Fantastical (Fantasyland 3)

“And you need to step back.”

“Cora, I’ll step back when you promise to lie down, not get excited and rest.”

“How did you get here?” I snapped.

“I’ve no idea.”

“What happened?” I asked, forcing my hands between are bodies and pushing against his chest, to no avail so I gave up and went on. “The last thing I remember is losing consciousness.”

He nodded. “You did. I picked you up, carried you to our rooms. Perdita and the women from the kitchens had come out; they heard us arguing and saw your fall. Algernon was there as well and I sent him to fetch my physician. One of the women got you ice for a bump on your head. I was holding you in my arms and the ice on your head when Algernon and my physician arrived. The next thing I knew, your entire body was surrounded by a blue mist, it surrounded mine with yours and then we were in that,” his head gave a small jerk backwards, “bed.”

I stared up at him. “A blue mist?”

“A blue mist.”

“What blue mist?” I asked.

“I’ve no idea. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

“Never?”

“Never.”

“So we didn’t disappear when I passed out?”

“No.”

Weird.

I turned my head, looked down at myself and saw I was wearing the stretchy, cotton charcoal gray nightie with the dusty pink band at the top that I’d been wearing the last night I went to sleep in my world.

Then I looked to him. “Where’d you get your clothes? Did you wake up in those?”

“No,” he gave another jerk of his head and I saw his clothing from his world, including boots, dumped in a corner. “These were in your wardrobe which, sweets, is incredibly small.”

Clothes that fit him perfectly were in my closet?

Oh man. I didn’t think that was good.

“As is your whole dwelling,” he went on. “It’s also filthy. You cleaned a cave. How on earth do you live like this?”

“Well, Tor, I haven’t been living in my dwelling for two months, now, have I?” I asked snottily then demanded, “Move away.”

“Cora –”

I gave another shove of my hands, doing it with such effort it hurt my head (and my, I belatedly realized, aching muscles) but he rocked back an inch.

Then he came right back. “Not until you promise you’ll settle down and rest.”

“I’ll promise to settle down and rest if you’ll get, the f**k, away from me!” I screeched.

His head tilted and his chin went down just as his eyes closed slowly and, God’s honest truth, he looked in pain.

It proved to be true when he opened his eyes and locked them with mine.

Yep, he was in pain. Lots of it.

Ouch.

Man, it totally sucked that I could hate him, see his pain and hurt for him.

Then his hand came to my neck and I had nowhere to go so I couldn’t pull away.

“Please, listen to me,” he said softly.

“Fine,” I snapped. “Get it over with so I can go to bed and let the aspirin work.”

“The what?”

“It doesn’t matter. Just say whatever you have to say.”

His jaw clenched then his thumb started stroking the side of my neck. That was when my jaw clenched and I glared at him.

“Is it normal, in this world, this… travel between worlds?” he asked.

“No,” I bit out.

“Do you know anyone it’s happened to?”

“No,” I repeated shortly.

“No one?”

“No,” I replied. “Get to the point.”

“Me either,” he said quietly, “until you.”

Oh shit. I saw his point and that sucked.

When he said no more, I prompted, “Is that all?”

“My love,” his thumb moved up to stroke my jaw as his face got even closer, “it was fantastical what you were saying. You have to agree.”

“No I don’t,” I denied.

“Put yourself in my place,” he urged.

“Yes, well, sure, for an hour, maybe a day, I’ll give you a week,” I stated sarcastically. “I can put myself in your place and maybe the Cora of your world could pull something like that off for that period of time. I’ll give you that.”

“My sweet –”

“But we had two months together. I saw the damage she wrought on your staff and the entirety of Bellebryn. I know she was idiot enough to spurn your love. I can look around my house and see what she’s capable of. But you can’t tell me that she’s capable of carrying off that kind of deception for that long. When I arrived, everything about her had changed, I hope. Everything. Even the way she slept. And you cannot tell me that you covered my body with yours, moved inside me, looked in my eyes while you f**ked me and didn’t know the bloody difference.”

Shit. Now I was using his curse words.

But it worked. I scored a hit. I saw the pain slash through his eyes.

“I wanted to believe –” he started.

“Well, you didn’t. I baked you a f**king cake because it was the only thing I had to give you on your birthday, I wanted to give you a part of me and I got to your study and heard –”

“Don’t,” he clipped tersely.

“Yes, you know what I heard,” I whispered.

His hand slid up to cup my jaw, his other hand joining it on the other side.

“Take your hands off me.” I was still whispering.

He didn’t. He dropped his forehead to mine and started talking.

“Think about it, love, please,” he urged softly.

“Think about what? How, while I was falling in love with you, you were playing me?”

“You love me,” he told me.

“Not anymore, I don’t,” I returned and I watched his eyes smile.

“You can’t fall out of love just like that.”

“Trust me, Tor, you can.”

He lifted his forehead from mine and swept his thumb across my lips. I tried to tear my face away but his fingers simply gripped tighter.

“You can’t. I know. I fell in love with her and it isn’t that easy. I know this because I tried.”

“Well, I’m not you,” I spat.

“No, thank the gods, you aren’t.” And his eyes were smiling as his lips twitched.

I looked at the ceiling then back at him. “Will you let me go?” I demanded impatiently.

“Yes, I will, in a moment.”