Chapter Thirteen

The tree closed behind me, and I stood surrounded by darkness. Not sure what to do, I took a tentative step forward and then another. With each step, the sound of something like traffic echoed through the long tunnel, and far down at the end, I spotted the outline of a door. My wounds ached from all the walking, but I plowed forward until I reached the light, the traffic sounds growing louder and louder. Was Bel behind the door? It sounded like a bustling city on the other side. I fumbled with the stopper of my canteen.

I opened it and, holding my nose, took a sip of the blood inside, suppressing the nausea welling up in me at the metallic taste. The blood dripped down my throat and instantly, a tingly, warm feeling filled my limbs, a subtle hum sounding in my brain. Hopefully, there was still enough for Morven. Stoppering the canteen, I buckled it to my waist and shrugged my shoulders back, preparing to meet the Celtic god. With a firm tug, I opened the door, blinking at the bright light on the other side.

When my eyes adjusted, I startled at the scene in front of me. It was Central Park. New York City. The sound of traffic blared in the distance, punctuated by twittering birds and cooing pigeons. New Yorkers rushed by, families, joggers, street performers. Their faces turned up slightly to the dazzling sunlight and clear blue sky above. Skyscrapers loomed in the distance, but a concrete path stretched out before me, and at the end, stood the man in the suit. Bel. The man who came to me in my dream and before my fight with Cuchulainn. Yet, instead of his immaculate appearance, his suit was splattered with mud, one pant leg torn up the side. His hair stuck out wildly, and his face was turned down to the grass as if he were searching for something.

I approached him. “Are you Bel?”

He turned to me, eyes wide. “You can see me?”

I looked around at the people rushing by and back to him. “Yeah.”

He returned to the grass, and I realized he was gazing into a puddle of muck.

I cleared my throat and crouched down. “You told me to find you, so I did. I need your help.”

He shook his head, his fingers brushing the murky water.

Anger welled up in me, and my throat tightened. “Dude, you came to me. You gave me this magical orb that created a fiery spear. You were there! You told me to find you!”

The suited man continued to stare into the puddle, a frown on his face.

“Hey!” I demanded, grabbing at his suit coat.

He stared down at my hand, a smile on his face. “You can touch me.”

“Yes! Now will you help me?”

My fingers trembled, the muscles in my neck strained. I was so close to getting back to Finn, and the urgency and fear welled up in my chest, threatening to burst through my skin.

“Listen,” I said, lowering my voice and forcing some modicum of steadiness in my tone. “I don’t have much time. I need to get back home. Can you help me?”

He studied me for a long time, his clear eyes looking right through me. I shifted on my feet, the feeling of someone sorting through my mind sending a shudder down my spine. I stood firm, meeting his intense gaze.

“You have the essence of the divine within you,” he said.

I cleared my throat. “Yeah, I, um, drank some bull’s blood? I’m hoping it keeps this conversation from killing me.”

His eyes flickered with a bright, golden flame, and a surge of energy burned through me, the magical blood making my limbs tingle with an unmistakable power.

He smiled. “You have already been to the world you seek,” he said.

I frowned. “Uh, what?”

He turned on his heel and began marching forward at a quick pace so fast I had to jog to catch up.

“I think I would have known if I entered another world,” I huffed behind him.

“But you wouldn’t know.” We arrived on the sidewalk at the edge of Central Park, a line of taxis edging through the traffic. He craned his neck, his intense gaze passing over the bright yellow cabs. “We need to find the right one.”

“The right what? Where are we going?” I scratched the back of my neck, exhaustion taking over my limbs. My shoulders ached and my feet hurt from walking, but I knew I was close to home. Somehow.

His eyes brightened, and he hailed a cab. It swerved to the sidewalk, stopping with a sharp jerk. He turned to me with a smile. “We’re going to your dreamworld. From there, you can wake up in your own time.”

“How—?”

He slipped inside the cab, patting the leather interior beside him. With a resigned sigh, I followed, crouching to avoid banging my head.

The suited man leaned forward to the taxi driver. “Corner of Fifth Avenue and 58th Street, please.” He turned to me. “Your dad took you there when you were stationed at Fort Hamilton. He bought you a My Little Pony, and then you had lunch at The Russian Tea Room.”

Ice water filled my veins, and I backed into the corner of the cab, clutching onto the edge of the upholstery. “How did you know that?”

“We shall enter your dreamworld through your memory.”

“Through my memory?”

I glanced up at the rearview mirror, expecting a goblin or some other magical creature to be steering our magical mystery tour, but a nondescript middle-aged man stared forward, his head bobbing to Toto’s “Africa” drifting gently from the radio. Outside, the city whirled past, and I sat back, clutching my aching shoulder and wincing.

Bel took my hand. “Sorry. How rude of me.”

A flash of light blinded me for a minute, and just like that—my pain disappeared. I smiled up at him.

“Thanks,” I said.

He shrugged, releasing my fingers. “It’s the least I could do. Apparently, I’m the one who put you in this mess.”

I blinked, chuckling beneath my breath. “You honestly don’t remember? You made me swallow a little ball of light, gave me a fiery spear?”

He gazed out the window. “Time works differently for a god. The past. The present. They don’t really exist, not when there are worlds upon worlds.”

I drummed my hands against the upholstery. “I… I think I get it. I’m an Aisling. Shit gets confusing sometimes.”

He turned to me, leveling me with his clear stare. “I know what you are, Elizabeth Tanner, and what you will be.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “What do you mean? You can read my future?”

He laughed. “Not the future.”

I massaged the space between my eyes. “Then, what?”

“Fate.”

The city blocks zoomed past, ticking off the silence between us.

“It’s good, what you’re doing,” Bel whispered.

“Like with the Fae? Someone’s gotta do something. I didn’t ask for it.”

He folded his long fingers together in his lap. “No, that was destined long ago.”

I blinked. “No shit?”

Bel settled his palms on his knees, his knuckles turning white. “What you are doing for Finn. For love. There is no greater cause than love.”

“And that wasn’t fated?”

He shook his head. “No. Love is the only force in the universe that cannot be written. No one knows what they will choose when it comes to love.”

“I do,” I said. “I’ll always choose Finn.”

He arched an eyebrow. “Always?”

The taxi jerked to a stop before I could reply. The driver didn’t demand any money, and for the first time, I noticed the meter flashing at zero, as if we hadn’t gone anywhere.

“We’re here.” Bel grabbed the door handle and pulled.

My heart pounded as recognition filled me. Outside the door of the taxicab was not the bustling toy store of FAO Schwarz, but the ruins of Finn’s castle in Connacht. Somehow, Bel had used my memory to find my dream—the one where I returned to this place.

“How is this fucking possible?” I whispered beneath my breath.

Bel stepped out the taxi and extended a hand. “Are you coming?”

I nodded and took his hand, letting him pull me free of the cab. As soon as my feet touched the ground, the taxi disappeared and the ocean wind roared in my ears. It was always the same season here. Fall. The leaves just beginning to turn, the smoke of faraway peat fires filling my lungs. My heart ached for Finn, and I glanced at the ground near a crumbling stone wall. That was where we made love. And that was where he had asked me to run away with him. God, if only I had said yes. There would have been no battles. No demons. No Trinity wars. No Fir Bolgs. No Fae rebellion. But maybe Bel was right. The only thing constant through all those trials was love.

“He’s over there.” Bel pointed to a copse of trees.

“I know,” I whispered, and I did, in the way you know and understand everything in a dream.

Bel took my hand. “Kiss him and you’ll wake up in your own time.”

I arched my eyebrow. “That’s it?”

He nodded. Thrusting his hands in his pockets, he glanced up at the sky. “It’s nice here.”

“Feel free to stay,” I joked.

He shook his head, staring out at the sea. “No, I need to get back to work.”

“Doing what?”

“Why, saving you, of course.” He glanced up at the sky and scratched his head. “A bright, shiny ball. Yes, I could do that.”

I scratched the back of my head. “Um, thanks…?”

He smiled. “I’m glad you found me, and I’m glad I could help you.”

I punched Bel playfully on the arm. “No problem, man.”

He just stared down his sleeve with a frown. Shaking his head, he let out a long exhale and pressed his hands down the front of his soiled suit.

“Would you mind”—he gestured across his body—“fixing this up a bit?”

“Uh…”

“Use your mind. Think of it as nice and freshly pressed. Anything is possible here if you can dream it.”

I cleared my throat, and I willed my mind to clean him up and polish his suit. Instantly, his appearance transformed, and he smiled, glancing down at his cufflinks.

“Platinum,” he said. “Very nice.”

He nodded toward the woods. “Go get your prince, Elizabeth Tanner.”

I ran forward, calling over my shoulder, “Thanks for all your help!”

Bel had already disappeared, the ruins empty. I raced into the trees, spying Finn lying asleep on a slab of stone. I hovered over him, studying his beautiful face for a moment. I leaned down, my lips a hairsbreadth from his when some incredible force wrenched me away, throwing me to the ground and dragging me backward.

I twisted around to face my attacker and snarled.

“Edward Thornton!” I screamed.

The wizard stood before me. My nemesis. He wore black robes, his emaciated face even more waxen, as if all his human features had melted away and what remained was the barest layer of skin. Blue veins stretched across the horrible mask, and he held his skeletal arms outstretched, the tendons in his wrists straining as he drew me closer toward him.

I dug my heels into the dirt, reaching for my own powers. I had faced Thornton in dreams before. He liked to weasel into my mind, attack me at my most vulnerable. I didn’t know why he would be there now, but I refused to let him get in the way of Finn and me. Not now. Not after everything I had done to reach him.

“What do you want, Thornton?” I screamed. “What?”

He smiled and two great bastes hovered behind him, giant serpents, their fangs dripping with venom, yellow eyes focused on me with malice.

“I want you, Elizabeth Tanner,” he said.

With all my strength, I freed myself from his grip and tapped into the fragile weave of the dream. If Thornton could control this world as a guest, I could rule it as its master. When I opened my eyes, a dozen Elizabeths appeared around me, perfect replicas of me, whirling twelve spears in perfect unison.

“You can’t have me,” all us said at once.

My heart raced, and I whirled my spear, on guard, my doppelgangers following suit.

The bastes slipped to the ground, slithering, their diamond heads bobbing and weaving.

“Come with me now, Elizabeth,” Thornton called across the clearing. “You know you’re no match for me here.”

The bastes attacked my doppelganger on the left, and I wove through them, ducking behind a tree as the rest went after the vile beasts. An explosion burst next to me, and the tree turned to a pillar of ash and fire. I rolled to the right and sent a bolt of lightning across the clearing. It hit Thornton square in his shoulder. He slammed to the ground, his bastes winking out of sight.

I raced toward Finn, pulling him close.

Thornton coughed and rose to his knees, pulling something from his robes. It shone a soft violet color. I gasped, my heart jumping into my throat.

“Do you recognize it, Elizabeth?” he said.

It was a trick. It had to be. He had summoned the device somehow.

Thornton shook his head and laughed. “I’m one step away from finding the Tree of Life. The Fir Bolgs think they can control me, but they know nothing. If you help me, we could control it together. Share the power. With this—” He flashed the device at me, which had changed. Three Celtic swirls twisted and turned, the violet light turning to a sickly green. “With this we can rule them all. Your power and mine.”

“You’re mad!”

He smiled, flashing his small, pearly teeth. “We can play them all, Elizabeth. The Fir Bolgs. Trinity. You could be free of everyone. It’s your choice.”

“Never!” And with that, I pressed my lips against Finn’s mouth in a hard kiss.

Blue light engulfed me, my limbs crushed and paralyzed beneath the weight of a thousand timelines. Screams overwhelmed my ears, and I rushed through the current, trying to focus on Finn, trying to find my way back to him. To home. To the moment I left him.

My body hit the concrete with a hard thud, and all the air in my lungs vanished. I ached all over, and when I opened my eyes, my vision blurred in a riot of color. The screams still surrounded me, and as my sight focused, I gasped, my heartbeat pounding. The screams didn’t come from traveling through time.

The Faerie Market was under attack.