Tab Bennett and the Inbetween (20 page)

His name, when I said it, was a whisperer, less, but Robbin and I both heard it as clear as if I’d yelled it into a bullhorn. “Alex,” I purred. “Make love to me, Alex.”

I felt him stiffen – and not in a good way – as he pushed himself away from me.

“It’s Robbin,” he said.

Of course it is.

Then he disappeared, leaving me alone and shaking on the edge of the deep forest.

**********

“What the hell were you thinking?” George yelled in what I thought was a truly stellar imitation of Francis. “What the hell was he thinking?”

He had been rushing down the front steps of the Manor just as I – achingly out of breath from running all the way back in terror of dark elves and black birds – reached him. He started yelling at me immediately. Half an hour later, he was finally running out of energy.

“You’re unbelievable, you know that?”

“I’m beginning to,” I said.

He shook his head. “So what happened then? He just disappeared?” I nodded my head, purposely leaving out the part about the jolt of sexual tension that had gripped Robbin and me just before that. “Is that bad?”

“He was holding you? Close?”

“At first he was.” I sighed, remembering the feeling of his erection pressing against my stomach. “But he kind of shoved me away at the last minute.”

“That explains it.” George looked incredibly relieved. “That’s why you got left behind. There are two things you need to take a passenger with you when you appear or disappear. The first thing is physical closeness. He had to be right up against you for the magic to hold you both.”

“What’s the other thing?” I was honestly a little bit afraid to find out.

“An emotional bond – friendship, love, empathy. Almost any positive feeling will do.”

I didn’t even let myself consider what that meant. I couldn’t.

“Now what?” I asked.

“Now we wait,” George said.

“I’m so tired of waiting. I want to help.”

He shrugged. “You could try not to leave the Manor without telling me anymore, I would find that tremendously helpful.”

I gave him a smile. “I’ll do my best.”

I let my gaze drift around Pop’s study – a room full of books and pictures, dark wood furniture and memories, all good ones except those I’d collected over the months since Molly died.

“Let’s go to bed.” George said, switching off the lamp on Pop’s desk. “If they come back tonight they’ll wake us and if they don’t sitting here isn’t any help to them. And we should be well rested and alert – just in case.”

I was reluctant to go to bed, to give up my post, but I knew he was right. We walked upstairs together, turning out lights as we went.

 “If it’s any comfort, last time Alexander disappeared, it took Robbin under five hours to find him,” George said through a yawn.

“Last time?” I yawned too.

“It was…” George looked at me out of the corner of his eye, “a long time ago. Alexander was a young General then. He was inexperienced and cocky.”

“Alex?” I said in mock dismay. “Cocky?”

“I know it’s hard to believe, but it’s true.” He laughed. “He and a few members of the Queen’s One Hundred were ambushed and They captured him. You remember Nicholas?”

Just hearing the Dark Elf’s name gave me the creeps. “I remember everyone who has ever tried to kill me. I’m sentimental that way.”

 “Well that’s how he won King Daniel’s favor. He kidnapped the General of the Queen’s One Hundred and brought him to the Underneath. Our entire army was looking for Alexander but We couldn’t find him. While the Generals were still arguing about who should lead the rescue mission, Robbin went Underneath and brought Alexander back. He just marched right in – either the bravest of our kind that ever lived or the dumbest. No one knows exactly how many of They he killed or how close he came to dying himself.” George shook his head in admiration. “When it comes to those he loves, Turnbough has no fear, no sense of self-preservation. He knew Alexander was in trouble so he went after him even though there was no reason for him to expect he’d survive the attempt. He would have walked into Hell itself.” The idea of Robbin walking into hell because I asked him to did not make me feel better. “So it’s just a matter of time now. We may have him already for all we know,” George said yawning again.

The enchantment took this as very good news. It began to feel hopeful, so I did too.

“You’re smiling,” he said.

“The enchantment is happy,” I explained with a shrug, “and since I am its puppet, I’m happy too.” I laughed because that required less energy than crying. “You know, they’re so comfortable, I don’t even notice the strings anymore.”

George suggested I sleep in the room Alex had been using since he arrived. I knew it was because the Blue room, as we’d always called it, was connected to his room by a shared bath which meant he could still sleep in his own bed. I was too tired to fight with him, too worried about Alex to care. And to be honest, I was having a hard time sleeping in my old room alone. Maybe thoughts of Alex would make for a better night’s sleep than memories of Rivers.

He opened the guest room door, scanned the room, and checked under the bed and in the closet before he pronounced it safe for me to enter. “No monsters.”

“Very thorough,” I said with a nod.

He gave a small bow. “Leave your bathroom door open and I will too.”

“Just in case?” I asked.

He ruffled my hair before disappearing. I heard his bed creak as he climbed in between the sheets and his grateful sigh as his body began to relax.

I was just as tired as George, but I doubted I would find it so easy to get comfortable. I looked around the room uncertainly, not sure where to sit or what to do. I’d been in there thousands of times but Alex’s things made it feel like a foreign country rather than a room in my own house. His bag sat on the chest by the window and I fought the impulse to go through it. His jacket was slung over the back of the desk chair. I walked over and touched the soft black cashmere with my fingertips, looking over my shoulder to make sure no one was watching me caress an empty coat. It felt good, even better when I wrapped it around myself like a blanket. The rich fabric held his smell and I took a deep breath, filling my lungs with the scent of pine and earth and sunshine.

I thought about the way it felt when I saw him laying in the grass in my vision. In those seconds before I realized he was hurt I was happier than I’d ever been, overjoyed at the sight of him. What I felt in those few seconds was love, pure and intense. And there was no use in denying that. I wondered if that’s what the enchantment was supposed to feel like all the time, if maybe being in the World had warped it into lust instead of love. If I let it, is that what it would grow to become?

I looked again at the bed. It felt entirely too intimate to unmake it, to mess up Alex’s carefully folded sheets and slip between them. Part of me thrilled at the idea and part of me rebelled. In the spirit of compromise, I laid down still wrapped in his coat. Without so much as rumpling the comforter, I fell soundly and deeply asleep.

**********

I had a dream about Alex. We were sitting on the stone wall feeding the starlings bits of stale bread. They ate from my hand but they were wary of him. They made sure to keep their distance, always staying just beyond his reach.

“Rivers told me there are monsters in these woods.”

Alex smiled. “These woods are full of darkness and light, doorways and staircases that go all the way down and half way up. No monsters though.”

“I’ll tell her that if I ever see her again.”

A starling landed in my hand, perching there while it ate a bit of bread. It looked up at me with curious eyes when it was done.

“They’re afraid of you,” I said.

“I mean them no harm.”

afraid of you, afraid of you,
the bird cooed. Then it spread its wings and flew away.

“Princess, wake up.”

I was confused for a minute before I realized I had to open my eyes and wake up.

Francis sat at the edge of the bed, a helmet in his lap. The look on his face, the way he held his body, terrified me. He looked like bad news, like heartbreak and misery combined.

“Is he dead? Oh my God, Frannie he’s dead, isn’t he?”

 “No. He’s fine.” He swore under his breath. “We found him about two hours ago. You were right about hearing the ocean. He was in a cave by the Southern Sea.”

It took a minute for his words to sink in but once they did, relief flooded through me. “He’s ok?” I asked. “You’re sure?”

“Completely sure,” he said. “He lost a lot of blood but he’ll mend. He’s coming home to you just like I said he would.”

I jumped up and threw my arms around his neck. “Thank you.”

Francis shook his head. “It felt good to find someone…you know, before it was too late to help them.” I watched my sister’s smiling faces flip through his mind. He sighed and looked at the ceiling the way people do when they’re trying hard not to cry. “Aside from this, keeping you alive is the one thing I’ve managed to do right.” He kept his eyes on the ceiling.

“Hey,” I said, taking his hand, “I’m very thankful for both.”

He snorted – a sorry excuse for the laugh he’d intended. “You should have me charged and tried for incompetence. After all this, I deserve to be.”

It wasn’t like Francis to throw himself a pity party so I knew he meant what he was saying. He wasn’t hinting around for forgiveness or begging to be absolved the way some people would in this situation. He honestly didn’t think he deserved to be forgiven. He pinched his nose between his fingers. I could tell that he was crying—there was no mistaking it.

“Oh Frannie.” I laid my hand on his shoulder because I didn’t know what else to do.

 “You’re like a little sister to me, just the same way your mother was.” He cleared his throat and looked at me, drying his eyes with the back of his hand. “She and I grew up together on the shores of the Northern Sea. Did you know that? We used to sail and swim every day; she was like a fish, your mother. Watching you grow up has been like being on the shore with Gwen again. You have her same bad attitude; her same wild, willful ways. No one could doubt whose daughter you are. I look at you and I see how much you’re like her. Your mother would be so proud,” he said, shaking his head.

“I love you too.”

He patted my knee in the awkward way he always did when the conversation turned too emotional for him. “Enough blubbering. Where’s George?”

“It’s 3:30 in the morning.”

Francis looked around the room, confused.

“He’s sleeping.”

“I don’t remember telling him he could sleep,” Francis said as he stormed to the door. He returned a moment later with a sleep rumpled George following behind. He repeated the story he’d told me, going into a little more detail about the search and the place they’d found Alex. He said he wasn’t sure when they would all be back at the Manor; security concerns would keep them in the Inbetween for another week or two at least. There was talk of an attack on the Underneath; talk of restarting the war outright in the interest of ending it once and for all.

I tried to be interested but all I heard was that Alex was safe. It didn’t even occur to me to ask about Robbin, where he was, how he was, until long after Francis was gone.

“You should send Alexander back when he’s able to travel,” George said when Francis was finished with his update. “I hate to say it, but he’ll be safer here at the Manor than he is at Home.”

 “It will probably be a day or two before he can travel. He’s got a pretty good slice running up his side. The doctors were with him when I left.”

“He’s lucky to be alive,” George said.

Francis looked from him to me, deciding if he should say anything. “I don’t think he was ever meant to get hurt at all. I think whoever took him did it just to show us that they could. There was a note written on the wall of the cave where we found him.”