Eventide (Meratis Trilogy Book 2) (2 page)

He hadn’t lied to April. He was no one. He was no one who used to be someone.

The car pulled over, and Jeff didn’t interrupt his mulling to hear the fee. He handed over a couple of bills and left without change.

At this time of year, Old Port swam with tourists, eager to see the ships or rent their own boats to escape the heat for the afternoon. One family passed by with t-shirts and bags from the Science Centre, the kids overwhelmed with excitement. Jeff tuned them out, skirted the chip wagons with their intoxicating scents, and headed for the quay.

Keeping to the shade of the trees, he crossed the bridge into the park. Along the water, he avoided the people napping in the grass and the keener students working on their first assignments of the new term. He envied their peace of mind. Without acknowledging anyone in his path, he reached the edge of the pier and leaned against the railing. The winds from the Saint Lawrence played with his hair and blew away some of his growing sense of futility.

He pulled out his phone and turned it back on, re-reading Cassie’s message.
Dinner tonight?
He slammed his free hand onto the railing and shoved the phone back in his pocket.

From the highlight of his week, Cassie Murphy had become a source of dread, and he hated himself for that, too. The whole time he’d been locked in that cell, all he could think about was how much of a coward he was for never asking her out. Six months later and their situation had hardly changed.

He had asked her to dinner. Finally. He’d worked up the courage within minutes of arriving back in his apartment after the confused chaos of their journey in another world. And she’d said
yes.
He still couldn’t believe it had been that easy. They’d gone out for curry. As they broke apart the pappadum, the conversation had been awkward and stilted, with much beer imbibed. By the time the butter chicken disappeared, it felt like they’d been talking forever.

Jeff had ridden the high of that date for a week.

But then he’d tried to pick at a new story. Every day he forced himself to write a single sentence, and by the end of two weeks hadn’t come up with anything more than a detective who really enjoyed coffee and had a cat named Fred. The more he tried, the more frustrated he became, and Cassie—not being an idiot—had noticed.

But what could he say to her? “I can’t write anymore because of you?”, “I sort of sacrificed the essence of what I was to save you?”

Jeff shivered as the breeze cooled the sweat on the back of his neck.

No matter how he worded it, Cassie would feel guilty and uncomfortable. So he’d done his best to avoid the problem until he came up with a better solution.

Not to say he never saw her at all. They’d gone out a few times over the last couple of weeks, once to the movies and another time to the Biodome. Jeff didn’t want to ruin his chances completely in case his “condition” reversed itself somehow, someday, but he had cut down his almost daily exposure. Mostly by cutting down his coffee intake. The first few weeks had been difficult, but now he noticed his pants fit better, and he was a little less twitchy thanks to the caffeine detox.

Lots of perks.

Jeff dropped down on a bench and buried his head in his hands. Why did everything have to be so complicated? Six months ago, he had been a pretty decent author writing some fun stories. Why couldn’t his characters have left things as they were? Why had Jayden and Jasmine Feldall decided to stick their noses in his business?

Never mind he made his living by sticking his nose in theirs.

A familiar anger bubbled up, and Jeff flexed his fingers in and out of fists. Damn Jasmine for coming up with the idea to transport him into their world. Damn Brady Reed, the scholar, for finding the Meratis incantation. And to hell with Maggie for casting it. They all should have known better.

The rage evaporated, and he sagged into the bench, the same emotional roller coaster he often faced these days. How could he stay upset about what he experienced? He’d travelled into a different world. He’d seen a dragon! He’d met Swish, the bay gelding who’d become his best friend on the other side. In fact, if he were very honest, the whole Feldall group had endeared themselves to him, knew him better than most of his friends in this world.

He just had to get a grip.

At the end of the pier, the old Clock Tower chimed the hour. Five gongs that let Jeff know he’d wasted almost a full sixty minutes here, whining and feeling sorry for himself. More than enough indulgence for one day. Any longer and he’d be that sad man on the next bench who spent hours every day feeding the pigeons.

Although what does it say about my habits that I know how often he’s here
?

No. He had to move forward, put the past behind him. All of those clichés that no longer had any meaning because they were easier said than done.

Swinging himself to his feet, Jeff took the long way home along the quay.

Man up
, he told himself, trying on a new mantra. Six months of nightmares and stressing about the future was enough.

Evensong
was enjoying its release, he was enjoying its promotion, and it was time to move on with the rest of his life.

That was the new plan. The next step. If he could take it.

He walked back through the park, now almost cleared out of students, although the napping man was still there. The younger families had gone, replaced by couples strolling towards the restaurants for a romantic evening out. Jeff closed his mind to them and left the Port, crossing over towards his apartment building, grateful for the thinning of the crowds the farther he got from the tourist hot spot. Traffic had eased, so he jaywalked across, passing the rows of highrises until he reached his own.

At the front door, he glanced across the parked cars to the coffee shop. Debated going for an afternoon pick-me-up. Decided the line was too long, and he wanted to shower to get the eau-de-plane off his skin.

To prove to himself he was taking his advice and moving on, no more running, Jeff pulled his phone back out and hit reply.
Dinner sounds good. Meet me after work?

He pressed send before he could overthink it and closed his hand around the phone, squeezed just enough to consider crushing the plastic, and then released it.

He’d get through this.

His hand vibrated.
I’ll be there
.

Great. Wonderful! The conflicting emotions of joy and terror coursed through him, and he was happy when he realised his smile won. Cassie still made him feel like a kid on Christmas morning.

With a bit more jump to his step, Jeff went inside and took the stairs up to his tenth-floor apartment. Not quite going to the gym, but better than nothing.

Outside his door, he paused to catch his breath and looked at his watch. Five-twenty. Just over half an hour until Cassie finished her shift.

Male voices floated towards him, and Jeff shot an angry glare towards the door next to his. If everything else in his life had changed, Mr MacGregor, his high-volume television-watching neighbour, remained the same. Had gotten worse, in fact.
Get outside, man. Get some fresh air.

After his initial irritation wore off, Jeff realised the noise wasn’t coming from his neighbour’s place. He pressed his ear against his own door, shocked to hear laughter on the other side. Two men, by the sound of it, having an unhurried conversation. Strange behaviour for burglars.

Jeff couldn’t decide what to do. He considered pulling out his phone to call the cops, but what if he was overreacting? Small shadows made him jump these days, so it wasn’t unlikely. He thought about knocking on MacGregor’s door, but accepted he would rather get stabbed by someone trying to steal his laptop than deal with his neighbour. The final thought made up his mind.

He pulled his overnight bag over his head and twisted the strap around his hand, ready to swing. With his other hand, he unlocked the door. Stepping inside, he caught full sight of both his guests: a wiry ginger-haired man standing next to his bookcase, and a one-armed, one-eyed man standing in the archway to the kitchen.

Jeff’s jaw fell open, and he let his bag drop to the floor, his mind numb, his reactions dulled.

The redhead watched him with concern, his hand reaching for Jeff’s computer chair as if ready to slide it over to him if his knees gave out.

The other man leaned against the wall, crossing one foot over the other as though nothing were out of the ordinary. Perfectly normal for them to be in Jeff’s apartment. In Jeff’s world.

“Hey, Jeff.” Jayden Feldall grinned.

Chapter Two

J
eff blinked once, twice. He raised a finger and pointed first at Jayden, and then at the other man, the scholar, Brady.

Then he decided he didn’t want to try to understand, pushed past Jayden into the kitchen, and grabbed a beer from the fridge. He didn’t offer one to either of the others, happy to believe for the moment that they were tricks of the light.

Neither man said anything while Jeff went through the motions of popping off the beer cap and chugging down half the bottle’s contents in one go. Jayden, an amused smirk still plastered on his lips, retreated from the doorway to stand at Brady’s side, giving Jeff room to sort things out.

The beer almost gone, Jeff mechanically walked back into the other room, rolled his computer chair well away from his guests, and fell into it. He took another swig and forced himself to accept this wasn’t a dream. That somehow they were here. In his apartment.

“What the fuck?”

Jayden’s grin returned, and he dropped down on the edge of Jeff’s bed. Still in too much shock to think about it in detail, Jeff couldn’t help but notice a roughness to the man’s once-roguish expression. The scar across the right side of his face that stretched up from his jaw and disappeared under the black leather eyepatch had healed well, hardly more than three faint pink and white lines compared to the twisted gash from six months ago. Andvellian healers—with the help of Maggie’s spells—knew what they were doing.

“I can imagine how you feel,” Brady said, the designated ambassador. Jeff rankled at the word “imagine”, but let it slide with another gulp of beer. “I must say you’re taking it better than I expected.”

“I’m still processing. Give me another minute.”

The scholar smiled, his good humour on the softer, more compassionate end of the scale than Jayden’s entertainment

“But it’s true? You two are here in my apartment. Standing here.”

“Gods, I can’t believe I’m having this conversation again.” Jayden sighed and ran his hand through his dark hair so it stuck up in all directions. “I know it’s a surprise, and we would have written first to let you know we were coming, but the messenger pigeons kept getting lost. Can we get past the ‘I’m crazy, this must be a dream’ bit a little more quickly this time?”

Jeff held up a hand. “Oh, I know I’m awake. I couldn’t make this moment up if I wanted to.
How are you here
?”

The final question came out louder than intended, but the slim grasp Jeff had on his temper slipped and hysteria crept in.

“Maggie sent us,” Brady explained. “She figured it worked bringing you into Andvell, so why not the other way around?”

“Because it’s wrong. Morally. Psychologically. Go home.”

Jeff got up and threw his empty into the blue box under the kitchen counter, then made for the fridge and this time grabbed three.

“Here’s one for the road.”

He tossed a bottle to Jayden and one to Brady, only considering afterwards that tossing breakable items to a man with one arm might not be the smartest idea. Jayden caught the bottle with ease, holding it steady with his knees as he palmed the cap. As if he’d done it all his life.

Brady set his bottle on Jeff’s desk unopened, but Jayden knocked the alcohol back, his mouth twisting into a grimace as he swallowed.

“What is this sheep’s piss? You call this beer?”

“When you’ve started drinking as much as I have, you go for the cheap stuff.”

“Huh,” Jayden huffed, taking a smaller sip.

“I’m afraid we can’t leave just yet,” Brady continued, undeterred.

“Why not? Please don’t tell me you need my help again. I can’t, guys, I really can’t. We made a deal. I stop writing about you and you leave me alone. Right?”

“Did we make that deal?” Jayden asked Brady. Brady shrugged. “I didn’t think so. Jeff. Brother.” Jeff’s eyebrow rose at the blatant attempt to soften him. “We’re here for a reason. The Sisters came to see us.”

Jeff’s shoulders drooped. He couldn’t even bring the beer to his lips to drown in the smooth drizzle of alcohol. Nothing good ever started with mention of the Sisters.

“You remember them, don’t you?” Jayden asked.

“Hard to forget,” Jeff grumbled. Neither Brady nor Jayden knew what they had taken from him. He had only told Jasmine, and was happy to leave it that way for now. “What did they say this time?”

Brady grabbed a chair from the two-seat kitchen table and dragged it into the living room next to the bed, keeping as much space between himself and Jeff as he could, which Jeff appreciated.