Chapter 4
Chapter Four
Aaran
W hen it gets dark, Harper is struggling to keep going. I wish we had cars in Domhan so I could assist in our travels, but we don’t. We travel by horse. Long ago, there were dragons, but they left when the witch queen gained power and captured one of them.
In Portland, Maine, we stop for the night. The busy area, with so much activity, will keep us hidden. Harper parks the car in front of a tall white building with lots of windows and a large glass door. There are three other similar buildings close by and smaller ones that have signs boasting the kind of food they serve. She calls it a hotel and says we can stay the night. I’ve never heard the word before, but I assume it’s similar to the travelers’ inns at home.
At the desk, the clerk smiles. He’s tall and big, with thick glasses and an easy way about him. “How can I help you?”
In a common area, a lady sits with two men at a small table. All three have computers in front of them, and they’re clicking away without regard to anything around them. This was a new word to me also, but Harper showed me hers and called it a laptop. It was amazing to see how she could look up our destination with a few clicks on the keys.
A second clerk is also typing on a computer.
Harper clears her throat. “Do you want your own room?”
I may be able to hear the soft sweet music of her soul, but I can’t tell if she wants me to say yes or no. I held her each night until her mother moved into her home, then I was back on the couch. “I want to keep you safe, but you can decide.”
Biting her bottom lip, she turns to the clerk. “We need a room for tonight. We’ll be leaving in the morning.”
My body reacts, but I know better than to hope for more than comfort. She deserves respect, and as much as I desire her, that decision will have to be hers.
The blue rug and white and red walls are a vast contrast to the muted tones of Harper’s home. “Is it typical for these places to be so colorful?”
She adjusts her backpack on her shoulder and looks around. “It depends, but often they are. Fancy hotels less so.”
Taking her pack from her shoulder, I add it to mine, and we get in the elevator. The doors open one floor up, and I follow Harper to door 206 where she waves a card over a panel and is rewarded with a click and a green light.
The room has two beds and beige paper on the walls. The art is geometric and pleasant, but nothing to catch the eye or warrant exploration.
She flops on one of the beds. “I’m too tired to eat.”
“You will regret it if you don’t.” I drop our bags on a small bench.
Shrugging, she closes her eyes.
Outside, wolves howl.
Harper sits up. “I can’t believe there are wolves in town, or even in Maine. I remember reading about how they were all pushed west by people and settlements.”
Looking down from our window, I see a large canine run through the parking lot. “I don’t think those are normal wolves.”
Standing beside me, she gasps. “How is this possible? You said the witch queen turned elves into shadow demons. Those are actual wolves. Really big ones.”
“I’m not sure, but I’m going to ward the hotel so you can get some sleep.” I sit cross-legged in the middle of the other bed, close my eyes, and call my magic.
The other bed’s springs squeak.
It’s not easy to push aside the knowledge that Harper is watching me. Breathing and letting go of all that is material, I call the magic to life and ask for protection. The hotel forms in my mind. The white building with a blue and green illuminated sign is clear behind my eyes. Magic slips around it like a white bolt of lightning.
The whimpering of the wolves spins a web of satisfaction.
“They’re leaving.” Harper’s voice cuts through my concentration.
Opening my eyes, I find her standing at the window.
“I can see a glow around everything,” she says.
“Can you?”
“Won’t people notice?” She cocks her head, and her hair falls across her back.
“Most people in this world will not see magic. My ward is not visible to them. Those who do see it will write it off as something logical, like lights shining on the building.” I rise and dig in my pack until I find one of the protein bars I packed. “Eat this and get some rest.”
Making a face, she eats the bar, then grabs her pack and goes into the bathroom. When she comes back, she’s in a t-shirt and gray pants that hug her shapely legs and ass.
Once she’s under the covers, I turn off the lights, lie beside her, and hold her.
“Why don’t you ever get under the blankets, Aaran?”
The question seems to hold within it more than my geography. My cock is more than interested in my reasons. “I’ve already asked too much of you, Harper. My needs are not important.”
“What if I needed you?” Her voice is small and shaky.
I kiss her soft hair and breathe in the floral fragrance of shampoo. “When you say that with confidence and certainty, I’ll be more than happy to make love with you.”
“Okay.” The soft word is almost lost in her yawn.
T he sun will rise soon, and I’ve checked outside the window a dozen times during the night. After studying the instructions on the phone, I called the front desk and learned that breakfast would begin at six o’clock.
After a quick shower, I crouch next to the bed and brush Harper’s hair from her eyes. “We need to get up and fed so we can get on the road again. The daylight should keep those wolves away for a while.” I hope that’s true, but I had no idea that the witch queen could manipulate beasts in this world. The idea that she’s unlocked new magic sends a shiver through me.
With a soft sigh and a long stretch, Harper opens her eyes. “Good morning.”
“Good morning.” I step away.
She cannot possibly know how her breasts pushing against the thin white material of her top drives me wild with desire. If she did, she’d hide under the covers. Or maybe she wouldn’t. Within that hope rests so much danger. I can’t protect her if she’s a distraction. I need to stay focused.
“I’m going to shower and dress.” She stumbles to the bathroom.
“Gods preserve me,” I mumble to the empty room and wish I could jump in a cold lake before she returns.
In my bag, I check the knives I bought with money my parents kept from their time in this world. I also have several types of protein bars, a canteen, and some flares. I’m not sure why I would need them, but the man in the store seemed very keen on my having them in case I need to call for help. I told him I was going on a long hike in Canada, so he was trying to be helpful. Once I’m sure everything is in place, I pull out the small notebook I placed in the front pouch and write down my thoughts about all I’ve seen and done in the last day. Before I put it away, I pray that one day I’ll be able to reflect on this time, or that someone in the light will.
The water stops, and a few moments later, the hair dryer comes on. I know the sound from the one Harper used at her home. I made her explain all the tools and devices in her everyday life that were foreign to me.
Something crashes, and Harper screams.
I’m in the bathroom in an instant. Expecting to find blood, I’m relieved when she’s alive and well and wrapped in a white towel. “What’s wrong?”
She points to the mirror, her face as white as the towel.
Trying to ignore how little of her is covered, I turn toward the mirror, and it takes everything in me not to gasp at her reflection glowing in a rainbow of colors.
“What is happening to me?” Skin rosy from the hot shower, she glows anyway. This aura visible in the glass is something else. She’s something else. The colors and light move and shift over her skin in soft waves of yellow, blue, green, red, and purple. A shift to white for a moment leads to the room brightening before the colors return.
I touch her shoulder, and my hand is enfolded in the warmth of both Harper and magic, unlike anything I’ve ever felt before. “I don’t know, but it feels…”
“Feels what?” She jerks her elbow into my ribs.
With an oof , I close my mouth. “Amazing. Full of light. I guess this has never happened before?”
“No. I don’t generally glow when I dry my hair.” The fire is back in her voice, and it makes me smile.
“If it’s any help, it’s only your reflection. I didn’t see anything different when I first walked in. Well, except that you’re nearly naked.”
She grabs the knot at the top of her breasts. “I’m not sick or evil?”
“No.” I back toward the door. “Can I ask what you were thinking about when this started?” Sometimes magic is triggered by an intense thought. At least with elves, that’s sometimes how it works.
“I prayed that I wouldn’t be turned into a shadow.” She blushes, which is beautiful beyond words.
I have to continue to back away or I’ll drag her into my arms. “I won’t ever let that happen, Harper. Maybe your aura is an answer to your prayer.”
She cocks her head. “What the hell does that mean?”
Needing a bit of time, I step out of the room and speak through the safety of the closed door. “Get ready and let me stew on it. You must be starving. I know I am.”
Harper
I’m freaked out about glowing, and as we get in the car, I can feel the eyes of those wolves watching us. I search, but I can’t see them. “This is creepy.”
“Yes, it is.” Aaran buckles his seatbelt. “We should get moving.”
At least my stomach is full, and I got a good night’s sleep. “They must know where we’re going, Aaran. How do we get to this portal?”
“We just do.” He stares out the window, looking as if he could wrestle a wolf pack on his own with his bare hands.
Pulling onto the highway, I keep my attention on the road and let Aaran worry about monsters. “Tell me something that will make me think this journey won’t end in disaster.”
“I don’t think you can be turned to darkness.” His lips lift into the most infuriatingly hot smile.
“Why?” I mean, that’s nice, but I’m no angel. “I have all the same good and bad thoughts as anyone else.”
“You told me that you prayed you wouldn’t be turned into a shadow and the result was the most spectacular aura I’ve ever seen. You glow so bright with light magic that it’s no wonder the oracle found you, and not surprising the witch queen has located us as well.” He searches the trees on the side of the road. “I think that was the way your prayer was answered. It was to show you that darkness cannot invade your soul. She can’t turn you into one of her minions, Harper. Though, she probably doesn’t know that.”
My heart settles for a moment, but then races again. “How do we hide my whatever-you-call-it so she can’t track us?”
“Good question.”
“I doubt those wolves can chase us at this speed. Will she find another resource for our next stop?” My phone GPS tells me to stay left and continue north. Maine is beautiful. I wish I had time to explore. As it is, we speed past trees and signs for parks, and I hope one day I’ll get to come back.
Following a long silence, it’s startling when Aaran speaks. “We should stop at the next opportunity. I’ve been thinking about how to hide the light in you, or at least dim it.”
At a rest stop, I pull off and park. “What do you have in mind?”
“You showed your colors, so to speak, by using prayer. Prayer and spellcasting are quite similar. I used a spell to protect the hotel last night. To draw my magic, I asked the old gods to shape my magic into a protection spell. In my mind, I saw the building and formed my magic to surround it.”
My life has become a comic book. “So, if I pray to be hidden from witchy, my psychedelic aura will fade?”
He shrugs. “That’s my theory.”
“Since I don’t have a better idea, I’d say it’s our best bet.” I close my eyes and pray to be invisible to the witch queen and all her minions. My heartbeat slows, the hair on my arms stands on end, and warmth spreads through me, starting at my toes and rising, like pulling the blanket up from the bottom of the bed. When I open my eyes, Aaran is staring.
“That was amazing.”
“You can tell?” I mean, I think it worked, but this is my first magic trick. At least the first intentional one.
“I can tell.” He smiles. “Look in the mirror.” He points to the rearview mirror.
Hesitating for a long moment, I finally dare to peek. I look like me; the aura is still there, but the colors lack the vibrancy they had earlier. I touch my cheek. “I did it.”
Grinning at me proudly, he says, “We’d better get going if we’re to find a boat to take us to the coast of Labrador today.”
W e make it to the Canadian border without any interference. “How are you going to cross?”
The line is long, and each car has to stop at the booths to present their passports. The officers look as intimidating as those wolves last night. My nerves are reaching their limit. I don’t know if I can do this.
“Just drive up and hand the man your papers. Act as if I’m not here. If they ask, you’re traveling alone to vacation at Prince Edward Island.” He closes his eyes.
“They have dogs.” I watch the German shepherd sniffing around the cars up ahead. “Won’t they smell you?”
He lets out a long breath. “Not if I do this right.”
At the booth, I say hello to the young woman who looks in my car while a man with a dog walks around it.
She takes my passport. “What’s your reason for visiting Canada?”
“I’ve always wanted to see PEI, and I had some time off. It’s just a short vacation.” I force a smile.
She nods and goes into her little booth. A minute later, she returns. “Have a nice trip, Miss Craig. PEI is beautiful.”
And just like that, I cross into Canada as if I’m alone, and all I can think is that I just smuggled a human being across the border into another country, and that’s probably a federal offense. Except he’s not human. He’s an elf. Elves don’t exist. So really, I’ve done nothing wrong. I’m totally fucking losing my mind.
We are well down the road before Aaran opens his eyes. His smile fades. “Are you okay?”
“No. No, I’m not. I’m a felon for dragging an illegal across a pretty major frontier. I’m being chased by a fucking witch and wolves and shadows and who knows what else. I glow like a damn rainbow. Nothing is normal. You saved my mother’s life, and I’ll be forever grateful, but I’m not this person. I’m nobody’s hero. What I do is sit behind a desk and make sure containers get from point A to point B. I’m not exciting or interesting.” I swerve to the side of the road, flip on my flashers, and rest my forehead on the steering wheel.
Sweat drips down my back and at my temples. I’m deep in a full-on panic attack, like the ones I had when I was a kid. I take a deep breath, but it’s not full or refreshing. It shakes and stutters as I let it out, so I try again.
Aaran rubs my back and then my neck.
His touch feels so damn good, and my breathing gets steadier. “There are human women who can climb ropes and shoot guns. We have female soldiers who would be much better suited to this kind of thing. I’m no warrior.” I rock my head to the side so I can see his disappointment. I brace myself for it.
His eyes are bright and clear blue like the Caribbean Sea. I see sympathy but no regret in the set of his jaw and the straight line of those perfect lips. “I don’t know why you have the gifts needed to save my world, Harper. You’re wrong though. You are a warrior. Maybe not in the sense that you’ve been trained to kill or defend with weapons. Not everyone could have cared for your mother, held a job, been a friend to an old flame, and been kind to all the other people at that pub who clearly care about you. If you want to go back, leave me here, and I’ll find my way home. No one would blame you. This is a lot to ask.”
What do I do? This man saved my mother from certain death. He needs my help to save his world. As crazy as that sounds, I believe him. Sitting up, I touch his cheek across the console that separates the front bucket seats of my car. “Is everyone in your world so beautiful?”
His hair is so soft, and I love the way it tucks behind his ears when he’s not using it to hide those points. He says, “You can find out for yourself.”
“Why not tell me?”
Covering my hand with his, he kisses my palm.
His lips send a rush of heat through me, and if we weren’t on the side of a road in Canada, I’d be hard-pressed not to give in to my attraction to him.
“If I say that the elven people are fair to look at, you might not look at me the way you do. Right now, I’m unique in your eyes. By tomorrow, I’ll just be one of many.” He drags my palm to press over his heart.
“That seems unlikely.” Gathering my wits and my hand, I pull back onto the road and head for PEI.