The woman aimed her sightless eyes in our direction.
“Harold tells me you need some assistance,” Clarabelle remarked.
I stared.
Then I smiled.
Hur-fucking-rah!
Chapter Thirty
Always
“We haven’t much time,” Clarabelle whispered to me urgently.
We were in her trailer, which was in the middle of no-fucking-where, having got there after Clarabelle righted Noc’s seriously dented SUV using magic (which, let me tell you, was way freaking cool). She rode with Noc as Tor and I followed on Salem (drizzle or no, pregnant or no, after what happened there was no way in hell Tor was letting me out of his sight).
Her trailer was totally freaking cool. It was all witchy, illuminated solely by fairy lights and flickering, scented candles, these sending shafts of light from the varied-colored crystals and pretty stained-glass symbols hanging all around. There was a big, crystal ball sitting on a fluffy, pink pillow on a table, cushiony, velvet-covered, plush furniture and scarves hanging over lamps, the purpose of which I didn’t know seeing as none of them were lit and the old woman couldn’t see. I could only guess that a witch had to decorate like a witch. Maybe it was a rule.
Clarabelle and I were standing at one end of her tiny living room, her hands holding mine, both of us were wet through. Noc and Tor, also both wet, both standing feet planted, arms crossed on their wide chests and both glowering identical glowers at us were at the other end. I could hear Salem snorting his impatience outside through the still open door.
I looked down at the woman whose face I knew but who was someone I didn’t know but I knew I could trust and I would like if I’d had the chance to get to know her better. Her eyes were pointed at me, unseeing, but her fingers were working through mine as if she could read my thoughts through my skin.
“I want this,” I assured her.
“You must be certain,” she replied.
I looked at Tor. His glower intensified. He was getting impatient.
I looked back at Clarabelle and held her hands tighter. “I’m certain.”
“There is no coming back,” she warned me.
“I –” I began, starting to glance again at Tor.
“He explained he made a deal with the witch on the other side,” she reminded me swiftly. “He gave her much gold, he had to, her power was depleted in casting the spell to bring him to you. It will take decades for her to replenish it. In the meantime, she will be vulnerable. And there are many powers at work in her world, not all of them good and it is very dangerous for a witch to be vulnerable. For her efforts this night, she’ll be a target. He has offered her his protection but in that world, as they are here, these powers can be insidious. She may end up needing his gold to buy safety.”
Wow.
“Uh –” I started.
“What I’m telling you, Cora, is that she cannot bring you back,” Clarabelle went on to explain. “I know of only four witches in his land who have this kind of power and your prince found the only good one. You do not want to strike bargains with the others. Not any of them.”
“Minerva,” I guessed.
“She is one,” Clarabelle nodded. “But there are two others in Hawkvale. They plot, this I know, what they plot, I do not. But they keep their heads low and both are arguably worse than The Shrew.”
Fantastic.
Plotting witches worse than The Shrew.
Brilliant.
Still, my mind was made up.
I moved closer to her. “I promise, I’m certain. I know what I’m doing.”
Her unseeing eyes slid in the direction of Tor then back to me.
“Love,” she whispered her accurate guess, her lips curving up.
“Yes… love,” I whispered back, my lips doing the same, “and our family,” I added, moving one of her hands to my belly.
“Ah…” she breathed, her lips fully forming a smile.
“Can we, just… wait a few minutes?” I requested. “My parents and my best friend are on their way –”
“We can, if you want to battle the hewcrows,” she cut me off to reply. “The she-god is working to mount her next offense.” Clarabelle moved closer to me too. “She’s more powerful than me, my dear. It took great effort for me to vanquish her army. I have enough magic to send you both and his horse back, I do not have enough to beat back the creatures she’ll send in her second wave and send you back. This magic would replenish faster than what it will take to move you between worlds, but it would still be years before I can build up enough to ensure you and your love’s safe return.”
Her emphasis was not lost on me and my eyes shot to Tor as my heart clenched.
“There isn’t time to wait for Mom, Dad and Phoebe,” I told him, though he had to have heard, he was only a few feet away. Still, I watched his jaw clench.
“I’ll explain it, tell them you wanted to wait, Cora,” Noc said to me and my eyes moved to him. “Just get this done.” I swallowed and bit my lip. “Go, baby,” Noc urged gently.
I nodded at Noc, my eyes shifted to Tor and he lifted his chin in an “it’ll be all right” that, for the first time seeing that from Tor, didn’t make me feel all right.
Then I looked down at Clarabelle.
“If you expend all your magic, will that mean you’re vulnerable?” I asked her.
She didn’t answer but her face said it all.
“When my father comes, tell him I told him to give you the money… all of it,” I told her.
She shook her head. “I am a certain kind of witch and this is about love. And the kind of witch I am a witch is a protector of love, amongst other things. I have vowed this. It is my duty. This I do as my religion, Cora, dear. So, that’s –” she started to refuse and I squeezed her hands and I did this gently, but firmly, making my point.
“All of the money, Clarabelle,” I stressed. “You must promise to take it all. I can’t go unless I do my bit to keep you safe and maybe you can use that money to stay safe.” She looked ready to protest again so I said, “I can’t use it, honey. So you might as well and, trust me, my Mom and Dad are so not going to take no for an answer so you might as well save your energy.”
She gazed at me seeing nothing for a long moment before she nodded.
“Let’s get this done,” I whispered, her hands grasped mine tightly and she nodded yet again.
Then she said softly, “Harold has told me, if you could find a way to tell his Circe that he is doing well, he misses her and she is always in his thoughts, he would appreciate this greatly.”
“Absolutely, Clarabelle,” I whispered. “Please tell Harold we’ll do that as soon as we can.”
Clarabelle nodded again. Then she got ready for business and straightened her shoulders.
“You and the prince mount his horse,” she ordered, let me go and Tor moved to me.
Hooking me with his arm around the waist, he guided me to the door and gently moved me in front of him down the trailer’s rickety steps, joined me at my side when he’d descended and he walked us to Salem.
“Cora, I must know that you’re sure,” he whispered to me and I tipped my head back to look at him as he stopped us at Salem’s side.
“What choice do we have?” I asked.
He turned me into his front and his arms curved around me.
“I stay here, in your world, with you.”
I stared up at him.
