Chapter 3

Harper

Aaran healed my mother. I’m shaking and have to clasp my hands together behind mom’s back to keep them still while I hug her for the hundredth time in the last hour. I’m overwhelmed with emotions I’m desperately trying to keep inside. I don’t know if the magic will last, but she looks like herself. Hearing my mother’s voice strong and full of wonder makes me want to shout from the rooftop.

Aaran’s eyes are closed still, and he’s slumped in the chair by the window. The sun streams across his golden hair. I want to help him, but have no idea how, so I concentrate on my beautiful kind mother and how her skin is pink instead of gray.

None of this is possible. It’s a miracle to recover from cancer when you’re so close to death. I was prepared for her to leave me. I’ve had a year to get ready. Now everything has changed. My mother is alive, and it’s as if all the suffering and tears never happened. Except they did, and I know how precious life is. I knew before. I lost my father in an instant, but this was different. This was horrifying.

The doctors and nurses all cram into the room, looking at charts and readings. Rather than wait for someone to ask one too many questions, I tell Mom I’ll be back on Sunday. She smiles and waves like it’s a normal day before she got sick.

My heart is so tightly lodged in my throat that I don’t know if I’ll ever get a word out. I want to thank him. I want to rescue him. Instead, I focus on the path to my car and swallow tears.

As he held Mom’s hand, there was a moment when I considered the idea that Aaran might harm her, but my heart told me another story. As he restored my mother’s health, his bright energy faded. I send up a prayer that he’ll recover. Maybe it shouldn’t matter so much to me, but it does. “Should I get a doctor for you?”

Aaran’s shoulders slump and his gait drags. “No. The sunshine will be enough to rebuild my strength. It will just take some time.” He gets into my car and closes his eyes.

I sit beside him and start the engine. “Why did you do it, knowing it would make you so weak? You could have died.” I don’t know how I know this, but his sacrifice was greater than he’d like to admit.

Without lifting his head from the headrest, he turns, locking his gaze with mine. His hair falls across half of his handsome face, and the tip of his pointed ear shows between golden locks. I guess the magic he uses to hide them has faltered. His blue eyes are tired, but not as faded as before. “If you cannot help me, Harper, then my world is finished. It will fall into darkness, and everyone I love will die. I will die fighting beside them. I had nothing to lose by giving you your mother back.”

My throat is tight. Rather than face my guilt, I put the car in gear and drive us back to my condo.

At an Italian restaurant and deli a block from home, I stop for food. I don’t imagine there’s much Italian food, if any, where Aaran comes from, but I’m hungry and buy extra in case Mom is up to eating pasta and cheese tomorrow. I pick up soup too.

When I get him inside my condo, the sun is streaming through the slider, so I open it and tell him to sit on one of my lounge chairs. “Do you want chicken soup or to try something different?”

“I want whatever that heavenly scent in the car was.” His smile is a little stronger this time.

My stomach does a little butterfly dance at the sight. I wonder if everyone in his world looks like him or if all the elf women are clamoring for his attention. Once I have the ravioli on plates, I join him on the veranda. “This is called ravioli.”

He takes a long sniff and grins before forking his first bite. A low moan emanates from his throat, and he closes his eyes.

Watching him eat, it’s like I’m experiencing the wonder of pasta, cheese, and sauce for the first time. “You like it?”

“This is magnificent. Do you think they’d show me how to make it?” He practically inhales the rest, and his color starts returning.

Shrugging, I say, “If you ask, Paul will probably show you. He taught me last year.”

Aaran freezes and looks at me as if I’m a goddess. “You make this?”

“I have made it twice to impress dates.” Why that makes me blush, I have no idea. Aaran is not a date. “But since Paul’s is just down the block, I usually let him do the Italian cooking.”

“I would like to make this for my family when I go home.” He takes his plate and mine and goes to the kitchen where he washes the dishes and leaves them in the drying rack. When he returns, his shoulders aren’t so slumped. “Your mother is well liked at that place.”

I nod. “I know you say you saved her because you have nothing to lose, but if you’d sped up her dying instead, wouldn’t that negate my reason for turning you down?”

His full lips pull into a deep frown. “I’m not a monster. Killing your mother would not have gained me what I need, and even if it would, I would have to live with that decision.”

“Maybe you healed her thinking that if my mother was not sick, I would be free to help you.” The sun glistens on the surface of the lake.

“You need her. I care about you more than I should and about her as an extension of that. Why are you looking for some wrongdoing in my actions?”

“Good question.” I close my eyes, and the fireflies behind my lids from staring at reflected light is like fireworks.

“What is the answer?”

“I don’t trust people. In my experience, the ones you can trust die, and the rest use you until they get what they want.” I have no idea why I admitted that to him.

His beautiful mouth pulls down at the corners, and sorrow fills his eyes. He sits forward, his elbows on his knees, and watches me with those big blue eyes, now full of pity. “What about Ashley and Greg? There were a lot of folks at the pub last night who seemed to genuinely care about you.”

“Ashley is a good friend. Greg is okay. He and I dated in high school, but we stayed friends, and he’s come and fixed things in my house when I need a handyman.” I get up. “I didn’t sleep well last night, and it’s been a big day. I’m going to take a nap and have a good cry. Thank you for what you did. I’ll help you if you give me a few days to get Mom settled.”

I have no idea why I’m so emotional, but I barely get the words out before the tears come, so I make a dash for my bedroom and shut the door. I mean, maybe I do know why. My mother was just miraculously snatched from the brink of death and given back her health. That’s worth a few tears. I cry into my pillow to muffle the sobs.

The door opens, and a moment later, strong arms wrap around me. “I didn’t heal Maggie to manipulate you, Harper.” His warm breath tickles the back of my ear. “I need you. My people need you. If I were a stronger man, I’d leave you here to have a full life without danger. I’m not that strong. My destiny is to find the first of three and bring her to the Watcher’s Gate. My entire reason for being is completing this task. Can you forgive me?”

It’s been so long since someone held me, I’d forgotten how good it is to be cared for. Between giving my mother back her health and this embrace, I would risk everything for him. I cover his hand with mine on my abdomen. “Let me rest like this, and we’ll call it even.”

He pulls me tight to his chest, my head resting on his biceps. His voice is like a dream. “Sleep, Harper. Nothing will harm you while I watch.”

It sounded like a vow made to a princess. My eyelids grow heavy. Lying like this is perfection. I feel safe and cared for, and can’t remember ever feeling this way before.

* * *

“Mom, are you sure you’re going to be alright here?” In the week since she was released from the hospice, she’s put on a pound or two, which makes me so happy.

“I’m fine. You need to help Aaran. Your grandmother always said there was a special purpose for a child who came as such a miracle.” My mother was almost forty when she finally got pregnant. All the doctors said she couldn’t conceive, but then I came along when no one was expecting it.

“I remember, but I don’t think this is what Grandma had in mind. I mean, I’m going to Canada because an elf says that’s where we can open a portal into another world.” The more I say it, the more nuts it sounds.

Mom’s laugh is like the best music. It feels like a decade since I heard that sound. “My mother was wise in the ways of magic. Maybe if I’d paid more attention, and been less resistant, you would have learned more from her.”

“You were just trying to protect me.” I look around the condo. “Are you sure you’ll be alright here all alone?”

“I’m hardly alone. Josephine is a mile away, and Wanda is only two. They’re going to stop in daily and check on me, whether I want them to or not.” My mom’s two oldest friends have been there for us through everything, dad’s death and cancer. Of course, they’ll take care of Mom while I take an extended leave of absence for personal reasons.

Those were the words I said to my boss when I told him I’d be gone for a while and would let him know when I could return. If I return. My nerves kick in big time. “What do I know about saving worlds? Less than nothing.”

“You’ll be exactly what you’re meant to be, my sweet girl.” Mom cups my cheeks like she did when I was a kid. She kisses my forehead, and the soft smell of her perfume reminds me of simpler times.

The door opens wide, and Aaran walks in with my mom’s best friends.

“Look at the hunk we found in the parking lot,” Wanda says bawdily. She’s five-foot-nothing and wears her silver hair in a bob that looks a little like an old-time football helmet. She has warm tanned skin and shining brown eyes that see more than they let on, and she has Aaran in her clutches.

Josephine is more demure on the outside but just as fun-loving inside. She grips Aaran’s other arm. “Now we know why you’re running away from home. If this was my prize, I’d be taking him far away from here too.” She gives her wedge hairstyle a flip.

It took a full day for Aaran to recover from what he did for Mom, but he’s been strong and helpful ever since. Grinning at the two women, he pats Josephine’s hand. “I’ll take good care of Harper, and you see that Maggie is well.”

They both let go of Aaran and rush to Mom’s side. Wanda grabs me around the waist and kisses my cheek. “Maggie is a miracle, just like our Harper.

Mom takes my hand and pulls me aside. She digs in her pocket. “I had this resized for you.” She slides a simple gold band over the middle finger of my right hand.

I stare at the plain ring. “Was this Dad’s?”

Dashing a tear away, she hugs me. “I’ve held on to it for too long. You should have a part of him, of us. Remember we love you.”

“When did you have time to do this?” I spin the ring around my finger. It’s heavy and thick, but the size is perfect.

“I think it suits you.” She smiles, and the light catches her eyes.

Somehow I know she’s going to be alright. I feel it deep inside me. Life radiates from her, where weeks ago, we were waiting for the end. No one has ever given me a greater gift and no one ever could. “Thank you. I love it.”

After another round of hugs and kisses, I manage to keep from crying and get out the front door. It took me two weeks to talk to my boss, Ashley, and a few other people about running off with Aaran. I had no idea settling one’s affairs was such a big job. I put Mom’s name on all my accounts, so she’ll be well taken care of if I don’t make it back. She tried to refuse, but I insisted. Cash and my credit card will get us to St. John’s. After that, I’ll have to rely on Aaran. If there even is an after that. This entire thing is madness.

“You are screaming your thoughts.” Aaran holds his ears.

Nothing surprises me anymore. I’m traveling with an elf, so… “You’re reading my thoughts again? That seems very rude.”

“It would be rude if you didn’t scream them. Though, I can understand why you think this crazy.” He bought himself a backpack and is inspecting all the zippers where he’s tucked away a hoard of survival supplies. The man loves Walmart. I thought I would never get him out of the camping section.

Maybe it should bother me to have him hear some of what’s in my head, but I find it comforting. Yet another thing about the last two weeks to confirm I’ve lost all good sense. “What will happen when we get to the island? Explain to me again why we couldn’t fly there?”

He pulls a very long knife out of his pack. It’s in a leather sheath, but even so, it’s quite menacing. His sword is in the trunk under a blanket. “You said no weapons on a plane. We need weapons.”

I suppose he knows what he’s doing, but weapons are not my thing. I save the worms that crawl up on the concrete when it rains. “And you’re certain I’m the right woman for this job? Because I’ve never wielded a weapon or harmed another living thing in my life.”

His smile could melt any woman’s heart—and other parts, too. “I’m sure.”

“Two days of driving it is then.” I head for Route 95 North with a full tank of gas and no idea what I’m getting myself into. “How do we get you across the border into Canada without any identification?”

“It won’t be a problem.” He taps the side of his head as if that should mean something to me.

It does fill me with joy and makes me chuckle, so that’s something.

Aaran’s gaze is intense as he looks from window to window.

“Will someone try to keep us from reaching Newfoundland? Why are you suddenly on guard?” I force my hands to relax on the wheel.

“I don’t know for sure, but we’re on the move now and that will cause a ripple in what the witch queen sees. If she’s looking, and I think she is.”

“You think, or you know, Aaran?” My knuckles get white again, even though I have no idea what the witch queen is or what she can do. Not really.

“I feel…unsettled.” His admission makes my stomach tighten.

I asked, and he promised never to lie to me. Be careful what you wish for, Gram always used to say. I have to deepen my breathing as my pulse speeds. “Maybe it was stupid of me, but I didn’t think we’d be in danger until we went to your world.”

“You couldn’t have known. I should have told you more about my world and the witch queen’s reign, but you were working so hard to get things arranged for your mother, it never seemed like the right time.” The muscle in his jaw ticks.

“Tell me now.” The highway is slow with traffic. Might as well spend the time wisely.

“Are you sure you want such distraction while you drive?” He clearly doesn’t want to tell me.

I give him a quick look that I hope conveys I’m not falling for any crap. “I’m not weak. I don’t know how to fight, but I’m strong in a lot of ways, and I can run fast.” There is no good reason for me making a case for myself.

Keeping my eyes on the road, I feel him watching me.

“You’re more than strong enough, Harper. You don’t even know your full strength yet and have endured more than most could handle. I’m not doubting your abilities. I’ll never do that.” He lets out a long breath. “The witch queen was born in the same province as my family. Her name is Venora Braddish, though she’s long been known as the witch queen. She was a very good student of magic.”

“Does everyone learn magic in Domhan?” I picture every book and movie about wizards I’ve ever seen. It conjures up the image of Aaran in a pointed hat with black robes and a wand, which I have to banish from my mind.

There’s a long pause and I can’t look because I’m trying to weave into another lane. There are emergency lights ahead on the right.

Aaran says, “Magic is in all elves, and humans too, though most of you never notice your gifts. Elves learn to control it. Venora was gifted with strong magic and the ability to wield it better than most. My father told me that when she was sixteen suns, she started toying with black magic, and when she mastered many spells, she left school and disappeared. At that time, a few villagers went missing as well. They were never found.”

“Never? What do you think happened to them?” The notion of never being found to be mourned by loved ones breaks my heart.

Aaran’s voice drops out of his strong storytelling baritone, and he whispers, “I think they were the first of her shadow army.”

We pass the three-car fender bender that caused traffic to slow and finally get up to speed. Fear is something I’m familiar with. I feared losing my mother because I know what it feels like to lose a parent. I’ve never experienced my own life being in danger until the day I met Aaran. Even though he wasn’t going to hurt me, I thought it was the end. That adrenaline roars through me again. “Shadow army?”

Hesitating, he lets out a sigh. “I wish I could tell you this was nothing to worry about, but I can’t. Venora turns elves and other creatures into shadow demons. They are remnants of their former selves, with only the obscurity of where the light once lived. She enslaves them with the promise of release and rest.”

“That’s horrible.” Part of me thinks this is all made up, and I wish I could believe that part.

“There are far worse words to describe the witch queen, Harper. If I could spare you this journey, I would.”

“Who are the other two women?” The notion that I’m not alone in this gives me some assurance. I hope, whoever they are, they’re braver and stronger than me.

“I don’t know.” He clutches his backpack, then relaxes and puts it on the floor between his legs.

“Your brothers didn’t tell you where they were going? That seems unsafe. What if you had to gather a second one of us? What if I refused, and one of them was needed to convince me?” I hate what I’m saying, but understanding this process is important.

Shaking his head, he frowns. “No. The oracle sent for my brothers and me. We met with them individually. I don’t know what Raith and Liam were told.”

“What did she tell you?”

His jaw ticks, and his hand tightens around the strap of his backpack. “The oracle gave me the magic to create a portal to you, along with your name. The oracle is a group of elves who used strong light magic that I can’t begin to explain to find you. They…” He shakes his head.

“What?” His hesitation makes my heart speed up. In the past couple of weeks, I’ve gotten used to his directness and assuredness. Whatever he’s about to say can’t be good.

“They gave me the song of your soul so I could find you. It is a way to sense a person and learn what’s in their heart.”

“What the fuck?” I look in the rearview mirror and make my way to the shoulder, turn on my flashers, and put the car in park. “What do you mean, she gave you the song of my soul?”

 Because I’m not even sure I have a soul or I believe people have souls, I don’t know quite how to accept the fact that he has part of mine. Even so, I don’t like that he’s listening to some inner part of me. Whatever he took, no one asked my permission. What else can he do with the magic he uses to hear my soul? Am I in control of my own decisions? I’m ready to toss him from my car right here on this busy highway, where he’d have to walk a mile to get to a town. I’m breathing so hard that hyperventilation is not out of the question. It would be another first, but I’m not ruling it out. Cars pass at high speeds as I turn to face him. Rage, confusion, and hurt are at war inside me. This seems like something he should have told me while I was preparing my life to save his world.

He swivels his head in all directions, looking for either an escape or danger. When he focuses on me, his shoulders slump. “I should have explained before now.”

“Damn skippy.”

The twitch of those pretty lips is almost a distraction from my anger. Almost.

Holding up a palm in a way that might calm or show contrition, he says, “Each person in any world has an essence that makes them unique. The three who come from this world and are in the prophecy were found by the oracle through the songs of your souls. The oracle found the right song and placed its melody inside me so I could find you.”

“And manipulate me?” I want to hit him, but I keep my hands fisted in my lap.

He shakes his head. “No. Just find you and ask, beg, if necessary, to get you to come and help us. If I hadn’t had that song inside me, I might have come through anywhere in your world and never found you.”

Letting out the breath I’ve been holding, I want to believe him. “Is it still inside you, this part of my soul?”

“Yes,” he admits without any shame and stares into my eyes boldly, as if he’s never giving up some prize.

“Why? You found me. You should give it back.” Do I want to take it back? Do I even believe I have a song of my soul? Every moment with Aaran challenges what I know or don’t know.

“You say that as if I’ve taken something away from you. I can assure you that’s not the case.” He looks out the rear window, then beyond, to the trees that line the road. “I have the song so I can find you if you’re lost. It’s still inside you, clear and strong, Harper.”

“Why don’t I hear it?”

“Because it’s always been there and you have become so used to it, you don’t notice. It’s been a part of you since the moment you were conceived. I imagine that people who live near this road stop noticing the sound of the traffic.” He shrugs.

“Do you hear your song?”

Why must his smile stir my insides so thoroughly?

“When I listen, yes.”

“Fine.” At least for now. I’m not done with this conversation, but sitting here in the open is making him nervous. I put the car in gear and find room to ease back into traffic.

“You are extraordinary.” He returns to his watchfulness and his grip on his backpack.

“I’m average.”

He chuckles.