Before the Dawn (19 page)

When the flood of memories stopped, he
realized that he was gasping and on his knees. He looked up at
Raven, because that was the name the stranger had been called in
the memories, and he seemed pretty shaken, too.

He grimaced when he saw Trevor looking at
him. "I hate doing that," he complained. "Sharing memories always
makes me feel like my thoughts have been violated."

"But you did something like this before, when
you told—" he stumbled over saying her name, "—Aline about how all
of this started."

"Those weren't my memories," Raven pointed
out. "They were hers, though they became free for the taking once
she lost them in the lake. Of course, all of this nonsense could
have been ended years ago if only there was a way to restore the
memories taken by the lake to their rightful owners, then Rosamund
would still be in love with Benwyr and I wouldn't have to deal with
any of the Prince's sentimental foolishness."

"Sentimental foolishness?" Trevor echoed.
"Try sexual and psychological abuse. That Prince of yours coerced
and brainwashed a young girl into staying with him by threatening
the people she cared about. And, good God, she's been with him all
these years?" He was horrified at all the implications of that
fact.

Raven only shrugged. "Princes do as they will
among my people. But, anyway, are you now more willing to help me
get Meran?"

"Meran? What about Aline?" Trevor demanded.
"Aren't you going to help her, too?"

"Why should I?" Raven looked genuinely
puzzled by the question. "Only Meran is under my protection."

Trevor crossed his arms and glared at Raven.
"I'm not helping you do anything unless you promise to help me get
Aline back as well."

"W-what?" Raven sputtered. "Why? You don't
even really remember her. I only shared those memories with you so
you would better understand your part in all of this, and that is
as a nonentity. You are out of all this melodrama. Your precious
Aline made sure of that. So after you help me get Meran, you'll
never have to deal with anything magic again. I'll hide you from my
mother so she won't try to drag you into our affairs once more.
What more could you wish for?"

"I want to save the girl who saved me,"
Trevor told Raven in his most determined tone. "She sacrificed
herself for me and for her father, and she's suffered because of
it. She doesn't deserve any of it." He was surprised at himself. He
wondered where this sudden courage had come from and why he felt so
strongly compelled to rescue someone he did not even know. It was
as if an unseen hand was moving him, and Trevor could do nothing
but allow himself to be pulled wherever it wanted to take him. He
fixed Raven with a stubborn stare. "I will find a way to free her
from the Prince's spell because that's only the right thing to do.
So, are you going to help me or not?"

***

Chapter 20

Raven shot Trevor a glare of resentment. "I
suppose you won't reconsider your decision at all?" he asked.

Trevor shook his head. "Absolutely not."

"Very well then." He nodded and made a
languid gesture with his hands. "You may take me to Meran now." He
settled back against the passenger seat, looking completely bored
as if Trevor wasn't doing him a favor.

Trevor merely rolled his eyes at the other
man’s haughty manner. "Sure, whatever, Your Highness." He started
the car then and soon they were on their way to see the Meran girl
Raven was so worried about. Trevor had called Detective Roman
earlier and told him he wanted to see her. The Detective had agreed
and set the time for the appointment. Trevor was a bit worried
about it all since he wouldn’t be going to see Meran alone, but
Raven assured him he would have no problem glamoring people to
ignore him.

While he drove, Trevor snuck glances at his
companion from time to time, still trying to believe that all of
this was really happening and he wasn't having the strangest
extended dream. Everything was just too unreal. Here he was, in a
car chauffeuring a being who should not exist outside of fairy
tales and they were on their way to rescue a Princess, or the
reincarnation of one, from a magic spell. That was the kind of
thing that only happened in books or movies. He couldn't believe
that he had somehow gotten caught up in all of it.

Raven suddenly let out a sigh. "I can't
believe I'm doing this," Trevor heard him mutter as he scowled at
the rows of houses they passed by. If that wasn't an opening to a
conversation, then he was going to make it one. He asked Raven
something that had been bugging him ever since the other guy had
showed up in his room.

"Why is this Meran girl so important to you?"
he wondered. "Why is she, as you mentioned before, under your
protection? You certainly don't care what happens to Aline, but you
seem to care a lot for this girl."

Raven flashed Trevor an irritated look. "I do
not care for Meran," he pronounced very distinctly. "Not
personally. But since she is under my protection, then I have an
obligation to look after her. Otherwise, the Courts would think
that I am weak and ineffectual, and I would never hear the end of
it. It's bad enough that I'm considered to be the irresponsible
son, simply because I am not interested in ruling, but I refuse to
be thought of as a weakling whom other people can trifle with
without any repercussions. Benwyr and his little toadies will rue
the day they decided to toy with what is mine."

"Wait." Trevor frowned. Something Raven said
set off something in his head. "I thought you were just one of the
courtiers who hung around the Prince. What do you mean you're not
interested in ruling?"

"Oh, the Prince is actually my half-brother,"
the other man shrugged, like it was an insignificant detail. "And I
was not hanging around him. I sort of lost a wager and I became
bound to his service, and I had to attend to him for some time. But
then he gave me the condition that he would free me from that if I
could help him get his Rosamund back, so of course I did that. Then
I left his Court because my brother is not exactly one of my
favorite people, and 'hanging out' with him is not my idea of a
sporting time."

Trevor stared at him. "So, what? You're
actually some kind of Faerie Prince?"

"Faeries!" Raven snorted, rolling his eyes in
disgust. "We're not Faeries, for heaven's sake. But I am one of the
Princes to one of the many, many kingdoms in the Strangelands,
actually. Our Father, as you humans say, really got around in his
youth. And, trust me, meddling mother aside, I am the nicest one
you could ever hope to meet. My other brothers, again to use a
human term, are all jerks."

Trevor had to laugh at that. Imagine, Raven
calling his brothers jerks. Like he was actually any better. "Well,
what about your mother?" he asked next. "You sort of said I met her
or ran into her before. I did get to talk to this beautiful woman
with black hair in that same park where you and I saw each other.
Was that her?"

"Most probably. She had been chasing me for
days then, trying to involve me again in one of her many plots to
make me the Crown Prince. Honestly, that woman cannot seem to
comprehend the phrase 'not interested'. It's gotten bloody tiresome
after all these years to avoid getting caught up in her
machinations. I'm sure she's the one responsible for breaking Meran
free of the spell, though God alone knows how she managed it." He
shuddered. "Probably did something obscene with Benwyr so he'd
grant her that boon."

Trevor grimaced at that, his head suddenly
full of uncomfortable images. He quickly changed the topic. "So
remember our deal, okay? We go into the hospital. You do your magic
thing to the Detective and other people in the way, get Meran to
somewhere safe, then you help me rescue Aline."

"You make it sound like rescuing your beloved
Aline is the easiest part of the plan. Remember I said we'd need to
go into Silverhaven for that, and then somehow convince my brother
to release her from his spell, which he is definitely not going to
do. Why won't you just believe me when I say that it's impossible?"
Raven looked at Trevor like he was mad.

Maybe he was, because he was going to do it
anyway. "I have to try," Trevor said to him. "Just get me to
wherever that place is, help me find Aline, and that's it. That's
all I want from you."

The Prince shook his head. "All this trouble
for a girl you can't even remember. Humans! I will never understand
your race!"

Trevor didn't even fully understand it
himself. All he had were Raven's memories of her. But he knew, in
that way that people just knew certain things like something was a
good idea or not, that this was the right thing to do. He may have
been pulled or manipulated into this very position, but now that he
was here, he intended to see things through. It then occurred to
him again that maybe he was simply having some kind of breakdown
after the emotional mess he went through last year.

"There's the hospital place," Raven suddenly
pointed out.

Trevor cursed at almost missing the turn, but
he quickly adjusted and soon found a space in the parking lot. The
two men got out and proceeded to the reception area where Detective
Roman said he would be waiting for Trevor and, sure enough, there
he was sitting in one of the drab-looking arm chairs with a paper
cup of coffee in his hand. He stood up when he saw Trevor approach
while Trevor glanced worriedly at Raven for a moment, who just
crossed his arms and looked annoyed. The Detective never even
seemed to register Raven's dark-clad presence in his sight, so
Trevor assumed that the black-haired Faerie or whatever he called
himself had already done his magic to make himself invisible to
others.

Detective Roman nodded at Trevor in greeting.
"It was decent of you to want to do this," he said. "All right.
Follow me."

They matched his pace and he led them through
the hallways until they reached a room that had a uniformed cop
guarding it. There he paused and turned to give Trevor one of his
suspicious, searching looks again. "I'm going to go in there with
you and I'll let you talk to the girl, but if you upset her in any
way, we're getting out of there immediately. Understood?"

"Perfectly," Trevor assured him.

Then the Detective took a breath and opened
the door.

Meran was lying in bed on her side, but she
started when she heard people come into the room. She immediately
sat up and looked at the newcomers like she was ready to defend
herself. However, her wary expression slowly changed when she got a
good look at Trevor’s face.

"Oh, my God." Tears suddenly appeared in her
eyes, and what had been a tense moment now became an awkward one.
"Trevor, is that
you
?" Her voice sounded raspy from disuse.
"Trevor!"

Without any warning, she jumped off the bed
and threw herself into his arms. "I wasn’t sure the other night
because I was so tired and confused, but I thought you were the one
who helped me. Oh, God. I thought you were dead." She started
babbling. "I thought they did something awful to you because you
just disappeared. I remember seeing you with Aline’s dad and you
looked like you had been drugged, then Aline said something to the
Prince and they argued, and after that there was just dancing and
dancing until my feet were bleeding but they wouldn't let us stop.
And Raven was nowhere to be found and I didn’t think he’d just
leave me like that—but he disappeared too, and Aline became
stranger every day until it was like she couldn't even remember who
we really were anymore, and the Prince didn’t like it that I spent
so much time with her so he locked me away and it was terrible, and
I thought I was going insane every day, and then this woman showed
up one night and said that I was free to leave. But I wouldn't, not
without Aline and the others, and then she told me things, that I
had to go and bring you back so you could help us, and the next
thing I knew, I was running and then you were there and I was
brought here, but no one remembers me, not even my mom and dad.
Trevor, please. I don't know what's going on. I don't know what's
real. I don't know." She was shaking so badly as the words spilled
out of her that Trevor could barely hold her in comfort.

At this point, it was obvious that his
presence had upset her and the Detective looked outraged. His
expression said he was about to kick Trevor out and ask some very
uncomfortable questions, but Raven then decided to step in and do
what he was supposed to have done minutes ago. He touched Roman on
the head and the man just went down, completely unconscious.
Whatever he did must have also made him visible because Meran's
eyes suddenly widened and she glared at him. "
You!
" That one
word was loaded with enough bitter accusation to sentence anyone to
death.

He gave her an apologetic little smile and a
shrug, then he did something else, something magic, and the three
of them slipped past the guard at the door while the man stood
completely motionless. They passed other people—nurses, orderlies,
doctors, patients—who were all frozen in some kind of enchantment
and, soon, they were back in the car and driving back to Trevor’s
house.

Raven had given up the passenger seat for
Meran and he now lounged in the back looking very smug and pleased
with himself. Trevor glared at his reflection in the rear view
mirror. "Should I be worried about Roman coming after me once he
wakes up?" he demanded.

"Oh, no need," Raven answered. "I took all
his memories of you when I put him to sleep."

"What about that cop and all the other people
who saw me?"

"I cast a cloak over you. It made them forget
your face as soon as they saw you while we were walking around, so
there's no need to worry about that either," he assured Trevor.