Through the Looking Glass (10 page)

             
Isobel was at a loss for words. How did the fairies know about her and where she came from? For now though, exhaustion overcame her and she need to get some sleep. Tomorrow, yes tomorrow, she would have a clear head and she would be able to see things more clearly.

             
Nyla left the bed but waited for her to lie down. “I’ll check on you again in a couple of days. Goodnight, Isobel.” With that, Nyla flew out of the open window and disappeared into the dark night.

             
Isobel watched Nyla fly away until she couldn’t see her anymore. With the window open, a cold breeze streamed into the room making her shiver. It reminded her of Ackergill Tower with the cold breeze blowing. She closed her eyes and listened to the wind as it rushed past the window. The sound lulled her into a dreamless sleep as she snuggled down into the warmth of Jakar’s bed. 

Chapter 9

              “Are you sure brother?” Brock asked him.

             
Jakar paced back and forth in the room he used often to hold meeting with his brother and head men. He swirled the brown liquid around in the clear glass then poured the remaining amount down his throat. It burned going down causing him to wince but it was a good burning feeling because it took his mind off the woman he had just married and left standing alone in a room full of his people.

             
“I’m positive. Nana and Nyla have driven me crazy ever since they first laid eyes on her.” He walked over to the table in the corner that held the decanter of the vile liquid he insisted on consuming.

             
“But you don’t believe them.” It was more of a statement then a question. Brock knew him too well so there was no point in trying to lie to him.

             
“No, I don’t. I believe she is one of Tuloch’s spies.” He turned to his brother and handed him the other glass he had filled.

             
“Jakar, if Nyla says she is the one then it has to be true. The fairies have never lied to us before.”

             
Jakar downed the entire glass then slammed into the fireplace, shattering into a million pieces. “I know!” he shouted. “I know that, damn it!”

             
“Then what’s the problem? Have you even tried to talk to her without losing your temper?” Brock leaned back in the plush red chair and put his hands behind his head.

             
Honestly, no he hadn’t. Every time he was around her he lost control. He was fighting the feelings deep in him that were trying to convince him he was wrong about Isobel.

             
“I guess I can take it by your silence, you haven’t done so.” Brock shook his head in annoyance. “Jakar,” he leaned forward and looked to where Jakar stood before the fireplace, staring into the yellow and orange flames, “I may be the younger brother and have no right to tell you what to do, but you are making a big mistake.” He continued even as Jakar gave him a look that could have nailed him to the stone wall. “We’ve heard the story for our entire lives. How many times did you ask Nana to tell you the story of the woman coming to help save our lands? More than I care to remember.” He scoffed. “But the time has come to realize the story was true and not something just told to put two little boys to sleep at night.”

             
Jakar struggled with the feelings raging inside him. One moment he wanted to believe that Isobel was the one meant to be his then the next moment he was fighting to push those thoughts and feeling back down and bury them deep. Would he really be able to accept Isobel for who she was supposed to be? He had to admit, his behavior towards her even disgusted him. She was innocent in everything he had accused her of and didn’t ask to be taken from her world to help save his. What of her family? What of her life in her world? He hadn’t even bothered to ask her anything about herself, get to know her somewhat. Being forced to marry her on such short notice didn’t help matters either.

             
He ran a hand through his hair in frustration. “How is she to help against Tuloch? He is a ruthless killer and doesn’t care about his people. What can one woman possibly do to bring down such a man?”

             
“I don’t know but she is here for some reason and we won’t have the answer to that until it is all over.” Brock stood up at the sound of a knock on the door.

             
“Yes,” Jakar shouted to the closed door.

             
The door to the meeting room open and his lead man, Elcon, walked in. “Sorry to disturb you, my lord but there is a report that several of Tuloch’s men have been spotted near the castle.”

             
Jakar’s ice blue eyes darted to his brother at the same time Brock looked at him.

             
Brock spoke what Jakar was afraid to say, “He must know that she is the one. He wouldn’t dare send men so close to the castle unless he had enough information to make it worth risking exposure.”

             
Jakar’s stomach dropped. His enemy was trying to make a move on him and he needed to take of the problem. “Have the men prepare to ride. I want four squads to search every inch between here and the battle field.”

             
“Yes, my lord!” Elcon replied then left the room.

             
“Are you with me on this, Brock?”

             
A big smile spread across the face of his youngest brother. “Always, you know that! Let’s go!” Brock slapped him on the back as they both headed out to meet with his men. It was going to be a long night, one he wasn’t happy about facing considering he had an unexpected wife lying in his bed on their wedding night.

******

              Two days after her wedding, Isobel still hadn’t seen hide nor hare of Jakar. When Nana had come into her room the morning after her wedding, she had informed Isobel that Jakar and four squads of men had left the castle in search of Tuloch’s men who were reported near the area. But as time passed and no word had been received, Isobel was worried. She might not like the man she was married to but she still didn’t want to see anything happen to him or his men. 

             
Nyla came to visit her on the second morning of after Jakar’s departure. Isobel expressed her concerns to the little fairy and was happily relieved when she took off out the window with the mission of finding Jakar. It wasn’t until later in the evening when Nyla finally returned with word of Jakar and his squads.

             
After searching the surrounding areas for hours the night of their marriage, a small party of Tuloch’s was spotted trying to make an escape back across the border. Jakar, being who he was, went after the party. They were finally able to catch up the enemy party about ten miles from the border. A confrontation had broken out and several of the men in Tuloch’s party had been killed. Sadly, two of his own men had been killed in the fight that left several of his men injured. Jakar, himself, had a deep gash on his left shoulder, but luckily, it wasn’t life threatening.

             
Nyla told Isobel that the ride back to the castle was taking longer than expected because of the injured men, but they were expected to arrive at the castle sometime during the night.

             
For the rest of the day, Isobel had been anxious about seeing Jakar again. Her time away from her new husband hadn’t changed her feelings towards him. She still thought he was an arrogant ass and she had decided she would tell his so whenever he returned.

             
She waited for hours and still no sign of the returning group. She sat by the window in their room until she could no longer see out into the darkness that consumed the land beyond the castle walls. When she couldn’t keep her eyes open any longer, she retired to the big bed alone, yet again.

Chapter 10

Daniel departed the plane that had taken him to Scotland. He had to admit to himself that he was quite surprised he was able to get a flight so soon after finding out where Isobel was hiding. It wasn’t much of a problem for him to obtain a false identity because he had numerous contacts in the drug world that he was connected to.

“Damn little bitch! Making me come all this way. She is really g
oing to pay for this.” He made his way to the baggage claim area then flagged down a taxi outside the airport in Wink, Scotland. It had cost him a lot of money to fly into the smaller airport in northern Scotland but he wasn’t willing to waste any time driving. He wanted to find Isobel and take care of his problem once and for all.

With his backgroun
d and type of work he usually did, he was able to trace Isobel’s whereabouts through her friend, Elizabeth. It was a very stupid move Isobel made to seek Elizabeth’s help but a good move for him, otherwise it would have taken him a lot longer to find her. How in the hell she ever ended up in the far reaches of northern Scotland, he would never know and really didn’t care. All he cared about was finding her.

His plans had gone horribly wrong that night when he went to kill her parents. She wasn’
t supposed to be there. She told him she was going out with Elizabeth that night to a concert in the city and wouldn’t be home until after midnight. He would have had plenty of time to take out her parents and make it look as if some random person had broken into the house as a home invasion. His plans for marrying Isobel then went out the window the moment he saw her in the kitchen after he had shot her mother. He had a much bigger problem now and wasn’t sure what to do about it.

Now, here he was running all over the freaking world to find the bitch! She was more trouble than she was worth. He
hoped Tuloch rewarded him handsomely once he was able to bring Isobel back to Aslog. He had gone through a lot of trouble to, not only find the woman but also to form a relationship with her to the point of her wanting to marry him. He might even ask Tuloch if he could keep her once Tuloch had his way with her.

He was ecstatic when, u
nknowingly, Elizabeth had helped him more than she knew she could have. Hacking into her email account and banking records had taken him a few days but he was able to get through finally. Everything had been laid out right in front of him. The email from Ackergill Tower had thrown him for a loop at first until he saw the charges on her debit card. He immediately booked a flight to Scotland then went about changing his appearance so he wouldn’t be recognized at the airport. There was still a manhunt for him, so he had to be very careful until he left the country.

Arriving in Wink only heightened his anger
, but he had to give Isobel credit, she picked the last place in the world he would have gone looking for her. He thought for sure she would have taken up residence with Elizabeth which would have been all too easy to get to her. He liked many things about this strange world he had found himself in, but he was getting tired of all the demands that this world called for and was all too eager to return to his own.

The taxi pulled up to Ackergill Tower in the drizzling rain. Daniel handed the taxi driver some bills, retrieved his bag then exited the taxi. Somehow he was going to have to get into the room
Isobel was staying in without drawing attention to himself. For now though, he needed to get inside and into a room.

The room he was assigned
was on the same level with all the other guests who were staying at the castle at this time of the year. He hadn’t seen any sign of Isobel yet and was growing more and more aggravated by the minute. After almost two years in this fucking world he was so close to going home that he could smell it.

The plan he had devised to search out the rooms was to wait until dinner was served to the guests down on the first floor. Dinner was precisely at six o’clock he had been told, so when the time came he stood at his door which was at the end of the long hall. He would have a perfect view of what rooms were occupied with guests and what ones weren’t. As soon as he saw Isobel come out her room, he would sneak into the room and wait for her to return.

Before he started his guest spying, he opened his suitcase and retrieved the small glass vial that contained the dust that would allow him to return home. He had protected the vial with his life the entire time he had been in this strange place because he only had one shot of returning home and he wasn’t about to lose it.

He slipped the vial into his pocket on his shirt. The pocket had a zipper that could be closed in case he found himself in a struggle with his prey. Walking to the door, he cracked it open and waited. One by one the doors in the hall opened then closed as the guests went to dinner. So far, there were three rooms out of the eight on this floor that guests had not come out of. He would just be extra careful when he attempted to gain access to those. Once he was satisfied that the guests were all at dinner, he
would begin his search. Unfortunately, Isobel had not come out of any of the rooms. That meant either she was skipping dinner or she was already downstairs.

The first of the three rooms he needed to check was
, surprisingly, unlocked. The knob twisted on the door without any effort. He slipped into the gloomy room and scanned it quickly to find any trace of someone staying in it. Finding nothing, he slipped back out the door and casually walked down the hall to his next target. This door was locked. Hope surged through him as he picked the antique lock on the old door to gain entry. The sound of the lock sliding back into its housing sounded louder than it really was because it was so quiet in the hall. Every now and then he could hear voices and laughter filter up to where he was but nothing alerted him to the presence of a guest coming.

Inside the second room he found an open suitcase lying haphazardly on the canopy bed. Clothes were hanging half way out of the leather case, making it easy for him to discern a female was staying in this particular room. He lifted out
a flimsy shirt and tossed it on the bed. The items in the case didn’t give him any clue to the female’s identity, so he would have search the entire room. Finding nothing in the bedroom, he went into the bathroom. A makeup bag and travel bag sat on the counter near the sink. He dug through both in earnest to find anything he would recognize as Isobel’s. Nothing, absolutely nothing had a name on it, even the airline tags had been removed from the handles of all the bags.

His frustration level was growing by the minute. The bitch had to be here somewhere! He left the room in a rush. The last room he needed to check was at the opposite end of the hall from where his room was. Again, the door was
locked. Putting his ear to the wood, he listened for any movement before he picked the lock.

Once in the room it was hard to see b
ecause the heavy drapes were pulled closed over the large corner window. It took his eyes a minute to adjust to the darkness before he was able to move around without running into anything. This room contained a large canopy bed the same as the other room, but this bed was unmade, with the comforter crumpled at the foot of the bed. He was about to check the armoire when he heard something drop to the floor in the bathroom. The light was off in the bathroom so he wasn’t able to tell if someone was in there or not until he heard a female voice cuss softly in the darkness.

The jiggle of the door handle alerted him to the fact whoever was in there was about to come out. He backed up against the armoire and waited. He slowed his b
reathing down to shallow breaths, not wanting to give himself away when the person emerged. The door creaked open as the shadow walked out towards the bed. Whoever it was obviously should not be in the room too, otherwise she would have turned on the lights. He decided to go ahead and take a chance on calling out to the woman.

“Going somewhere Isobel?”

The woman stopped immediately at the sound of his voice. She didn’t make a sound or turn around to see who was behind her. His heart raced. He had finally caught up to Isobel!

“Thought you could get away from me? You should have known I would find you eventually,” he spoke as he edged nearer to what he thought was his ex- fiancé.

“That’s where you’re wrong, asshole!” The woman turned to take a swing at his head with something in her left hand.

He saw her hand coming at him and was able to duck at the last possible moment. W
hen he came up he reached out and grabbed the bitch by the hair. He twisted his hand in her hair to make sure she wouldn’t be able to slip loose.

He jerked her head back and spoke into her ear. “What are you going to do now? I didn’t want to have to hu
rt but you leave me no choice. You weren’t supposed to be there.” He ran his tongue along the side of her cheek. He inhaled deeply to get her scent he had become so accustomed to. Confusion clouded his mind when he realized the woman in his arms did not smell like Isobel.

“Who the fuck are you?” he said in anger. When the woman didn’t answer he dragged her back towards the bathroom. With one hand still wrapped in her hair, he reached into the bathroom and fumbled to turn on the light. She was making it hard for him to find the switch by kicking backwards and using her hands to pry his hand out of her hair. Finally his hand found th
e small switch and flicked it up. Shock took over as he looked into the face of Lizzy, Isobel’s best friend.

“What the fuck?” he shouted as he shoved Lizzy away from him as hard as he
could. “Where’s Isobel?” he asked as he loomed over her as she struggled to get to her feet.

“I don’t know. Why don’t you tell me where she is?” Lizzy backed away from him.

“I came half way around this fucking world and I find you here! Where. The. Fuck. Is. She!” he spoke through clenched teeth as he crept towards her. He was going to kill this bitch if she didn’t tell him where Isobel was. “I’ve had enough of these fucking games.” He had her backed into a corner with no way to get around him. His fists clenched and unclenched in anticipation of choking the life out of this dump bitch. He hated her ever since Isobel first introduced her to him at a party they were attending for another of her friends. She was always looking at him as if she knew who and what he was.

He grabbed Lizzy by the upper arms and slammed her against the wall. “Answer me!” He repeated his action a couple more times.

Lizzy fought to get loose. She was reaching for anything on him that she might be able to use as a weapon. She managed to grab hold of his shirt pocket and hang on. He had his hands around her neck now and started to squeeze when he heard his shirt tear. The next second he felt something hit his foot and shatter.

The sound of glass shattering jarred him out of the blind fury he was experiencing.
He looked down at the vial that had been in his pocket a moment ago. A green mist started to form around his and Lizzy’s legs, travelling up their bodies quickly.

“What have you done?” he screamed in her face as the mist swirled up over his head. The vial that had been his only way home after he took care of Isobel was now broken and sending him home prematurely. “No!” he shouted as he felt the tug of the mist break his grip on Lizzy’s neck. The mist swirled faster and faster around him then everything
black.