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Chapter 30
Cal shuffled into her chamber, head down. Her mind...it was in chaos. The anger still burning in her was the only thing supporting her numb body. She wanted to go home and forget this whole myth of a nightmare. It shouldn’t even exist. Her nice, comfortable life should, where she had to only worry about acing her next test or arriving on time to rehearsals.
That should be her reality.
In no foreseeable way could immortality mix with mortality, elf with human. The feasibility of it didn't seem possible now. To think otherwise was insanity. Heck, one elf had tried to kill her, and she’d already spent much of her life in therapy. She shivered in spite of the warmth in the room, whose grate was piled high with burning wood.
“Do you want to talk about it?”
The voice startled Cal out of her thoughts. She glanced at Maggie and shook her head.
“Okay.” Maggie stood from her chair while Cal trudged to the bed, kicking off her slippers. Her friend pulled the sheets and comforter down, and Cal dropped onto the bed. Yanking the covers to her neck and turning her head away from Maggie, Cal released a new stream of tears. The chair Maggie had been sitting in creaked, telling Cal she was still in the room.
Her relationship with Relian had been going so well—too well. How could she be astonished at today’s outcome? She’d been fooling herself, overlooking so much, too much. He kept more half-truths and secrets than the average woman did shoes. Were he and his kisses her consolation prize for being stuck in Eria?
When she thought about Relian’s affections being nothing but a nicely placed sham, nausea hit hard and fast. What could a mortal offer that they didn’t already have? Nothing but pure mortal blood, which they had a decided lack of.
Their argument played over in her mind. Her words had been harsh but true. That violent kissing episode had certainly shocked her. She sniffled and wiped a hand over her face. Relian’s fire had burned away his composed façade, had burned her. Elves, a people so similar to humans, did have some of humanity’s failings and fragility. Instead of scaring her, that idea heartened her. It wouldn’t be normal for even elves to be...so inhuman. Touching her tingling lips, she found them slightly tender. He’d definitely lost his calm. That thought made her grimace. She had made him lose it.
Her realization didn’t appease her. In fact, it only showed how ill-suited they were for each other.
She gave a dark chuckle. Stuck in a land where she couldn’t leave but also where no one apparently could force her into a complete bond.
Reconciling the fact she had no control of almost anything in her life had shaken her foundations. There was no denying the dubious beginnings of the bond. The consequences of denying their link—which wouldn’t only affect her but their two realities—reeked of emotional blackmail. And she was damn tired of it.
She wanted no “greater destiny.” For God’s sake, she just wanted to be a college student.
***
The next evening, Cal was lying listlessly on her bed. Maggie plonked down beside her. Cal wanted to ignore her. However, her friend was determined to rouse her and kept poking her in the chest.
“Come on. Get up. Enough moping around. You’ve eaten every meal in here today and will feel better if you get out.”
Cal sighed and slowly sat up. Maggie wouldn’t stop, otherwise. Sometimes, it was just easier to give in. “Fine. I’m up.”
“And sitting there like a lump.” Maggie pulled her off the bed. “Come on. Let’s hightail it out of here.”
Cal would’ve rolled her eyes if she had the energy. “And go where? We’re stuck here.”
Maggie shrugged. “We might not be able to leave Eriannon, but we can still explore.”
An hour later after following Maggie around like a silent shadow, Cal had to admit she did feel better. The fresh air and change of scenery, along with Maggie’s relentless chatter, had finally pierced her mood funk. Right now, they were in a rooftop garden they’d stumbled across. It offered stunning views of garden and field.
Maggie found a bench and sat, patting the area beside her. “Join me, Cal.”
Once Cal was seated, Maggie turned to her. “Okay, now talk. I haven’t been able to get a thing out of you about what happened yesterday. But you always feel better once you’ve talked about it.”
Another charge that Cal couldn’t deny. So she spilled everything that had occurred between her and Relian yesterday afternoon. Maggie listened attentively, nodding and frowning in certain areas, until Cal mentioned one tiny bit of information.
“What!” Maggie screeched later, jumping up from the bench and staring at her in disbelief. “They actually believe that you have something to do with the magic going a.w.o.l?”
Maggie’s loud voice left Cal’s ears ringing, and she winced. “No, not with the magic disappearing, per se, but with the solution.”
Maggie folded her arms and leaned against the waist-height wall surrounding the garden, one foot crossed over the other. “How? I fail to see how you can change anything.”
“Join the club. But that’s all they have, and they’re holding onto it tenaciously.”
“So because our worlds are somehow connected and because they can’t find a solution to the troubles of their world in their own dimension, they foresaw the answer coming from our world, and you’re it? God, we’re screwed.”
