“Are you okay?” she asked him, as he sat down on the bed, taking off his shirt, revealing a sculpted mass of muscle, a beautiful torso delicate and wide.
“Yes, I'm fine. I just had a rough night of sleep. There's…something I'd like to share with you if you don't mind,” he said.
“Honestly, I have no reason to trust you. You said you loved me, but that doesn't mean much given that past two days,” Elsa said.
“Madam I wouldn't push this if it weren't so important. There's something I need to tell you.”
“Why did you play me last night? Do you dance with other girls as well?”
“No.”
“Then why are you here? What do you want from me?” she asked him, red-faced.
“My brother was after me, and I figured the first place he would think to find me, was at Lili's house. I didn't want to put her in danger, Elsa. I come from the Forbidden Forest. But there's a reason no one escapes. Because it will only let you go if it wants you free. I just want a normal life. I want to be a person again. But the Forest wants me back. My brother, Dorien, wants me back.”
“Dorien, the beast that destroyed half our town last night?”
“Yes, but he was looking for me. He knew I was getting close to being free forever. Because...I saw you,” Theo said, blushing, the first hint of vulnerability Elsa saw from him since she'd met him.
“And what's so special about me?” Elsa said, as if he'd never to convince her. Theo leaned back on the bed, shirtless, sweating, and breathing heavily from the run. He looked over out the window, as the fires from last night still smoldered in the distance.
“I never wanted this to happen, Elsa. I never meant things to turn out like this. But you are special, whether you realize it or not. I've had dreams about you, even though we'd never met, even though I'm far, far older than you are.”
“Oh, really? What kind of dreams?”
“I do apologize for the damage I've brought to your village. My brother is a dragon, and I am a lion shifter. We are magical creatures from the Forbidden Forest.”
“And what does this have to do with me?” Elsa asked, getting frustrated.
“You, my dear, are my soul mate, and the way I'll be able to stay out of the Forest forever.”
“Is that why your brother is mad, because you left him?”
Elsa found herself capable of the most magical stirring in her heart.
“I can see past your exterior, into your soul, and I know you're hurting. But what I want you to know is that I'm hurting too. I'm sad too. And that means you're not alone,” Theo continued, even though his words cut to the core of Elsa's heart. Theo got up from the bed and placed a single kiss on Elsa's lips. A warm tingling sensation radiated from her mouth out to the rest of her body. Her soul took a few steps into deeper waters, and she felt more whole and complete than she could remember. All the sadness and separateness melted away, and she was home.
She stared at him, dazed and mesmerized, and he went over and got down on one knee, and laid his head on her knees, completely still. Elsa was numb and shocked, and looked down at his beautiful hair on the back of his head, feeling his face pressing her thighs. In all her burning anxiety, she needed to feel the softness of his face on her hears and the tenderness of his lips.
And he looked up at her, locking her gaze with his doe-like eyes. Her heart called out to him. From her soul flowed the protective, everlasting yearning over him, and she answered him with permanent loyalty. He was without a doubt a very nervous lover, trembling as if he'd never made love before, completely focused on her, but at the same time, painfully aware of his surroundings—the warmth of the fire by their bed, the soft rocking of its frame, the howling of the wolves in the forest, the soft and purring wind, and even all the stars in the sky, twinkling softly with harmonious permission. She could meet him only partway at this point. Once he knew that he lay quiet and calm, very calm. She placed her hand softly on his head. Peace.
CHAPTER 14
The nocturnal werewolf, his heart humming and leg muscles pounding the wet forest dirt, ran full force into the night. He could smell change in the air. He looked through the teal maze of the misty morning, the sun rising in the distance. There were neither birds in the sky nor beasts on the ground to chase through the forest, but a paranoid crack in the distance struck his interest. He bolted in the direction of the sound, knowing in his gut another twist of fate waited for him in the future, a fate which would reverse all the damage he had done to the ones he loved.
CHAPTER 15
If there was ever a time you could call yourself married without having actually gone to the wedding, Elsa only experienced it once, then and there, when she made love to the dark, mysterious, but-ultimately-good half of twin warlock brothers, named Theo. For the first time in her life, she felt whole. Her relationship with Theo was not something she had anticipated but when she was with him she felt that her life was going in the right direction and that maybe, just maybe, she would find true happiness in this life. He made her feel like she was the best version of herself she had ever been and no jealous brother could ever undo that, shifter or not.
The bedroom was quiet, save the soft, crisp crackle of the fireplace. A moose peered into the window of Theo's cabin, where he lay on his bed with his one eternal love. Elsa looked up at him.
“Are you a warlock?”
“I am. Does that bother you?”
“No, I guess not. But that means your brother is one too.”
“Yes, but I'm different from him. I'm not like him.”
“He's evil, right? My father used to tell me stories about the Forbidden Forest, but I never believed they were true. Is that where you come from?”
“Yes, all magical beings are created in the Forbidden Forest.” Elsa looked down hard at the floor, concentrating on something her father told her a long time ago. “What's wrong?”
“My father always told us never to go into the Forbidden Forest, because we would lose our sense of right and wrong and become corrupted. Were you ever a normal person, like me?” Theo didn't answer for a while. “Well?” Elsa asked. He looked at her, caressing her cheek.
“I was.”
“Your poor family. Are they still alive? They must miss you so much. You should go to your parents and tell them everything that has happened. Maybe they can help your brother, make him whole again.”
“Nothing will make my brother whole again.” Elsa sat up, frustrated, placing her hand on Theo's face so he would look at her.
“How did you ever end up there?”
Theo didn't seem to want to tell her. His face indicated the memory was too painful.
“It's okay,” Elsa told him. “You can tell me.”
Theo took a breath. “My brother was always the one who did everything first, because he was older. He learned to walk first. He learned to sled in the snow on Christmas morning, as my parents and I watched from the porch, too. I remember wanting to join him so bad, but I couldn't. My parents told me it was too cold and I was not big enough. He was the first to go to school and make friends. I remember he was embarrassed of me when his friends came over, because I was little and tagged along everywhere he went. I was literally his shadow,” he laughed. “That's what they called me, too. Shadow.” Theo grew very sad.
“My brother was always the braver one, the one who was never afraid. Our parents told us about the Forbidden Forest as children. When I heard the stories, I got scared and had nightmares. But my brother, the stories excited him. He used to stand an inch away from the Forest behind our house, get as close as he could without moving. He would make me time him, even though I told him we were doing wrong. But he didn't listen.
“One day, I woke up in the middle of the night and saw that his bed was empty. I got very scared that someone came into our house and took him. I got up out of bed and started to get my parents but I saw a faint light out my window. Someone into a white gown carrying a lamp walked toward our house, from the direction of the woods. As he got closer, I realized it was my brother. He crawled back in the window, and I asked him where he'd been. He told me he'd actually gone into the Forest! I was terrified and started crying, remember I was so young. It embarrassed me that I wasn't as brave as he was or as strong.”
“You are strong, Theo. Your strength is just different, more complicated.” Elsa took his hand.
“He told me he was going back and that I should stay there.”
“What did he see in the woods?”
“He wouldn't tell me. He just said he had to show me. But I was so afraid, because I just knew what we were doing was wrong. And our parents would be so mad.”
“Did you go with him?”
“I told him I wasn't going no matter what, then he got mad and started for the Forest again, by himself. I hated that he was always the first to do things, and as frightened as I was, I just couldn't let him go alone, especially if there was something dangerous. I was just a small boy and wanted to protect him, even though he was so much bigger than me.”
“Did you go then?”
“Yes I went. I had to. I was his shadow, remember?” Theo asked her. Elsa nodded. “I thought the moment I stepped through the tree line, I would feel different or something. But nothing happened, except the woods got really quiet, like the animals knew I was there when I shouldn't be. Dorien just kept running through the woods faster and faster, laughing, and I couldn't get him to slow down. My little legs only went so fast, so eventually he slowed down and took my hand, because I was so afraid. I was shaking really hard. We kept walking for a few minutes and came upon this small cottage, it looked like a witch's cottage. Dorien told me to watch who came out, so we waited, and eventually this old, frail woman came out, to water her garden. She looked up real fast, because she saw us and I screamed. It was almost like she was reading our minds. Dorien pinched me, he was so mad. She asked us to join her for tea or something but I just got up and ran back the way we came, Dorien chasing after. We got lost in the woods, but eventually he found a way back home. Only—” He stopped.
“Only what?”
“When we got back I crawled through the window to our cabin and he followed after, but the whole room had been re-arranged. Dorien and I walked around the house, screaming for our parents, but they were gone. There was an old man who came through the front door, as he had been fishing all night and it was early morning. I screamed and cried when I saw him, afraid he would kidnap us, but Dorien put his hand over my mouth and dragged me out of the house. Later Dorien told me that we had spent much longer in the Forest than we thought. To us, from our perspective, it felt like a couple hours. But over 10 years had passed. We were just children, didn't know better. And we didn't know how to find our parents, either. So we just went back into the forest, to raise ourselves.
“The longer Dorien and I stayed there, the more we changed. We became hard and mean, more like animals and less like children. Eventually we actually became animals too.
“I became a lion.
“He became a dragon.
“The Forest brought the worst in us, gave us a physical animal form for our worst traits, I guess. It destroyed our innocence, all the love we had for each other, made us fight and hate everything we remembered about our old life. There's really nothing I would not give to get back what we lost. We could have been good people, normal people, led normal lives.”
“You are a good person, Theo. You know that, right?”
“No you don't understand. The Forest made us evil. Permanently bad. We messed up big time that night when we went into the woods, Elsa. I should never have followed my brother, but—I couldn't just let him go.” Theo grunted and punched the frame of the bed, drooping his head. Elsa put her hand on the back of his head, feeling his soft blond hair.
“If the Forbidden Forest made you so evil,” Elsa said, “then why did you leave?”
Theo looked up. “I saw how it was changing us for the worse, how the changes kept coming without end, knowing there was nothing I could do about it. Then I just decided if I was doomed, there was nothing I could lose by not giving one last fight, even if I couldn't undo the damage that had been done, even if I couldn't change back to my old self.”
“Oh honey,” Elsa said. She thought about all the suffering Theo had been through with his brother, losing his family, then it occurred to her that if two hours spent in the woods were actually 10 years, how old exactly were Theo and his brother? “Theo,” Elsa started, “just how old are you?”
“Ha, you don't want to know.”
“I do. Tell me.”
“Centuries old. At least six hundred years old.”
“Oh my,” Elsa said, covering her mouth. “That means your family—”
“Gone. Dead. Buried.”
“Why did your brother place a hex on you?”
“He didn't want me to leave the Forbidden Forest. When we first got there, he told me it was useless to leave. But as time went on, and we changed into our animal forms, he started telling me that this is who we were and it wasn't something to be ashamed of. Leaving the forest meant betraying ourselves, he thought. But I just couldn't take it anymore. I had to do something. I couldn't continue on down the same path of death and destruction. Maybe I will never be the same, but maybe I can get some of my old self back.”