Page 10 of Alec

“I’ll watch over you,” he murmured, covering her with the plaid again. “Rest now.”

He meant what he said, and while she would never have done such a thing with anyone else, Olivia rested her cheek against his shoulder and closed her eyes. She breathed in his scent, which was so much like the forest she could imagine herself sitting in a grove of mossy oaks. For a moment her imagination failed, and the terrifying blackness of the sinkhole came back, along with the terror of waiting to smash into the bottom. Then Alec put both arms around her and shifted them both so that she lay more fully atop him. His lean, muscular body should have made a very poor mattress, but Olivia had never been held while she slept.

This is what heaven must be like, she thought, and drifted off.

The next time Olivia opened her eyes she stood in front of a decrepit old barn. From the interior, the musty, pungent smell of straw and manure came out, making her nose wrinkle. Someone was in there, although she didn’t know how she knew that. She also wanted to run away, but that fear wasn’t hers. She heard someone walking up behind her, but when she turned to look she saw no one, just a long, broad shadow.

The cold patch of darkness stretched out to form another abyss, one that looked as if it were lined with jagged teeth.

In the next moment she found herself inside a towering gate in a high wall. From the design of the portcullis, it was a very old medieval structure, and yet it looked brand new. Above her an impossibly green sky, lit with sunlight and yet containing no sun, curved over everything like the dome to a snow globe. Behind her stood a castle complex the size of a small mountain, enclosed by not one but two walls, and possessing more towers than she had ever seen in her research books—twenty-one in all, she discovered after counting them. All around the outermost wall, trees rose in thousands of shades of green and brown, but they had a watery, unreal look to them that made her wonder if they had been painted.

This is Dun Talamh from the outside. How Olivia knew that, she couldn’t say. She simply knew.

Men carrying long bows lined the battlements and rooftops and tower walks, and others holding flaming torches and long spears paced atop the two walls. They wore the same clothes as Alec, but they were much larger and more muscular. Despite the body differences, their features and the way they moved reminded Olivia of the man who had saved her.

That’s because they’re his brothers, lassie. Same as me.

A towering man came to stand beside her; so tall that it made her neck crick to look up at him. He resembled a superhero without the costume, so well-built every muscle he possessed seemed perfectly developed. Over his clothes he wore a blacksmith’s heavy leather apron, and he carried in one hand a sledgehammer larger than any Olivia had ever seen at the castle experiment in France.

I hope he doesn’t intend to use that on me.

As soon as she thought that the man chuckled. Och, lassie, never would I harm a mortal.

He was speaking inside her head because his lips didn’t move. He also had a face so beautiful he couldn’t have been human, and yet he reminded her of Alec. Everything about him made her wonder if he could be one of the mythical titans from old folk stories. Despite the fact that he was so astonishing to see, Olivia immediately sensed he hadn’t come to harm or threaten her. On the contrary, he gave off a very quiet, peaceful aura that seemed reassuring.

I’m Olivia Gibson from Riley Corp. She felt a little foolish introducing herself as if they were meeting for business. You’re one of the McKeran Clan?

His gorgeous lips curved. Aye, Rory, youngest of the lot.

First Impossibly Perfect Alec, and now this herculean paragon of utter, unearthly beauty. I’m dreaming, aren’t I?

What you now see, ’tis as real as what you’ll behold when you wake, lass. Dinnae fear the changes in your body, either. How you appear now, ’twas how the Gods meant you to become.

Olivia had ended up in her dream world, which had also fixed her body. That more than anything frightened her, because she had only lived in such a place in her imagination. She had only ever been taller in her dreams, too.

Can I return to my reality someday?

Rory shook his head. You’ve been trapped here with us for all eternity.

She wondered why he sounded so sad—it wasn’t as if he knew her—but then she saw the jagged-toothed shadow stretching across the ground toward them. Taking hold of his hand, she tried to pull him away from it.

Don’t fall into the abyss, Rory.

Och, lass. I dinnae fear such. He let go of her, and then went to the very edge of the opening, where he looked down into that terrible darkness. ’Twas my home—just as the barn was his.

His?

He must tell you. Only beware, lass. Rory looked over his shoulder. ’Tis an ugliness that gnaws away at his spirit, just as she did to you in her way. If he’s to continue on, he needs your strength and courage. Aye, and your love, little wren.

Olivia opened her wet eyes to see the blurry shapes of the chair and the hearth on the other side of the room. She now lay on his ticking in the corner of the room and looked down to see a man’s arm around her waist. Everything she had experienced had been a dream, strange as it had been. Warm breath moved against her nape, and the solid vault of a man’s chest pressed against her shoulder blades. She didn’t have to look over her shoulder to know it was Alec who held her; his woodsy scent was all over her. He had taken her to his bed and was sleeping with her. Why would he do that? He’d insisted she stay with him, too. Was he near-sighted as well as deaf?

He's being nice, that’s all.

Olivia had dated while in Europe, and this wasn’t the first time she’d shared a bed with a man. The two lovers had both been university students working in France like her, and very nice but not interested in a long-term relationship. She hadn’t minded; she’d wanted to be like other girls. She’d enjoyed her time with them, especially as it helped her better understand sex. Still, neither boy had touched her heart. Why then had her face gone blazing hot now with a blush so hard she expected to see smoke rising from her skin?

You’re never going to be pretty enough to attract someone like him. Even if you’re taller now, you’re too plain, too timid. He’s like a dark prince.

Sometimes Olivia wondered what sort of person she would have become if Mae Gibson had put her up for adoption instead of raising her. She might have ended up with someone worse, certainly. But she also could have had adoptive parents who might have loved and cherished her, and raised her like other kids. Then she could have gone to school, played at the playground, had toys, and enjoyed an ordinary childhood like other girls.