Keepers of the Flame (52 page)

Bri
stretched. “More food. Excellent.”

“I
think so. Faucon has the best food.”

“Good
man.”

“Ayes.”

Bri
dressed in cream-colored gown and red damask over-gowns Elizabeth looked the
same.

The
doorharp sounded. Sevair and Faucon led them through the maze to the
Brithenwood Garden and Bri’s nerves started twinging.
I’m getting a weird
feeling about this,
she sent to Elizabeth.

Elizabeth
didn’t reply. Her face had frozen into a mask Bri had seen on rare occasions
when she was thinking too hard, all her cylinders revving. The men didn’t seem
to notice.

Sevair
did reply. “Calm, Bri.”

She
snuck a glance at him from the corner of her eyes. Had he
heard
her? On
her personal telepathic line to her twin! Was he that sensitive to her?

He
caught her gaze with an intense one of his own, and everything inside her
stilled. A Big Decision was coming her way.

Elizabeth’s
palms sprang with sweat, matching the dampness of Faucon’s.
What the hell
was she going to do?
She knew when a proposal was coming. She’d been
through that before, nerves and sheer delight.

“It’s
a beautiful evening,” Faucon said, his tone only carrying a little strain, his
aura erratic.

Sevair
said nothing at all.

“Ayes,”
Elizabeth said. She inhaled, smiled. “The brithenwood tree still scents the
air, though we’re into summer.”

“It’s
the bark and leaves,” Sevair said. They’d reached the door to the garden and he
made to pull it open. It stuck. He yanked on it and it came off its top two
hinges. A muscle flexed in his jaw. “I’ll have someone see to this.”

Bri
snorted a nervous laugh.

Faucon
ducked under the low lintel first, glanced around, ever the warrior, checking
security. Elizabeth hesitated and he pulled her through, whirled her into his
arms for a quick kiss, flashed the grin she loved. His eyes twinkled as he
stood staidly beside her when Bri and Sevair entered.

Elizabeth’s
heart pounded.

Lifting
her hand to his lips, Faucon said, “Please sit.” He released her hand and his
chest rose as he took a big breath. “Ayes, the scent is wonderful.” He eyed the
garden, wild and colorful. “Lovely.” Looked at her. “Lovelier.”

Bri
separated her fingers from Sevair’s, walked to the bench circling the
brithenwood tree. Elizabeth found herself rolling her eyes at her twin, an
anxious habit she’d thought she’d mastered in middle school. Nerves betrayed a
person. They sat side by side on the bench around the tree, thighs touching so
they were connected.

The
men shared a look, then Faucon’s eyebrows lifted and a half-smile played on his
lips. He drew a small oblong box from his belt pouch and Elizabeth saw the
slight tremble of his fingers. He was as tense as she. That should have
reassured her. It didn’t. What was she going to do?

Sevair
cleared his throat. He had a little box, elegantly carved of stone so thin it
was nearly translucent.

“Oh,
my,” Bri said.

Faucon’s
box looked like carved ivory. Elizabeth wasn’t sure she’d ever seen ivory
outside a museum.

“Pairbond
with me in a
coeur de chain,
” Sevair said, and slid the top off his box,
showing it to Bri.

“Pairbond
with me in a
coeur de chain,
” Faucon said, and lifted the lid and
offered the box to Elizabeth.

She
stared at the wickedly sharp small silver knife, lifted her shocked stare to
Bri, who was panting.

“Knives!”
Bri squeaked. “What happened to rings?”

Sevair
angled the box to examine the little knife gleaming against a nest of gray
velvet. “It’s a beautiful knife for the ritual. My friends made it especially
for you. See the little medica symbols and your healing hand glyph?”

Faucon
smiled, sent a reassuring glance to Elizabeth. “You want a ring? A ring will be
forthcoming.”

“Rings
shouldn’t be worn by working people. They can get caught on all sorts of
things. I’ve known people who have lost fingers because of rings,” Sevair said.

A
bubble of uneasy laughter erupted from Bri. “Oh, yeah, that’s romantic. We’re
both medicas, we know what fingers ripped off look like.” Her hand snaked out
and grabbed Elizabeth’s.

Everything
changed.

A
clap of thunder and shimmer of bright rainbow colors encased them.

“No!”
yelled the men, reached for them.

But
the Snap had come.

Elizabeth
and Bri were whisked into the tunnel between dimensions. The wind slowed from
hurricane to a steady breeze. They linked both hands, wanting to be closer
because they thought they’d be torn apart.

Despite
multiple readings of the Exotiques’ books and personal descriptions, Elizabeth
wasn’t prepared. They were actually
in
the corridor, not flashing
between the dimensions as they’d done when they were Summoned. Dread seized
her. That wasn’t a good sign, was it?

It’s
like Marian’s experience. A real corridor with portals,
Bri said. Since
she’d said it, it seemed to solidify around them. They were facing the Earth
side, past on their left, beyond Bri, future to Elizabeth’s right.

They
hung between worlds.

Directly
in front of them the portal opened on Elizabeth’s high-rise condo. Shocked
exclamations came from the three people there, staring at them. Her mother, her
father.

Cassidy
Jones.

Oh.
My. God.

Decision
time,
Bri said grimly.
We can’t hang around here forever.

They
shuddered.

Elizabeth
couldn’t think. She seethed with a knotted mass of emotions. Fighting the wind,
she looked back at the closing portal on the Lladrana side of the corridor and
Faucon’s grief-stricken face. She loved him, didn’t she?

“Elizabeth,
Elizabeth!” cried Cassidy. His face twisted in anguish, his arms open for her,
pleading. “Come to me. I was stupid and arrogant and cowardly. Come to me!”

She
loved him. Too. More?

And
he loved her. She could feel that, see it in the splashing desperate colors of
his aura, yearning for her.

Another
glance at Faucon. His Song was muffled, his aura dimmer. He loved her, but not
as much as Cassidy. Didn’t need her as much as Cassidy. Never shared her goals
and her life as much as Cassidy.

But
Faucon respected and admired her—and Cassidy?

Cassidy
flung himself at the portal. It looked as if he hit a wall. “Or I’ll come to
you. I was wrong, all wrong. You’re such an amazing person, such an incredible
physician with something
special
I could never match. Stupid, arrogant,
cowardly,” he repeated, as if he’d said it to himself like a mantra since she’d
left. His fingers clenched to fists and bloodied as he hit the portal wall to
reach her. He, a surgeon who’d ever been careful of his hands.

She
stared at her old love.

“I
love you,” he shrieked. In front of her parents, her sister, the other two men.

She
loved Cassidy. God help her, she still loved him deeply.

The
scab on her emotions ripped away and she seethed with them. Cassidy. To her
shame and dismay, she realized she’d never stopped loving him. Faucon had been
a safe love for her, gentle, attractive, respectful. Cassidy had been her
passionate, dangerous love, igniting tumultuous emotions. Despite all her outer
control, she wanted that kind of love.

Faucon
deserved that kind of love, too. One she couldn’t give him. One he didn’t feel
for her.

As
Bri deserved the love she’d found with Sevair.

Her
love for Faucon—rebound love?—tore from her like a tumbleweed and vanished in
the corridor. She faced Earth and home. She yearned for her parents, her old life
that she’d worked so hard for.

“Bri,”
she said, then stopped. She didn’t have the words, would never have the words
to say goodbye to her twin.

But
Bri was focused on something else. The open portal to Earth and the shocked
look of their parents who obviously saw them.
They could come through!
Bri whispered in Elizabeth’s mind.
They see us. They KNOW. And I bet they
heard those chimes and gongs, too. Mom had the two sacks of spuds!
She
stretched out an arm, yearning in every line of her body.

A
second of communication among all the members of the family, like a group hug.
The love they shared, the bonds that would never be broken. Then their mother
stepped back. Tears flowing, sliding down her face, she shook her head.

Their
father had stepped forward, but his arm was around the waist of his wife. He
hesitated, then joined her.

“No!”
Bri cried. “No, come.”

“Bri,”
Elizabeth said. “I have to go back. I love Cassidy!”

“I
thought you loved Faucon.”

“Rebound
love,” Elizabeth said.

“Shit.
No.” Bri’s free hand clutched the material of her robe over her heart. “No.”

“You
belong here on Lladrana. Let me go!”

Bri’s
grip tightened on her hand. “No.”

“Yes.
Cassidy,” she whispered. But he seemed to hear.

“I
love you,” he yelled again. “I was so wrong!”

The
wind had picked up around them, pushing at Elizabeth more than Bri. Elizabeth
swallowed hard and faced her sister. The love and knowledge on Bri’s face
matched her own. “You belong on Lladrana.” She raised her voice. “You fit there
like you never did on Earth.”
Don’t make this so hard, like always.

I
won’t. I can’t hold on to you and pull you back. Or go with you. That would
poison us. I love you.
She turned to their parents. “I love you!”

This
was goodbye. They’d never see each other in person again.

With
strength she rarely demonstrated, Bri pulled Elizabeth from the winds and into
her arms. Hugged her tight, tight, tight. “I love you.”

“I
love you,” Elizabeth said.

Bri’s
voice broke. “Later,” she said, as she always did when her itchy feet had her
leaving.

Then
Elizabeth was free and a moment later, she’d landed in her own living room,
plush carpet under her feet.

“Oh,
Mom. Oh, Dad!” She flung herself into their arms, and their familiar scents
enveloped her and she burst into tears. But this was not the time for tears.
She wanted to spill everything like Dorothy back from Oz.

She
stepped back, whipped a handkerchief from her medica gown pocket—one that
smelled like brithenwood—and wiped her eyes and blew her nose. Then she met her
parents’ eyes, and Cassidy’s, lifted her chin.

“I
have a gift.” She tucked away her hankie and raised her palms. “A wonderful
gift of healing hands.” She gulped, stuttered a bit before she spit out the
next. “I never thought people would accept me if they knew what I was really
like.”

“Oh,
darling.” Her mother hugged her again. “We always knew.”

Elizabeth
snuffled. “I suppose so.”

“We’ll
always love you,” said her father.

“I’ll
be discreet, but I’m not going to hide my gift anymore. I may use it and that
will reflect on us all. We all may be called weird.”

Her
father shrugged, smiled his dear, lopsided smile. “I’m the Dean of Anthropology
at a major university. I’m supposed to be weird.”

Cassidy
stepped toward her, radiating intensity. “I love you. I’ll always love you, no
matter what. I was a stupid jerk. Arrogant and cowardly.”

“Yes,
you were,” Elizabeth’s mother said crisply.

Her
father choked. Elizabeth whirled.

The
portal to the dimensional corridor still gaped open. Bri hung in the winds, her
hair flying out from her head, her Song so strong and beautiful it kept her in
place. Beyond her, other portals to Lladrana were opening. The Brithenwood
Garden, the two men. The other man she’d loved. She couldn’t bear the thought
of the hurt she was giving him, the sight of his shadow.

“I
left a good man back in Lladrana,” she said unsteadily.

Cassidy
grabbed and kissed her and his tongue and taste was in her mouth and his body
radiated heat that warmed her and ignited the firestorm she always felt with
him and she was
home.

“I
love you, Mommy. I love you, Daddy!” Bri shouted and watched the portal to
Earth fade. Elizabeth was kissing Cassidy with a hunger that couldn’t be
mistaken. Her life was there.

Bri’s
wasn’t. She belonged to Sevair, and Lladrana, and Amee. They accepted her for
who she was.

The
decision made, the wind shrieked around her, shot her toward a bright square
that was closing. Elizabeth’s condo had a magic mirror. Bri had to hang on to
that knowledge, even as her throat clogged with tears.