by K T Munson
Leaning menacingly forward as she answered, “Everything.”
“Well you are kinda hot,” he said with that same cocky grin.
She took a sharp breath, her patience spent. “And I’ve been hit on in a lot better fashion than that. I was even serenaded by a killer leprechaun.”
A limo pulled up behind her and the door opened. Dimar got out with a smirk. “There you are.”
“Where did you get a limo?” she demanded and then thought better of the question. “Never mind, I don’t what to know what crimes you’ve committed.”
“Whoa,” the boy said behind her.
“Right,” she said as she climbed into the limo. “I forgot to mention the thousand-year-old demon lord.”
Dimar slid in behind her. “For the record, I am only three hundred and ninety-eight years old.”
Diana moved to the furthest side of the limo, away from him. “Semantics,” she said as Rocky slipped in and closed the door.
“I do not think you understand what that means,” Dimar said with a smirk.
“Dimar, we saw a Vindari,” Rocky said as the limo pulled away.
“A Vindari assassin here?” Diana didn’t like the worry in his voice.
“Of a high house,” Rocky said, tipping his head towards Diana. “He offered his hand.”
Dimar frowned at her. “There will be more who will come for your hand.”
“We need to go faster,” Diana said, wishing to get to the castle and get out of there. “Wait a minute, who is driving?”
“Alonzo,” Dimar said, gesturing towards the front. “He came with the car.”
Diana frowned. “I really don’t want to know what you did.”
Suddenly, there was a crackle and Roddy’s voice came out of Rocky’s mouth, loud and clear. “We have located the castle, sir.”
“Good,” Dimar confirmed. “Find a field and set the ship down.”
“Very well,” Roddy said, and then he was gone.
“You have android phones,” Diana said and couldn’t help but laugh.
“They are very secure lines,” Dimar responded, mystified by her laughter.
“Rocky,” Diana said, trying to catch her breath. “Please explain why that is funny.”
“There is a company on Earth that produces communicators called android phones,” Rocky explained.
Diana was nearly lost to hysterics and fought to get the words out, “Their little symbol….”
“It looks like a little tin can,” Rocky said, not amused.
“It is an alien robot,” she said, wiping away a tear. “If only the company knew how right they were.”
“You humans and your humor are very strange,” Dimar said.
“Another human would get it,” Diana said, leaning back as she mused to herself. “No such luck for you, spaceman.”
Chapter 22
It is true what they said about coming home. It doesn’t change, only you do. Since her perception of the world had changed so radically, she felt like a stranger on her own planet. As she stood on that English countryside and looked out over the rolling hills, it finally all made sense; she could never go home. Even if she rode in a limo, she could not deny she knew about Dimar’s spaceship. The invisible spaceship—it was hard not to giggle from the absurdity.
“Why is there water leaking from your eyes?” Rocky asked, concerned, as they stood just beyond the invisible spaceship and looked down at the castle.
His finger touched the tear on her cheek as she sucked in a shuddering breath. “Crying for my lost life,” she told him.
“But you are alive,” Ruby said, confused.
“I thought coming home would mean something, give me clarity, and it has.” Diana‘s eyebrows furrowed together. “But not in the way I expected.”
The massive stone castle stood stark against the English countryside. It looked more scar like than beautiful. Rocky rolled the tear back and forth on his finger, completely fascinated by it.
“It must be inconvenient to rain from your eyes,” Rocky said as the tear finally fell off his finger and to the ground. “I understand why gravity pulls the crying to the ground, but not why you are crying.”
“They’re called tears,” Diana explained, smiling despite herself. “We shed them when we are happy and when we are sad.”
Rocky’s eyes narrowed in concentration. “Gravity is simpler,” he finally declared.
“According to my people, everything is simpler than a woman’s mind,” Diana remarked with a laugh.
“That must be true,” Rocky agreed.
Diana called back over her shoulder. “We are losing light.”
A moment later, Dimar appeared with Roddy carrying a large square sack. The android was even less pleased to be going than Ruby looked to be left behind to finish repairing the ship. Diana didn’t wait for an answer. Instead she started down the hill towards the castle, letting her arms swing freely. The hill was steeper than she had first guessed. A few steps from the bottom, she paused, and let the grass brush against her jeans.
“It’s like a Jane Austen novel,” Diana whispered, looking across the untouched sprawling yards.
The castle was mostly hidden by the trees. She started forward again, moving towards the mostly untamed forest. A small part of her felt like she should be wearing an empire waist dress and a bonnet. Since she was walking, that would make her Elizabeth Bennet. She chuckled to herself as she decided Roddy was the obnoxious Mr. Collins.
Sparing a glance at Dimar she whispered to herself, “But are you Mr. Wickham or Mr. Darcy?”
Sheilding his eyes from the sun, his silky hair moved back from his face. Dimar was no Colin Firth, but he cut a figure like a bloody Greek god. For a moment she was really happy she didn’t have a sister who could run off with him instead. He turned to her, and when he saw her staring, he smiled that same infernal smile. Diana chided herself for being caught. Spinning around she stomped quickly towards the castle. She could say one thing for certain—the man had pride like Darcy.
Fortunately, books were never perfect replications of real life. They were simply works of fiction, and nothing more. She paused, glanced back, swallowed all of the saliva in her mouth, and determined to think of romance books no longer. Even if the Demon Lord following her belonged on the cover of one. Why did he have to be a pheromone-wielding alien?
Diana strode up to the castle wall. Her head tilted back as she tried to look up to the top. Frowning she realized she needed to focus on the task at hand. Her overactive imagination could wait.
“If you continue to frown like that, your face may never recover,” Dimar said. She jumped at how close his voice was.
She glared because it seemed the only sensible thing to do. “Don’t sneak up on me like that,” she snapped. “It’s rude.”
“I thought it was rude to stare,” Dimar retorted, smiling at her smugly. He was letting her know she had been caught.
“Glaring, you mean,” Diana countered, walking along the castle.
“Ogling, you mean,” he returned.
“I don’t know—” Diana suddenly tripped and fell through the wall as though it was a hologram and not solid wall.
She landed in a substance like whipped cream, except this whipped cream didn’t stick to her clothes. Flailing helplessly for a moment at the top of the tree, it was a moment before she managed to slip through the top portion and locate a tree branch. Carefully, Diana made her way down the trunk, searching around trying to gauge her location. Apparently the bracelet wanted to see her, too.
Everything seemed familiar, yet at the same time nothing did. She really wished the bracelet would stop jerking her around everywhere it wanted her to go—teleporting through space, moving at super speed, and now dropping her through walls. She should really stop being surprised after everything.
She put a foot out and carefully tested the pale stepping stones surrounded by a watery moat. When she stepped on them, the stones lit up. Everything seemed muted h
ere and yet so alive. Once her first foot was firmly planted, she let the other one join it. When she straightened, Diana felt the stone rock a little. Her arms instantly went out to her sides to keep her balance.
“It has been long and short, young one,” she heard a deeply male voice say.
Wadding across the stepping stones, careful to keep her balance until she finally came face to face with an elk. It was white but seemed to be opalescent at the same time. It had a hundred different antlers, and there were items hanging from them—those items she had seen on various trees. Her hand went to her chest as she recognized one—a Babel Stone.
“Are you the heart?” Diana asked as she took a careful step forward.
“I am a Guardian,” the elk answered vaguely before turning and disappearing back out the door and into the hall.
“Wait,” she called, jumping from stone to stone as they rocked back and forth in the water. “Take me to the Heart of the Cosmos.”
Diana nearly fell when she jumped to the edge of the room since the ground was wet. Her arms wind-milled and she was able to straighten herself before she fell. When she regained her balance, she ran after the supernatural elk. Rounding the corner, she saw him turning into a room a few rooms down from where she stood.
“Wait!” she cried out. He paused to look back at her before entering the room.
Hurrying after him, she didn’t make it far because the hallway seemed disproportionately long, as though she were running in a dream. A sinking feeling in her gut told her like she was about to fall. When she turned the corner where the elk had turned, she came to a screeching halt. Before her was a field of tall dandelions that had all gone to seed. She hesitantly waded into the knee-high weeds.
A tree in the center of the room rose like a black scar. Tar dripped from holes in its trunk. It was rotting from the inside. Putting the back of her hand to her face to keep its smell at bay, she cringed in disquiet.
Why would the Guardian lead me here? Diana wondered.
The elk was nowhere to be seen, so she paused to consider going back. Ready to leave when she turned away a familiar melody began to play. Looking up, she saw stardust shimmering and dancing through the air. Following it she watched as it disappeared into the tar-coated tree.
Diana grimanced before putting a hand out towards the tree, her hand passed through the trunk. Diana blinked as she retracted her hand, trying not to gag from the smell. She had trusted the bracelet so far, but this was really gross and she couldn’t be sure she was doing the right thing. Even though every one of her senses were telling her to turn and run, her gut was telling her to go forward into the tree. Diana took a shallow breath, held it, closed her eyes, and listened to her gut.
Sunshine immediately hit her face. She opened one eye and then another, taking in purple fields and swirls of blue flowers. It was something straight out of a fantasy movie, and it took her breath away. All around her were the best scents in the world—some so devine she couldn’t even describe them.
“Beautiful isn’t it?” a voice said to her right.
Diana yipped in surprise but then immediately jumped into a defense stance. Her head swiveled around as the sound of her own blood pumped loudly in her eyes. Her mouth dropped open when she saw the strange blob made of stardust. Or at least what she imagined stardust would look like—it glinted when it caught the sun.
“What are you?” she demanded when her senses slowly returned, wondering if it was another guardian.
“We meet at last,” a voice that sounded like many rang out. The being twirled around her. Diana put her arms out to her sides nervously.
Diana looked at the bracelet and was surprised to find it was empty. The Heart of the Cosmos brushed against her face and skin as it swirled around her. It brought a smile to her lips as a girlish giggle bubbled in her throat. She felt warm and safe here somehow among the chaos that had become her life recently.
It stopped and hovered in front of her. “It is good to be whole again.”
“This isn’t what I imagined it would be,” Diana said as she took in her surroundings.
“There are things even I cannot see,” it said, taking on an almost human shape. “It is best that part of me remains here and well hidden. No one would look for me on a seemly rotten planet.”
The trees represented planets, and the one in which he had hidden, his sanctuary, appeared to be decaying. “Is that why you hid?” Diana asked.
“Yes,” it said. The sun seemed to make him wink like stars in the night sky. “A part of me on a planet with no life, a part of me in my pocket universe, and the majority of me on your wrist.”
Instinctively she glanced down at her wrist, free for the moment of the burden. “So you don’t need me anymore?” she asked hopefully.
“You are wrong,” it said, floating around her. “I need you more than ever.”
Diana took deep breath to building up the courage to ask the question only the Heart of the Cosmos could answer. “Why me?”
“You are not influenced by the Order. Your simplicity and primitive development is your appeal,” it said. “You came when I needed you, and you were exactly what I needed, or I would have moved on.”
“Then it wasn’t an accident?”
“In a way it was meant to be,” it assured her. “I choose a human to solve a problem and become the next Empress. You were the first to come, so I attached myself to you. I did not expect that hiding would make you so opposed to me.”
“You could have warned me at some point instead of remaining silent,” Diana pointed out, not at all amused.
“You needed to discover everything for yourself,” it said, “So that when I asked, you would be able to choose for yourself.”
“It’s about Dimar’s mother, isn’t it? Your last Bearer?” Diana’s voice had gotten small but firm.
“Yes. She took me off willingly and threw herself into space. Katali made a decision, and I could not see why.”
“She committed suicide?” Diana asked, gasping. “I had been so sure she had been killed.”
The sunlight dimmed for a moment, as though reflecting the mood of the Heart of the Cosmos. “Dracoons all do, but she did long before her time.”
“You sent me to Dimar to find out how,” she said, putting it together. “Why did you take me back before we could properly meet?”
“You weren’t ready,” it responded plainly.
“But I am now?” Diana asked, feeling the same and yet different. Her eyes had been opened wide, and she saw world differently because of it. Despite that, Diana still felt like she was the same even when everything she knew had changed.
The Heart of the Cosmos seemed to be smiling at her, though he didn’t have any facial distinctions. “I felt a shift in you when we came here. Your mind has been expanded, and your journey has made you wiser and yet, even now, you resist.”
“You’re wrong. I am not ready to be Empress,” she confessed, her eyebrows pressed together.
“Perhaps not,” it said, startling her. “I have asked a lot of you.”
Diana nodded and thought about her mother. In a few hours she would have to walk down the red carpet and get her diploma. Yet here she was, in a pocket universe, talking to the Heart of the Cosmos. It was a cosmos she was expected to rule and nothing felt right about it.
It whirled around her before appearing to her right again. “Very well. If you complete this task and discover the cause of Katali Lith’s death, I will give you the option to return to Earth and I will choose another.”
“You would do that?” Diana asked feeling suddenly relieved.
“I will not have an Empress lead the cosmos who does not wish to rule,” it explained. “Though I hope you will reconsider when the time comes.”
“It’s a deal,” she confirmed before holding out her wrist. “Let’s go.”
“You are full of so many more questions,” it said, swirling around her again. “And yet you go without hesitation.”
&n
bsp; “I don’t think it is entirely wise to tell the Heart of the Cosmos that I want to hurry up and get rid of it,” Diana said sarcastically.
The air whooshed and filled with the soft sound of bells. “You humans are so wonderful. I am pleased that with a planet filled with your kind, you were the one that stumbled upon me.”
With that it slipped back through the tree behind her. When Diana stepped back through as well, she was back in the field of seeded dandelions. The smell of rotting wood hit her again, and she gagged. She hurried through the field and out into the hall.
She glanced around and said aloud even though no one was there, “Where now?”
The same elk appeared, and she waved before following it. Some time it finally led her into the same room she had fallen into. Glancing back down the hall she realized the rooms were constantly changing. They seemed to be rotating as though on a planetary cycle. Going towards the edge of the water she stepped onto the first stone. Her foot slipped and she fell into the water with a scream.
Chapter 23
Plunging through the water and out of the pocket universe she was dumped back on Earth. Dimar gasped as she fell out of the wall and on top of him. It didn’t help that some of the water had followed her.
With a groan she carefully pushed herself up. “Miss me?”
Dimar pulled her against him tightly in a fierce embrace. Diana’s eyes widened, and she tried to turn her head to see his expression but couldn’t. After a moment he released her, leaving her utterly bewildered. He looked worried and if Diana hadn’t known better, she would have thought he’d been frantic about her disappearance.
“I’m okay,” she assured him, taken back by his reaction.
His eyebrows furrowed and he studied her face a moment.
“She is covered in water from the Privario Providence,” Roddy said.
Dimar blinked as he seemed to come to his senses. “It is a relief that you are well. I didn’t want to be known as the Dracoon who got the Bearer killed.”
He stiff armed her, as though her proximity was unwanted, and stood up slowly. She felt her heart sink in disappointment by his sudden change in behavior but tried to ignore it. He did offer his hand to help her up and she took it hesitantly. When her hand connected with his she felt something slick. Worried it was something she brought with her she quickly jerked her hand back.
