First Kiss (23 page)

I scowl, “What?” He lifts me to a
sitting position and scoops me up into his arms. He is acting like I am a
fragile thing.

He cradles me to his chest, “I have
searched so long. I am sorry it took me this many years to find you.”

I push against him, “I was just with
you!”

He shakes his head, “No. You have been
asleep this many years. I have searched high and low.”

I open my mouth but I feel something.
The star in my brain flashes its bright light, and I remember something I did
not before. “There was an apple and I was a girl.”

He nods against my face, “Your sister
fed you an apple with a spell. You fell into a deep sleep and she hid you,
slowly using your dark magic as her own.”

I shake my head, “But I lived. I lived
a decade in another world. You were with me.” When I turn to see him, I see it.
The scars are just fading.

He shakes his head, “You have

not
left this
room in ten years.”

I look around at the small stone room.
It isn’t real. It can’t be. I can’t be here. Tears stream my cheeks, “It was
real. I was in another world. I was there with friends—Lune. You were
there. It was an old house at the end of a lane. I was cursed. There was a life
there—you have to remember that.”

“I am so sorry it took me so long to
find you. None of that has happened. It must have been a dream.”

I shove at him, “I remember things I
can’t possibly have made up, like the Internet and TV and college. Things we do
not have here.”

He nods, “It was a dream.”

I struggle from his grip, trying to stand
but my legs are like a newborn fawn’s. I fall to the stone floor, a sobbing
mess. “I remember Sam. I remember Rosie. I remember it all. Baylor. She is dead
in that world and my mother
has
claimed her body and
her magic. I remember. Do not tell me I don’t remember.”

He wraps himself around me, holding me
tightly. “I know someone who can explain.” He lifts me up and carries me
outside. The shocking cold of the outdoors hits like a ton of bricks. It is
dark and there is snow on the ground. He climbs onto a horse and holds me tight
to him. I fall asleep again, scared I may never wake or when I do, it will be
some strange future I cannot help but imagine.

Chapter Twenty

“She is still sleeping.” I stir hearing
Bash speaking softly.

A woman sighs, “Wake her, Your Grace.
She needs to wake up. We need to get her away from here before the witches
realize we have moved her. Or worse—that we woke her.”

I open an eye to see a small room in
which a fire and candles are making all the light. I am home, I assume.
Unless Lakeland has started using candles to light the rooms.
Bash kneels in front of me, “You’re awake.”

I nod, “My head hurts.”

A
glass is passed to
me by a small female hand
. I look up to see Heidi there. I smile,
”Heidi.”

She returns my smile, “Your Grace. I am
so happy you are awake.” Her eyes dart to Bash’s, “I didn’t expect you to know
me.”

I shake my head, “Are we back in
Lakeland?”

She looks confused, “Where?”

“Lakeland? You came
with
me and my mother there
. Bash was there and Alex and Tim, your son, and
Lance. We were in Lakeland for a decade.”

She shakes her head, “You have been
sleeping for a long time; your dreams are confused with your realities.”

“No, I remember things clearly. I
remember you.”

“That is odd, considering you have
never met my son, Tim.” She helps me sit up. I take the drink she has and take
a sip of it. “What is the last thing you remember?”

I look at the
fire,
just as a memory I have not seen in ages, finds its way to the forefront of my
mind. I have a thousand memories, but the one that stands out is so clear
compared to the others. “I was ten. My mother was at the house with me. She was
angry about something. Baylor had done something or wasn’t doing something. She
called her a waste of a life. It was cruel. I found Baylor weeping. She looked
at me and whispered, ‘Run, run Lynnie.’ I ran to the kitchen but it was empty.
Cook wasn’t there, no one was. Mother came in and handed me an apple, smiling
like she had never been angry. She looked wild, positively medieval in fact.
Her hair was everywhere and her eyes were darting about. She stroked my head
and smiled, but I could see the rage beneath it. She told me she had apologized
to Bay and she was sorry for shouting. She said she wasn’t herself lately, and
I must be a good girl and obey her. The apple was her way of making amends. It
was my favorite kind, the red ones that are crisp and sweet. Mother was still
pregnant and blamed her moodiness on the baby.” I look down at my hands, “My
hands were so much smaller then. The apple was so big and red. She asked me to
take a bite and I did. The room turned sideways and I watched the apple roll
across the floor, away from me. When I woke, I was at Mary’s house.” But the
truth is that Mary’s house is somehow not the way I recall it. Everything feels
like it’s in a pile that must be sorted.

Heidi’s eyes dart from me to
Bash
again. He sits next to the fire. Heidi puts her hands
on mine, “My dear girl, it was your sister who put a spell on you. She locked
you away in the tower, asleep inside of a casket made of glass. You have been
there this many years. Your mother is missing and we fear she is dead.”

“I remember it being my mother who gave
me the apple. Why does it matter? There is no spell. I was in Lakeland—I
was a Lake girl. A curse girl.”

Heidi and Bash have the same confused
look. I see a mirror on the wall. I struggle to get up and walk across the cold
floor to it. I stumble and twitch as my muscles flex and strain. I can feel
them working hard to get me across the room. When I make it to the mirror, I am
stunned. I look exactly the same as I did in my dream. I am twenty still, or
again. I don’t know which it is. But in this dream or reality—whichever
it might be—I am pale and weak. My hair has no luster and my eyes are
dark as if exhausted. The bags under my eyes are heavy and I am almost not
recognizable. “How have I become this?” I ask the mirror.

A face appears in the mirror. She is
me, and yet, not. She is beautiful where I am dull and lackluster. “Lynnie, you
are awake, finally. You must stop her. She has stolen most of my magic.” She
gives me a look, like I should know the story.

I shake my head, “What are you?”

She sighs, “Mother has cursed me to
walk in a world that is not ours and with little to no magic. I tried to save
you. I tried to make you run. Look how you have aged. I didn’t believe the
mirror when I checked up on you from Lakeland. Lynnie, you must run. Mother
discovered I did not have the black blood when I turned eighteen. The prophecy
said that one of us would have it.
One of the daughters of
the moon.
You and I and Rosie are not father’s daughters. We are the
daughters of the blood moon. That’s why Mother has cursed you. She knows it
will be you who has the dark magic she seeks. She cursed you to sleep, so they
might harvest your magic on the blood moon, without you even waking.”

I gasp, “Who are you?”

“She might not look like you, child,
but she is you. We’ll get you a bath and clean you up. You’ll see the
difference a hot meal and a hot tub can do.” Heidi comes to stand next to me,
but I can’t see either of us in the mirror. “You are a special girl, Lynnie.”

I point at the mirror, “Not
me—her. Who is she? The face in the mirror, I know she is not me.”

The girl in the mirror laughs, “I am
your sister,
you
fool. I’m Baylor.”

Heidi and Bash both stand next to me,
“What girl? That is you.”

Baylor laughs harder, “They cannot see
me. Only you can. I cannot come through the mirror, because I don’t have the
magic. You have to bring me through. My magic is so small and weak now.”

I look at Bash, “Can I have a minute? I
think I’m in shock.”

“One minute. We must leave, Erralynn,
before your mother comes and discovers you awake.” He and Heidi leave the small
room. I look back at the mirror, and she is still there.

She smiles at me but I shake my head,
“How did I live a whole other life? I have lived in Lakeland for a decade. I
loved Sam and was best friends with Lune. I sang and Mary beat me. I remember
it—I was there.”

She gives me a long stare before
answering. “Dear God, you have seen my life. Lynnie, I am
there—here—I am in Lakeland. I love Sam and I am
best
friends
with Lune. I sing at the bar and Mary has beaten me since I
arrived with Mother.”

I shake my head as silent tears fall
from my eyes, “But I saw it. Rosie was there. You came and pushed her through
the mirror.”

Baylor looks as lost as I feel. “They
tricked me—Mother and our aunt. They made me do the spell for the portal,
but I thought I was saving you from the deep sleep you were in. They said that
you had been cursed by the moon to punish Mother for her anger at
me
. She said she was so sorry and we should all work together to save
you. I didn’t know at the time, Mother had put you in it. I suspected but our
aunt had always been so kind to me and she was there at Mother’s side. She told
me we had to do it. We had to save you by making the portal to take you to a
place where you would be safe from magic.”

“You worked at the Lachlan mansion for
Bash?”

She scowls, “No. I have been there, but
it’s a dirty, old, rundown shack now. The ruins are disgusting. I’ve been there
with Sam before.”

“Heidi, Lance, Tim, and Alex—they
weren’t there with you?”

She shakes her head, “I don’t know what
you’re talking about. I fear you have been with me the entire time, but no one
could see you. You have shadowed me perhaps. Either way, it doesn’t matter now.
Mother cursed us both. I have been forced to live in this hellhole and you have
been forced to sleep. You will be her greatest adversary, I believe. I found a
book once, at our aunt’s.”

I start to laugh, as frustrated tears
seep from my eyes, “I know. I remember it.”

She cries with me, “Lynnie, she has
done something to your memories. You must look deep into your own eyes and call
the veil to be lifted from your face so you may see the truth of everything.”

“You’re alive, Bay, and you don’t want
me dead?”

She sobs, covering her face. “My sweet
sister, I was a fool. I never wanted you dead. I just wanted your future. I
have wronged you. I wanted to be queen and to be the most powerful witch. I
want to help you now, but I am trapped here. I need your help. Ask the veil to
lift. All I know is you must look deeply into your own eyes to gain the power.”

I shake my head, “I don’t know how.”
But she is gone, and I am back to looking at my tired self in the
mirror.
I lean into the reflection and stare into my dark eyes. They are
hazel almost, instead of blue and green. “Lift the veil from my eyes.”

Nothing happens. I blink, “Lift the
veil from my eyes.” Again nothing happens. Bash comes into the room. “What are
you doing?”

“I need to lift the veil from my eyes
so I can free Baylor.”

He looks confused, “Your sister is
evil; she is not in need of being freed, only killed. I’m so sorry. We have
suspected her of being the evil witch for some time, and we have reason to
believe that she has killed your mother. A woman came and found me in the woods
a fortnight ago. She told me of the place where I would find you. She knew of
my search to find you, and of a cursed tower where you had been hidden away.
She told me it was time for you to awaken and end the curse put on this land.
Your father is believed dead as well. I am sorry.”

I shake my head, “How do I lift the
veil from my eyes?”

He sighs, “There is no veil. You must
find a way to accept the changes in the world we are in. I know it’s a lot for
you, but I’m here for you. I have searched for a decade for you.”

“Because we are engaged to be married,
and you are the secret
Duke
of Red Falls?”

His eyes flash, “How do you know that?”

“I told you, I have lived this. I have
lived this life already. I know in my heart I love you more than anything in
the world, even though the last time I truly recall seeing you in this world
was when I was ten. I also know you are a wolf and a man. I know my kiss healed
your scars when you found me. I know your brother and my sister were to wed. I
know the King of Norland, Erik, is your cousin. I know Heidi is my servant and
Tim is her son and Lance is my driver. Alex is your best friend. I know a great
many things there is no way I should know. I know about a world that I have no
right to know about. One where science and technology have brought them from
one Dark Age into another.”

His jaw drops, “You have been able to
watch us all this time?”

I shake my head, “I have lived it.” I
point to the
mirror,
“I can see my sister in the
mirror. She speaks to me from the land I lived in once, and yet, it seems it
was
her and not me
at all. I know if I can find my
magic, all of it, I can bring her out of the mirror.”

He slumps onto the bed, looking more
confused than I have ever seen him. “Your magic is within you. You are a born
witch. It is there. But I beg of you, do not lift any veil or do any bidding
for your evil sister.”

“I don’t feel my magic. I think she’s
right—I think I have to lift the veil.” I smile at him, “I trust my
sister. My mother is the evil one. She is the one here doing the wicked things.
She has you all fooled. Help me find my magic.”

He shrugs, “When we were young, Baylor
sang and magical things happened. I remember watching her once. She grew a
flower from a seed by humming a song to it.”

I remember her doing it, just not him
watching with me. I nod and turn to the mirror, closing my eyes. I place my
hands on the mirror and start to hum. But nothing happens. I can’t even carry a
tune.