by Elle Lincoln
Movement catches my eye, but Guy is still lost in his thoughts. He hasn’t moved once since Casseus left. It isn’t him and I peer deep into the mist. I wave my hand and watch as it entwines through my pale fingers. Close, yet not once touching me with its acidic burn. I run my hand the other way, testing if I’ll catch those little particles.
It amazes me that it does nothing more than float around my skin. I can’t even feel the burn that Guy’s skin had shown.
There. A shadow looms in the distance. I feel my heart rate spike as I watch the shadow of a creature deep within the forest and mist. Tall and elegant in its structure, it moves with a grace that is as beautiful as it is chilling. I feel a sense of doom rolling off of it in waves and yet, it is not for me. This creature would never hurt me. Could never hurt me.
My muscles clench and I walk toward the creature, the mist parting for me until it envelops me completely. I observe as another walks from behind the distorted shadow of a tree. This one is larger, a ghost in the mist, and a remnant of the past. Those images of Giants fighting in my dream places itself front and center. This creature, once a formidable foe, desires to become so again. The intent is clear in the waves of power rolling toward me. It watches me, they both do. Features obscured by the milking air between us, they wait.
For me?
I cannot deny that there is a purpose for me here as more creatures move against the fog in nightmarish forms. Still, I don’t fear them. Deep inside me that darkness flares, pulsing. It feels them, their need. The restlessness brought by centuries of inactivity. Being fed only by the one who can leave its clutches. Casseus.
They desire to hunt. To feed.
I stumble back. The thoughts almost too much for me to process. Or rather I don’t want to. My legs spiral backward, tripping over themselves in the need to leave. I need to get out of here before that overwhelming need fills me and I heed their call.
Hard, unforgiving hands grip my shoulders, spinning me around to face the one eye of the man before me. He scans me from head to toe, his breathing hard and his brow furrowed in worry.
“How?” He asks, shock evident on his face and his parted lips, the hollow of his mouth drawing my attention. His overgrown beard parts and I clench my fingers from reaching out to him. “How are you unscathed?”
“What?” I glance up to his unibrow, realizing what he means. “It parts for me.”
“How is that even possible?” He reaches behind me, and the sizzle of flesh causes me to flinch. I grip his meaty forearm and yank his hand back. But he isn’t disturbed, his burns are already healing.
At least I don’t think so until he pushes me into the fog. I stumble backward once more and fall on my ass. My tailbone slams against the packed dirt and I lose my breath. Shit, that will bruise.
I look up at Guy, his face full of wonder. I can’t help the bubble of laughter that snakes its way out of me.
“It can’t hurt her.” Casseus is back and he throws me actual clothing. He’s still uncovered, his cape gone now. He’s also wearing denim jeans and a black shirt. I glue my eyes to his body and his lithe form, delicious in a way where I’d like to run my fingers over every hard line that forms against the fabric.
I growl at my thoughts. He. Killed. You.
I dismiss him by bringing the clothing to my nose and inhaling the rich scent of fabric softener. He didn’t just buy me clothing, he stole me clothing. Beggars can’t be choosers and all that.
“How can it not hurt her?” Guy’s voice returns me to the present and Casseus just rolls his eyes at him. A movement so human it’s disturbing to watch as he does it so flawlessly. It wars with my knowledge of him. Shouldn’t those non-human entities have their own oddities?
“Because she is a part of them. They chose her to remember.”
A slow realization crawls across Guy’s features. A fact he had known about and dismissed now just became reality, and he looks at me with renewed interest. His lips tilt up in a devious grin, and I look away, not wanting to get lost in that smile.
I stand, careful to keep my clothing from touching the dirt. “Turn,” I instruct the two with a twirl of my pointer finger. Spin my pretties.
“Why?” Casseus questions, crossing his arms in defiance. Guy turns which only causes Casseus to scowl. With a thumb, he points at him. “He’s seen you naked already.”
“Turn or else I’ll be eating you later for sustenance.” I realize my mistake all too late.
“One, you can’t kill me. Two, what kind of eating are we talking about here?” His personality has turned a complete one-eighty. I don’t know what has come over him, but I wonder if this is even Casseus.
“Who are you?”
He laughs but I don’t. Something isn’t right. Guy turns, menace rolling off of him in waves. It touches my skin, pebbling the organ to a rolling ripple. Faster than I thought possible, Guy grabs ahold of the fake Casseus’ neck and holds him up. At this point, there is no question to whether or not he’s fake.
“Where’s the bird?”
The creature in Guy’s hand twitches. The skin glitching and jerking as it struggles to hold onto its form. “Indisposed.” Its head shakes, and I take an involuntary step forward. Curiosity and all.
“Where is Casseus?” How did this creature even get here?
His appearance falls apart and the man, or creature, held by Guy transforms into a lean man with golden blond hair. At once Guy drops him and he backs away. The look upon his face is one of horror—and is that betrayal?
“Why are you here?” I flinch at Guy’s tone. The hurt is buried deep in his words as they catch in his throat. He shakes his head as though that will dislodge the pain etched across his dirty face.
The other man looks weary, his eyes downcast, and he rubs a hand over his face as though he is trying to scrub away the reason for being here. “You’re needed.”
Guy laughs, it isn’t jovial but full of hatred. Spittle flies from his lips, as he sneers. “I will no’ fall for that again boy.”
“You don’t understand.” The golden body turns to plead his case, but the look upon Guy’s face stops him cold.
“Kill him!” The real Casseus stumbles from the forest, and something deep inside me sighs in relief. I refuse to acknowledge that feeling. “He knocked me out and cut my fucking hair!” He rubs his head. This time I don’t repress my mirth and he scowls at me.
“We need you,” the golden boy argues.
“I was getting to that Lugh.” Casseus claps Lugh on the back of the head. Lugh, though lean and appearing in his prime, cowers from Casseus. Interesting. I’m completely content to let this play out. It’s like my own little soap opera, this world is full of hidden secrets.
I wonder if... I don’t even need to think it as the mist wraps me in its embrace, shielding the men from view and me from the men. Dressing in the black cargo pants and a black tank top, I strain my ears to hear the conversation. Unfortunately, it’s like a soundproof room. Good to note but doesn’t serve me right now.
I wave a window to the mist hoping that helps, the conversation drifts to me in a muddle of words. The three of them are standing in a semicircle. I’m momentarily annoyed that I’ve missed something important, but the call of real clothing was too great. I walk out, and all eyes turn to me as if only just now remembering I was there the entire time.
“What did I miss?” I implore, while rubbing my hands greedily.
Casseus scowls at me, Guy turns away, and Lugh leers. I have an instant dislike of the man. He reminds me of the pretty boys in the war. Beautiful on the outside and rotten on the inside.
“War,” Lugh states, his hands settling on his hips.
“Why now?” Guy commands, and I can mentally visualize him leading. His posture is tall and formidable.
“Mac demands your return.” He speaks those words so freely, as though they mean nothing, but Guy storms off. The meaning clear to him and lost on me.
The desire to grill Casseus is almost t
oo much, but something holds me back. My guess is the man before me, Lugh. I don’t want this man to know my secrets. I look toward Casseus, raising a brow in question. He shakes his head, the jerking motion indicating no.
“How did you get through the mist?” I step closer to this golden child. My darkness flaring, seeking to judge him. I push it down. Hesitant to show my hand.
He holds up a lock of Casseus’ hair. It means nothing to me. When he doesn’t get the response he desires he sighs in annoyance. “Glamour and a touch of a spell.” I want to punch his smug face. “Oh, come on.”
I turn back toward Casseus. “We need to talk.” I say nothing more as I walk off in the direction Guy went. Dismissing Lugh.
I hear Casseus tell Lugh to leave as I near the cabin. I slam through the door harder than I intended to. Once I slip through, the sound of wood hitting something has me peering over my shoulder to see a disgruntled Casseus. Guess it slapped him in the face.
I turn back to him. “Oops.” I hide my smile as I see Guy sitting on his pallet.
I wish, not for the first time, that this place had some sense of time. Anything to tell me if it was morning, noon, or evening. It distorts the senses and addles the mind. I’m beginning to believe that is the intended purpose.
I flop down on the pallet beside Guy who doesn’t even stir at my presence. His eye is closed and his head rests against the wall. I look at Casseus who huffs before sitting. I roll my eyes. The spoiled brat.
“Casseus, how long have I been here?” I decide to start from the beginning, but before he can even begin I hold up my hand, staving off any of his disdain. “Do not lie. Something is pressing upon me as though I have a time limit.”
His eyes jerk to mine, the abyss of them seeing far too much. “Are you sure you want answers to questions you may not be ready for?”
“I feel I have little choice.” Something inside me is pressing to get up, a feeling that I need to move, to run, the desire is strong and soon I won’t be able to counter it. Ever since I saw Lugh the urgency flared.
“We don’t.” I see the wrinkles upon his face and the gravity of the situation. He puts aside his hatred to continue. “You’ve been here for months.”
“How many?” My pulse speeds up and I sit up in rapt attention.
“Fifteen,” he answers, looking everywhere but at me. I follow his eyes, not ready to accept his truth. He’s eying the rotting wood. The breaks in the slats that allow bits of light to drift in. “It took me eighteen,” he whispers, his thoughts stuck in the past.
If it took him eighteen that means... “Who kidnapped you?”
“No one. The fog took me. There was no scout.”
“Is that what you are? A scout?”
“No, I’m much more than that. Now. But it took me eighteen months to forget who I was.” My eyes settle back on him, his own downcast. “I only look for the heartless, those without morals.”
I remember little of my life. Just bits and pieces. But from what I’ve seen, I cannot argue the point. What’s done is done.
“Then what?” I press.
“Once you forget. You become. Then you forget again.”
He’s speaking in fucking riddles.
“It’s their way,” Guy responds to the riddle. I move my head toward him in slow motion, the bones in my neck crack as I do. “They have no voice, they only exist, and yet they are the most powerful entity that lives.”
A chill runs up my spine. And they chose me? “So now I become? What do I become?”
“You become them. There was always meant to be two of us. Sinister opposites. You manipulate, I destroy. But you’d not yet forgotten. You must forget to become,” Casseus explains. His eyes droop with sadness, almost as though he sympathizes with me. I suppose he does if he’s done this before.
“When I become, why do I forget?” The process seems odd in its ritual.
“Bette, you are moving through worlds. Doing what a normal human would die from. The magic and power of the land would break your mind. You cannot completely accept the magic if you cannot let go of the past.” He’s speaking so softly to me, and I almost wonder if he too is an impostor. But he chews on his cheeks, an action that is telling in his honesty.
“Casseus, where are we?” My heart now pounds, realizing for the first time my suspicions were correct. We are no longer on Earth.
“In a pocket between worlds. The world of mortals and the world of immortals.”
Chapter 10
Bette
Stuck in a Bubble
For one brief moment my mind stalls, tripping over the word immortal. I can’t remember the meaning and a small pain pierces my eyes the longer I struggle to define it. The longer I remain here, the quicker my memories fade. I worry eventually I will forget who I am entirely. I reach up and rub the area above my brow. It means long-lived, I think.
Casseus sighs, it’s as though his entire body is demonstrating an eye roll. I’m not sure I’ve ever met a more dramatic man. Raven. “Are you immortal?”
“Yes, now stop thinking about it.”
“Whoa. Back the fuck up.” I shoot to my feet, needing the movement. The rough floor pricks my feet, reminding me I’m alive and okay. “If we are opposites then am I immortal?”
“Don’t be such a drama queen.” Yep, Casseus has met his limit for empathy and has bulldozed back into the realm of apathy and a huge ego. “You aren’t immortal yet.” He flutters his hands and I somehow catch the eye roll he gives Guy. Or whatever his real name is.
Small battles. “So, I need to forget. To become immortal.” Do I even want that?
“Are you not listening woman? Forget. Become. Forget. You aren’t even at the end of the first step yet!” He gets up and his booted feet clomp across the floor, shaking the rickety old cabin. Then his hands are on my shoulders. I stop, stiffening.
“Don’t. Touch. Me,” I grind out from behind clenched teeth.
“Get used to it Little Raven.” In a surprising display of playfulness, he wags his brows at me. “It’s you and me, baby.”
I need to ignore him more and not feel amusement when he does shit like that. He redirects me and pushes my body back down to where I had been sitting. I ignore his remark as I try to seethe at his blatant display, but it putters out rather quickly.
“Before we get started, and I’m guessing that is why you haven’t flown off, Cas, I have questions.” I meet Casseus’ gaze, daring him to say something about his nickname.
He plops back down and waves me on. He’s starting to remind me of a pirate. I snort, that I can remember, but I can’t remember my own freaking birthday. The road to amnesia is an odd experience.
I turn to Guy. “How do you tie into all of this?”
He turns his head slowly to look at me, weighing my determination. Whatever he sees there causes him to give an imperceptible nod. “You free me.”
“How do I do that?”
“When you fully embrace who they want you to be, you break the bonds of his confinement,” Cas answers me, but he’s looking right at Guy. “I don’t believe it’s any coincidence that Lugh has shown up now or that Mac demands your presence.”
“Nor do I,” Guy replies, his shoulders tense up and I restrain from reaching out to him. Who am I to comfort him? I’m just some stranger meant to free him, no big deal. “Do you know what they want?”
“There have been rumors.” Casseus digs inside his jeans and his hand wedges in the thick material, before pulling out a toothpick. Is he serious?
“What are you, a cowboy pirate?” I can’t help myself and I also pat myself on the back for remembering those two tropes.
“Focus bird,” Guy growls and I resist a smile, at least someone can put him in his place.
“Don’t get your dick in a twist.” Nope, no reining him in. “Rumors. Right, so apparently the Fae have been a bit busy.”
“Who?” I instantly hush at the look Guy gives me. Well, he can put me in my place. And there goes my libido.
I wonder if he is a bondage kind of guy. I’m staring at his eye when the ice-blue darkens just a hair and his lid drops. I sure hope he can’t read me as well as I’m reading him right now. I cough and wave Casseus on.
“Right then, if you two are done eye-fucking each other, the Fae are a great big pain in the immortal ass. That’s what they are, but they’ve crossed a line.” Whatever they did, I’m not so sure I would want to be on the receiving end of Casseus’ anger.
“Why do you need me?” Guy gets right to the point, and he’s leaning forward as though he already knows the answer and he just wants Casseus to voice it.
“They can’t be controlled. You know why we need you, don’t play stupid,” Guy grunts and leans back, while Cas scowls once more. He’s a great pirate.
“Am I a part of that as well?” Their eyes shoot to me, each wearing the same cool dose of sympathy. “Don’t answer that, your looks say enough. Will I remember you two when I return home?” Time to move on.
“Not right away. They’ll take over here, wiping away who you were completely, then you will go home and I’ll teach you after I find you. You have already begun despite holding on to the memories with hard emotions.” Cas glares at me as though that’s a bad thing.
“Fine. How do I do this?” I close my eyes and slam my head back against the wall. That pressure of a time constraint has me moving past what awaits back in the real world.
“We need to go outside to begin this.” I blink back up at Cas who has stood up without me even hearing him.
“Why?”
He laughs at me, the tone condescending. “Because, Little Raven, you can’t just will your memories away. They will help.”
I roll to my feet and head out. The sky is still a hazy dawn, though the sun shines even farther into the clearing. I head right to the wall of fog and plop my ass down on the hard-packed dirt. My eyes remain glued to the ground as a weariness rolls through me. The foreboding sense that this really is only the beginning weighs on me.
I should hate Cas, but I can’t. If his actions took him elsewhere that night, then someone else would have taken my place and they may not have survived. I can move past the strong emotions holding me back, because I’ll be dammed if I stay here one more moment. Literally. I don’t know if my luck ran out that night or if it began. I won’t know until I have the chance to breathe and look back on all that has happened.
