“You don’t want to go wandering around my mind…there’s way too much clutter in there, you’re bound to hurt yourself.”
“I will go in there, unless you want to volunteer the images yourself.”
“We could simply traverse back in time. I’m sure that’s not beyond your awe inspiring powers.”
She regarded him carefully. “We could. But we would only be able to stay there for a brief amount of time. To linger for much longer, could have dire consequences for all of the realms.”
“We could just undo what has been done,” Hawthorne suggested.
“Mayhap. To gamble with the threads of time, is to take a chance in angering The Ancient Order of Timekeepers. You know how infernally stubborn they are in keeping order when it comes to the fabric of time. Many catastrophic fallouts have been avoided because of their diligence.”
“You know…this is why I love teaching the children. The world of our elders is just far too complicated, and complications give me a roaring headache.”
She sighed. “First you will tell me what sort of object my Leo has been imprisoned in, and then, you will give me the memory so we can magically slide through time.”
“My mind just isn’t what it used to be.”
“We are faeries, our minds only get keener with the passing of time.”
“They do? Thank you for reminding me, Princess.”
“Stop stalling, Hawthorne. What is Leo’s prison?”
He paused. “I don’t think you should know—it will break your heart.”
“Trust me, my heart will heal. If this is the only way of finding him—then, we must know all of the details.”
“His prison is—”
“Yes, spit it out, Hawthorne. As the faerie philosophers say, speaking the truth is the only way to have a free soul.”
“A Celtic Brooch.”
Chapter Two
“Come again?”
“I said, he’s trapped in a Celtic Brooch. I’m sure he’s gotten around over the last ten centuries.”
“That isn’t funny. And it’s been ten years. Long and tortured though they have been, it’s only been ten years. A decade is nothing for our kind.”
“You forget, my dear princess, he has been stuck in the human realm. Their time goes by far quicker than ours. He has been away from you for what he thinks is one thousand years, give or take a few days.”
“Give or take a few days.” She twirled around in frustration. “I can’t take this any longer. I miss him desperately, Hawthorne! He must think I’ve given up on him! I will not allow his suffering to continue!”
“He has been suffering for millennia. Surely, a few more days will not make a difference to him.”
“A few more days in our time, won’t be a few more days in his time. I am going whether you want to help me or not.” She took a threatening step toward him. “If you don’t want to willingly give up the information I need, I have no compunction about taking it for myself.”
“Okay, cool your wand there, Lily. I mean Your Highness.” He dropped into an impromptu bow. “I am, as always, at your service. The Royal Family has, and always will have my undying allegiance.”
He flourished his hand in the air. Mists swirled, slowly coalescing into a memory of his.
Her heart skipped a beat when she heard Leo’s voice conjured from the living memory of Hawthorne’s.
“I won’t be long. When Lily arrives, tell her I’ve gone to see Celestia. She won’t question you on that. She knows I have to go and see my sister from time to time, especially when it’s my birthday.”
“This isn’t a good idea, Your Highness. Dabbling in the world of the Mortals from Terra never has brought joy to our kind. They are cruel, they are shallow, and they crave power. They have none of the values we cherish and hold so dear to our hearts. They do not love their mates for an eternity as we do. They are fickle when it comes to love and so many other things.”
“This woman has lost everything. She has lost her husband, her children, and she has been hurt in the cruelest of ways. The Danes she speaks of must be punished. If I do not help her, who will?”
“King Arthur was supposed to keep the Danes out of Albion…I heard tell that he was a great King…for a half-breed that is.”
“You know as well as I do that King Arthur has retired to the Isle of Avalon. Albion is swiftly changing. It is turning into something that both of us would not want to see. The mortals are suffering in the direst of ways.”
“Let them continue to suffer. They must learn to help themselves. Our ways can’t fix the problems with their society. I implore you to see some sense in my words of caution. If Lily knew that you were about to traipse into the unknown, she would definitely know how to knock some sense into you.”
“Lily would help me. She’s off in another magical realm right now, trying to bring happiness to others. She knows how much we are needed, but if she asks, you will tell her I’ve gone to see my sister—I do not want her to worry. She realizes how dim the light has grown in some worlds. She would applaud me for attempting to help.”
“Attempting, even you realize you walk into peril…do not do this! I implore you!”
She saw Hawthorne reach for Leo, but it was too late. He had walked through the veil.
Sighing, Hawthorne followed him.
The scenery changed dramatically. She drew in her breath sharply at the rugged landscape of the Isle known as Albion. So untamed and wild. So dangerous.
Screams of women rent the air. Smoke billowed through the clearing; the attacking Danes had demolished a village, and now were enjoying the spoils of their pillaging.
Her heart sank. She knew what would come next. Soon, she would see her husband’s fate. She couldn’t look upon it—she knew seeing it would almost destroy her but she had no choice.
Her body trembled. “If seeing this is hurting you—” Hawthorne started.
She put her hand up. “I am Leo’s wife, his suffering is my suffering. I don’t understand why the two of you didn’t feel the dark magic drawing near. I don’t understand how you could have been taken by surprise.”
“I don’t know how it happened either. There was the oddest feeling in the air. It made both of us feel on edge. Leo said that he felt as if something was clouding his senses. I agreed with him. I could no more feel the threat of black magic any more than he could.”
The images froze before them. “Continue showing me your memories. Allow it to flow freely. Once we come to the time of transfiguration, I will take us through time to that precise moment.”
“Why not just take us back now? You will save Leo from everything he is enduring as we speak.”
A bright flash of light cracked through the sky. Two figures dropped from the clouds and appeared before them.
“You must stop before I take you to the Highest Court this land knows.” An unknown male voice boomed through the meadow.
“Our guide has arrived,” Lily murmured.
“Not your guide. I come from another sector of Magical Operations.”
“Ah, the Timekeepers,” Lily surmised.
She turned to rest her eyes on the man that stood to her left. He had a companion with him.
“You can’t disrupt what is about to happen. It was written in the scrolls of destiny long ago.”
“You lie. I would have known about that facet of Leo’s destiny.”
“Indeed, you would not. As a member of the warrior class, you aren’t always privy to everything that happens in our realms—what happened to Leo forced you to finally embrace the fact that you were born to be a warrior. We know more than you do—and in turn there are ones that know far more than my partner and I do. We are not all seeing, Princess Lily.”
“Tell me how to save Leo,” she demanded.
“I can’t.”
“You must, or I will take extreme measures. I am fully capable of manipulating the threads of time with or without your assistance. I had asked for a guide for th
e human realm, instead, I got the two of you.”
“My partner and I have names,” he said irritably.
“Good. I don’t need to know them since I will not be staying here for long. I have a quest to continue.”
“Your love for your husband blinds you. In the journey ahead, clarity will be your only advantage. He needs you, aye but this was supposed to happen. Important events have been put into motion his imprisonment has not been all for naught.”
“Since you seem to know so much more than I, where is he?”
The female Timekeeper stepped forward. “We are not at liberty to divulge that information to you.”
“Not at liberty?” Her voice raised an octave. “I can’t believe any of this—my husband goes into the human realm to ease the suffering of a mortal—and you repay him by leaving him in his living hell? I will have your badges of authority for this injustice!”
“It is not an injustice. Through his curse, he has brought love to many.”
“I care not for whatever has happened while he’s been trapped. All I want is Leo to be set free. If I sound selfish, then, excuse me. We faeries prize love above all else. I will not forgive this crime against my husband and myself.”
“There has been no crime. He was not put into his prison by a source of good.”
“Evil—yes, I’ve already been filled in on the details by Master Hawthorne. He tells me that an evil sorceress from the Unseelie Court damned him into that foul prison. I will deal with her if the need arises as well.”
She settled her hand on her sword.
The male Timekeeper sighed. “Ah, yes, you bring pride to your ancestors, with your thirst for a fight.”
“I only pick a fight with the hellish creatures of darkness. Do not accuse me of anything else. You and your masters and mistresses are the ones at fault here.”
“Magical beings such as you and I must bow to a higher power, even if we don’t agree with it. In the name of balance in all of the realms, magical and non-magical.”
“I grow tired of this. I have made my husband wait long enough for me to rescue him. Do not try to stop me,” Lily said angrily.
She started to conjure a portal to Terra.
“Don’t even think about traveling back in time, Princess—you will be stopped.”
She ignored the female Timekeeper. “I will do as I please.”
“We will have to reroute you if you try.”
She turned to face the woman. “What is your name?”
“I am known as Evelyn to my friends, Your Highness.”
“Evelyn, you and your foolish male companion should not seek to stop me. You will be most surprised by what I am capable of in the name of love.”
“And you will be most surprised at the power that we Timekeepers hold. You are used to getting your own way, however, in this instance you will be stopped. It is time for you to learn that there are forces beyond our control. We may hold magic within our bodies, but we are not Gods,” the male Timekeeper said.
Now more than ever, she knew she had to twist time so she would arrive a split second before Leo was cursed. There was no other way. The Timekeepers could try to tell her what to do, but she didn’t have to listen to them.
“I am going to save my husband.”
A magical swirling vortex appeared before her. She lunged for it, tucking her wings in, as she sped through the portal. Halfway through, she knew something was terribly wrong.
The Timekeepers hadn’t been bluffing. They were attempting to stop her. A strong force buffeted against her body and she fought against it knowing that she would fail. Swirling stars streaked across her vision and then she fell into darkness.
*****
“What did you do to her?” Master Hawthorne whirled on the Timekeepers.
“We did as we promised. She has been rerouted. She will arrive on Terra, but not in the year she wanted to travel to. Instead, she will arrive in the year, 2014.”
“You can’t be serious. That’s over one thousand years later than what she wanted to travel to. You’ve put her in grave danger. What sort of magic did you use to reroute the time portal?”
“We used our magic.”
Hawthorne shook his head. Fear gripped his heart. “This could be bad. You hit her portal with your magic, and she’s a faerie—what are you?”
“We are both of the magic kind.”
“A witch and wizard, then?”
“How did you know?”
“You don’t have wings, and you don’t have pixie ears. That’s a good indication that you aren’t Elvin or Fey, therefore, you’re human and you wield the kind of magic that can only be possessed by your kind.”
Evelyn cleared her throat. “She will be able to fend for herself once she gets to Terra.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure of that, Timekeeper. You will have the wrath of some pretty mighty faeries gunning for you, if she comes to harm.”
“She won’t come to harm. We will send someone to help her. Unless, of course, you would like to do the honours yourself.”
“I…,” He looked to the portal that slowly collapsed in front of him. He had to help her. “I will go.” He took a step toward the portal.
Evelyn stepped forward pulling him back.
“You can’t use that portal. It has become destabilized. You are right, our magic did sort of bounce off each other. We might have miscalculated.”
“Miscalculated? How could this miscalculation have affected her?”
“She might have been rendered unconscious.”
“No.” He bunched his hands together. “You aren’t telling me your actions caused her harm? She’s my friend—you will have to answer for this!”
The male Timekeeper patted Evelyn on the shoulder. “We are being called back—we must return to HQ.”
“You will have to go at it alone.” Evelyn waved her hand. “This gateway will take you to the drop off point. You should find your Princess within a small radius of where you end up.”
“I’m not a hero,” he protested.
“You might not be a hero yet, but by the time this story ends, you will be.” Evelyn winked at him, and then in another bright flash of light, the Timekeepers were gone.
Chapter Three
The Celtic Brooch Leo was trapped in had changed ownership once more. This time, the woman that had bought him had given him to an old lonely lady. He spent most of his time watching her knit or crochet, while watching her favourite television programs. She loved to make things for children.
He sighed heavily. The room that served as his prison had grown colder year by year. Even though it could not affect him, he still yearned to feel the warmth of the sun on his face, to feel the fresh air tickling his cheeks—but most of all—most of all, he yearned to feel his wife’s arms around him. He yearned to be with Lily again.
A knock sounded on the old woman’s door. She lived out in the country, in an old farmhouse. He had been across the globe, and now, he was somewhere in a province called Ontario in the country called Canada.
“Aunt Poppy!” He recognized the voice. The young woman was always visiting. Indeed, he knew that his owner wanted her grandniece to move in with her for company. He could understand her loneliness. Every time he’d gotten used to a particular owner some twist of fate had caused him to switch hands once again.
“Goodness, it is cold out there. I bought us some butter tarts from the bakery. Why don’t I make us a pot of tea?” her niece asked, sweeping through the house like a breath of fresh air.
He licked his lips. No drink of any sort had touched his lips in hundreds of years. He collapsed onto the lone chair in his prison. Something tickled the back of his mind.
Magic drew near. It wasn’t black magic…he’d felt that before—one of his owners had been a blood drinker. He hated the foul vampires, and his time with that owner had disturbed him greatly.
“That sounds delightful, Mia,” Poppy said softly.
He was working on the w
oman known as Poppy. She fancied herself to be a clairvoyant, and in her younger days, she’d worked as a Psychic Medium. Now, he hoped that she truly was genuine when it came to her craft. He prayed that she would be able to sense his presence. Every time she touched the brooch, an electric jolt rippled through her. That had never happened before. Even now she was picking up on the psychic resonance attached to the brooch, he just had to bide his time and hope for the best.
“I’ve been asked to work for the government again, Aunt Poppy,” Mia said, sighing.
“Truly? Oh, that is a noble profession. I heard tales of women like us working for the law enforcement and government agencies across the globe. I do believe you would be fit for such a position. Your talents have always far exceeded mine.”
“I was drawn into buying that brooch for you at the Celtic Roots Festival in town, did I tell you that? I kept it for a while, hidden away in my apartment. Do you know I had it since before I met and fell in love with Richard? It seems so funny to know that I bought it for you and completely forgot about giving it to you until I had met and married Richard. And since I’ve given you the brooch, these weird sorts of things have been happening to me. I’ll be somewhere and just have this odd compulsion to do something. That’s the way it hit me with the brooch—I knew I just had to buy it for you.”
“Well, thank you for thinking of me. It was meant to be. The odd set of circumstances that led you to the vendor’s booth had to be orchestrated by another force. You said she was a kooky woman.”
“Indeed. She wanted to unload the brooch as soon as possible. She kept muttering something about it moving all over the place every time she went to show it to people. She said, it wanted to be owned by me.”
“And you could feel the energy attached to it.”
The two women sat down at the dinner table and started to drink the tea, and enjoy the butter tarts. A calm feeling swept through the house.
“I’ve read antiques before—and this one, this one has a tale of sorrow to tell. I think in order to contact the spirit attached to it, I’m going to need your help. In order to fall into the trance needed to pull the spirit out of its prison, I’ll need someone of your talents to pull be back from the edge in case I get in too deep.”
Ever After Page 2
