Coming Home
1932 Words
I decide to give it three more days. The journey to Alexandria, Charlie and Milo tell me, will take us two weeks, so that is effectively my hard deadline for deciding, but even then, the sooner, the better.
“Alexandria isn’t the first stop when we reach the Realm of Light,” Milo explains to me. “If the three of us make a case for me to seek refuge there, directly to Queen Ava, I might stand a chance. But anywhere else in the Realm…” He grimaces. “Let’s just say your people aren’t big fans of dragons. We’ll be safer if you’re here in full strength.”
We never really discussed Milo’s plans; I knew he’d been exiled from the Realm of Darkness, which was why he was traveling south with us, but I didn’t know where he was ultimately headed. I find it strangely comforting to hear that he’s going to seek refuge from the same woman I’m going to see. I’m not quite ready to part ways with him yet.
He assures me that three days is acceptable, and just before my alarm clock wakes me up, he takes me by the hand. The jolt of energy that surges between us surprises both of us, I can tell, but neither of us comment on it.
“Be safe, Eleanor,” he tells me. “I’m told there are dangers in your world, too.”
“Nell,” I correct him, surprising myself. “My friends call me Nell.”
When I wake up, the feeling of his fingertips on mine lingers.
- - - - -
That morning, Ash receives the call that Chuck has made bail.
“You’ve got a restraining order,” the detective in charge of her case explains to her, “but I still urge you to be careful. If you see his car, or even any of his friends, call me and I’ll look into it. Try not to be alone for a while, if you can. Do you have anyone you can stay with?”
She glances at me, frowning. “A friend or two, I suppose, but… my daughter.”
“I’m less worried if the two of you are together, but while she’s at school, I suggest you find someplace safe to go.”
She nods. “Thank you, Detective. I’ll figure something out.”
“Did you mean it?” I ask her when she hangs up. “Do you have friends you can stay with? Harmless ones?”
She nods. “I told Tiffany what happened. Remember her?”
I remember Tiffany. She and Ash were best friends for years, but they fell out of touch around the time Ash found a new best friend named Jack Daniels.
“She told me I was welcome to stay with her whenever you were away,” Ash explains. “But she’s got a kid of her own, and there’s not enough space in her house for all of us.”
I can hardly believe what I’m hearing.
Point Farnethia.
- - - - -
“Can I ask what’s holding you back the most?” Milo asks me that night as we walk. “Friends? Family? Lovers?”
Hearing the word lovers come out of his distractingly sexy mouth makes me about as uneasy as everything else he does, but I force myself to answer the question, anyway. “My mother—you know, my adopted mother. Ash. We—she—recently…”
I stop, frowning. Was I really about to tell him about Chuck? I haven’t even told Charlie about Chuck. In fact, I’ve barely spoken to Charlie in days.
“You can tell me anything, Nell,” Milo says softly. “I’m the last person who could ever judge anyone.”
I love hearing him call me Nell. I love hearing him talk. His voice is as silky as the grass beneath our feet. For some reason—the silkiness of his voice, probably—I find myself answering him. “She’s married to a really bad guy. He did something… particularly unforgiveable… a few days ago, and she finally called the cops on him.”
He reaches down to touch my wrists, surprising me. I feel that jolt again—that jolt of energy that I felt the first time he touched me—and do my best not to react to it. He can feel it, too, I can tell. I glance down to where his thumbs point and am surprised to see bruises—finger-shaped bruises.
I never even noticed them.
“I noticed these the night we met,” he tells me. “They were much worse then. He did this to you?”
I pull my wrists away from him, averting his gaze. “It’s nothing.”
I can tell he wants to pry, but, to my relief, he doesn’t—at least, not about what Chuck did. “Isn’t it a good thing that she called the police? If he is in jail now?”
“He’s out on bail. She’s got a restraining order, but… I don’t trust him.”
“It must be better, though, I’d think,” he says thoughtfully. “Better than leaving when she’s still with him.”
“I wouldn’t even consider leaving if she was still with him. So, yeah. It’s better.”
He nods. “Anything else? Besides Ash?”
I love how he remembers things like that. I only muttered her name for one, nonsensical second, at the beginning of my story, and he committed it to memory instantly. No one’s ever listened to me that well before. It’s as unsettling as everything else he does, yet… amazing.
“No,” I finally admit. “Nothing else.”
I really need to break up with poor Charlie.
- - - - -
It doesn’t go well.
“I… I don’t understand.” I probably shouldn’t have let him smoke so much before breaking up with him, but it seemed like a good idea at the time. “You want to break up?”
“Yes, but only because I’m leaving.” Sort of a lie; sort of the truth. “Some stuff went down with Ash and Chuck, and the best thing for Ash is for me to skip town.”
“But… where will you go?”
I bite my lip. What lie is the closest to the truth? “New Zealand,” I hear myself tell him. “I… got a gig on a sheep farm.”
A sheep farm? What the hell is wrong with me?
“I could go with you.” His words instantly break my heart. “I like sheep. And Lord of the Rings. Didn’t they shoot that there?”
Poor, sweet Charlie.
“Baby,” I say, turning to face him. I take his hands in mine and squeeze them. “Thank you so much for being so kind to me. Thank you so much for restoring my faith in mankind, and for being as patient as you are sweet. But you can’t come with me. I have to do this alone.”
High as he is, the love in his eyes is still impossible to miss. I don’t deserve it.
“You’re welcome,” he tells me, and kisses my hands. “I’ll miss you.”
- - - - -
“You’re awfully quiet tonight.”
I glance up at Milo, blushing slightly. “Sorry. What were we talking about?”
“Nothing. Hence the ‘awfully quiet tonight.’ Something wrong?”
Why is it that when Charlie asks me what’s wrong, all I want is to run in the opposite direction, yet when Milo asks me what’s wrong, all I want is to melt into his arms and sob to him about my miserable excuse for a life?
“No,” I lie, because I’m not going to open up to him any more than I already have until I get some real answers out of him. “I’m fine.”
“You really have a hard time opening up to people, don’t you?”
I glare at him. “You’re one to talk.”
He seems genuinely surprised. “I didn’t realize there was anything you wanted to know about me.”
“Please.” I roll my eyes. “Every time I ask you a question, I get the same, well-rehearsed answers. It would only bore you. It’s not interesting. Why should I answer any more of your questions when you refuse to answer mine?”
“I…” He comes to a stop, crossing his arms. “I didn’t realize it bothered you. I wasn’t trying to keep anything from you, Nell. I just… find you so much more interesting than me.”
He finds me more interesting?
“You’re a f*****g dragon!” I nearly shout at him, throwing caution to the wind for the first time as far as the profanities are concerned. “You grew up in a place called the Castle of Darkness! You’re a goddamn prince, for crying out loud!”
He looks utterly taken aback, and strangely…
Impressed?
“You never fail to surprise me,” he says. He takes a seat in the grass, so I do the same. The unicorn wanders away from us to graze nearby. “What do you want to know?”
I can’t believe how calm he’s being in the face of my meltdown. I’m so surprised, I can barely think of an answer. “Well… how about what you did to piss off your dad?”
“I refused his orders to go with my brothers on a mission to kill a group of traveling faeries. I told him that I was done fighting for him—that I don’t believe in Light versus Dark.”
“But… if you don’t believe in Light versus Dark, why are you going to ask Queen Ava for refuge? Won’t she expect you to fight for her?”
“I’ll answer your question after you answer mine.”
Damn him. “What was your question, again?”
“I want to know what’s bothering you.”
“Oh.” I frown. “Nothing serious. I broke up with my boyfriend today, is all. Feel kind of bad about it.”
I can’t quite tell whether he’s closer to laughing or cringing. “You had a boyfriend?”
I shrug. “Yeah. It wasn’t that serious.”
“Clearly, seeing as you made no mention of him when I asked you about your reasons to stay.”
Damn. I forgot about that. “Your turn,” I remind him, desperate to change the subject. “Why go to Queen Ava if you don’t believe in Light versus Dark?”
“There are only two Realms in Farnethia—Light and Darkness. I’ve been exiled from the Realm of Darkness. I’m a little low on options.”
“Would you fight for her? If she asked you to?”
“Would you?”
His question surprises me. I don’t know why I didn’t consider it sooner. She’s going to expect an answer, after all. My mother basically told me that it’s my destiny to be a soldier of the Light.
“I wish I could talk to my birth parents about it,” I finally admit. “They seemed to believe I was meant to fight… For that reason, I’m tempted to. But what about the fates that sent me to the Castle of Darkness? Were they not trying to tell me something?”
“Like what?” he asks me thoughtfully. “To keep an open mind?”
I frown. “Maybe. Something like that, anyway.”
“Have you decided yet?” he asks me, changing the subject. “It’s night two; tomorrow’s day three.”
Of course, he kept track. He misses nothing.
“I’ve decided.”
He sits up straighter. “And?”
“And, you’ll know on night three.”
- - - - -
“You’re going,” Ash repeats, staring at me with watery eyes. “You’re really going.”
“Only if you swear to me you’ll be okay. Only if you swear I’m not leaving you high and dry.”
“I swear. Tiffany’s already got the bedroom ready for me, and she’s going to get me a job at the restaurant with her. I haven’t touched a drink today. I’m going to sober up, Nell. I’m going to do better. I just wish I’d done it sooner—for your sake.”
I reach out to squeeze her hands. “You chose me over him when it mattered most,” I remind her. “I’ll never forget that, Ash. I’ll never forget you.”
A tear streams down her cheek. “Will you come back and visit me someday?” she whispers. “Is that even possible?”
A tear streams down my own cheek. “I don’t know,” I admit, laughing softly. “But if it is, you’d better believe I will.”
She smiles. “I love you, kid. And I’ll never stop.”
I hug my mother like it’s the last time I ever will—which it very well might be.
- - - - -
When I surface in front of them that night, both sets of eyes are so expectant and hopeful, I feel confident that I’ve made the right decision.
“Well?” Milo asks me. “Are you coming home?”
I heave a sigh and nod my head. “I’m coming home.”
- Writer
