birthday candles.”
I touched the stick to a candle on his desk, lit it and started lighting the birthday candles as I kept explaining.
“So, for your birthday, since I have no money but I wanted to do something special, I decided to give you something that was special to me, a piece of my world, kind of literally. I scoured the city to find all the right ingredients and Perdita had the candlemaker make special candles. So here you are.” I gestured to the cake with a flick of the stick. “A my world birthday cake.” My eyes went to his. “My birthday present to you. And now what you have to do is make a wish, blow out the candles and your wish is supposed to come true.”
Luckily, there were only ten candles (I guess I didn’t explain very fully to Perdita). I’d finished with them so I blew out the stick and set it on the desk.
“Cora –” Tor started again, beginning to move toward me.
“No!” I cried, lifting up a hand and he stopped.
“I’ll just –” Algernon began, my head snapped to him and I dropped my hand.
“Please, don’t go, you must have some cake,” I whispered, his eyes shot to Tor but he didn’t move.
I looked back at Tor.
“You need to make your wish,” I told him. “Then blow out your candles.”
“Sweets –” he started, my eyes closed and that tear in my heart didn’t split, it didn’t gently rip deeper.
It slashed through my heart, rending it in two.
I opened my eyes, locked them on Tor’s beautiful, blue, playing, deceitful ones and I felt mine fill with tears.
“Make your wish,” I whispered.
“Cora –”
A tear spilled over and slid down my cheek.
“Make your wish, honey.”
I watched his eyes follow the trail of my single tear then they came to mine then he came at me.
I whirled, picked up my skirts and ran.
“Cora!” he yelled as I dashed out the door and down the hall. “Cora! Gods damn it, stop!”
He was right behind me.
Shit!
It sucked that he was so tall and his legs were so freaking long.
The staircase was in sight, the winding one that skirted the circular wall of the mammoth circular hall that led to the front doors. A hall floored in gleaming black marble veined with silver and blue. A hall that could house at least a hundred bodies whirling around in a waltz.
A fairytale hall in a black, hideous fairytale.
I didn’t make it to the staircase though. I was caught by the arm and pulled around.
“Take your hand off me!” I shrieked.
“Cora, calm down,” Tor ordered gently.
I stilled and tipped my face to look at him, “Fuck you! Fuck calm! I’m going to find a wizard right now! And don’t you fucking stop me!”
“Cora, gods, calm the fuck down!” he yelled back and it pissed me off that he’d picked up some of my language from my world that he didn’t even believe fucking existed that I wanted to go back to and I didn’t want him to have any part of.
“Take your hand off me!” I screamed again, trying to pull away but failed when he let me go and his arms locked around me.
“Listen to me,” he commanded.
“No! No way! You’re not a jerk. You’re a dick! You’re a player! I fucking hate you! Which really sucks because about ten minutes ago, I fucking loved you more than anything in this, and my, whole, fucking worlds!”
His body went solid and I took advantage, wresting out of his arms, I turned instantly and started running.
“Cora!” he shouted as I made it to the top of the staircase and I looked back over my shoulder.
“Don’t come near me!” I yelled, starting to race down the steps.
“Cora! Gods! Mind the –!”
That’s when it happened.
I tripped.
Stupid, stupid, stupid me, running in an emotional state down a flight of stairs.
And down I went, crashing, bumping and whirling down a silver and blue veined set of winding, black marble, fairytale castle stairs.
I landed at the bottom feeling pain in every inch of my body but most especially my head which slammed, rather violently, against a number of steps on the way down.
Fucking great.
I felt Tor crouch at my side and carefully and tenderly (the asshole), he lifted my torso in his arms, cradling my head in the crook.
“Sweets,” he whispered, I opened my eyes and I looked into his fucking unbelievably beautiful eyes and that was when my vision started to fade.
“I loved you,” I whispered.
“Cora,” he whispered back.
“I know you don’t believe me, you’ll never believe me but it’s true. I loved you.”
“Stop speaking,” he murmured.
The black started to permeate, take over. It was coming fast. I was losing it.
“In this world,” I kept whispering, “you were the only thing I had but you were the only thing I needed.”
“Gods,” he muttered, the word sounding dragged out of some deep part of him.
And that was all I heard before everything faded to black.
Chapter Seventeen
Until You
I felt weak light hit my eyes, I opened them and I saw my light green pillowcase.
I blinked but when my eyes came back open, there it was. My light green pillowcase.
My pillowcase. From my bed. In my world.
I shot up to sitting and nearly blacked out, my head was so woozy. I lifted a hand to my head and closed my eyes tight until the feeling went away. Then I kept them closed thinking, well, guess all I had to do to get myself back to my world was give myself a head injury… good to know.
Then I slowly opened them and looked around.
Then my mouth dropped open.
My room looked like a hurricane had rushed through it. There were clothes and shoes and accessories everywhere. I spied some glossy bags, squinted, leaned forward and my heart slid into my throat.
Okay, well, there it was. The Cora of Tor’s world had come here, she hadn’t cleaned in two months and apparently she somehow managed to shop at exclusive department stores.
I flopped back to the pillows, whispering, “Shit.”
Then I felt the mattress under me. I’d always liked my mattress. It was firm and comfortable.
What it was not was firm but soft and downy like Tor’s.
Tor.
My nose started stinging and I sucked air in through it.
No more Tor (which I told myself was good). No more Aggie (which was not good). No more Salem (also not good) or Clarabelle (ditto) and, of course, all the girls in the kitchen who I had just figured out liked me.
No more fairytale.
A lone tear slid out of the side of my eye, down my temple and mingled in my hair.
