Chapter 16 #2
Rebecca found herself standing in the dark gray place where she had first seen her fate, but this time she was watching her grandparents walking through a familiar cemetery.
They both looked much older as they stopped at her parents’ headstone, but instead of two names engraved on it, there were now three.
When she read the third name her throat tightened. “Why is my name on there?”
’Twas necessary for them to believe you died with your sire and màthair, the cluet told her. Else your vanishing should end their timelines too soon.
“So you stole me from their memories, and altered the grave.” It should have comforted her, but Rebecca grew furious. “How can you do things like that without any consequences?”
I shall suffer for eternity for my transgressions, child, I assure you. Now I must restore the balance.
To keep from seeing her grandparents in that cemetery Rebecca closed her eyes, and suddenly was thrown through time and space, tumbling through the darkness.
When she finally stopped she arrived at a place so fantastic and horrific it seemed to crowd inside her head, too vivid and unbelievable and yet completely real.
It seemed to be an endless hall made of black rock and red crystal, the high walls seemingly growing out of the ground instead of having been built.
A dozen fountains of inky black water sprayed from the bone-white floor high into the air, spattering the giant ruby crystals of an enormous chandelier, which cast its crimson light on everything.
Out of crevices on the walls, small, shadowy creatures looked out, their big yellow eyes with vertical or horizontal slits, and flicked the air with black, slimy tongues.
Giant spiders the size of basketballs skittered across the mirrored ceiling, each one radiating black snakelike tendrils of power.
Rebecca turned her head as two carved black stone doors opened and dozens of naked males walked into the hall. She drew back as they passed in front of her, afraid to look at them and yet more afraid not to.
They were only partly, vaguely humanoid, with bulging muscles all over their huge bodies, obscenely large genitals and the heads and claws of strange, gruesome beasts.
They each stood by a large, long pale green stone that had bloodstains on them except one, on which a different version of Rebecca now lay naked.
Her body looked almost ghostly, it was so white, and her hair had been caught up in a high froth of curls, only it was now the color of blood.
“That isn’t me,” she whispered, horrified.
’Tis what you shall become, my child.
The dark Fae queen appeared, her body half the size it had been in the meadow.
She shed her liquid red and green gown as if she were molting out of it, revealing perfect breasts, curving hips and a thatch of glittering black hair over her sex.
A large, thick penis suddenly grew out of her genitals as she mounted Rebecca, who tried to hold her off before one of the queen’s hideous guards grabbed her wrists and pulled them back, manacling them into shackles of ruby crystal.
The other guards moved to line up after the queen, as if they were queueing so they could take their turn with her.
She pressed her palms over her eyes, and still she could see the queen atop of that terrible version of herself. “Please, I don’t want to see it anymore.”
The images stopped, and when she cautiously lowered her shaking hands she stood once more in the dark gray void where the voice had first spoken to her.
She never denies herself the pleasure of a mortal bed slave. You cannae escape this fate, for no matter where or when you go, the queen shall hunt you, unless...
“Unless you save my life by fulfilling some man’s wish,” she guessed. It tore at her to think that she would never be together with Dorchad again, but the alternative was too terrifying to consider even for a second. “Can’t you just let me die?”
No, for I brought you to save one of the men needed to preserve and protect this realm. The one who wished for you.
After breaking up with Dorchad, Rebecca had grown numb, perhaps in some way mentally preparing herself for the hard, cold reality of trying to live without him. Whoever the cluet gave her to would never understand her the way the chieftain had, but he had to be better than the dark Fae queen.
“Save me,” she whispered, heartbroken, “and I’ll try to make his wish come true.”
The scene around them changed to that of Dorchad’s quarters, where he lay asleep in his bed. His lips were moving as if he were talking in his sleep.
“Can I go to him?” Rebecca asked, wishing for the chance to give him one final kiss goodbye.
You’ve but to listen.
“Why cannae I find you, sweet love? I need your light in my darkness, for I cannae bear to go on alone.” Although he was obviously still asleep, his hands fisted in the coverlet. “Come to me in my life as you do in my dreams. I must find you before I give up all hope.”
He couldnae give voice to his wish until he lost himself in the longing dreams of you. Without your love he cannae survive his loneliness. Shall you save his life?
“I’ll do whatever it takes so I can share his life and his love,” she said. “Please, let me go to him. Let me grant his wish.”
At your behest.
Rebecca fell into the dark gray void, but when she next opened her eyes she saw a very handsome man dressed in white and gold leaning over her. It seemed as if someone had poured sand down her throat, so much so that she tried to speak but couldn’t get a word out.
“Dinnae, lass,” the man said. “I cut the cloth used to hang you, but your throat, ’tis badly bruised. Rest, and breathe.”
She looked around her, and saw the scarf in two ragged pieces on the ground beside her. As soon as she reached for it, it turned black and evaporated into smoke. Then someone grabbed her off the ground, dragging her away from her rescuer, who was now staring down the length of Dorchad’s sword.