Fascinated (26 page)

But even a barred door could let a voice pass. Carstairs rallied himself. He faced the gate, and opened himself wide.

Alicia. Stop. Stand where you are, Alicia. I’m here. I’m here.

Silence answered him, stretching out interminably. Carstairs’s heart shook. He could not have failed her. Not beautiful, brave Alicia. The Fae could not be smothering her light with their false glamours because he was too slow. This passion, this love that had taken such deep hold in him might be against all the laws of reason, but his heart cared nothing for that. It knew only that without Alicia’s presence, there would be only darkness.

Alicia!
Carstairs called with every fiber of his being.
Alicia! Come back to me!

“A
licia!” Edward’s voice cried behind her.

Alicia whirled around, but instead of the garden of Hartwell House, she saw a wall of mist. Panic gripped her painfully.
I’m back! I’m bound!
Her thoughts gibbered and a scream tried to well up in her throat.

But, oddly, it was the scream that saved her from sliding into
hysteria. For if she had been truly bound, she could not scream. She would feel no desire to do so. Whatever this was, it was not her previous enchantment.

Then what is it? And where is Edward?
As Alicia had followed Aunt Hester into the garden, she’d felt his presence in the back of her mind, faint but steady. Now it was as if he’d been wiped from existence.

Edward?
She reached out with her mind.
Edward!

Her thoughts returned only silence. She truly was alone.

Fear threatened again. Alicia suppressed it. It would do her no good here, wherever “here” might be. She made herself turn slowly around. She gasped. Because the mists only filled the world at her back. In front of her, she saw the entrance to a maze. It was not the familiar, small labyrinth from Hartwell House’s garden. This was an ancient hedge maze with its perfect, living walls towering dark and forbidding overhead.

It was also the only place she could go. There was literally nowhere else.

Alicia pressed her hand against her brow and steeled her heart against the circling panic. Edward might not be with her here, but she had what he’d taught her. She was not helpless and she would not give way.

She faced the labyrinth again, clenched her trembling hands and started forward. The maze was as hushed as a dream, and the air held the deep blue of late twilight. Green, springtime scents surrounded her and threatened to lull her senses into relaxation. Alicia bit the inside of her cheek. When she reached the first branching in the paths, she grasped a hedge branch and bent it outward ruthlessly. In the silence, the crackle of the snapping twigs sounded as loud as falling bricks and the damage made a
green flag to signal the way she’d come. Absurdly satisfied with her small vandalism, Alicia set off down the left-hand branch. She’d walked the garden labyrinth many times as a child. The way in was to the left, and it was the left-hand turnings she took now. But still she made her markers. If Edward should find a way to follow after her, he would need a guide.

After the seventh turning, Alicia found herself in the center of the maze. She recognized the black plinth and the silver gazing ball.

But she did not recognize the man who stood beside them and smiled at her.

“Hello, Alicia.” His voice had all the soft and beguiling music of a running stream. Just hearing it, she longed to move closer, but she held her ground.

“Who are you?” Alicia demanded.

“Do you mean to say you’ve forgotten me?” The man’s pale features softened with regret, and Alicia felt tears spring into her eyes at having caused him a moment’s discomfort.

“I…I’m sorry.” She had to force the words past a tightening in her throat. “Have we met?”

The man inclined his head. “Oh, yes. Just recently, in fact. But before that, it was in the North Country. Of course, you were much smaller then. Perhaps this is how you remember me.”

Alicia could not tell if the man grew or she shrank, but now she was gazing up at him. He wore pearlescent armor and a golden circlet adorned his brow. His smile was as dazzling as a summer sunrise. Now Alicia knew him. She knew him with all her heart.

“You are the White Knight,” she whispered. Not in some distant vision, but here, now, in front of her. He walked forward. He
brought with him a scent of warmth and spices. The force of his presence reached out to swallow sense and thought. With each step, their sizes grew more equal, until when he stood directly in front of her, he was only a tall man. Now he was close enough that she could see his eyes. They were nothing human. They were the silver and gold of stars at midnight, all swirled together in night’s darkness. They were impossible. They were beautiful, and they were filled with secrets and promises, just for her.

“It is good to be with you again, Alicia.” The White Knight bent into a sweeping and graceful bow. “Especially now that you have grown into such a fine and beautiful woman.”

Think of Edward,
she ordered herself.
Whatever he is, this man is not Edward
. “What do you want with me?”

“Only to tell you that your home is waiting for you.”

“M-my home?”

“Your home with me.” He took one more step forward and clasped her unresisting hand. “Don’t you remember? I promised you a place in my palace when you were little. It is still there. I never go back on my word.”

“But who are you?”

“I told you. I am your White Knight.” He lifted her hand to his smiling mouth. “But I could be much more, if you would permit.” He moved closer still and Alicia’s heart trembled in her breast. His sensuous lips did not quite touch her hand, but his breath brushed her fingertips. Desire, sweet and infinitely poignant, threaded its way into Alicia’s mind. She knew in an instant how his arms would feel around her. If he kissed her once, he would know her longings and her needs, and it would be his delight to fulfill them all.

But even as desire for the man holding her hand threatened
to drown her, another voice touched her, as if from a thousand miles away.

Come back. Come back to me.

Edward!
Alicia jerked back, snatching her hand away. The White Knight’s head shot up, and a terrible fury blazed bright in his star-filled eyes.

“This is not right,” Alicia cried, backing away. Her breath came short and harsh, and she could not calm it. “I am a married woman!”

“Are you indeed?” The White Knight arched his perfect brows as he looked her up and down. “I do not see the mark of it on you. And even if I did, I do not think much of a husband who imposes his own impudent desires upon his wife.”

Memory of her times in Edward’s arms flashed through her, but it somehow seemed all wrong. Alicia clapped her hands to her head, but she could not shut these new images out. In her mind’s eye she saw Edward grinning horribly at her as he forced her to her knees. He shoved himself ruthlessly into her mouth although she choked and tried to struggle.

“No!” She gritted her teeth against the terrible vision. “It is not like that. You can know nothing of it!”

“But I can.” The White Knight moved silently and relentlessly closer until he brushed his fingertips against her temple. “And you know what I tell you is no falsehood, or you would not still be speaking to me. Come, Alicia.” His voice grew grave. “You must let me take you home.”

She could not stand to look at him. Sorrow at her refusal, at her unjust accusations, radiated from him. Her heart began to falter. She had been lost for so long. He had never ceased to search for her. Now that he—her one true friend, her one true protector—had
at last found her, she turned from him to the arms of an unworthy brute.

“I don’t want to go with you,” said Alicia, but her voice was weak and unsteady.

“I think you do, Alicia.” He was infinitely patient, infinitely tolerant. He understood that she was only confused and would help her to see the truth. “You remember how much you loved my home when you were a child. You should see it now with your woman’s eyes, your woman’s heart.”

She did remember. The daylight world and her aunt’s cruelty had robbed her of her memories but the White Knight restored them all in an eyeblink. Now she could remember the endless time of warmth and laughter, of love and companionship, and all things that were beautiful. She’d been heartlessly stolen away from those who had lavished such gifts upon her. Who loved her. Not with man’s bestial lust, but with a love as pure and perfect as silver moonlight. Unchanging. Eternal.

The White Knight held out his hand. “Come with me, Alicia. Come home.”

“But…” Alicia could feel herself slipping. What was there to hold on to? What of her days in that other place meant anything in comparison with the light and love that waited in her true home? She’d known only confusion and cold confinement there. Nothing else.

No. There was something else. She’d remember it in a minute, if only she could see beyond the White Knight’s eyes. There had been warmth with the cold, moonlight with the darkness and the mists.

“No, Alicia, dear. Nothing like that. Come home now.”

Alicia dear. My dear.
She remembered someone else speaking
her name like this. A man. He had spoken her name in love, and in trust. Someone other than the White Knight. A man with steel and moonlight in his gray eyes.

She remembered.

“Edward,” she whispered, then shouted: “Edward!”

Alicia Hartwell whirled away from her White Knight, and ran. She ran for her life and soul from the perfect voice that called her name. The hedge-bound paths writhed and twisted around her, but Alicia kept running. She knew this maze. Her feet had traveled it a thousand times. The right-hand turnings would take her out of it. But there were no turnings. There was nothing but unbroken green walls stretching in each direction.

“Alicia,” called the White Knight behind her. “Come back, Alicia.”

Her feet faltered, and would have slowed, but in that moment, she saw the broken branch and cried out loud. The hedge near it rippled like a reflection in a river, and Alicia plunged recklessly into the branches. They yielded before her like a dream and she found herself on the new path. Alicia sobbed in her relief, and ran on.

But just as the walls of the labyrinth had grown high, they had grown impossibly long. She might be able to find the turnings, but she was out of breath, and her energy was flagging. Her feet were so heavy. She staggered. A stitch lanced up her side and she stumbled.

“Edward,” she panted. “Edward, help me.”

Alicia!

Her head jerked up.

I’m here, Alicia! I’m here!

She felt him, distant as yesterday, but blessedly real.

“I can’t see you, Edward!” she cried.

I’m here. Here!

A thread of magic brushed Alicia’s mind, and her mind grasped it. At once, it became a rope. No. It was a lifeline and Edward held the other end. Sailor that he was, he hauled on that line steadily, patiently, hand over hand. He took up all the slack, keeping the line taut so she could follow. There was no need for turning now that she held this lifeline. No need to even look at the maze around her.

Mundane daylight blossomed around her, and Alicia fell into Edward’s waiting arms. For one moment, she looked up into his clear, loving, oh-so-human eyes. Then darkness swallowed her whole.

A
licia collapsed against Carstairs. A mind-numbing bolt of fear shot through him as he caught her up and cradled her close. There was no time to consider what had just happened and what it meant. He had to get her out of here.

He swept Alicia into his arms and strode across the garden to the side gate he and Rathe had found earlier. Between them, they’d already dispensed with the lock, just in case Carstairs found himself in need of a back exit during his time at Hartwell House. He hated himself deeply for abandoning Verity, but they’d arrange her rescue before the day was out. His first responsibility was to get Alicia away, away from this house and the portal to the Twilight Realms before it could open again.

Rathe, Sorcerer that he was, had felt Carstairs coming, and already had the rusted, garden gate open.

“Getting to be a habit, isn’t it, Carstairs?” Rathe remarked, even as he quickly and calmly helped Carstairs maneuver Alicia’s limp form into the closed carriage. “What caused this?”

“The Fae,” Carstairs answer curtly.

Rathe wasted no more time with questions. He clambered at once into the driver’s seat and touched up the horses. This time, they didn’t bother with stealth or concealment. Rathe whistled and shouted to clear the traffic, barreling them down the street and cracking the whip high over the horses’ heads.

Carstairs also didn’t bother with concealment, or pretense at propriety. He held Alicia tightly. Now that they were away from the space of emptiness created by the labyrinth knot, magic came easily when he called. He trickled it into Alicia as he might offer water to a patient in a fever.

Alicia. Alicia, wake up. Look at me.