Fantasyland 03 Fantastical (24 page)

Every lie I tell?

“How bizarre,” Algernon muttered.

“It’s remarkable,” Tor said with what, if I
wasn’t about to melt into a puddle of steaming heartbreak, I would
have noted was clear respect.

“So she’s playing you?

“Indeed,” Tor answered. “I gave her
permission to do so and clearly she took me up on the offer.”

I stepped away from the door in order to
lean against the wall beside it so my shaking knees wouldn’t fail
me.

He thought I was playing him.

He thought I was playing him!

Weeks of it! Nearly two months of it!

He thought I was playing him!

“You gave her permission?” Algernon sounded
shocked.

“Certainly. It’s living a lie but living
Cora’s lie is better by far than living with the old Cora.”

“It doesn’t make you angry?” Algernon
asked.

“Gods no,” Tor replied. “It comes with her
sweet body, that charming mouth of hers, her skillful tongue and
the possibility that she’s already carrying my heir.”

Holy crap!

“So you’re getting something out of it,”
Algernon stated.

“Every bloody night,” Tor replied and I felt
pain sharp in my gut, like I’d been punched. “And if my wife lives
and breathes her deceits with exuberant imagination out of bed, you
can well imagine what she treats me to
in
it.”

Algernon chuckled a low, manly chuckle.

But I closed my eyes. Slowly.

He thought I was the Cora of this world.

He didn’t believe I was me.

I was falling in love with him…

Fucking shit, I’d
already
fallen in
love with him.

And he was using me.

Using me!

Using me to get his heir.

He was trying to get me pregnant and
enjoying himself doing it. And I was letting him.

And enjoying myself doing it, too.

But I
loved
him.

And he did not love me.

He didn’t even
like
me.

He was
playing
me!

Why, why, why did guys have to be dicks in
my world
and
in fairytale world?

Why?

“Well done, sir,” Algernon stated as I made
up my mind, straightened from the wall and then walked right into
the room.

Both men started when I did, their heads
swinging in my direction.

But I only had eyes for Tor as he stared at
me walking across the room carrying the swirly, creamy frosted cake
with its blue birthday candles that I’d wanted so badly and worked
so hard to make for him (seriously, the kitchens in his castle were
warm and jolly but the utensils and appliances were so far away
from KitchenAid it wasn’t funny).

“Happy birthday,” I whispered and even I
heard the ache in my voice.

When Tor heard it, I watched him flinch and
the flinch was so reactionary he had no hope of hiding it.

He knew I heard.

Good.

“Cora –” he started.

“In
my
world,” I cut him off and
moved my what I was sure were heartsick eyes to Algernon, “we don’t
serve birthday tarts with birthday sparklers, as Perdita told me
you do here. In
my
world,” I looked back at Tor who was
frozen to the spot and watching me stop at his desk and set the
cake on it, “we serve birthday cake with birthday candles.”

I touched the stick to a candle on his desk,
lit it and started lighting the birthday candles as I kept
explaining.

“So, for your birthday, since I have no
money but I wanted to do something special, I decided to give you
something that was special to me, a piece of my world, kind of
literally. I scoured the city to find all the right ingredients and
Perdita had the candlemaker make special candles. So here you are.”
I gestured to the cake with a flick of the stick. “A my world
birthday cake.” My eyes went to his. “My birthday present to you.
And now what you have to do is make a wish, blow out the candles
and your wish is supposed to come true.”

Luckily, there were only ten candles (I
guess I didn’t explain very fully to Perdita). I’d finished with
them so I blew out the stick and set it on the desk.

“Cora –” Tor started again, beginning to
move toward me.

“No!” I cried, lifting up a hand and he
stopped.

“I’ll just –” Algernon began, my head
snapped to him and I dropped my hand.

“Please, don’t go, you must have some cake,”
I whispered, his eyes shot to Tor but he didn’t move.

I looked back at Tor.

“You need to make your wish,” I told him.
“Then blow out your candles.”

“Sweets –” he started, my eyes closed and
that tear in my heart didn’t split, it didn’t gently rip
deeper.

It slashed through my heart, rending it in
two.

I opened my eyes, locked them on Tor’s
beautiful, blue, playing, deceitful ones and I felt mine fill with
tears.

“Make your wish,” I whispered.

“Cora –”

A tear spilled over and slid down my
cheek.

“Make your wish, honey.”

I watched his eyes follow the trail of my
single tear then they came to mine then he came at me.

I whirled, picked up my skirts and ran.

“Cora!” he yelled as I dashed out the door
and down the hall. “Cora! Gods damn it, stop!”

He was right behind me.

Shit!

It sucked that he was so tall and his legs
were so
freaking
long.

The staircase was in sight, the winding one
that skirted the circular wall of the mammoth circular hall that
led to the front doors. A hall floored in gleaming black marble
veined with silver and blue. A hall that could house at least a
hundred bodies whirling around in a waltz.

A fairytale hall in a black, hideous
fairytale.

I didn’t make it to the staircase though. I
was caught by the arm and pulled around.

“
Take your hand off me!
” I
shrieked.

“Cora, calm down,” Tor ordered gently.

I stilled and tipped my face to look at him,
“Fuck you! Fuck calm! I’m going to find a wizard right now! And
don’t you
fucking
stop me!”

“Cora, gods, calm the fuck down!” he yelled
back and it pissed me off that he’d picked up some of
my
language from
my
world that he didn’t even believe fucking
existed
that I wanted to go back to and I didn’t want
him
to have any part of.

“Take your hand off me!” I screamed again,
trying to pull away but failed when he let me go and his arms
locked around me.

“Listen to me,” he commanded.

“No! No way! You’re not a jerk. You’re a
dick!
You’re a
player!
I fucking
hate you!
Which really sucks because about ten minutes ago, I fucking
loved you
more than
anything
in this,
and my
,
whole,
fucking worlds!
”

His body went solid and I took advantage,
wresting out of his arms, I turned instantly and started
running.

“Cora!” he shouted as I made it to the top
of the staircase and I looked back over my shoulder.

“Don’t come near me!” I yelled, starting to
race down the steps.

“Cora! Gods! Mind the –!”

That’s when it happened.

I tripped.

Stupid, stupid,
stupid
me, running in
an emotional state down a flight of stairs.

And down I went, crashing, bumping and
whirling down a silver and blue veined set of winding, black
marble, fairytale castle stairs.

I landed at the bottom feeling pain in every
inch of my body but most especially my head which slammed, rather
violently, against a number of steps on the way down.

Fucking great.

I felt Tor crouch at my side and carefully
and tenderly (the asshole), he lifted my torso in his arms,
cradling my head in the crook.

“Sweets,” he whispered, I opened my eyes and
I looked into his fucking unbelievably beautiful eyes and that was
when my vision started to fade.

“I loved you,” I whispered.

“Cora,” he whispered back.

“I know you don’t believe me, you’ll never
believe me but it’s true. I loved you.”

“Stop speaking,” he murmured.

The black started to permeate, take over. It
was coming fast. I was losing it.

“In this world,” I kept whispering, “you
were the only thing I had but you were the only thing I
needed.”

“Gods,” he muttered, the word sounding
dragged out of some deep part of him.

And that was all I heard before everything
faded to black.

Until You

I felt weak light hit my eyes, I opened them
and I saw my light green pillowcase.

I blinked but when my eyes came back open,
there it was. My light green pillowcase.

My
pillowcase. From
my
bed. In
my
world.

I shot up to sitting and nearly blacked out,
my head was so woozy. I lifted a hand to my head and closed my eyes
tight until the feeling went away. Then I kept them closed
thinking,
well, guess all I had to do to get myself back to my
world was give myself a head injury… good to know.

Then I slowly opened them and looked
around.

Then my mouth dropped open.

My room looked like a hurricane had rushed
through it. There were clothes and shoes and accessories
everywhere.
I spied some glossy bags, squinted, leaned
forward and my heart slid into my throat.

Okay, well, there it was. The Cora of Tor’s
world had come here, she hadn’t cleaned in two months and
apparently she somehow managed to shop at exclusive department
stores.

I flopped back to the pillows, whispering,
“Shit.”

Then I felt the mattress under me. I’d
always liked my mattress. It was firm and comfortable.

What it was not was firm but soft and downy
like Tor’s.

Tor.

My nose started stinging and I sucked air in
through it.

No more Tor (which I told myself was good).
No more Aggie (which was not good). No more Salem (also not good)
or Clarabelle (ditto) and, of course, all the girls in the kitchen
who I had just figured out liked me.

No more fairytale.

A lone tear slid out of the side of my eye,
down my temple and mingled in my hair.

“Good,” I whispered but it wasn’t a
convincing whisper.

It was total bullshit.

Now I was home, heartbroken, having been
played by the master, the black Prince Noctorno of a whole other
world and it was clear just looking at my bedroom that I had a big
mess to clean up, left by the other Cora.

First, I needed to get a cold compress for
my head.

Then I would tackle the mess Cora made of my
house and, probably, my life.

I gingerly got out of bed and just as
gingerly walked across the room. I flinched at the bright lights of
the bathroom when I turned them on. Then I winced when I saw the
state of the bathroom (dirty towels, makeup and hair stuff
everywhere). Then I stared at my mustard yellow bathroom suite
which had obviously not been cleaned in two months but even if it
was sparkling clean it would still look like crap.

“Goodie, I’m home,” I muttered, did my
thing, dug through the stuff on the long bathroom counter (Cora, I
saw, had also splurged on some pretty pricey face stuff and
makeup). Found face soap, washed my face, opened a new toothbrush
and brushed my teeth. I took three aspirin and washed them down
cupping the water in my hand under the tap to do so. Then I wetted
the sole clean washcloth I could find in my bathroom closet with
cold water, wrung it out, folded it and wandered back to my bedroom
to lie down thinking a quick rest, parents first (if I wasn’t
disowned), friends second (if they were talking to me), work last
(if I still
had
work).

I moved over the threshold, something caught
my eye, I looked up and stopped dead.

Tor was standing there.

Tor wearing a pair of faded jeans (that
looked really freaking good on him) and a navy blue, long-sleeved
tee (that also looked really freaking good on him).

His feet were bare, his hair was messy and
his eyes were on me.

“What the –?” I started to breathe.

“What are you doing out of bed?” he demanded
to know in his Tor-like, imperious, deep voice and I blinked.

This was a mistake for in the nanosecond my
eyes were closed, he made it to me (truth be told, my bedroom
wasn’t that big), had me cradled in his arms then he walked me to
my bed and gently set me in it. Then he yanked the covers over me.
Then he pulled the washcloth out of my hand, studied it a second,
sat on the bed beside me and pressed it on my forehead.

I stared up at him and whispered, “Who are
you?”

He stared down at me. “I’m your
husband.”

Oh my God! Did Cora of the other world find
Tor of this world and marry him in two months?

Holy crap!

“You’re my husband?”

His eyes moved over my face before he said,
“Yes, love, I’m your husband.”

Oh no. Oh God. Oh no.

I couldn’t live in
my
world with the
Tor of
my
world while remembering what a stupid fool I’d
been about the Tor of the fairytale world!

That would suck!

How could this situation, already bad, get
so much worse? What did I do to deserve such shitty karma?

“Did we, uh… like, get married in Vegas or
something?” I asked and his brows drew together.

“No, Cora, actually,
we
haven’t been
married, something I will rectify the minute
we
get back
home.”

Oh boy.

“Back home?” I whispered.

“To our world.”

Oh boy!

“Our world?” I asked tentatively.

“My world and what will bloody well be
your
world as soon as I discover how the fuck to get out of
this dreary, foul place.”