Come to me, Hadley.
The squid wanted her attention, had desired it for hours, but Hadley had no idea how to stop what was happening and no clue how to answer the squid if she wasn’t asleep. So for the moment she continued to make friends with the porcelain bowl below her.
She wiped her mouth and sat up. Leon paced back and forth from the window to the table. His hair glowed like the midday sun and his eyes sparkled as if they had been cut out of amethysts. She’d never liked blond men, but he was going to make some woman—claimed or otherwise—very happy.
“It’s enough. I’ve been telling you for hours that it’s enough. Stop this now.”
A wave of dizziness swept through her and she hit the wooden floor below her. Her ears rang. When she could raise her head, she glared at Leon. “Don’t you think that if I could stop this I would? Does it look as if I’m having a good time here? I warned you this would happen. Ends and means, remember? Someone else said something similar to me once and he ended up feeling bad about it too. So save your remorse, because if I love him and I’m still pissed about what he did, then I’m never likely to forgive you.”
He crossed to her. “Ms. Pettigrew, you must believe…”
“Oh, I’m Ms. Pettigrew now, am I? It’s Dr. Pettigrew. Why do I feel as if I’ve had this conversation before?” She laughed as another wave of nausea hit her. Instead of going back to her previously disgusting position, she closed her eyes and hoped beyond hope that if she just lay there long enough it would cease.
Moments later it did.
She shook her head and raised her hand. “Help me up, Your Highness or Leon or whatever I’m supposed to call you. I have a fever, I can barely move and I want to lie down. Do you have a bed or a couch or a couple of pillows I can use?”
“Bed is this way.” Leon picked her up and carried her as if she were a baby to the nearest bedroom, which proved not to be very close at all. After ten minutes of walking, she was finally placed down on comfortable cotton sheets in a dark and sparsely decorated guest room.
“In my mother’s lifetime, we had servants and staff here who could have helped you. I’m afraid we long since stopped caring about such things. You’re stuck with me.” The small amount of light that illuminated the room seemed like too much. She squinted and raised her hand above her eyes to block some of it out. “You remember your promise, don’t you, Leon?”
“To tell Hadrian. Yes, I recall, and I won’t fail to deliver your message, although you may get your chance. Your brave boyfriend has been attempting, with the aid of a seriously pissed-off dragon, to get through the castle defenses for half an hour. He may succeed shortly.”
“Couldn’t you just let him in?” Why did everything have to be a struggle?
“No. I am not going to let a raving lunatic of a Haven Warrior into my castle on purpose, even if you do claim to love him.”
Another wave of energy was going to spew out of her. She knew the symptoms now—her temperature rose, she started to sweat, and just when she thought she was dead, the energy left her body with such force that she either seized or vomited. Personally she preferred the latter, but the first option had been the most common.
“I don’t like the way you said ‘claim’. What does that mean?”
Leon sat down on the end of the bed. “I mean,” he reached out and grabbed her hand, “that sometimes fate puts someone in front of us for a reason. Maybe you’ve saved us all because you’re meant to be my queen.”
“I am not anyone’s savior, so don’t put that on me. I am a woman who has been given certain abilities and I’m happy to use them if I can, although this time I’ll admit I’d love for them to stop. You would think there would be an automatic shut-off or something.”
At his quizzical look, she groaned. She wasn’t even going to try to explain what that meant to him. If Haven was post-technological, shadow land looked as if it had never had any. All metaphysics and no elemental science for these people. “And I am not your queen. I don’t even really like you, not at all.”
He raised an eyebrow. “You’re blunt, aren’t you?”
“And you’re blond. Why is that? Every shadow person I’ve encountered is as dark as nighttime and you practically glow with sunlight.”
“I believe the word is albino, yes? My family has been this way for generations. It’s part of why my people believe we hold the most Mystical talent.”
“And don’t you?”
He smiled. “No, Hadley, I believe you hold the most Mystical talent.”
“I’ll tell you again, Leon, I’m not one of your people.”
Just then the energy inside her heated up, leaving her feeling as if she might erupt. She screamed aloud, cursing in every language she knew. Her head moved from side to side on the pillow. This was the worst it had been. This time she wasn’t going to make it, she was sure to explode.
A cool washcloth brushed her face. “I’m so sorry, Hadley Pettigrew.”
“Ah.” Her body ached and she arched off the bed uncontrollably. She gritted her teeth as her body began to shake.
Afraid she would never have a chance to say anything again, she grabbed Leon’s shirt. “No remorse, just make it right. Finish what I started. Your people are fixed. Send the women home.”
A feeling of floating overcame her. Everything seemed foggy. As if she were watching an old movie, she seemed to be seeing things in black and white. She blinked a couple of times and sat up. She wasn’t in bed anymore and Leon was nowhere to be found.
Had she died? She’d been afraid she was about to. Standing up, she almost slipped when something brushed against her feet. Looking down, she realized she was standing in a small lake, although she didn’t feel wet. Once again something rubbed against her feet and this time she shrieked.
She had no idea what was in the water—it could be some kind of eel or a shark or a leech in there getting ready to eat her. Not sure where she got the energy, she sprinted away from whatever was on the ground, although she had no idea where she was running to because she couldn’t see anything beyond mist and clouds in the black-and white haze.
Don’t worry, Hadley, it’s just me.
Putting her hand on her chest, Hadley felt herself sputter. “So I’m asleep, okay, now this is making sense.” You’re not asleep.
“Then we’re back to me having no idea what the hell is going on.” She snickered— it had been a long day, and if she didn’t laugh she would cry.
You’re in a dimension we call the cloud’s dimension. It doesn’t seem to support any life. We come here for peace and quiet, but I couldn’t get what was happening to you out of my mind so I’ve brought you here temporarily.
Hadley swallowed. “Am I about to die?”
Most likely, but these things are never as clear as I would like them to be. Your kind has a remarkable way of pulling through, although I’d say at the moment things are not looking up for you.
“Thanks for the honesty, I suppose.” She sat down in the water, uncaring that she got wet—what difference did it make anyway? She sighed as an image of Hadrian filled her mind. He’d been trying to get to her. Had he made it? She would never get to tell him herself, so she hoped beyond reason that Leon lived up to his word and told Hadrian how much she loved him.
It still burned her insides that she’d never get the chance to fight for him, to prove to him that she was his destiny and not Annabelle.
We all agree that it would be awful for you to die here. You were meant to be the savior of not one but two worlds.
“I am not, and stop saying that—you’re going to give me a complex.”
What did you want if you don’t want to be the reason two worlds get to continue?
“I wanted to see you, to find you on my science vessel.” You would never have found us on your little boat.
Hadley slammed her hands down in the water and watched as little splashes rippled throughout the lake. “Some people do, you know. There have been some scientists to s
ee you or find you, even on Earth.” Terrible, tragic mistakes, nothing more.
Hadley snorted. “Sure.” She paused. What else did she want? Well, that was easy, she wanted Hadrian but what did that even mean? Could she be his wife? Was there a way that was even possible?
You think of your man, Hadrian.
“I am. I think of him all the time. I can’t seem to help myself.” She stood. “What happens after we die?”
What makes you think I would know an answer like that?
“Wishful thinking? All right, enough of this. Whatever is about to happen, let’s let it happen. No more playing around. I can’t hide from this.” As you wish.
Hadley sat up in bed. Leon was shoved up against the wall—Hadrian had a dagger against his neck. “If she dies, you die too. If she lives, you may die anyway.”
“Hadrian.” Her voice sounded like a croak and she shivered uncontrollably. Evidently waking up did not constitute being out of trouble.
Hadrian turned his head to the sound of her voice. He threw Leon into the chair next to the bed. “Don’t move. There is nowhere you can go that I won’t hunt you.”
In two strides he reached her side and kneeled down next to her. “Hadley, you have to stop this—it’s killing you. I don’t know what happens to you if you die here.
Your body is still on Haven.”
She tried to smile. “I get the impression I’m a dead woman either way.”
Hadrian roared and she shivered from the sound. She knew she loved him but she’d been unclear as to his exact feelings. With that one noise, she knew everything he felt.
Reaching up, she stroked his cheek.
“Don’t kill Leon. He’s king here—I can’t imagine that responsibility.”
“He’s nearly destroyed you for his own gain.” Hadley raised an eyebrow and Hadrian looked down at the floor. “I’m no better, am I?”
“For a while it seemed everyone used me for what they wanted, but ultimately I made my own choices. I wanted to get off that boat, find a way to save Hailey and myself from death at the age of thirty, and I did that. Leon has tried seemingly forever to save his people from destruction. I couldn’t stand the thought of them dying out and I couldn’t allow any other women to be taken against her will. I wanted to help.” Hadley coughed violently and when the racking finally eased up, she looked down at her hand to find it covered with blood. Her eyes met Hadrian’s and she saw reflected there what she already knew—that was not a good sign.
“Dragon.” Hadrian’s voice was no more than a hiss. “Fix this.”
Hadley hadn’t even been aware Dragon was in the room. She blinked and he was standing in front of her. She would have expected to see intrigue and intellectual interest in his eyes but instead she was horrified to see sadness and regret.
“This is beyond my powers, Hadrian.”
“No.” Hadrian pounded his fist on the bed. “She saved all those women, this entire planet. They have their bodies back, they can go anywhere, regain their lives if they choose, and you’re telling me there is nothing in your vast stream of knowledge that can save her from this?”
Hadley kept waiting for Hadrian’s temper to explode. With this amount of distress, Hadrian should be throwing chairs, yet he remained still. She squeezed his hand.
“Hadrian, I have to tell you that really I am the most fortunate woman to ever live, because even though I’ve known you only a brief time, I’ve fallen absolutely in love with you. I don’t think most people, no matter what dimension they live in, ever get to experience that.”
Hadrian’s eyes were huge. “Don’t say that, Hadley. Don’t say it like that. That means you think you’re going to die and you need to tell me. I love you too but this isn’t the only time we’re going to say it. There are going to be lots of opportunities.”
She tried to shrug and groaned instead. “Well, just in case there aren’t.”
“Don’t say it.”
“I think I might be able to help.” Leon rose from the chair and Hadrian jumped, putting himself between Hadley and Leon.
“Hear him out, brother.” Dragon took two steps away from the bed and turned his back on the scene, but Hadley had the impression he was still listening very closely to what was going on.
“It’s an old power. No one has used it since the women died because it didn’t work back then, but it’s a spell designed to set things on the correct path. If your death is not what the universe wants, it will put you back where you belong.”
Hadrian nodded. “Do it.”
Dragon cleared his throat. “Is there anything we can do to help you to prepare for it?”
“No, I just need a moment.”
The heat inside Hadley’s body fumed again. How much more fixing could this damn dimension need? She closed her eyes. If there was any chance that whatever Leon was about to do might work, then she needed to hold on, but it was getting harder and harder. Hadrian placed his hand on her forehead.
“She is unbelievably hot.”
“By all that is and all that will be, set things onto the correct path. If this woman should live, let her live,” Leon intoned.
Hadley couldn’t even open her eyes to see if any sort of movements accompanied what Leon said.
“Holy cow.” Dragon’s words of wonder filled the silent room. Seconds later Hadrian screamed and Hadley felt herself floating. She wasn’t sure where she was going but at least she was finally cool. That was her final thought as she tumbled into oblivion.
Chapter Twenty
Hadrian whirled on Leon. The tornado that had filled the room disappeared in the blink of an eye with Hadley inside it.
“Where did she go?” In two seconds, Leon would be a dead man, king or no king.
“I have no idea. I thought she’d stay on the bed, either alive or dead, depending on what the universe willed.”
Hadrian narrowed his eyes and grabbed Leon’s throat. “You thought there was a possibility she might die and you did it anyway?”
Dragon put his face right next to Hadrian’s. “All he did was ask the universe to set things on the right path. You were here. He spoke a few words, the winds started and Hadley vanished. We need to think. I know you’re crazed. I’ve never felt as you feel for Hadley but I can see what it is doing to you. Now put the king down and let’s look at this logically.”
Damn! Dragon could be infuriating when he was right. Hadrian let go of Leon, who sucked in a few breaths. Maybe he’d squeezed a little too tightly. Hadrian really didn’t care.
Dragon snapped his fingers. “Her body. She’s gone back to her body.”
Hadrian nodded. “I bet you’re right.”
“So let’s return and see what’s happened. Can you return us all from different spaces or do we all need to be together again?”
Nodding, Dragon smiled. “I think I can manage to include all of the men regardless of their physical location.”
“I expect you to keep your word to Hadley. You will not go after any more women and the ones who want to leave can.”
“We’ll have to find some willing women, but if they want to stay perhaps they can now give us female children.”
They’d better be getting their children. After what Hadley put herself through he’d be damned if it didn’t turn out the way she wanted. The blinding white light he’d seen the first time he’d traveled to Shadow Land filled his vision and he stood absolutely still, knowing Dragon had sent them back. His fists clenched at his sides, he willed Hadley to stay with him, not to leave him alone in the universe. He’d never survive without her.
With a bump, he hit the floor. Looking around, he quickly assessed that he was back in the living room. A hand grabbed his arm. Hoping it was Hadley, he jerked his head up. His mother’s worried gaze met his.
“I’ve been pacing around here waiting for you to return.”
He pulled himself up. “Where is she?”
Leopard shook her head. “That’s just it. I have no idea. One second I was
wiping her brow, the next she vanished. Poof. Into thin air.”
“Damn it. Dragon?”
“Where could she have been sent if not here?” Dragon bit his fingernail and stared blankly into space. Hadrian would have done anything to hear his brother’s thoughts right then. A loud commotion filled the room as not just his men but all of Hadley’s sisters hit the floor violently.
Stunned silence as thick as pea soup took over the atmosphere. Seconds later the loudest uproar he’d ever heard deafened him. Men were talking over one another, the women shrieked and cried and his mother gasped and backed into the wall behind her.
“You brought them back with you?”
“Ah…” Dragon stuttered and Hadrian internally groaned. It couldn’t be good that his brother seemed flustered. “I didn’t mean to.”
Stone stepped into his vision. “Hadrian, I was right in the middle of a battle in those cursed mines. Send us back—we can beat them.”
“Forget the mines. I know it’s frustrating but we have more pressing matters. The Lady Hadley has vanished. We thought she’d been sent back here.”
“Hadrian.” A voice he hadn’t heard in longer than he cared to remember caught his attention. “Is it true what Annabelle says? Did Hadley make it possible for us all to leave that place?”
“Deirdre.” He couldn’t help the grin that crossed his face, he was so glad to see her. In her brief life on Earth they’d been good friends. “She did. She may have sacrificed herself for it too. We have no idea what happened to her.”
“All these women? They’re…Hadley’s sisters?” His mother looked as if she wanted to vomit. In all his years he couldn’t remember Leopard ever having this much female company around at the same time. Men were common—his father had often hosted the Warriors here—but with the exception of his sister Rabbit, women were a rarity.
“That’s right. They are the missing daughters of Zamara, princesses of Haven. They’ll need to be taken to Astor. Can you arrange that, Mother?”
She nodded and her eyes cleared. Leopard was task-oriented—he’d known she would do better if she was given an assignment.