beneath the mattress, there might be some pajamas.”

  Cori lifted the flimsy mattress and pulled out a flannel nightgown with more holes than the sheets. “I don’t think this qualifies as clothing anymore.” She held it up for him to see.

  “Sorry. Soggy clothes it is.” Ethan threw her the can of beans. “If you can open that we’ll at least have something to eat for breakfast. I’m going to get some wood to start a fire.” He stopped at the entrance and tapped the doorknob. He looked back at Cori, debating how much authority he should exert on her. There was no official ranking between them, but he considered himself, at least in this situation, to be in charge. He didn’t want to be overbearing, but she did have a tendency to find trouble. He was certain it was just in her nature, but many of her entanglements could have been avoided if she had just made smarter choices. “Will you stay here?” he asked, so he didn’t sound like it was an order.

  Her brow crinkled. “I have nowhere to be.”

  His lips ticked into a smile. That would have to be good enough. He left her alone to figure out the lima beans.

  Outside he managed to find plenty of dead wood. He picked up the driest pieces and a little brush for kindling. Upon his return to the cabin, he saw the smoke stack already going. He dropped his bundle and ran back to the cabin.

  Bursting in the door, prepared to fight whatever wizard had intruded, he found Cori alone. She was crouched beside the fire wrapped in a sheet. Ethan approached her with shoulders squared and ready to fight with her instead. “I told you to stay here.”

  “Wait.” She stood and held up her hands in surrender. “Watch.” She stepped to the back wall of the cabin and opened a trap door. Inside the cubby was a stack of wood. “It even comes with its own lighter.” She grabbed two flint rocks stashed with the wood and tapped a spark from them.

  Ethan breathed a sigh of relief and approached her. He looked over her outfit. “What are you wearing?” he asked indignantly, despite the smile on his face.

  “A sheet. My clothes are drying on the rafters.” She pointed up to the wooden beams holding her clothes, including her unmentionables. Ethan shied away from the lace white bra hanging just above his head. “Don’t worry, it’s not mistletoe.” Cori laughed. She stopped and grabbed her side. “I bruised deeper than I thought.”

  “What am I supposed to wear?” Ethan said, leaning against the “kitchen” cupboards.

  “I left the fitted sheet.” She pulled the tattered bottom sheet off the bed and tossed it to him.

  He observed the moth snack. “It’s full of holes.”

  She smiled. “As long as the holes don’t line up with anything special, you’ll be perfectly prudish.” She laughed again, then hissed in discomfort. “Damn it.”

  “What is wrong with you?”

  “Sore, I guess.”

  Ethan shook his head. “Take a deep breath.” She did so with no problem. “Raise your arms.” She checked her knot on her sheet and raised her arms. He reached over to feel her side. She flinched, but didn’t pull away from him as he searched down her side for any source of pain. His concern was a bruised rib, but there was only one thing that preceded her pain. “Laugh.”

  “What?” She raised an eyebrow and put down her arms.

  “Go on.”

  She attempted to laugh, but it was forced, and didn’t amount to more than a giggle. “See, nothing.”

  “Yeah, nothing,” he said, even more curious of the pain. “Turn around,” he instructed.

  Cori took a baby step back. “Why?” Ethan tried not to be offended by it.

  “Because I’d like some privacy.” He pulled off his shirt before she had turned around. He didn’t see any reason to hide what she had already seen last night. She smirked at his exhibition. He tipped his brow as if to double-dog dare her and started to unzip his pants. She spun around before he made it to the end of his zipper.

  “Are you sure about that?” she muttered.

  After he slipped out of his clothes, he wrapped the sheet around him, careful to place the holes inconspicuously. He slipped his underwear on his head like a hat and asked Cori to turn around. She turned, and he did his best hula dance for her. She laughed heartily at his absurdity until pain arched her back.

  “See, now that isn’t normal.” He pulled the underwear off his head started examining her back. He poked and prodded at her spine to see if a disc had slipped or vertebrae had twisted.

  “Hey, I haven’t covered all the holes back there.”

  “Let me look behind you,” he said.

  “You are!” She ripped away from him and found sanctuary in a corner.

  Ethan leaned against the wrought-iron frame at the base of the bed. “I need to see over your shoulder,” he explained.

  “Why?”

  “You may not be having internal pain, well at least not… I don’t want to jump to conclusions. Can I just please look over your shoulder?”

  Cori threw her head back against the wall and grunted. “I hate you, I hate you, I hate you,” she grumbled as she slunk back over to him.

  “Oh, relax. Bring your shoulders back.” He pushed her shoulders to attention. “Good, now hold still, please.” He held her shoulders in a tight grip as he leaned in over her right shoulder. He stopped just next to her ear to whisper to her. “I thought the underwear was a nice touch, don’t you?”

  She chuckled.

  Ethan peeked over her shoulder hurriedly just in time to get a view of a tiny rat-sized gremlin creature. The little bugger hissed and slashed at his face. “Ahh!” He pulled back, wiping his cheek where it had nicked him. “Little bastard.”

  “What?” Cori spun around trying to find the source of the excitement. “What happened?”

  “You have a demon parasite,” he said.

  “What?” She spun around, grasping at her back.

  “Cori, it’s not visible to you. It’s a demon.”

  “Get it off me!” She spun around again, coming dangerously close to losing her sheet.

  “Cori, it’s not a spider! I can’t just brush it off you.”

  “Why is it there?” She settled for standing by the fire and using a framed mirror from the wall to look behind her.

  “It’s a sorrow demon. It jumps on when someone experiences a great loss.”

  She stopped sea
rching for the creature and put down her mirror. “Oh. How long does it stay?”

  Ethan could see her put the pieces together in her mind. He could also tell she was agitated by the idea of anything demon or otherwise being attached to her. “As long as you are actively sorrowful or until someone… or something replaces the loss.”

  “I don’t consider myself actively sorrowful.” She stood up and adjusted her sheet. “I don’t constantly mourn…”

  “Last night you said that you feel guilty when you don’t mourn him. That demon has been taking advantage of that. He reminds you of him, when you haven’t thought of him in a while, doesn’t he?”

  Her face contorted with this new revelation. “I thought my mind was just stuck on a thought.”

  “Yeah, his thought. It’s a very limited psychic link. He can’t influence you, but he can drive you berserk if you don’t make an active effort to ignore him.”

  “What do you mean by ‘replace the loss’?”

  “In this case, I think you would need to acquaint yourself with another.” She shook her head, not understanding his subtext. Ethan smiled through blushed cheeks. “You need to get laid.”

  Cori’s face muddled with a mix of emotions. After a moment her chin raised. “Okay, let’s do that.”

  “Huh?” Before Ethan could question her thought process, she had shoved him over the bed rail and onto the bed. “Cori…”

  Cori jumped on him and kissed him fervently on the mouth. He kissed her back, allowing himself to get a taste of her before fighting against every will and desire in his body. He pushed her away. “What the hell, Cori?”

  “I want this thing off me.”

  Ethan could see the determined panic in her eyes. Cori was not a patient person. Impetuous, impulsive, reckless, that was her all the time, but Ethan wasn’t. He had no intention of letting Cori throw herself at him just to get a sorrow demon off her back. Besides, if she didn’t really want to be with him, she could potentially spiral herself deeper into the creature’s clutches. “You don’t need to do this. It will go away on its own. You just have to be patient.”

  “This will be faster.”

  Ethan rolled her off him before she could go in for another kiss. She landed with a thunk on the floor. He leaned over to look at her. “I may have simplified the solution by phrasing it as I did. Getting laid is not the solution, but introducing a loving relationship into your life would distract you from your sorrow and break the demon’s connection to you.”

  Cori sat up and tucked her knees to her chin to pout over her circumstance.

  “I wish it was that simple. God, how I wish it was.” Ethan moved away from her before he thought about what he had just done. He knew Cori’s feelings for him were changing. He could see that she looked at him differently. Unfortunately, they didn’t have the option of a one-night stand or a short-term relationship. They were stuck with each other in good times and bad whether they liked or not.

  She was in a fragile state with the loss of Vince, and anything he did to push her, or even too openly receive her, could backfire on him. The bottom line was she needed to come to him, of her own free will, without any strings, or he wouldn’t let himself have her. No matter how frustrated he got.

  Ethan stood by the fire warming himself. Cori must have realized how stupid she was being and followed him to the fire. “Sorry, I’m just used to looking for the easy way out.”

  “Just because I’m a guy doesn’t make me easy,” he snapped.

  Cori smiled warmly. “I meant the situation. I thought I was done running away from my problems.”

  Ethan nodded. He raised his hand to brush a hair from her face. She didn’t flinch. They locked eyes for a moment and he pulled his hand back. He could hardly move without creating an opening for intimacy.

  They both looked into the fire.

  “So when are you going to tell me how long five hours is?”

  “Five days.”

  6

  Ethan rolled over on the bed and peeked at the floor in front of the fireplace. After the sum total of debate about the stench on the mattress versus the hard floor, Cori opted to take the floor. In hindsight, Ethan thought she might have gotten the better deal.

  Cori wasn’t by the fireplace anymore.

  He sat up and scanned the room. She was gone. He looked again, hoping his foggy morning eyes were to blame, but the one-room cabin was a quick study. With his pants already serving as his pajamas, he finished his ensemble with shoes and shirt and ran outside.

  He didn’t have to run far before he saw Cori speaking with an older gentleman in gauzy robes: the telltale sign of a wizard.

  Cori hadn’t slept the best, but there wasn’t much point in complaining since she had chosen the floor to begin with. Truth be told, she had been tempted to slip into the bed with Ethan, but given the previous circumstances, she didn’t want to make things any more awkward.

  It had been too early to wake Ethan, but too late for her to try to get back to sleep. Instead, she slipped on her shoes and went outside to find something to eat.

  Without going too far, she couldn’t find any berries or seeds, but she did find wild mint and lavender. She wasn’t sure what the combination would taste like, but stranger teas had been created.

  On a small bush at the edge of the path, she saw something resembling a pink rose and she leaned down to smell it.

  “I wouldn’t smell that one, if I were you,” said a nasal voice behind her. “Quite the nap you’ll take.”

  She cursed under her breath and looked back at the graying man with slicked-back hair and a goatee. She smiled broadly. It was the only defense she could think of, outside of just playing dead.

  “Women don’t exist here. Are you a spell?”

  She stopped her foolish grinning and considered what she could be if she wasn’t a woman. “I don’t know for sure. Do you think I am a spell?” she asked.

  “No, I think if you were a spell on me, you would be naked.”

  Cori looked down at her blue jean attire. “I am not naked, nor do I plan to be.”

  “If you are not a spell, you are a costume.” The gray man raised his hands as if to perform an act of martial arts on her.

  “A costume,” Cori laughed. “How can I be a costume?”

  “Who is under this vision? Mercledes? Dolf?”

  Cori shook her head. “If I were those individuals I wouldn’t have tried to smell that dangerous flower.”

  “Maybe, but Dolf is rather stupid. If you are not a costume, or a spell, then you are real.”

  Cori nodded. As soon as she did, the gray man’s eyes changed from curiosity to cunning. He took a step at her and she stepped back.

  “I haven’t felt a real woman in decades.”

  “And you won’t now.” Ethan’s voice came up from behind.

  Cori looked back in relief. As soon as she did, he stepped between them, facing her. He grabbed her left shoulder with his left hand, while his right hand came across her face.

  The impact to her face was light, but he shoved her shoulder hard, sending her flying to the ground. To the wizard it would have appeared to be a harsh slap. She saw the gray man still studying her. She rubbed her cheek for effect.

  “Who are you?” The gray man barely looked at him.

  “I am the wizard Ethan.”

  “I am–”

  “You are the wizard Demnok,” Ethan interrupted him. “I know of your feats.”

  “I know none of yours,” Demnok challenged.

  “I am not so boisterous in the retelling of my tales. My work speaks for itself. Perhaps you know of the raid in Pavilion, or the quest of Wii?”

  Demnok paused. “Yes, I know of these triumphs. I have heard many great things of Wii.”

  “My name is the only name to be associated with these feats. Do you deny my privilege to this woman? Do you challenge my experience and capability?”

  Demnok paused again. He eyed Cori. “No,” he said reluctantly. �
�I shall explore this name Ethan further.” Demnok threw his stole over his shoulder. “Till we meet again.” He strolled off with his nose in the air.

  After he was out of earshot, Ethan looked to Cori. She had kept up the act of a traumatized child until he looked at her.

  Cori waited for him to speak or yell. He just looked at her. When she couldn’t take his gaze anymore, she spoke. “Oh hell, get it over with.”

  He looked taken aback. “Get what over with?”

  “Aren’t you waiting to yell at me for leaving the cabin?”

  “No.” Ethan shook his head. “I was waiting for you to yell at me for manhandling you.”

  “Was it necessary?” she asked.

  “Very much,” Ethan said sternly.

  “Then no worries. We’ve done worse to each other over the last Twinkie.”

  “True.” Ethan offered her a hand up, which she took. “Was leaving the cabin necessary?”

  Cori grimaced and shoved her herbs in his face. “Tea,” she followed up with a toothy grin.

  He pulled her hand down and smelled the herbs. “Can’t argue that.” He put his hand on her back and gently rubbed along her spine. The soothing gesture felt good, which consequently made her a little uncomfortable. “I didn’t hurt you, did I?”

  She shook her head.

  “Good.” He stopped the tender contact and cuffed her on the back before heading back to the cabin.

  Cori shook off the residual sensation from his touch, along with the mental taunts from her sorrow demon.

  7

  With a very long walk ahead of them, Ethan was glad to have tea in the morning, but it only staved off his hunger for a few hours. He had hoped to forage for something while walking, but everything seemed to be out of season. The thick grassy underbrush left out the option for mushrooms, and the tall lanky trees were not the fruit-bearing type.

  A misty rain came in from the cliffs far to the east, leaving them cold and wet. The same misty rain that rarely left the time bubble without a dense blanket of ominous fog. It was good for keeping a low profile, but bad for traveling.