Chapter Twenty-Six

Torn Away

 

I was sitting on the armchair in my living room, feet up on the coffee table, legs bent, pad of paper on my knees, making lists. Tor was stretched out on the couch, his fingers wrapped around a bottle of beer that was resting on his abs, his eyes on a baseball game on the TV.

So… totally… a man.

This was after our conversation with Phoebe, Brianna and Marlene. It was after we had gone by the mall to get Tor a cell. And after we had come home, Tor stopping blocks away and getting out of the car to walk back just in case the apartment was under surveillance (somehow, he was standing outside my door by the time I got in the driver’s seat, drove home, found a place to park on the street and walked up to my apartment proving he wasn’t just strong, my man was fast and, I hoped, stealthy). I’d made Tor a dinner of spiral pasta, spaghetti sauce with meatballs, garlic bread, salad and beer (for him, diet root beer, for me) and Tor had shared he liked this meal far more than bologna sandwiches and Cheetos. Obviously, we followed dinner with red velvet cake because that cake could be a week old and it would still kick ass.

At the coffee house, we had learned from Phoebe that Noc had not given her anything.

Not that first thing.

Except he appeared pissed that, first, she was there and not Cora (as anyone who was getting the boot would be) and second, that he was getting the boot without explanation and for what appeared to be no reason. She’d tried to pry but he was closed up tight and after his hand gripped the handle of the suitcase, he didn’t hang around long.

She did stress, however, that he appeared pissed but she got the sense he felt relief and that mostly he just wanted his stuff. She also reported that he seemed distracted, acted like he had better things to do and that he just wanted to get the hell out of there.

This was a disappointment but not unexpected.

What was not a disappointment but was a shock (some of that shock good, as in possibly very good, some of it was bad, as in really bad) was all that we learned from Marlene.

First, we learned that the alternate Circe, in an effort to bring back the, uh, real Circe, had gone all out to find a witch in this world who would be able to bring the real Circe back to her world (how’s that for confusing?).

Then we learned, thankfully, as Tor confirmed from Marlene’s additional information, that this world was, indeed, Korwahk. And the witch had provided the information that there weren’t an infinite number of worlds. There was Tor’s and there was ours.

Then it was confirmed that Circe was sent back not by the witch. Circe’s King Lahn had found some means to transport her back to him. However, the witch had, with great confidence, assured Circe’s father who assured Marlene that Circe was safely back where she wanted to be. However, although the witch did not send Circe back, Marlene was relatively certain (relatively, yikes!) that she had the power to send Tor and I back.

And Marlene had also, prior to meeting with us, called Circe’s Dad, found out the location and swung by this witch’s trailer (yes, trailer) only to discover she was no longer there. In fact, the whole trailer was gone.

This was bad.

What was a surprise was that Marlene had said the witch was old, she was blind and her name was Clarabelle.

At that, I gasped and Tor’s eyes sliced to me. He showed and shared no response even when I quizzed him about it later in the car telling him I thought this was good news.

His reply was simply, “You are not the other Cora, this Noc is not me and this witch is not the other Clarabelle. We have no idea of her character. What we do know is she is a witch and anyone who dabbles in magic is suspect. We must tread cautiously.”

I had to admit, I was totally down with that.

I questioned Marlene more about Circe’s other world and learned that what Tor and Phoebe had said was true. Things for Circe, like me, had not started out all that great with Circe and her King Lahn and this was to say the least (she was, indeed, hunted, “claimed”, as in raped by this King Lahn, then installed as his queen) but somehow he rallied, they ended up getting on well, as in very well, so well she was desperately in love with him, desperately heartbroken when she’d left him, totally into having his child and apparently blissfully happy when she got back, gave him twins and was living her life like a queen (literally). She was so happy, she was apparently totally fine with leaving everything behind and living with this guy in his primitive world for the rest of her natural born days.

The semi-good news about all this was that apparently, Circe’s Dad had been able to get a message to her in her world and she was able to return one, setting her Dad (and Marlene’s) mind at-ease about her situation. The reason this was semi-good news was that, although Circe had been back there for awhile, communications between worlds were unpredictable and although Marlene told me that Circe’s Dad kept trying and Circe had promised her Dad she would too, he had not heard from her again.

This sucked. However, where there was hope well… there was hope.

Obviously, Queen Circe (or Queen Circe, the True Golden Warrior Queen of Korwahk, how’s that for a kickass title?), her brute king and their growing brood didn’t take vacations in Seattle which also sucked. We learned from Marlene the reason Circe did not go back and forth was because the witch Clarabelle informed Circe’s father, and the other Circe (who was, more news, a sorceress) corroborated this, that it took vast amounts of power to travel between worlds. There was not only little communication with the other world, what little there was was random, not in anyone’s control and therefore the witch did not know who was controlling the travel from the other side and she could not guarantee she could get messages from there or to there to bring anyone back. And even if she did, it would be a one way trip as, once she brought them here, she couldn’t get them home as getting them here would use up all her magic. It would take decades for her magic to recover enough for her to attempt another trip.

See? Totally sucked.

So, when Circe made her decision to send the message to her father that she was staying, this meant Circe knew it was King Lahn’s world or her own.

Circe chose King Lahn.

I got where she was coming from though I would have preferred to be able to travel back and forth at will say, having my child in my world where medicine was more advanced and so my parents could meet him or her and, of course, when the Oscars pre-shows were on because that was my most favorite event of the year (it was all about the dresses and, I might add, the hairstyles and jewelry).

Alas, this was not possible.

But I’d already made my choice, no matter how difficult. And I made it because Tor could not be a prince in my world, his people depended on him and he’d expended great effort (and had the scars to prove it) to rebuild his kingdom. I couldn’t ask him to give up enjoying the triumphant result of something he felt so strongly about he gave it five years of his sweat and blood and his efforts to regain it were marked on his face and body nor could I ask him to give up the eventual succession to rule a kingdom that was his birthright.

I was an administrative assistant, only Dave depended on me and the only wounds I ever got were from paper cuts.

I didn’t think about my parents or Phoebe or Dave or the Oscar pre-shows or any of that. I couldn’t. I had to focus. I was in love. I was pregnant. My man was far away from his family, who he cared about, and his people, who depended on him.

And I had a sister to get to know.

The rest I would deal with when the time came. And if I couldn’t then I knew Tor would help me or, at least, do everything he could to try.

Before we left the coffee house, Marlene had turned to Tor.

“You hear tales of her?” she asked.

“Indeed,” he answered.

“And she’s, um… happy?” she went on, her voice low, her eyes intense and Tor’s answer obviously meant the world to her.

At this, I tried not to look at Phoebe but that didn’t mean I didn’t search for her hand on the table, find it and hold it tight.

“They are said to be a love match, she is revered as a goddess, so yes, I would assume she’s happy,” Tor replied quietly.

She nodded then enquired, “Is Korwahk far from your kingdom?”

“Very far,” he answered and she looked disappointed but nodded again then she licked her lips and looked away.

So I called her name and when I had her eyes, I asked, “Is there something you want?”

Marlene studied me. Then she nodded.

“I’d like to get a message to her, just… to let her know I miss her and I’m glad she’s happy,” Marlene said quietly.

Hmm. Marlene was sweet and seemed quiet, unlike Phoebe who was a different kind of sweet but not all that quiet but it would seem Marlene was Circe’s BFF just like Phoebe was mine. This made me smile at her but it also made my hand grow tighter in Phoebe’s.

“We will see to that upon our return,” Tor offered and Marlene looked hopefully at him then Tor went on, sharing honestly, “However, this land is far away, routes of communication are not dependable, this king is nomadic and therefore I cannot assure you it will reach her but I can assure you we will try.”

I fought the urge to kick him under the table for it was cool he was being honest but she didn’t have to know about the undependable routes of communication, for goodness sake.

She nodded at Tor then looked at me. “He took her when I was with her. I was actually standing right next to her. I saw her disappear. She just… melted away.” Holy crap! There it was again! “And we’d just been talking about how she didn’t want to go back when, suddenly, she was gone.” At this, Phoebe clenched my hand and I clenched hers right back. “I know everything is okay with her now and she’s happy but… it would have been cool for her to, you know, meet someone from home, to, like, know she wasn’t alone. It sucks your kingdom is so far away.”

“Maybe, after I have the baby, Tor and I can take an adventure,” I suggested to bring that hope back to her face, it worked, her face brightened but Tor’s grew dark. “Just saying, maybe…” I muttered in his direction.

His eyes went back to the ceiling.

When Marlene left she promised to do what she could to find this Clarabelle and get back to us tout suite.

But my thoughts were, Clarabelle was AWOL and I had been on Tor’s world for nearly two months. This meant we could be here that long, or longer. And who knew when or if we would find Clarabelle.

So, as far as I was concerned, I was moving forward, business as usual.

“Sweets?” Tor called and I looked from my list to him. “Put down your paper and come lie with me,” he commanded.

I looked at the TV then back to him.

“I’ve got to do this and I’m not into baseball,” I replied.

“I’ll change it,” he returned.

“I’ve got to do this,” I told him, his eyes went to my knees then back to mine.

“You can do it later,” he stated.

“No, I want to get it out of the way.”

He turned to his side, gave me his full attention and when he did I noticed the change in his eyes and I noticed it in three specific parts of my body.

“Put it aside,” he said softly, “and we’ll both go to your indoor waterfall.”

Those three specific parts of my body twanged at the thought of a shower with Tor.

“Five minutes, honey,” I replied just as softly. “I’ll be done and we can shower.”

He rested his head on his hand, elbow in the couch. “What are you doing?”

“Making lists,” I answered, looking back down at my paper.

“Lists of what?” he asked and I looked back at him.

“Contingency plans.” His eyebrows rose so I explained, “We don’t know how long we’re going to be here. So, if we’re here awhile, like I was in your world awhile, there are things I have to do and things I don’t want you to miss.” I looked back down at the paper and started enumerating. “I have to go to the doctor, get the pregnancy confirmed medically, get some vitamins or whatever, start that whole gig. I want you, Mom, Dad and me to go to the seafood place where Dad asked Mom to marry her and where we go every year for all our birthdays. I want to take you for a drive down the coast so you can see all my world isn’t dreary and some of it is actually really gorgeous. Since you’re interested in baseball, I want to take you to a Seattle Mariners game before the season ends. And I want you to go over to Phoebe’s so she can make you one of her dirty martinis, which are divine. And I forgot to buy you gum at the store so we have to get you some gum so you can try –”

“Cora,” Tor cut in and my head came up.

“What?”

“Put your list aside and come here,” he ordered.

“Tor, I have to put this down on paper so I don’t forget anything.”

“Put it aside and come here,” he semi-repeated.

“Honey, you took time out in your world to show me places and allow me to meet people and I want to give you what –”

“Love, put it down and come here.” His voice was very firm and I’d been so intent on my list, I’d missed the look on his face.

But I wasn’t missing it now.

I put the list down and went there.

When I was stretched out full on top of him, he lifted both sides of my hair and held it at the back of my head with one hand, his other arm closing around my waist.

“You can go back to your list in a second but when you do, you need to change it. You need to list all the things you want to do, people you want to see, in order of priority. Then we will do these things and see these people,” he told me.

“But I want you –” I started but stopped when his head lifted and he brushed his lips against mine.

He dropped his head and whispered, “It is not me giving up everything for love, my sweet.”

My heart clenched just as his arm tightened.

Tor kept talking and he did it with that tender look in his eyes and a low rumble in his voice. “You must fill the time you have left here with the people you want to see and places you want to be and I’ll experience your world through that. I want you to have that. You’ll need it. And it will allow me to feel more at peace as our decades together pass in my world knowing that I was able to give that to you before you gave everything for me.”

Tears suddenly and swiftly filled my eyes.

God but God, I loved this man.

“Baby,” I whispered as one slid down my cheek but it didn’t make it very far before Tor let go of my hair and his thumb swept it away.

“Now, kiss me, my love, and then finish your list so we can shower together.”

I stared down through my watery eyes at my gorgeous warrior prince.

Then I dropped my mouth to his, both of his arms closed around me tight, I tipped my head to the side, he slanted his the other way, my mouth opened but before his tongue slid inside and I could taste the gloriousness of him I felt myself flying through the air.

Yes, flying through the air!

I cried out in shock but my cry stopped abruptly when my back slammed painfully against the wall and blue sparks shot out around me.

Oh God.

I knew what that meant.

Oh God!

No!

“Tor!” I shouted after I slid down the wall, landed on my booty and lifted my head.

But the couch, the whole couch, was shrouded in blue mist. So shrouded, I couldn’t see him, not even a little bit of him. Nothing.

No!

“Tor!” I shrieked, jumping to my feet and taking one step toward him only to feel an invisible hand plant itself in my chest and I was shoved right back against the wall, violently, blue sparks flying again when I landed and that pressure at my chest did not go away.

I struggled against the invisible hold that held me pinned against the wall, pushing forward and screeching, “Tor! No! Oh my God! Please, no!”

Then I heard an evil cackle I’d only heard once before, my blood turned to ice, the blue mist disappeared from my couch and the invisible hold that had me in its control melted away.

My couch was empty.

Tor was gone.

I collapsed to the floor not only in despair but in sudden pain. Excruciating, unbearable pain that made me curl my body automatically into a tight, protective ball.

And I knew what that pain was.

I knew exactly what it was.

Half my soul had just been torn away.