Fantastical (Fantasyland #3)(97)
I felt more attention come our way as Tor leaned closer to me over the table.
“And I did not know that you were you,” he reminded me. “And you did not one thing to stop Rosa from seeing Dash. I know now you didn’t do anything because you had just woken in a new world. I thought then that you didn’t do anything because you were her. I could only assume you did this because you meant Rosa harm. I could also speculate that you were united with Minerva for some despicable purpose. Because of this, I could not give you that information. You must understand that.”
“What I understand, Tor,” I hissed, trying and failing to pull my hand from his which pissed me off even more because I was sick of how bloody, stinking strong he was, “is that we’ve been here and you’ve known I was me for two and a half days and you did not share this information with me!” I was fairly shouting my last and his hand gave mine a rough jerk.
“And why, my love, do you think that is? Perhaps because you’re reacting the way you’re reacting right now? Or, could it be that I had hurt you gravely prior to us coming to this world, so gravely, you fled from me and I watched you tumble down a flight of marble, bloody stairs, smashing your head and bruising your body in the process? Bruises you still carry on a beautiful body that is bearing my child? A child we were both extremely fortunate didn’t abort upon this accident? And, just after that, holding you unconscious in my arms and wondering if you’d ever wake up, suddenly I was in a new world, with you angry and hurt, pushing me away. And, by the gods, I’d just come to understand you were who you are and I was in love with you so perhaps I had other things on my mind than the fact that your sister is happy, healthy and has decided to change her wedding bouquet from orange blossoms and jasmine to roses and daisies because she thinks the scent of jasmine will clash violently with the blossoms?”
I stared at him.
Then I breathed, “You’re in love with me?”
“Gods, Cora, I just told you you’re the other half to my soul.”
“You’re in love with me?” I repeated.
He leaned back in his chair then tipped his head back and looked at the ceiling to which he muttered, “Deliver me.”
“Tor,” I called, tugging his hand lightly and feeling something swelling inside me, swelling fast, so fast, I was going to burst at any second.
He looked at me and raised his brows.
“Everything is right in your world,” I told him quietly.
“Yes, Cora, everything is right in my world.”
“The curse is no longer pending. Rosa is saved,” I went on.
“Yes, love, I just told you that.”
“So if we can get back, get Dash safely married to Rosa, then the land will be safe for our generation.”
“And you married to me,” he stated firmly.
“And me married to you,” I whispered softly.
He glared at me.
“Then all will be well,” I whispered.
“Yes, Cora, all will be well,” he semi-repeated with obvious strained patience.
“So that means,” I kept whispering, “I can tell Mom and Dad and Phoebe that, when I go back with you, it will just be you and our child and me and my sister, alive and happy, in a fairytale land and they’ll feel better letting me go.”
I watched Tor’s body go still. Then I watched his face get soft and his eyes get warm.
Then he whispered, “Yes, my love, that’s what it means.”
“That will make me feel better,” I whispered back.
He stared at me about a nanosecond before, without letting my hand go, he stood, rounded the table, pulled me out of my chair and into his arms where he plastered me to his body and laid a wet, hot, fantastic and very long kiss on me which I returned all the while melting into his arms.
When he lifted his head I looked in his eyes and whispered, “I love you, my prince.”
At my words, Tor smiled his freaking unbelievably beautiful smile.
Then we were hit with a wave of sound when a loud, spontaneous cheer went up in the coffee house.
“All right, dawg!” some guy yelled.
I felt heat hit my cheeks and I pulled in my lips. Tor’s smile just got bigger.
“Jeez, you guys, seriously, you keep that up, you need to get a room, like, pronto,” Phoebe said and I turned my head to see my grinning friend, her friend Brianna who I had met a couple of times and another woman joining our table.
The other woman was gazing with open fascination at Tor and I knew she was the Circe back in the other world’s friend. And I knew she knew Tor was from a parallel universe.
And I also knew that my crazy life was about to get better… or decidedly worse.
Oh boy.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Torn Away
I was sitting on the armchair in my living room, feet up on the coffee table, legs bent, pad of paper on my knees, making lists. Tor was stretched out on the couch, his fingers wrapped around a bottle of beer that was resting on his abs, his eyes on a baseball game on the TV.
So… totally… a man.
This was after our conversation with Phoebe, Brianna and Marlene. It was after we had gone by the mall to get Tor a cell. And after we had come home, Tor stopping blocks away and getting out of the car to walk back just in case the apartment was under surveillance (somehow, he was standing outside my door by the time I got in the driver’s seat, drove home, found a place to park on the street and walked up to my apartment proving he wasn’t just strong, my man was fast and, I hoped, stealthy). I’d made Tor a dinner of spiral pasta, spaghetti sauce with meatballs, garlic bread, salad and beer (for him, diet root beer, for me) and Tor had shared he liked this meal far more than bologna sandwiches and Cheetos. Obviously, we followed dinner with red velvet cake because that cake could be a week old and it would still kick ass.