Through the Looking Glass (14 page)

“Where are we?” Did she really want to know his answer?

“We are in the northern part of Aslog. My home sits the farthest north. My brother, Jakar is Lord to Aslog.” He looked into her upturned face as he spoke to her.

As he was talking, Lizzy was busy memorizing every inch of his face. Being this close to him allowed her the opportunity to see every little scar and line that crossed his handsome face. His short brown hair added to the startling effects his green eyes had as they changed color. Thick brown lashes surrounded his eyes while a five o’clock shadow shaded the lower half of his face. Her eyes stopped to examine his lips that were full and slightly pink. She had the instant urge to run her thumb across his bottom lip to see if it was as soft as it looked. His nose was almost straight but had a minor bump in the ridge that told her he must have broken it sometime long ago. A white scar ran across his cheek and disappeared into his hairline near his right ear.

“Do I have something on my face?” he asked her.

She jumped at his words. She had been caught red handed staring at his features. The warmth of a flush spread up from her chest to her neck then her face. She knew she was probably beet red because she could feel the heat coming off her face.

“No. I…I was…” she stammered.

His laugh shook both of their bodies. When he smiled her heart did a flip-flop. God, he was gorgeous. Straight white teeth and a dimple on his left cheek appeared when he laughed, adding to pleasant features.

“It’s alright, my little forest nymph. I didn’t mean to embarrass you.” He continued to smile but stopped his laughing. “I need to get you back to my home and into some dry clothes before you catch the illness.”

Her bones were literally hurting now from shaking so much. The tips of her fingers had turned a light shade of blue even though she had them tucked into the blanket. Her face started to feel wind burned as the wind continued to blow head on with them. She wanted to soak in a hot tub and never get out. She wasn’t even sure that her body would ever regain its warmth after being out in the nasty weather for so long.

Her head began to nod as the sway of the horse rocked her to sleep. A couple of times she jerked awake to find the man, who
’s name she still didn’t know, staring down at her.

“Lay your
head against my chest, little Elizabeth.” His big hand pushed her head down until it rested on his chest.

It was uncomfortable at first, lying on a man she didn’t know, but soon the call of sleep had her eyes slipping shut. She wanted to know the name of the man she was sleeping on before she passed out.

“What’s your name?”

Small vibrations travelled through his chest when he answered her. “I’m Brock. The second oldest brother to Jakar.”

She smiled when he finally told her his name. With her head against his chest, she pulled the blanket up farther until she was able to bury her face inside. She prayed silently that his home wasn’t much farther because she was slowly feeling her body go numb.

Chapter 14

Isobel was still pacing the room by the time he returned. The door had remained locked and no one had attempted to enter while Jakar had been gone. When she finally heard the jingling of the key in the lock she whirled around to face her husband. She was going on the defensive because she was tired of feeling like a prisoner.

She waited for him to enter the room and shut the door before she started her assault. Without thinking because she was so mad, she picked up a glass that was sitting on the nearby table and hurled it at his head. Jakar turned just in a nick of time to see the glass coming his way and was able to duck out of the way as it shattered against the door.

“What the fuck?” he roared. His eyes searched for his attacker and landed on his wife. “Isobel…” he didn’t get another word out. Another glass came flying at his head, repeating the same motion as before.

“Get out!” she screamed at him. She was out of control and she knew it. This was the first time in a long time that she had lost control of her anger. It took an awful lot to make her as mad as she felt but everything associated with Jakar made her angry. Her anger had been building up over the last few days and she was at her boiling point. The day had started off great with their walk into the village but soured as soon as they had returned to the castle.

She searched quickly for something else to throw at his head. She really, really wanted to hurt him at this point, which surprised her because she had never hurt anything in her entire life.

“Isobel stop!” Jakar shouted as a candlestick soared through the air then landed at his feet with a loud crash.

“I will not stop!” she screamed back at him while hurling the second candlestick.

She raced around the side of the table to retrieve a pitcher that sat on the dresser near the bathroom. Heavy footsteps met her at the dresser and she found
herself suddenly pinned in a vise grip. Her arms were pinned to her sides as she fought to get loose.

“Isobel! Stop this nonsense!” Jakar’s voice was loud in her ear as she struggled with him.

“Let go of me!” she screeched.

She felt herself being bodily picked up in strong arms. She was acting like a child but her fit of rage was out of control.

“If you don’t clam yourself, I will put you over my knee and spank that pretty little rear.” He sat down and pulled her onto his knees.

She was sitting on his lap and as his words sunk in, she quickly stopped her thrashing around. Her br
eath was coming fast and hard and she could feel her heart thundering in her chest the same way she felt the blood pounding in her head.

“Are you clam now?” he asked her.

She twisted her head to give him a dirty look, but it faded away quickly when she sensed something was wrong. For some reason she could tell by the look on his face that whatever he needed to tell her was not going to be good.

She nodded her head and drew in a long
, shaky, deep breath. He kept hold of her as she sat on his lap. She didn’t even try to move off as she looked into his eyes.

“I wanted to explain why I had to do what I did earlier. I know I mad
e you angry but it was for your own good.”

She felt his hand brush hers as he pushed back into the chair. “I don’t understand.”

“In the kitchen earlier, when the storm was coming, I didn’t think the storm would be any different than any other that has come through here. But, it was.” He paused as he gathered his thoughts. “The storm that passed was the same as the one that hit us when we were on the battlefield the day I found you.”

A sinking feeling was hit
her full force. When she had come through the mirror it had been storming outside Ackergill Tower. It was one of things that had awakened her. The other was the sound of horses running. She was beginning to make the connection on how she ended up in Aslog.

“
The storm on the field was as bad as the one this afternoon. When the bolt of lightning struck, I could feel the pull of danger coming. I sensed something I had never experienced before until that moment. Out on the battlefield I didn’t think anything of the feeling of doom I experienced right before I found you lying behind the boulder.” He became quite as her watched her.

She didn’t know what to say or think. Danger was coming? What danger?

“Am I in danger?” she spoke quietly hoping she was wrong.

“Yes,” he said. “Whatever danger you were experiencing in your world has managed to follow you here.”

She felt the blood drain from her face. There was no way possible Daniel could have followed her here. She hadn’t seen him since that horrible night and he shouldn’t have been able to find out where she went or where she had been hiding out. Unless…. She was going to be sick. The thought of Daniel hurting Lizzy to get to her made her stomach twist with guilt.

“
Isobel, you must tell me who is trying to hurt you.” He lifted her chin gently with his fingers so she would look at him.

Her eyes immediately filled with tears that she wasn’t able to keep contained. The thought of having to relive those memories was more than she could handle. The entire time she had been in Aslog she hadn’t thought once about what had happened to her. Now she was going to be forced to tell all.

“I can’t.” Her voice was so low, she barely even heard it.

“I promise I won’t let anything happen to you, Isobel. We are bound together by marriage and it is my duty to keep you safe.” He pleaded with her. “I have to know what happened in your world. Nyla told me as much as she could when I left you in the kitchen, but she wasn’t able to explain it all to me because the elders had blocked all visions to your world until you arrived.” He brushed back a strand of her hair that had fell over her face as she tried to hide the tears falling.

“You won’t believe me. No matter how many times I have told you who I am, you still believe I am here to hurt you.” She wished just one time he would listen and believe her.

His hand wiped at the trailing tears with a rough thumb. “I will believe what you say. I promise.”

She closed her eyes and saw her parents’ kitchen once again. She started at the beginning and decided she wasn’t going to stop until she got it all out. She hadn’t had anyone to share her feelings with ever since she had left Lizzy at the airport the day she went into hiding.

“Daniel was so nice to me at first. We met by accident when I slipped in a puddle of water in the grocery store. He just happened to be walking by as I went down. I was so humiliated that he had witnessed the disaster.” She took a deep breath. “He asked me out right there on the dairy isle. Anyhow, we went out
every night for weeks and had a good time everywhere we went. We spent every moment we could together until something changed. He asked me to marry him and of course I said yes. My parents were thrilled that their only child was getting married and starting a family of her own. But, my friend Lizzy sensed something about him that she didn’t like. She told me several times there was something off about him and about the way he acted. I didn’t pay her any mind because I thought she was jealous, now I wish I would have.” As she poured her heart out she fiddled with a lone thread that escaped from its hem on the sleeve of her dress. “A couple of weeks after we got engaged, Daniel started acting really funny. He started criticizing me all the time and I couldn’t do anything right when I was around him. He stayed away more and more until one day when we were at dinner, he asked me to move in with him. I was taken off guard by his question and I think I pissed him off when I didn’t answer right away. I told him I didn’t want to move in with him until we were married. He blew up at me in the middle of the restaurant. Saying I was nothing but a spoiled little girl who wanted to remain in mommy and daddy’s house. I wasn’t about to let him continue to make a fool out of me in the middle of dinner, so I got up and left. I walked all the way home that night and had no plans on speaking with him anytime soon. I figured he needed to cool down and think about what he had done. Boy, was I wrong!” Her throat began to burn as she thought of the next part of the story she didn’t want to tell but forced herself to. “A couple of days later my mom and I were in the kitchen talking and my dad was in the living room watching television when the doorbell rang. My dad went to answer it as mom and I continued to talk. The next thing I know I hear my dad shouting at Daniel then a loud deafening boom. My mom jumped up to go see what was happening but it was too late. Daniel had shot and killed my father and was now going after my mom. She tried to make it back into the kitchen as she called out for me to run. I was paralyzed with fear until the moment I saw my mother fall forward. Daniel had shot her in the back. At that point, my legs had a mind of their own. I wasn’t supposed to be there that night. Lizzy and I were going to go out but I decided to stay home and spend some time with my mom. I ran as fast as I could out of the house and down the street until I reached a neighbor’s house I was sure Daniel hadn’t followed me to. The entire neighborhood was outside because of the shots. I could hear sirens in the distance as I ran. A neighbor a few doors down let me in and called the police too. By the time the police arrived, Daniel was gone and my parents were dead.”

She swiped at the tears running down her face. One landed on her bottom lip as she licked her li
ps, tasting the saltiness of her own tears. She hadn’t realized Jakar had been rubbing her back as she spoke. She didn’t want to look up and see the pity in his eyes. It was bad enough he was always angry with her but she certainly didn’t want to be pitied. 

“I am so sorry, Isobel.”

“It’s not your fault.” She tried to give him a smile but failed miserably. “Daniel is the one after me, isn’t he?”

He simply nodded his head. “I believe so.
”

“But why? I didn’t do him anything.”

“Isobel,” he said her softly and thought about what he wanted to say before he spoke. “I didn’t want to believe at first that you are the one we have been waiting for. I went to see Nyla when I left you. My brother and I heard the story straight from the elders’ mouths. It was the first time the elder fairies were willing to let humans see them. Many of the fairies don’t like to seen, but Nyla convinced them to come speak with me. I had to be positive.” His fingers moved to caress her cheek then he dragged a thumb across her closed lips.

The feel of his thumb
running back and forth across her lips stoked the flames long since doused by Daniel. When she looked into his eyes she found that they had turned to an ocean blue and were filled with desire. Her stomach fluttered as she watched him and he watched her.

“Tell me what happened after you ran.” His hand left her lips to move to her neck where he caressed
the skin right above her breasts.

“I went to Scotland to stay in one of its old castles, Ackergill Tower. It’s a beautiful place almost on the North Sea.” She smiled a bit at the thought. “I was there for almost a week when the storm hit that night. The lightning and thunder was incredible. I fell asleep with the sound of the rain pelting the window. It was sometime after midnight when a sound woke me up from a dead sleep. It was dark in the room with only the flashes of lightning brightening the room. The sound I heard I thought was fro
m people out in the hallway. I had fallen asleep in the chair by the window, so I moved to the bed and closed my eyes and tried to go back to sleep. Minutes later I heard the sound again, but it was the sound of horses galloping I heard this time. I got up to look around the room and that’s when I saw the mirror in the room wavering. I was drawn to it but scared at the same time. I reached out to touch the glass and the next thing I know something is pulling me into the mirror.” There, she had gotten it all out. He now knew her story and hopefully he believed her.

His hand
moved to her ribcage where he skimmed the bottom of her breast. The silence in the room was deafening now that she had stopped talking. She didn’t know if she should say anything else or just wait for him to say something. He solved her dilemma by turning her face towards his and gently pressed his lips to hers. The instantaneous feeling that shot through her body shocked her. It felt so right to be sitting on his lap as his kissed her. The kiss though ended all too soon when he pulled back, only inches, to speak to her again.