A Kind Of Magic (11 page)

Through her tears, she saw the harpy that had thrown Roderick over the side of the building advance on Val and the harpy he battled.

“Look out, Val,” she screamed in a last ditch effort to save him. To her relief, Val turned and saw the second harpy in time.

“Time to die, little one,” the harpy said just before she released Elle.

The scream died in Elle’s throat as she began to fall.

Roderick saw Elle falling towards him and reached out in time to grab hold of her arm. She came to a halt, jerking his already dislocated shoulder painfully.

“I’ve got you,” he said as she looked up at him.

“Don’t let go.”

She was hysterical, not that he could blame her. He’d had a moment of panic himself as he went over the side of the building, but training and instinct had taken over, which is how he had managed to grab hold of the ledge.

“Elle, listen close. I need you to climb up me and get a hold on the ledge.” He knew she wanted to say nay, but she nodded through her tears and took hold of his leg with her other hand.

Just as he was about to release the arm he held so she could continue her climb, he heard it. The harpy’s scream.

He raised his gaze and saw the harpy coming at them.

“Hang on,” he warned just before the harpy slashed at Elle with her talons.

Elle screamed through the pain but managed to keep her grip on him despite the tugging the harpy had done.

“Climb,” Roderick yelled as she watched the harpy circle back around.

“Roderick,”

Val

hollered.

He looked up in time to see Val and Alex wrestling, the necklace about to fall from Alex’s hand. With one massive punch, Val knocked Alex’s head back, sending the vile man unconscious. Despite Val trying to reach the necklace, it fell from Alex’s hand to land about twenty feet above Roderick.

Roderick realized too late that if Val and Alex were fighting, that meant all three harpies were….

Elle’s hand was torn from his grasp as the harpies pulled at her. Knowing he had only one chance to save her, he let go and fell after her. As she flailed through the air, he lengthened himself and caught up with her.

“Think Stone Crest, England 1123,” he yelled in her ear as he wrapped his arms around her. “Hurry, Elle. Say it with me.” Elle could barely think much less hear Roderick, but somehow his words got through. “Stone Crest, England 1123. Stone Crest, England 1123,” she repeated time and again.

Suddenly, the fading light of Houston was replaced by pitch black as the air began to swirl around her. Though they still fell, Roderick held onto her and she him.

A sound similar to a vacuum surrounded her just before she was jerked backward, and no matter how she tried to hold onto Roderick, he slipped out of her arms. She screamed out his name, praying he might somehow hear her. Her eyes strained to find some glimpse of him through the blackness when light suddenly surrounded her. It was so blinding, Elle had no other choice but to close her eyes or go blind.

Abruptly the vacuum sound was gone, yet Elle still fell for a moment before she landed with a bone jarring thud, her breath rushing from her body.

For several minutes she didn’t move as she willed her lungs to take in air.

Finally, she was able to take a deep breath. Her head pounded fiercely, and her entire body felt as if she had been trampled. She opened her eyes only to find she couldn’t see anything, and she was freezing.

It was then she knew. She was in Hell.

She thought she had lived a decent life. No, she didn’t attend church every Sunday, but she did go. She abided by the Ten Commandments and was a very giving person.

Slowly she sat up and felt the rocks and snow beneath her. She used her hands to feel around her before she got up the nerve to try to stand. Her ears strained for any sounds of people or animals, but only silence filled the void.

When she got to her feet, she discovered her shoes gone and her feet becoming numb in the snow. It wasn’t until she tried to walk that she discovered she had sprained her ankle.

“I’m in a Hell that is freezing instead of hot, blind with a sprained ankle,” she mumbled to herself as her head continued to thump with an atrocious headache that put migraines to shame.

Roderick came awake to the sounds of his name being shouted.

“Over here,” he croaked out. He tried to lift his arm only to remember too late that it was the same shoulder he had dislocated. He cursed and rolled onto his side, the snow crunching beneath footsteps that hurried toward him.

“Roderick,” Val said as he kneeled beside him. “Are you hurt?”

“Just my shoulder.”

“Gabriel can mend you,” he said as he helped Roderick to his feet.

“Where is Elle?” Roderick asked as he looked around the field, then to his friend.

“I don’t know. I found you first and just assumed she would be with you.”

“I tried to hold onto her, but she was jerked out of my arms. We need to find her.”

Val nodded, and they set off in search of her. But the longer it took them to find her, the more worried Roderick became.

“Maybe I should return to the castle and get the Shields.” Roderick shook his head. “We don’t know how much time has elapsed, Val. For all we know, Hugh and the others are already gone.” Val nodded and pointed to something moving in the shadows of the woods. “We might want to take a look there.”

Roderick followed him as they ran towards the trees. He nearly walked past her.

He wasn’t sure what stopped him and made him look to his left, but there Elle sat huddled against a tree with her head resting on her arms.

“Elle?”

She raised her head and blinked her eyes several times. “Roderick? Is that you?” He walked to her and knelt beside her and brushed the hair from her face. It was then he saw the nasty bruise on her face. “Are you all right?” She shook her head. “I hurt all over, and my ankle is sprained. I thought I had gone blind, but I’m beginning to see a few things now.”

“It was the light. I didn’t have time to warn you to close your eyes.”

“At least I’m not dead,” she mumbled.

“I’ll go see who is at the castle,” Val said as he hurried away.

“Castle?” Elle repeated, her voice holding a note of panic.

Roderick took a deep breath as he sat beside her and pulled her into his arms to warm her, careful of her wound on her side from the harpies. “Do you remember what I said to you as we fell?”

“Vaguely,” she murmured as she settled against him. “Something about Stone Crest.”

“I sent us back in time, Elle. To the time I last was, where the other Shields were.”

She stilled, and he worried that this might be too much for her to take in. Then she exhaled loudly. “Somehow, this doesn’t surprise me.” Despite their dire situation, he smiled.

“Shouldn’t we call Aimery?”

“Not unless we really need him. If Val discovers the Shields have already left Stone Crest, then aye, we will call him.”

“Like to do things yourself, huh?” she asked, her teeth chattering.

“You could say that.”

They rested as they waited for Val to return. Roderick leaned his head against the tall pine and tried his best to keep Elle warm. He didn’t want to think about how good it felt to hold Elle in his arms, or how eagerly she had melted against him when his arm had gone around her. He needed to think of only killing creatures and destroying blue stones so he could save Thales. Maybe then his family could allow him back home. But he couldn’t help but feel her soft breast press against his arm, nor could he ignore the blood now pooling in his rod.

A falcon whistled from the trees ahead of him, and Roderick raised his hand to let Val know all was fine. Val rose from the bushes and hurried to them.

“Hugh is bringing horses.”

Relief poured through Roderick. He had hoped Hugh and the others would still be here. “What creature do they hunt?”

“Look around you,” Val said. “Does it look like it did when we first arrived here?”

Roderick looked around him. “It does look a little different. Why?”

“If you ask me, the creature is gone.”

“Then why is Hugh still here?”

“Maybe he wanted to stay,” Elle said as she straightened from Roderick’s chest.

Roderick and Val exchanged glances as the sound of horses approaching reached them. There wasn’t time for them to discuss it further as Hugh rode up with two horses.

Roderick carefully sat Elle aside as he rose to greet Hugh.

Hugh vaulted from his horse and embraced first Val then Roderick. “I never thought to see either of you again,” he said, his smile wide. “’Tis good to have you back.”

Roderick could tell Hugh wasn’t the same. Gone was the reserved man who had led them for more years then he could count, and in his place was a man that had found his place in the world. Finally.

“It is good to see you as well,” Roderick said and glanced down at Elle. “We need to get Elle inside.”

Hugh’s gaze followed Roderick’s. “I didn’t realize you brought someone along.” If he noticed Elle’s clothing, he didn’t mention it as he pulled off his cloak and handed it to Roderick.

“She’s going to need that,” Hugh said as he reached for one of the horses.

Roderick took one of Elle’s arms and pulled her to her feet to wrap the cloak around her. “How is your sight?”

“Getting better every minute,” she said through teeth that chattered from the cold.

Hugh tsked as he mounted his horse. “You didn’t tell her to keep her eyes closed?”

“There wasn’t time,” Val said as he too mounted.

Roderick carried Elle to the horse since her feet were bare and lifted her onto the saddle before he climbed up behind her. The ache in his arm had lessened, but he knew it would intensify again once the joint was put back in place.

Roderick didn’t wait for Hugh or Val but spurred horse toward Stone Crest so he never saw Val and Hugh share a look.

Elle’s eyesight was slowly returning, but not fast enough for her. She had been terrified at the thought of going blind, and when she had heard Roderick’s voice, she had wanted to cry from relief.

“Almost there,” Roderick said in her ear.

She snuggled against his chest and further into the warm cloak that had been given to her. She had never felt cold like this before. Her feet were already numb, and she feared frostbite. In Houston, it rarely got below freezing, but now she was sure it was well below zero, and she worried she might never thaw out again.

“Where are we going?”

“Stone Crest Castle.”

A real castle? Elle had only seen them in pictures and movies, and if she wasn’t so cold and scared she might have been excited about seeing her first castle.

“Open your eyes,” Roderick said.

The horse slowed, and Elle dared to open her eyes to find that her vision had all but returned. “I can see,” she said with a smile as she looked up at Roderick.

It was a mistake as soon as she did it. He was too near her, his body surrounding hers. She looked into his midnight blue eyes and wanted nothing more than to lean up and kiss him. His lips, full and straight, were so close to her she could feel his warm breath. Desire spread through her as she felt her breasts grow heavy and her sex clench with need.

And as they stared at each other, Elle couldn’t help but wonder what might happen if she were prettier instead of the plain mouse that she was.

“Thank you,” she whispered.

“For

what?”

“Saving my life again.”

For a moment, she could have sworn his head moved toward hers, but then Val and the other man rode up on either side of them, and Roderick raised his gaze from her.

Elle’s heart fluttered. She had read of moments like these in books and seen them in movies, but to experience one herself, even if Roderick didn’t feel it too, would stay with her forever. She wasn’t a fool. She knew Roderick didn’t desire her, but there was no doubt about her desire for him that grew with each moment they were together.

“Stone Crest,” Roderick said.

Elle turned her head and gasped. Before her stood a mighty stone structure with round turrets, battlements, a gatehouse, and a massive wooden gate that two sword wielding men stood on either side of as they approached.

“It’s a real castle.”

Roderick’s chest rumbled as he chuckled. “That it is. I didn’t realize how much I had missed the ancient times until I was thrust into your world.”

“I would miss it to,” she said as she looked around at the absence of utility poles, roads, and cars. Even the air smelled cleaner without the many pollutants filling the air and water.

“Much different, aye?” Val asked.

“Very,” she answered. They drew toward the gatehouse, and Elle raised her head to see the huge stones that were used to build the gatehouse and the surrounding wall.

“Wow.”

“And Stone Crest is one of the smaller castles,” the man on the other side of Roderick said.

Since her back was to him, she couldn’t look at him, nor could she imagine a castle bigger than Stone Crest. It was very large in size. But her gaze shifted from the castle to the bailey.

People teemed about as children ran and played, knights trained and guarded, and people worked. Medieval studies had been part of her curriculum in college, and she had loved it so much she had even taken two extra courses on it.

The horses stopped before a set of steps that led up to a large door that could only be the entrance to the castle. A woman with strawberry blond hair stood waiting for them with a warm smile on her face.

“Mina,” Roderick called as he slid from his horse. “It’s good to see you in one piece.”

She laughed and embraced Roderick. “’Twas close, but we survived.”

“We’ll have the entire story later,” Val said as he approached her and also received a hug.

Elle watched it all atop the horse. Both Roderick and Val seemed more at home here than they had in the twenty-first century.

“We weren’t introduced properly,” Roderick’s friend said as he approached her.

“I’m Hugh, Lord of Stone Crest.”

He was tall, probably an inch or two taller than Roderick with long dark brown hair that hung freely about his shoulders and sherry brown eyes. He was handsome and had an air about him that people would notice as a leader.