“We may be able to combine Anastasia’s blood with my magic to open the door. But we won’t know until we get there whether it’s the right place or not.”
“Do it,” he said without hesitation. Ana was dead if they didn’t at least try.
“Go tell Tony and Elizabeth. No one else comes with us, Dakota.” Carmen waved her hand and Dakota turned to leave.
“She will live,” he said, more for himself than for Carmen. He took one more look at Ana’s broken body lying on the table and he willed it to be so. Without her, he was nothing. “Hang on, Ana,” he whispered as he headed for the door.
Tony looked up as Dakota stepped outside into the sunlight. “How is she?”
Dakota studied at his mother, who appeared to have aged more than ten years in one night. Her eyes were swollen and etched with worry. She needed to rest, but refused to leave. Dakota hated that his news was only going to make things worse. “Mom, can you give Tony and I a minute?”
Elizabeth eyed him. “Dakota, don’t you dare cut me out of this conversation because you are trying to ease my worry. I’m a damn doctor; I know she’s not doing well.”
“It’s worse than that.” Tears welled in his eyes, so he squeezed them shut. “She’s dying.”
“What?” Tony’s voice was so much smaller than normal.
“Carmen thinks there’s a way to save her.”
Tony got to his feet, and Elizabeth stood with him. “What can we do?” he asked, ready for any mission that would give Ana a chance.
“We need to go to someone Carmen called The Sorceress. Carmen thinks she may be able to save Ana.”
“She’s a myth, a legend. We’re staking Anastasia’s life on fiction?” Tony’s jaw hardened.
“Carmen says she’s real and we have to leave now.”
“I want to go.” Elizabeth finally spoke, and Dakota noticed the way his mother avoided his eyes.
“Mom.”
Elizabeth lifted her tear-stained face to Dakota’s. He stepped toward her and wrapped his arms around her.
“I’m so sorry, Dakota. If she dies—”
“It’s not your fault, Mom. This is Vincent and the Brutes that had a hand in it. None of it is your fault, you hear me?” He pulled back just enough to see her face and kissed her lightly on the forehead. “I love you, Mom, and I’m so glad you’re all right.”
“Dakota, we need to go,” Carmen interrupted as she stepped onto the porch. “Now.”
“Where is this woman?” Elizabeth asked, leaning into Tony.
“On another world. One that is nearly unheard of and damn difficult to get to. It takes a hell of a lot of magic to reach her.”
“Can you do it?” Tony asked.
Carmen glared at Tony, her eyes narrowing on his face.
“Are you able to in your current condition?” Dakota spoke up, not wanting to waste any more time.
Her glare turned to him. “Yes, Dakota. I may be old, but I can still muster up the energy I need to reach her. I just hope Anastasia’s blood will be enough to activate the door.” Carmen turned to Tony. “You need to keep watch, Tony. Strange things are coming, I can feel it.”
“I will.”
Carmen nodded. “We should be back within an hour. I cannot imagine she is going to wish us to stay long.”
“Good luck,” Elizabeth said.
Dakota followed Carmen back into the house and watched as she made a small cut on Ana’s arm. Once the blood had welled on the surface, she touched it gently, spreading the blood onto her palm.
Carmen closed her eyes, and the air shifted. Within moments, a portal opened before them, and without hesitation, she stepped through.
Dakota lifted Ana into his arms and held her tightly against his chest as he stepped through the portal. After the now familiar feeling of weightlessness disappeared, he took a moment to catch his breath and then opened his eyes.
They stood in front of a small cottage. The walls were old and fading, as was the railing on the rickety porch that surrounded it.
A light breeze ruffled the tall grass that reached to Dakota’s waist and surrounded them completely. There were no mountains, no hint of any other civilization anywhere. It looked as if the place had been deserted. Dakota took a deep breath. The air was fresh, but it didn’t carry the sound of birds or any other animals.
What kind of person wanted to live in a solitary world? Was it possible the magic hadn’t worked, and the Sorceress didn’t live here? A momentary panic filled him. If she wasn’t here, what did that mean for Ana?
The door creaked open and he realized that not only did she exist, and still lived in this empty world, but they had also arrived right on her doorstep.
The woman who stepped out looked nearly as exhausted as the old house she lived in. Hair that he imagined had been auburn at one time but was now a faded brown, was pulled back away from her face, and she wore a chocolate-colored dress that nearly matched the color of her eyes. He hated to think it, but there was nothing spectacular about this woman at all.
How was she going to save Ana?
“Who are you?” The woman spoke with a slightly raspy voice, and her curt tone left little wonder as to her current mood—she was pissed that they were here.
Dakota started to take a step forward, but Carmen held her hand up to stop him.
“We met once before, Joceline. I am Gregory Silvan’s mother-in-law.”
At the mention of Ana’s father, the woman straightened slightly, the corner of her mouth twitching. So she did have a heart after all.
“Carmen. It’s nice to see you again. Who is he?” She nodded toward Dakota and crossed her arms under her chest.
“We don’t have time for this,” Dakota muttered under his breath, and started to take a step toward the cottage again.
“You have time for whatever I deem necessary. You are in my world, and standing in front of my house, remember?” Joceline’s irritated tone was back, and Dakota’s anger flared, and he clenched his hands into fists.
“She’s dying.”
“I can very well see that,” she retorted matter-of-factly.
“Can you help her?”
“I don’t know who ‘her’ is.”
“Listen—”
“This is Anastasia Silvan, Gregory’s only child. Vincent had her cornered by Brutes and then he blocked her magic.” Carmen’s voice cracked at the end, and Dakota looked over as a tear slipped down her cheek. “Please, she will die otherwise. She needs you, Sorceress.”
Joceline’s face softened slightly, but Dakota didn’t miss the anger that tightened her jaw at the mention of Vincent. Apparently, she also knew the bastard. “Leave her on the porch. I will take care of her.”
“We aren’t just going to abandon her on your porch. We stay.”
“Then she dies.”
Dakota’s temper flared again at the nonchalant tone of her words.
“Dakota, she will be safe,” Carmen insisted.
“I’m not leaving her. This isn’t negotiable.”
The Sorceress studied him for a minute. “Very well. You will bring her inside, then you will leave.”
“Did you not hear me? I stay with her; I’m not leaving.” Dakota stood his ground. He didn’t know this woman; even Carmen didn’t know her—not really, anyway. He’d be damned if he was going to leave the woman he loved in the care of some stranger. Especially not when she may not live another day and that stranger was so afraid of her own shadow that she hid in a cabin in the middle of a deserted world.
“Fine. But you will leave my home. I don’t care if you sit outside, you will not be inside with us. That, too, is nonnegotiable.” She put her hand up and then stepped aside so he and Carmen could bring Anastasia inside.
As Dakota passed her, he saw a thick scar that ran across her throat. The sight of it made him understand her hesitance and fear completely. Someone had tried to kill her. Judging by the ragged edges of the healed wound, they had probably come very close to suc
ceeding.
When they entered the house, Dakota wasn’t surprised to see that the inside matched that of the outside. The creaky wooden floors were covered with thin rugs, and tapestries that looked to be made of the same material hung on the walls. A fire roared in a fireplace, but that was the liveliest thing in the single-room cabin.
“Put her on the bed,” Joceline instructed, and Dakota gently laid Anastasia on the small twin-sized bed.
“I love you,” Dakota whispered, kissing Anastasia’s pale cheek. He pressed his forehead to hers. “Please come back to me, Ana. I can’t live this life without you. We have to experience that future we’ve dreamed of.” He placed another kiss to her forehead, then stood. “If anything happens to her because of you, I don’t give a shit how powerful you are—I will come for you.”
“You think I’m afraid of you?” Joceline’s lip twitched in amusement.
Dakota didn’t even blink. “You should be. She is my entire world, and the only thing that makes my life worth living. If you do anything other than try to help her, I swear I will kill you, no matter what it takes.” He stepped out of the cabin with Carmen on his heels.
“You can return for her in two weeks,” Joceline said, slamming the door shut.
“What the hell does she mean, two weeks?” Dakota asked Carmen angrily.
“I don’t know,” Carmen said, and took a seat on the steps leading up to the porch.
“What are we going to do if she dies?” Dakota said, voicing his deepest fear, hoping it might in some way diminish it. Instead, the lump in his throat grew painfully and his chest tightened.
“We can’t think like that.” Carmen smiled. “Anastasia is as strong as they come, and Joceline will take care of her.”
“How can you be so sure?” Dakota looked back at the door the woman known as the Sorceress had slammed only moments before. “I don’t mean to sound ungrateful, because I am beyond glad that she is willing to try and help, but, Carmen, why would someone so powerful be in hiding here? Why not at least come and help us? She has to know what’s going on out there, with Vincent.”
“She’s not the same as she used to be. Years ago, she would have.” Carmen took a deep breath. “She used to be so beautiful, so vibrant when she was young. But she ended up falling for the wrong man. It was such a shame to see, Dakota. The day I met her, I said to myself, ‘What a wonderful choice the universe has made to carry on the Sorceress name.’ She was a spitfire.” Carmen laughed sadly. “But the next time I saw her, years later…” She shook her head. “She was bright and passionate like fire; he was ice, frozen down to the very heart that beat beneath his chest.”
Carmen clasped her hands together and an orb appeared with an image inside it. The woman who stood before him encircled by magic was absolutely gorgeous. Her auburn hair shone brightly, and was only outmatched by the huge smile that spanned across her face. He could see the similarities, sure, but it was hard to believe that the woman inside the house behind him had once been the woman he was looking at now.
Carmen slammed her palms together and the light exploded. “It was only a matter of time before he snuffed out her light.”
Dakota couldn’t do anything but shake his head. What type of man would it take to dull the light he had seen within the woman Joceline had once been?
Carmen got to her feet. “I am going to need rest. I imagine you are not coming back with me?”
He took one look at Carmen’s weary face and knew he couldn’t let her travel back alone. “You believe she will be safe?”
“She will be, Dakota. I promise Joceline will not harm her. She owes Gregory her life, and she will come through for him.”
“Then I will take you back, but I want to come back here tomorrow. That’ll give me enough time to gather some things I’ll need.”
“Okay.” Carmen offered him an exhausted smile. “What do you say you escort an old woman back to town?” She offered him her arm and he looped it through his own.
Dakota couldn’t help but smile. “I would be honored.” Carmen conjured a portal in front of them.
He took one last look at the house and his jaw tightened.
“I love you, Ana,” he whispered, then he stepped into the light.
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