by Nova Nelson
Liberty arrived in a flash. Literally. I blinked away the light burns in my vision.
His back was to Cassandra when he appeared, and he took in the sorry sight of us with a raised eyebrow. “What happened here?”
When his gaze landed on me, I nodded for him to turn around. “Whoa,” he said before clearing the crack with an easy leap and coming to stand only a foot away from the block of ice.
“Cassandra,” I explained, “and Morgan and Circe.”
He placed a flat palm on the surface. “What did you do to her?” he breathed.
Before he could free her, I hurried to explain. “She’s fine. Like you said, she can’t be killed. I thought we could do this without you, but we can’t. This is your battle, not ours, and we need you to finish it.”
He twisted at the waist, and the pain in his eyes was inescapable. “I don’t know what to do.”
“I do. You have to choose, Liberty. You can keep going back, or you can move on to something better. You have to choose between your past and your future. You can’t have both.”
He turned back toward his former lover. “I choose the past.”
“Uh-oh,” Landon muttered.
But I wasn’t ready to give up. “Swirls!” I snapped. “She’s choosing that for you, Liberty. The past drove you out of Zatrian. The past had you enslaved! Don’t you dare try to glamorize it or whitewash it with nostalgia. I won’t let you.”
“You don’t know,” he said. “You weren’t there.”
Eva stepped forward. “No, but you were. I don’t know what happened to you, but I do know a thing or two about forgetting the worst parts. People who care more about controlling you than loving you almost never change. You can’t make them, either. You have to break the chains. I know freedom is a scary thing, Liberty, but you have a choice to make. You. You can let her manipulate you into coming back because it’s easy and familiar, or you can decide that you’ll never let this happen again, that you’re ready to choose yourself.”
“I don’t think I can,” he said.
Eva moved to the end of the crack in the earth again. “I get it. Trust me, I do. Even the best of us feel unworthy of what we deserve. If you can’t find the value in yourself while you’re under this spell, then don’t base the choice on yourself. Do it for everyone else. You love this town, and this spell is no good for it. She’s enslaved us. You’re the only person who can free us now. This is why Eastwind loves you, Liberty. We know we can count on you to preserve our freedom.”
He hung his head, keeping his palm on the ice. “I’m a fraud. I know I preach it, but I don’t always feel it.”
“You’re not a fraud,” Eva said firmly. “She makes you feel like that, but you’re not. We all have unhealthy cycles. The things we detest the most are those that we’re most susceptible to. Everyone is like that, Liberty. Please. You have to forgive yourself and you have to say ‘no more’ to her.”
“How do I know it won’t happen again?” he asked. “I don’t trust myself not to be fooled if she comes back later on.”
I seized the moment. “You don’t have to rely solely on yourself. We’ll help you. Look around. We’re all here to help. You’re asking why this time should be any different than the times before, and that’s your answer: you have help now.”
He placed his other hand on the ice. “I shouldn’t have to need your help to do this.”
“Tough nuggets,” Tanner said. “You do need our help, just like we need your help. That’s how it goes sometimes, and you just have to suck it up and deal with it. Now are you going to do the right thing or not? It’s decision time.”
Liberty’s hands dropped from the ice and he turned toward us slowly. I waited stock still, unsure what he would do and keenly aware that he could snap his fingers and put an end to all of us. It all depended on how far under the spell he was, and I had no way of knowing that.
Then Cassandra’s frozen prison began melting rapidly, and my stomach sank. He was letting her out.
We had our answer.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Cassandra’s hair and clothes were soaked, but she didn’t seem to mind. “I knew you would come to your senses, lover.”
She stalked toward Liberty, who continued staring at us with a sad expression on his face. “I’m sorry,” he said.
“Please,” Eva begged, her voice strained.
I felt like sitting down. My limbs felt heavier than a cartload of leprechaun gold. We were defeated. I’d led my friends into yet another dangerous situation. Now, not only were we up against an archetype, we were also facing a genie.
Cassandra wrapped her arms around Liberty’s waist. “They’ll only be a nuisance from here on out. Just end it quickly for them. They don’t need to suffer.”
I shouldn’t have wished for Liberty. Had that really been Insight speaking to me earlier, or was it just more of Cassandra’s manipulations? It was impossible to guess.
I reached out with my mind, but nothing came to meet me. Any lingering power from the connection ritual was now exhausted.
Grim growled to my right, and I warned him, “Don’t do it. He’ll make sausage out of you if you try. He’s a genie.”
“You know I love sausage. But if I had to guess, I’d say we’re toast.” Grim stopped growling, but his hackles remained raised.
“Bad boy!” I scolded. “No puns when we’re about to be murdered.”
“I just want to die having been acknowledged as a bad boy. Thank you. You’ve given me a great gift.”
The moment seemed to stretch on for hours. What was taking him so long?
Finally, he turned, slowly putting his back to us. “I choose the future.”
She laughed. “It doesn’t work like that, no matter how they make it sound. Sure, you choose the future now. But what about tomorrow? Or the next day? Or a century from now? It’s not one-and-done, Liberty.”
“Doesn’t matter. I’ll make the same decision a million times,” he said, “even when it’s uncertain and scary. I choose the future, and right now that means Emagine.”
“It won’t work out,” Cassandra snapped. “She doesn’t have half the dedication I do. Look at everything I’ve done just to bring you back to me! I bet if you broke up with her, she’d have a new man in a day.”
“You didn’t do this for me,” he corrected. “You did this for yourself. And I know things might not work out with Emagine, but if I go back to you, I’m guaranteed more of the same. I’ll take the unknown.”
She opened her mouth to respond, but he cut her off. “I’m done with you. I see you for what you are, and I’m calling you by your name. You’re an ex. You’re the ghost of love. You’re a collector and a manipulator. You’ll always be a part of my past, but you have no place in my future … or my present.”
“Liberty. Don’t.”
He reached out, and she stared down at his hand before taking it.
In a flash of light, Cassandra was gone and Liberty dropped to his knees.
I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t even breathe. The sound of the falls rushed forward in my awareness, and finally I gathered the courage to move my head. The first person I looked at was Tanner. He was staring back at me, and I had an overwhelming urge to run to him, but I stayed put. There would be time for that later.
“You okay?” he asked.
I nodded.
When I looked back at Liberty, the genie was gone. It was just the six of us now under the expansive night sky, the chilly October wind blowing in.
“Is she gone?” Landon asked hoarsely.
“Looks like it,” said Eva.
Tanner braced his hands on his hips, eyeing the circle of burned grass and the crack in the earth. “We should clean this up. And if anyone asks, Cassandra skipped town. This is … an awful lot to explain.” He paused, sucking in air before letting it out in a whoosh. He held out his hands. “If you’d all be so kind.”
We met again, joining hands in the original order. Only then did I
catch Donovan’s eye. He was staring right back at me with his usual intensity, and when our eyes met, he cracked a wide grin before biting it back.
I had to smile, too.
“Did I miss something?” Eva said, looking between us.
I shook my head. “The spell is lifted.”
“Yeah?” Tanner said just a little too eagerly. “You don’t want to … you know?”
“Nope,” I said. “Not even a little bit.”
Okay, maybe just a little bit. But normal levels of that. And that small desire might never go away, but I could keep choosing to ignore it over and over again.
Tanner managed to sew the earth back together and regrow the grass where it’d burned, and when we let go of each other, he said, “It’s best if we also don’t mention this to anyone.” He gestured to each of us. “The rest of Eastwind doesn’t need to know the town has its first complete circle in a hundred years.”
“More like three hundred,” Landon corrected. “And I agree.”
We each nodded in turn, and I noticed that Donovan and Eva hadn’t let go of each other’s hands yet. “I think it’s time we go get some sleep,” Donovan said. “See you around, I guess.”
Once they left, Tanner turned to me. “We did it,” he said, and when he pulled me into his arms, I was more than happy to let him assist in keeping me on my exhausted feet.
“I guess we did.”
He leaned forward, and his warm breath brushed against my forehead. I gazed up into his eyes, and it felt like a fog had lifted and I could finally see him again. No thinking of Donovan or Roland. The haze on my heart had dissipated, and I could finally indulge in Tanner.
I had every intention of doing as much of that as I could.
Starting with a kiss.
“Eh-hem.” A throat cleared behind me, and I broke off quickly.
“Oh, sorry, Landon.”
“By all means,” he said, “go for it, but could you just give me a heads up next time so I can give you two some privacy?”
“Yeah, of course.” Tanner and I let go of each other, nodding.
Landon lowered his head and made to leave, but Tanner called out to him first. “Landon.”
The North Wind paused, but didn’t look back. Tanner hustled over and put a firm hand on Landon’s shoulder. “She’ll be there.”
Now Landon looked up from the grass. “What if she’s not?”
“Then you wait. The spell might have affected her once she returned to Eastwind, but she made the decision to find you before that. If she left, she’ll come back.”
“How do you know?”
Tanner sighed. “It’s called faith. I know because I choose to know.”
It seemed to cheer Landon, or at least allow him to hold his head up higher as he started his journey home alone.
“I think I’m going to head back with sad boy.” Grim trotted past us. “I can already smell the pheromones between you two.” He shook his head disapprovingly. “It’s open air, for fang’s sake! Tone it down.” He slipped easily into the shadows.
“Where were we?” Tanner asked, grabbing my hand.
I gazed out over the falls, breathing in the fresh night air. “I believe I was about to kiss you like you were the only man in the entire world.”
He grinned and grabbed my arms, draping them over his shoulders and around his neck. I savored the warmth of him, of the man it felt like I was only just discovering.
“Nora, I know your past will always be with you, just like mine will. And I’ll be honest here: I’m not happy about everything that’s happened, but, you know what? I wouldn’t change a thing. I thought I had myself figured out, and then I started this new job, and it’s like … I had no idea. And it feels incredible. I want that for you. I want you to explore all your gifts. It may sound crazy, but I truly believe there was a reason why you were brought here, and I want you to figure it out. But the only way you can do that is if you’re not worried about making mistakes, about making the wrong choice sometimes. Does that make sense?”
“Yes,” I breathed. “Where I come from, we have a phrase for what you’re saying.”
“And what’s that?” he asked.
“We say, ‘You’re only human.’ ”
A half-smile crept onto his lips. “I like that.” And then, finally, he kissed me like I was the only woman in the world.
Chapter Twenty-Six
I entered my bedroom that night bone tired but with one task left to complete.
He was already waiting for me, as I’d known he would be.
“You did it,” said Roland. “I shouldn’t be surprised after you demonstrated just how powerful you are outside of that dingy tavern.”
“I didn’t do it. Liberty did.” I pulled out an oversized shirt from my dresser.
“Liberty? Is that the genie?”
I nodded.
“Ah, well that does make more sense.”
He watched me from the armchair in the corner with rapt interest as I laid out the shirt on the comforter and pulled off my boots.
“I notice Tanner isn’t present,” he said. “Does that mean what I think it does?”
“Depends. Do you think I’m planning to bring you into the physical world?”
He grinned. “It would make it so much easier for me to make love to you if you did.”
A shiver ran down my spine, and I inhaled deeply to make it pass. A comment like that might have been game over if the spell were still in place. “You’re not wrong about that,” I said.
I closed the distance between us, and he stood from his chair immediately. “Follow me,” I said, offering my hands before I shut my eyes.
He knew the drill well by now. He’d meet me in the in-between where we were on even ground, able to touch, to feel, to sense each other in all ways, the loophole in our separation. If I ever made it back to my old world, I could never go to Zilker Park again without thinking of Roland.
We weren’t going there, though.
“You do remember,” he said, scanning the horizon in delight.
We were on the edge of the green cliffs, but not the ones in Erin Park. The sun set behind him, painting an orange burst across the sky. “Yes,” I said, “I remember. And I don’t think I’ll ever forget.”
He laughed gently. “How could you? This was ours. It was where we played as children, where we made our vows. What better place for us to start fresh, Diana?”
“I’m not Diana. I won’t ever be her again.” I paused. “Well, unless time travel is a thing, in which case I might be her again. Or … maybe in some alternate reality I’m still her and—” I cut myself off since I was clearly getting off track. “I’m Nora now, Roland. And Nora doesn’t have a future with you. And it doesn’t erase the past.”
His lips parted gently and there was a pleading in his eyes as he stepped forward. “Nora. Think about this. Don’t—”
“I have thought about it, Roland. It seems like every second thought has been about you since the moment you found me. What we had was real, I know that, I can feel that, but it ended, and it sucks that it turned out the way it did, but we can’t recreate the past in the present. It’s just … It’s unnatural.”
He reached out, and the moment his hand found my arm, I felt my resolve slipping. “I’m sorry,” I said hurriedly. “I’m sorry you spent so much time looking for me only to be disappointed.”
“You could never disappoint me, love,” he whispered. “But please don’t do this.”
“You have to move on,” I said. “Try a new life, see if you can’t make something just as good, if not better. You deserve a fresh start, too.”
“If you want me to leave, I will. But I’ll not reincarnate. I’ve tracked you this far. I can find you again. And maybe you’ll be ready in the next life.”
“Maybe. Or maybe I’ll be a man.”
There was a twinkle in his eye. “I’m up to try new things.”
“Then try starting fresh. Please. Not just for me, but fo
r you.” I set my jaw and soaked in one final look at the stunning Irishman before holding out my hands. And again, he took them. I suspected there was nothing I could ever say or do to him that would keep him from taking my hands each and every time I offered them.
I held them tightly in mine, savoring the familiar feel of them one last time.
And then, finally, I banished Roland.
* * *
I slipped into my oversized shirt and paused to wipe the pesky tears from my cheeks. It would do no good to cry about it now. It was too late. And I didn’t want to be seen this way. I’d made a decision, and it hurt, but it was the right one and there was no going back on this. Maybe I would relapse in a future life, but that wasn’t something to worry about now. It was done. And it wasn’t like I didn’t have better things in my future.
I stepped out of my bedroom and made my way down the narrow staircase toward the parlor. Just as I passed Ruby’s door, it popped open, causing me to gasp and jump a step away.
“Sorry, sorry,” whispered Ezra Ares. He tiptoed out and shut the heavy wooden door quietly behind him as he slipped on a gray fedora.
“You are not sneaking out,” I whispered at him.
“No, no, no,” he said, avoiding my eyes. “I’m, uh, I just got to go open up the shop.”
“It’s one in the morning. Siren’s song …” I cursed on an exhale. “Fine.” I stepped to the side, offering him the space past me with a sweep of my arm. “Continue your walk of shame, sir.”
He tipped his hat then did just that.
Would Ruby be disappointed when she woke up? My guess was probably not. It seemed to be all love spell that had reunited these two. Sure, they always flirted shamelessly at Ezra’s store, but flirting does not a naked romp make.
There would be more fallout through Eastwind, and I wondered briefly how many people were sneaking out of bedrooms at that very instant.
The front door shut just as I rounded the last corner and reached the bottom of the stairs. Grim was asleep on his back on the rug by the fireplace, and I knew it was best to leave him down here.
