by Kit Morgan
Shona headed straight for her. “Mitzi!”
Mitzi wanted to back away but couldn’t. Instead she let the woman take her in her arms and hold her.
“Dallan …”
Before Mitzi could speak, the Scot scooped her into his arms and carried her outside, the others following. Once they were well down the corridor and away from the madness of the hall, he set her on her feet. “There, lass. Are ye all right, then?”
“No, and no thanks to you,” she groused. She felt she’d earned it.
“Aye, ye’ve every right to be angry, but there’s no time. Where’s Asger?”
“You tell me!”
“We were hoping you knew.” Shona glanced at her husband and back. “We can help you find him.”
“What is it with you?” Albert cut in. “Can’t you see she’s not well? I demand you take us back, right now!”
“Calm yerself, laddie.” Dallan turned back to Mitzi. “Think, lass – where might he be?” He leaned closer. “Where d’ye see him?”
“See him?” Mitzi shook her head in confusion. “What do you … oh.” Her eyes widened. She knew what he meant. She already sensed he wasn’t in the castle, knew he wasn’t.
“That’s it, lass. Concentrate on the lad. Find him …”
The Scot’s voice held an air of command she hadn’t heard before, but it did the trick. They knew too. Exactly what, she wasn’t sure, but she didn’t sense any ill will on their part, so she closed her eyes and tried to picture Asger.
And a picture is what she got. “Oh!”
“What is it?” Shona asked. “Do you see him?”
Mitzi opened her eyes. “Yes. H-how is this happening?”
“We’ll explain later,” Shona said. “What did you see?”
“Asger’s … in the woods. He’s … hurt?”
Dallan took a deep breath and smiled at Mitzi. “Right, then. Well done, lass.” He turned to Shona. “We havena time. She’ll have to come with us. If we dinna fix the bonding now, ye ken what will happen.”
She nodded and turned to Mitzi. “Do you trust us?”
“Heck, no!” Albert wedged himself between them and Mitzi. “This is all your fault and I demand you take us back to Vegas!”
Dallan sighed. “Shona …”
She nodded, went to Albert and whispered something in his ear. To Mitzi’s shock, he dropped like a rock.
“Oh, my heavens,” Mildred cried.
“What did you do?” Mitzi squeaked.
“Put him to sleep, nothing more,” Shona said. “Lady Mildred van Rumpel, is it?”
“Er, yes, dear.” Mildred fiddled with her silk scarf.
“Can you take care of him?”
She stared at Dallan and Shona in awe.
“Mildred?” Mitzi said. “Are you okay?”
“Oh, yes, my dear, it’s just that, well, I’ve never been this close to … um, it’s a little hard to explain …”
Dallan’s jaw dropped as he looked Mildred up and down, and Shona’s head tilted to one side. “Who are you?” Shona wondered.
Mildred wrung her hands. “No time for that now. Get the poor girl to the prince before it’s too late. Please …” She gulped, then curtsied. “… Time Master.”
Dallan nodded. “Take care of the lad.” He scooped Mitzi into his arms and, with a speed she didn’t think possible, ran with her down the hall, Shona right beside them.
As soon as they rounded a corner, they stopped. “Shona …”
Shona turned to Mitzi as Dallan set her on her feet. “We can’t explain everything to you right now, but know there is something very special between you and Asger.”
“What’s happening to us?” Mitzi whimpered.
Shona looked into her eyes, and Mitzi felt herself relax. “You will be one.” She touched Mitzi’s forehead, and all the pain and heartache of the day was gone in an instant. Mitzi closed her eyes then and let the sensation of peace carry her, oddly accompanied by singing and instruments like a grand orchestra. A brightness surrounded her, but she didn’t open her eyes, afraid to break the spell.
After a few moments the light and music faded, and she felt the air around her change. It was fresh – she smelled trees, grass, flowers … she opened her eyes. She was on her back, looking up at a canopy of branches. “Where am I?” She struggled to sit up and found herself in the Queen’s Wood, she was sure of it.
She looked behind her and winced. “Asger!” She crawled to where he lay on his belly, his face turned to one side – he looked like he was dead. “Asger, speak to me!” She turned him onto his back. “Asger?” She put her ear to his chest. No heartbeat. “No, no, no!” She got to her knees, preparing to start CPR.
No, Mitzi, that’s not how to save him …
She froze. “Who said that?” She glanced frantically about. “Where are you?”
Save him …
A crazy notion popped into her head. The urge to kiss him was overwhelming. “I can’t, I have to save him.” She pinched his nose and tilted his chin up, preparing to do mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
Kiss him!
She glanced around again. “Who’s there?” She looked at Asger – and the thing inside of her woke up, filling her with pain and making her cry out. Against all her training, all that her logical mind screamed to do, she lowered her lips to his … and did what the voice ordered. She kissed him carefully, gently and with as much restraint as possible.
Asger’s eyes popped open as he gasped for air.
Mitzi drew back. “Asger!”
He blinked a few times and looked at her. “Mitzi?”
She sighed in relief. “Thank Heaven, you’re alive!”
His eyes darted around. “What happened?”
She laughed nervously. “I don’t know. Are you okay?”
He tried to sit up but couldn’t manage it, so she helped him. “I’m not sure. I think I passed out from the pain.” He put his hand on her arm. “Are you all right?”
Mitzi nodded, her eyes on his hand. It was like fire heating her entire body. “I am now.” She gazed into his eyes and shook her head. “I don’t know what’s going on.” She looked at his hand again as her body relaxed in waves. “But I like it.”
Asger looked at his hand too. “Yes … so do I.”
Dallan, Shona and Lany watched from behind some bushes as Mitzi revived Asger with a simple kiss. “Thank goodness,” Lany whispered. “That was close.”
“They’ve not kissed enough to fix things yet, Master Lany,” Dallan said. “I ought to know.”
Lany nodded. “Well, you two are the experts.”
“He needs to kiss her now,” Shona said. “Then the bond will begin to repair itself.”
Lany sighed in relief. “Good. Er … no one saw you open a door to get here, did they?”
“No, which means we have a little time to let them fix this,” she replied. “But he’s got to kiss her quick.”
“So long as she doesn’t punch him in the jaw we’ll be fine,” Lany whispered dryly.
Dallan and Shona looked at him in amusement. When Dallan had to mend their damaged bonding with a kiss, Shona had socked him. Lany, Kwaku and several others were concealed in the nearby bushes, watching it unfold. Shona smiled. “Strange to be the ones in hiding this time, isn’t it?”
“Not for me,” Lany said. “I’m becoming a veteran at this.”
“Quiet, ye two,” Dallan scolded. “If he doesna get to business, we could all be in trouble.”
They silenced and watched the couple speak quietly to one another, the looks on their faces a mix of shock, relief and … Shona smiled again. “Don’t worry, I don’t think this will take long.”
“Every second he wastes is a second too long.” Dallan turned to them. “Ye ken they’ll be looking for him? Once they’ve searched the palace, they’ll search the woods if they aren’t already.”
“You’re right,” Lany sighed. “But what can we do about that?”
“Post yerself as lo
okout. We’ll keep an eye on these two. As soon as we’re sure the bonding’s in place, we’ll speak to them.”
“Isn’t it too soon for tha …” Lany stopped. “… no, not at the rate this is going, is it?”
“We won’t spring Mitzi’s origins on her this minute,” Shona said. “She’s not ready to hear she’s Muiraran.”
Lany sighed. “We don’t have much time to waste either.”
Shona looked at him. “Granted, but they must be bonded enough to handle what’s to come. If we don’t do this right, if we make one slip – one more slip – it could cost lives. And I’m not talking about just Mitzi and Asger’s.”
Lany nodded. “I’ll go keep an eye out.”
“Thank ye, Master Lany,” Dallan said as Mitzi and Asger continued staring at each other and holding hands. He watched Lany go, then closed his eyes, letting his heart search. Shona did her best to relax so their shared heart wouldn’t be hindered. It was a weapon powerful enough to open a doorway through time, letting them travel anywhere and change the course of history as needed. But that wasn’t their main job. Currently, the young couple twenty yards away was.
For all their power and their gifts, they couldn’t force the prince to kiss the woman whose hands he desperately held. This had to happen naturally, and Asger and Mitzi had to be willing to give themselves to each other. Dallan and Shona were beginning to understand the enormity of what Kwaku Awahnee, Dallan’s predecessor, had done to bring them together. And he hadn’t done it alone – he’d used an entire village to see it done. They’d brought Lany – a resourceful fellow, but not a village by himself.
It occurred to Shona that in the heat of the moment, they’d forgotten to ask him what he’d found in his research on Dalrovia and Lacona. Well, that would have to wait too. “Please,” she whispered. “Do it, Asger, do it.”
Dallan took her hand and squeezed. Both could feel the pain in Asger and Mitzi – though the repairs had begun, if they didn’t continue unhindered, they’d be right back to square one.
“She’ll never believe us if we have to tell her what she is,” Shona whispered. “She’ll run.”
“Dinna be too sure. Let him follow his heart, as I did mine.” He cupped her face. “D’ye no remember?”
“Of course I do. We were in the rose gardens …”
“Aye, and after ye punched me, I claimed ye, did I no?”
Shona nodded, enjoying the warmth of his hand. “Can I help it if I’m impatient?”
Dallan smiled, then nodded at their charges, and they kept watching and waiting.
Asger’s hands were growing warmer by the minute. Mitzi wondered if he knew, but again she couldn’t speak. She closed her eyes, waiting to see if the strange thing that had happened between them in the gardens would happen again.
She wasn’t disappointed. Mitzi?
She smiled. Asger.
He smiled back. It’s happening again.
Yes. What do we do?
He laughed silently. I don’t know. I wish I knew what this was or how, but I only know …
What?
He shook his head as he looked into her eyes and drew closer. Mitzi, you … came to me like a dream. And I don’t want to wake. His face was so close she could feel the brush of his breath.
I don’t want to either. I’ll refuse if I have to.
He smiled at that. Then we’ll both stay asleep. He hung his head.
But?
How can I get married? I can’t deny what’s happening between us, how we’re able to understand each other this way. He met her gaze. It’s so far-fetched and mad and a million other impossible things, but …
She swallowed hard as her heart sped up. But?
His eyes darted to her lips. I can’t marry Velta.
You would betray your country?
He let go of her hand and cupped her face. If I marry her, I betray my heart.
Her jaw trembled.
I’ve known you for such a short time, yet this strange … thing between us, I cannot fight it. I …
Then don’t. Don’t fight it any longer. It wants something …
You’re right, it does. He looked at her lips again. And I … I … His eyes met hers. Mitzi … His lips touched hers gently, but with the impact of battleships colliding. It reverberated through her entire body, causing her to jerk, but he didn’t break the kiss. Instead, he pulled her against him as he deepened it.
It was like a door opening, but to what she had no idea. Light flooded her vision, yet her eyes were closed. Her body was suddenly not her own as something deep within her took over, answering his kiss where she couldn’t, scaring her to death even as it reassured her. She was no longer Mitzi Fine, but someone, something else. She could see everything around them as if her eyes were not only open, but acting like a series of cameras recording 360 degrees and with X-ray vision – the trees, the bushes, the sky, the castle and everyone in it …
Her eyes opened. Dallan and Shona were nearby, she knew it. She could see them plain as day in … not her mind’s eye, but beyond that. She had so many questions, felt so many new sensations, and all because of the man kissing her.
When Asger broke the kiss, he gazed into her eyes with a look so desperate it almost tore her heart out, and said the one thing she never expected to hear, but knew deep in her heart to be true. “Mitzi,” he gasped. “You are mine.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Asger didn’t know why he’d said it. Maybe he shouldn’t have, but he couldn’t help it. The minute his lips touched hers it was like an avalanche crashing down, and there was nothing that could stop it. Not even tradition and duty. Everything he’d been taught, everything he’d been prepared to do to ensure he fulfilled his duty to queen and country was ripped from him by a simple kiss and obliterated. Mitzi was his. It was an undeniable fact – and the most heady sensation of his life. Somehow, with that kiss, he’d claimed her.
And he wasn’t sure what to do now.
She stared at him with those wonderful blue eyes, seeking and asking the same thing he was. What now?
“Mitzi,” he whispered against her lips. “Are you okay?”
“Yes,” she whispered back. “But … what just happened?”
“I don’t know.” He kissed her cheek, nibbled at her ear and fought the urge to kiss his way down her neck to her shoulder. A peace and contentment he’d never known washed over him. Was it doing the same to her?
He rested his forehead against hers and swallowed hard. He didn’t know why the other form of communication had ceased and he could speak again. He didn’t know a lot of things. But they’d have to explain it so he could tell his parents that he couldn’t marry Velta, that he had to marry Mitzi.
Did he love her? He’d never been in love before, so he wasn’t sure what he should be feeling. This was so strange, so fantastic, that saying “I love you” didn’t come close to describing it. Yet he’d done something … handed her a part of him he didn’t know he possessed. His heart? His soul? He had no idea. He only knew she had it now and that it was the right thing to do.
Still, the outside world nagged at him. He was contravening his parents’ – his sovereigns’ - plans. Some might consider it treason. What now indeed.
“What’s the matter?”
He looked at her, not realizing he’d looked away. “I have some things I must sort out.” He loosened his hold slightly. It felt wrong, so he pulled her against him.
“Asger?”
“Don’t talk, don’t say anything.” He was afraid this wasn’t real, and afraid it was. How could he explain this to his mother and father? How would they explain it to King Bjorn and Velta? He’d heard stories about Velta, mostly whisperings of servants, but at times those were the truest sources of information. She could rage over this, and then what? A diplomatic falling out with Lacona? Perhaps even war?
Mitzi tenderly touched his face. “Something’s really bugging you.”
He smiled at her concern. “Bugging?”
“Troubling.”
He didn’t want to burden her with it. He took her hand, kissed it, then put it over his heart. “Is not this more important, this thing between us? We still don’t know what it is. I can’t put a name to it, can you?”
She shook her head. “I’ve tried, but … I’m at a loss too.”
He looked at their surroundings, heard the birds, felt the soft breeze caressing them. “I don’t want to leave here.”
“But we have to, don’t we?”
“I’m afraid so.” He shifted, keeping her in his arms, then pulled her tighter. “I can’t let you go.”
“Don’t,” she said softly.
It almost did him in. “Mitzi, what’ll happen if you don’t return home?”
She didn’t answer, but stiffened in his arms.
Uh-oh. “Mitzi?”
She took a deep breath. “My father will be worried sick.”
“And your mother?”
“I’m not sure she even knows I’m gone. Or would care if she did.”
“How can that be?”
“That’s just the way she is. But never mind her.” She laughed. “Hard to believe all of this could happen in just two days?”
“Yes, it is, but it has. Whatever ‘it’ is.” He shifted to look at her. “You should send word to them … what? What’s the matter?”
Her eyes darted around. “There’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you …”
“What?”
She licked her lips, stalling, but he didn’t want to push her. Whatever it was, it didn’t matter. She was his and he wasn’t about to let her go. He hoped what he’d told her earlier hadn’t frightened her. He said she was his – did she think so too, or was she just too caught up in the moment to protest? Was she having second thoughts despite what had engulfed them? The thought chilled him with fear.
“You see,” she finally began, “I come from someplace far away.”
“Of course you do. But you must have left America weeks ago to get here. All the more reason we should get word to your family that you’re safe.”
