Fantastical by Kristen Ashley
I shook my head. “No.”
“Do you know how you got here?” he went on.
“No,” I repeated.
“Then you have no control over it. If you go back,” he stated and my heart somersaulted at the same time it clenched, “you’ll be forced to deal with it then. Since you have no way of knowing what you’ll face, you have no way of strategizing your response. So you simply have to wait and deal with it if it occurs.”
He was right. This was logical and wise.
“That’s logical and wise,” I told him.
He grinned at me.
“I’m still going to worry,” I admitted and he chuckled.
I smiled at him because it felt good to unload that, even if I didn’t have any firm answers, and I turned to face forward.
We fell silent for awhile before I broke it.
“There’s something else.”
“Yes?”
I stared at the scenery. Then I swallowed.
Then I shared on a whisper, “I don’t know if I want to go back.”
Tor’s body went completely solid behind me and even Salem missed a step before righting himself.
“Pardon?” Tor asked.
I pulled in my lips and bit them. Then for some wild, crazy, insane reason, I kept right on talking.
“It’s beautiful here. Horses communicate with you. Birds talk to you. It’s unpolluted. Life is simple. I would never, not in my life, have guessed that I wouldn’t miss cars, cell phones, microwaves, martinis and high-heeled shoes. If you told me I would come to a place such as this but if I did I’d have to stay, I’d say no way. But now that I’m here, I want to explore. Every sight I see, I like. Every village. Every flower. Every beast. Every blade of grass. Sure, a curse is pending, but you’ve got that under control, right?”
“Right,” he replied, humor in his tone.
“So,” I whispered, “if I’m stuck here, when your brother saves Rosa, I think I’m going to go. Travel. Experience this world to its fullest, something I never did in my own.”
“Two points to make, Cora,” he said in a voice that now held no humor and I twisted to look up at him again. His eyes dropped down to me. “One, I would ask, is there nothing you would regret leaving behind?”
I bit my lip and turned forward again.
“Yes, my parents and my friends,” I admitted and whispered, “I’ll miss them, a lot. Losing them would suck. Especially since, by all reports, Cora of your world won’t be such a great daughter or BFF and they’d wonder what the hell was going on.”
I pursed my lips on this thought then kept sharing.
“But I don’t like my apartment, my job. My life is colorless. Brian and I broke up and I haven’t been asked out on one, single date. I’m not lonely, I don’t get lonely. I like my own company. But a lot of the time, I’m alone and, well, I’m getting sick of that. And, if I’m honest, I was getting sick of all of it… until this happened. And being here, seeing this… this place,” I threw out a hand in front of me, “it’s made me realize all of that.”
Tor made no response and spoke no further until I prompted, “You said you had two points to make?”
“Yes,” he replied. “The second point would be that when Rosa is saved, I’m afraid, love, you aren’t going to go, travel, experience this world to its fullest.”
This surprised me and I twisted to look at him again. “Why not?”
His eyes captured mine. “Because I’ll not let you.”
My head tilted to the side and I stared at him before repeating, “Why not?”
“Because, Cora, I’m beginning to like having you around. So I’ve decided to keep you.”
What?
“What?” I shrieked and Salem twitched under us.
Tor smiled. “It won’t be that bad, my sweet. When I travel, I’ll take you with me so you will experience this world. But when I’m home, you’ll be with me there too.”
“But we don’t live together,” I reminded him.
“That will change.”
“What?” I snapped. “Why?”
“As I said, I like you around.”
“We fight all the time,” I informed him of something he already knew.
“Indeed, and I like that too.”
I blinked at him. “You do?”
He nodded. “I do.”
“That’s insane.”
“Don’t you?”
“Hell no,” I clipped.
His arm gave me a squeeze, his eyes shifted over my head and he declared, “You will.”
“I won’t.”
“You will.”
“No, Tor, I won’t.”
He looked back down at me. “You will, Cora, because soon, when we argue, and you take it too far, which you do so you will continue, I’ll be forced to stop you.” He grinned. “And I like the ideas I have on how I’m going to stop you.” His eyes warmed. “All of them.”
“Ugh!” I grunted and faced forward again, noting, “You’re pretty sure of yourself.”
“Sweets, all I had to do was draw your nipple in my mouth and you were begging for it. Of course I’m sure of myself.”
Damn. I hated that that was true.
“Whatever,” I muttered, inching as best I could up the saddle to get away from him, an effort that was for naught when his arm tightened and he pulled me right back. “Release your arm a little,” I demanded. “I want to shift. I’m uncomfortable,” I lied.
His arm slid up so it was under my breasts and I felt his lips at my neck. “No you’re not.”
“I so am.” I kept lying.
His thumb started stroking the underside of my breast at the same time his tongue touched my earlobe and he changed the subject.
“If you want,” he murmured huskily in my ear, “I could pleasure you right here.”
Oh God. That sent a surge of heat between my legs.
“Thanks,” I tried to sound snappish and feared I failed. “I’m good.”
“I’ll give you the ten minutes you begged for in bed,” he coaxed and I steeled myself against his pull.
I was thinking those ten minutes would be the best ten minutes of my whole, entire life.
I beat the urge back and replied, “Thanks again but… no.”
His thumb moved up half an inch so it was stroking my breast right under the nipple.
Oh boy.
I couldn’t stop my lids from slowly lowering over my eyes but I fought back the urge to lift a hand to his and take him to target.
“Turn your head and give me your mouth, sweets,” he commanded softly.
“No.”
“Right, then lift your skirts so I can have the heat of you.”
Oh God.
I swallowed a moan and ordered, “Tor, pay attention to where we’re going.”
His tongue slid along the skin under my ear and then he whispered in it, “Salem knows the way.”
There it was. A decent excuse.
“Salem, right, he’s a good horse. I couldn’t possibly engage in any, um… naughty activities with him around.”
Salem snorted and I had no idea if it was a “go ahead, don’t mind me” snort or a “thanks for thinking of me, Cora,” snort.
“It isn’t his first time,” Tor told me.
Way, way, way wrong thing to say.
Way.
My back shot straight, my eyes shot open and Tor took his mouth from my ear.
“Cora?”
I lifted a hand and curled my fingers around his at my breast, pulling them down.
He sighed. Then he said, “My love, you know you’re not –”
“If I were you, Prince Noctorno Hawthorne, I’d keep my trap shut.”
He, of course, did not.
“I’m a man, Cora, and you’ve been withholding from me.”
“No I have not, considering I lived in an alternate universe until a few days ago,” I reminded him. “The other Cora has. If you were my husband, you’d be getting it regular,” I a
Tor’s body went solid behind me again then he asked, “Does that mean what I think it means?”
I twisted and glared at him. “Yes!” I spat. “You’re a prince. You’re hot. You’re a great kisser. You have a cool horse. You’ve got great eyes and an even better chest. You have just enough, not too much chest hair. And when you aren’t being a jerk, you can be sweet. So, obviously, if we were wed in holy matrimony, I’d be giving it up… regular.”
His brows drew together. “You’d be giving what up?”
“Me!” I shouted then twisted forward, muttering, “Yeesh.”
His mouth came back to my ear, not to play, just to speak. “Well, since you are here and you’ve taken the place of the other Cora and you’re apparently stuck here, then I expect to get you,” he paused and finished firmly, “regular. Starting now.”
“No, absolutely not,” I denied.
“Then you lied?” he asked.
“No,” I answered. “But I can’t give it when I’m peeved.” I twisted to look at him again. “And make no mistake, Prince Noctorno, I… am… peeved.”
“You’re peeved a lot,” he observed.
“Learn from that, big guy,” I educated and twisted right back.
He chuckled.
I gritted my teeth.
Then I heard it.
My head snapped to the left and I peered into the trees at the same time Salem took two side steps and blew through his lips.
“Cora?” Tor called and my hand shot up.
“Sh!” I hissed and listened.
There it was again.
“Pull back on the reins,” I ordered.
“Pardon?”
There it was; I heard it again!
“Pull back on the reins!” I shouted then kept shouting, “Salem, stop!”
Noctorno pulled back on the reins and Salem stopped.
“What do you sense? Danger?” Tor whispered in my ear, his arm fiercely tight at my ribs.
“No,” I whispered back. “Aggie.”
Then I broke from his arm, slid off the side of Salem, landed on my slippers and immediately darted around the front of the horse and ran toward the trees.
“By the gods, Cora! Stop!”
I didn’t stop. Instead, I shouted, “Aggie! Aggie, is that you?”
I kept running and heard the hooves of a horse and the boots of a man behind me but I no longer heard the chirps.
“Aggie!” I screamed then let out an, “oof,” when my running was halted by an iron arm around my stomach and I was hauled into a hard body. “Let me go!” I yelled, pushing at his arm and pressing forward.
“Cora,” he ground out in my ear, “don’t ever –”
“Chirp, chirp, chirp,” I heard faintly and I knew it meant, “Cora, help me.”
Oh God.
I twisted in Tor’s arm to face him as he dragged me toward Salem who’d run off the road with Tor and I.
“Tor!” I cried desperately, tipping my head back to look at him, struggling against his arm and dragging my feet to stop him from dragging me. “I hear Aggie.”
“Who?”
“Aggie!” I yelled.
Tor stopped and stared down at me. “Who’s Aggie?”
“Aggie, Aggie, Agglethorpe! The bird!”
His brows shot together. “The what?”
“Bird!”
“Chirp,” which meant, “Help.”
“Tor! I think something’s wrong. We have to do something!” I lifted my hands to his jaws, got up on tiptoe, leaned in and begged, “Please!”
He stared into my eyes then he muttered, “Gods,” let me go, grabbed my hand and jogged into the wood, pulling me behind, Salem following on a trot.
“Aggie!” I called. “Chirp for us, sweetie, so we know where you are.”
I listened. Nothing.
I lifted my hand, cupped my mouth at the side and yelled, “Aggie, honey, please. Give us something!”
Then I heard it, a close, weak chirp right above us. I stopped, tugging on Tor’s hand making him stop and Salem stopped with us. I looked up and saw the bright feathers of Aggie about ten feet up in a tree.
“I see you!” I shouted, jumping up and down and shaking Tor’s hand as I did. “I see you! Hang on, Tor’s going to climb up and get you!”
“Chirp, chirp, chirp,” which meant, “Thank the gods.”
“I’m going to what?” Tor asked at my side and I turned my head to look up at him.
“You have to climb up and get him,” I explained.
He looked up at the tree and then down at me. “Who?”
“Aggie! That bird up there!” I cried, pointing up to the tree. “He sounds weak, I think he’s wounded. You have to go get him.”
Tor looked up into the tree again, squinted, I noticed when he saw him because he squinted harder then he looked down at me.
“You jest,” he stated.
“Do I look like a jest?” I shrieked, throwing out an arm. “That’s Aggie! You have to save him!”
“Cora, that bird is half dead,” he informed me evenly.
“Then that means he’s also half alive!” I yelled.
He stared at me for a long moment then he moved into me, pulling me into him with a gentle tug on my hand and he lifted his other hand to curl his fingers around my neck.
“Sweets,” he said softly, “are you attached to this animal?”
“Yes, no, uh… kind of. I’ve only met him once but he was cute. Does it matter? He needs help.”
“You’ve only met him once?” Tor asked.
“Yes, the morning I woke up in this world. He was in my room. He was there when the curse started. I’ve never talked to a bird before, he was my first and, um… only, I guess. But it was cool. You can’t talk to animals at home, I mean, you can but they can’t talk back. He talks back. I mean, he chirps back but in a way where I understand him.”
“Of course,” he replied.
Awesome! He got it!
“So you have to have heard him too! He’s in distress!”
His head tipped to the side. “No, Cora, I can’t hear small birds. Women can hear small birds, rabbits, deer, cats, mice and the like. Men can hear horses, dogs, wolves, birds of prey, snakes and the like. I can’t hear him.”
Whoa. Weird.
I wanted to hear more about that but just not at that particular moment.
“Okay, well, I can and he needs help,” I told him.
“Was this bird your pet?”
“Uh, I don’t think so. He flew in from outside.
He pulled in breath through his nostrils. Then he got closer and his fingers curled deeper into my neck.
Then he said, “Love, you can talk to the wild animals but you can’t form attachments to them.”
“What on earth? Why?” I exclaimed.
His face dipped closer to mine. “Because, my sweet, they’re wild and this,” he jerked his chin up slightly, “happens and you have to let it happen.”
I took a step back and declared, “Oh no I don’t!”
“Cora –”
“Please, Tor, I’m asking you to climb up that tree and save Aggie.”
“Love –”
“Please!” I cried.
“You shouldn’t –”
“I’ll kiss you,” I bartered.
“It’s not about a kiss, it’s about nature. This is nature happening and you cannot intervene.”
I glared up at him. Then I pulled free and stomped to the tree, stating, “Fine! I’ll climb up and get him.”
I didn’t get within three feet of the tree trunk before my hips were captured in big hands and I was pulled back.
I struggled forward. “Don’t try to stop me.”
“Woman, you are not climbing up a gods damned tree!”
I looked over my shoulder at him. “You wanna bet?”
He yanked me back and I collided with his hard body. “Yes, I’ll bet.”
Oh dear. I wasn’t going to win this fight
So I tried a different tactic and cried pleadingly, “Tor!”
He stared down at me. I tried to stare up at him beseechingly.
Surprisingly, I won.
He let me go and strode to the tree, grumbling, “When we get home, remind me to speak to my physician about the state of my sanity.”
“Thank you, honey,” I called quietly.
He stopped at the trunk and cut his eyes to me. “You owe me.”
Oh shit.
“I’ll pay,” I promised.
“You bet your beautiful arse you will,” he muttered then he climbed the tree like he was a ten year old boy yesterday and did it five times daily. Then he climbed down just as agilely all the while cradling the tiny Aggie in one hand.
I rushed to him and bent my head to an Aggie who didn’t look too good.
“Oh Aggie,” I whispered.
“Chirp,” meaning, “Cora.”
“Baby, we got you,” I told the bird.
“Cora,” Tor called and I tilted my head to look up at him not noticing I had the fingers of one hand wrapped around the wrist of his hand holding Aggie and the other hand resting on the wall of his chest. “His wing is mangled. Beyond repair.”
“Oh God,” I breathed.
“You and Salem need to go to the road, I’ll take care of Aggie,” he continued and I blinked.
“Take care of him?”
“He’s in pain. He’s been up in that tree for awhile, no water, no food. He’s not half dead, he’s mostly dead. I need to take care of him.”
I tilted my head to the side. “Take care of him how?
“Take away his pain.”
Oh no. I was pretty sure I knew what he was saying.
“Are you saying –?”
He must have read the horror on my face for he answered swiftly and gently, “Yes.”
“Tor, no.”
“It’s the right thing to do.”
“We’ll find a vet.”
“Pardon?”
“A vet, a veterinarian. A doctor for animals.”
“I know what a vet is, love, what I was trying to ask without saying it is, are you mad?”
I stepped back. “I’m not mad! Maybe something can be done.”
“Something can be done and if you would go with Salem to the road, I could do it and put this creature out of its misery.”
“Chirp” came from Aggie which unfortunately meant “chirp”. Therefore, no clue what Aggie thought of this conversation and his impending euthanasia at the hands of a hot prince warrior.