CHAPTER 19

 

 

 

He couldn’t wait this time, knocking her out instantly and sending the puppet master as far away as he dared. Cradling her body before she fell and knocked her head, Morgan dove into the subconscious after her. He needed Karsia back. The real her, if only for an instant.

There had to be a better way. What had been his first mistake? There were too many. His ears rang and pressure stole his breath. Then the pressure was gone, and Morgan stood in the bright whiteness of his subliminal domain.

This time, he had to look deep to find her. Too deep. Time was of the essence and the longer it took to locate her, the less time they had to execute the spell and exorcise Darkness. Watching for her in the subconscious, Morgan shed his human skin and embraced his true form.

Long ebony horns sprouted from his head. At the same moment, great white wings burst through his back. He gave a sigh of relief and cricked his neck, home at last. Sparing a glance at the glowing feathers, he tested their heft in his natural environment. Muscles he’d forgotten about flexed and warmed.

It had been too long since he’d spent time in his own body. The body of a god. Half-god, he reminded himself.

He shrugged off any reservations and tuned in to his gift: dreams. His natural-born right and his fate, to bestow sweet dreams on the masses. Some called him a messenger of the gods, others a half-breed. No matter. Morgan knew his purpose.

Karsia no longer accepted what he offered. It was just one more casualty of her initial sacrifice. When she closed her eyes, it was his brother that visited her, to bestow nightmares, bloody and terrifying images. He knew she woke screaming after the few hours of sleep she received each night.

He thrashed forward through the dream plane. It paid to think positively. Tomorrow, once they successfully went through with their plan, Karsia would be able to dream again.

And Morgan would make sure they were the best he’d ever given.

He sought her deeper, through the rapidly shifting landscape of night, rolling hills and plains, bustling metropolises. His wings beat at the air, searching for her energy signature, knowing it should have been easy.

White spaces filled with color as he flew past, seeking out one mind amidst the billions sleeping around the world. It took much longer to catch her signature and longer still to seek her out where she hid in the dark. Trapped in endless night.

There was nothing pretty about where she’d disappeared to. The expanse of wasteland gleamed dull red and gray under a moonless sky where the stars did not shine. There was nothing except sand and rock, scruffy shrubs that would snap and slice skin if one got too close.

Morgan landed and found Karsia’s small figure hunched in a corner between two boulders, knees curled to chest and arms locked close.

“Karsia?” he called to her, keeping his voice soft.

She failed to respond, so used to the dark she’d forgotten the light.

Please, he thought, please don’t let it be too late.

“Karsia, my sweet love. Answer me.” Morgan approached cautiously. He folded his wings back. “Find your voice. Speak to me. You aren’t alone here. Do you hear me at all?”

With infinite slowness, she looked up, hair shadowing her face and eyes dull. “Who are you?”

Her voice echoed in his ears like the sound of spring rain, the breath of a sunrise. He couldn’t work up any anger at her confusion. Not when he saw how shattered she looked. “You don’t know me?” He forced his cheeks to rise in a smile. “After all we’ve been through together, you don’t recognize me?”

She answered hesitantly, pushing her hair aside with dirty fingers and revealing her face. “Morgan?”

He took time to morph into his human form. The one she’d known on earth. The human version of Morgan bent at the knee and drew her up into his embrace.

She shook as she wrapped her arms around his waist and drew in his familiar scent. “How did you know where to look?” Her hands hooked into his shirt.

He brought her closer, held her tighter until the breath threatened to leave their bodies. “I knew. I will always find you.”

Karsia drew back and stared at him, running a fingertip over the glossy rim of his glasses. Compelled, she touched his face, his skin, any part of him she could reach. “It isn’t you.”

“Of course it is.” He brought her palms to his lips and kissed each one.

“No. I mean the real you. Let me see you.”

He would not deny her anything. His professor façade faded away and was replaced by the winged horned half-god he now knew she cared for. Truly cared for.

“That’s more like it,” she said with a shy smile and reached for him.

He held her close. “We needed to talk one last time, Karsia. The woman I was dealing with earlier face to face…well, let’s just say she wasn’t amenable to a nice chat. I needed to be here to hold you, to feel you.”

“In case there really is no going back.” She supplied the words he couldn’t say.

He nodded. “And to ask for your help.”

“My help?”

“When the time comes,” he began, “and we corner the vile thing inside of you, I need you to be ready. I need you to fight.”

Already she was shaking her head, taking a step back like a horse beaten one too many times. “I can’t, Morgan.”

“Yes, you can!” he insisted. Wanting her to believe she was strong enough. Needing to believe it himself if only to get through this. “If you fight, then together we can beat her.”

“I’m too weak to fight. Too tired.”

“I know you’re tired, and the road has been hard. There’s this one last bridge to cross and we can handle it from there.”

She sighed and crossed to the stones to sit cross-legged, motioning for him to join her. Morgan did as she asked. The ground immediately sapped him of warmth, his body heat seeping into the cracked and desiccated sand. At the very least, he could make things more comfortable for them.

A snap of his fingers, and sand turned to wind as they floated, cushioned in the arms of a warm summer breeze.

“Can we stay here?” Karsia asked Morgan again.

“Hmm?”

His mind had turned to mush along with the rest of him. Even his eyelids failed to move when she trailed her nails over the broad expanse of his shoulders.

“There must be a way. I know you said it was impossible, but you’re a god. In your time and your travels, you must have discovered a way. There has to be something we can do. Then we can stay here forever. The two of us.”

They lay together with his wings blanketing her, his fingers tickling her forearm. The constant contact of skin on skin was something he would not deny himself.

“I want to,” he admitted. “You don’t know how very much I want to.”

He couldn’t stop touching her. She was quiet, with her smooth legs thrown over his and one hand splayed across his chest. He drew her scent into him and it calmed the ferocious beating of his heart.

She drew up to stare down at him. “Why can’t we? Let’s forget about the eclipse and the Claddium and stay here. In dreams.”

Morgan shook his head, the tips of his horns grazing the ground. He very nearly moaned at her words, wanting more than anything what she offered. To have it be only the two of them, with no responsibilities tugging them apart. Something like that always came with a price. His arms knotted with tension for he knew the penalty better than any.

“If we stay, then our physical bodies will die.”

“You’re immortal,” Karsia said playfully. “You can never die.”

“No, but you can.”

The sobering thought had the smile evaporating. She opened her mouth to respond before snapping it closed and taking another moment to think. “What would happen to me?”

“Once the physical shell no longer supports life, then the mortal tether of the soul disappears. You would wither and return to the source. The world of ancient magicks. No, that is not the answer to our problems.”

Karsia snuggled deeper into him, refusing to be discouraged so easily. “Tell me, oh magnificent Morpheus. What do we do now?”

“Now we find a way.” Morgan tempered the deep roughness of his subconscious voice with a small grin. He brought his hands to the slope of shoulder and neck as Karsia sighed happily, moving beside him in contentment. “You’ll fight? Your sisters at this exact moment are preparing themselves for the binding spell.”

“They found a binding spell? Will it work?”

“We hope so. It’s worth a try.” He jumped at the chance to explain their plan to her, watch the play of emotions over her face as she listened to the intricacies and added her own opinions.

“Darkness can’t be contained, really. The best thing to do would be to get her back in the stone. It would take a stronger witch than any of us to force her out.”

Morgan wanted to strangle whatever evil entity had taken her over. Punish it again and again for the pain it caused her.

“We’re going to do our best. And if it doesn’t work, then we’ll try something else.”

She sobered and turned away from him slightly. “I think you mean if it doesn’t work, then we die.”

“I refuse to believe in a no-win situation.”

“I’m still me, on the inside,” she said plaintively. “Try to remember that when we wake and I attempt to kill you.”

He placed a gentle kiss on her forehead. “I know, my love. I know.”

Karsia closed her eyes and wished the moment would last a little longer. Borrowed time could only go so far, she knew. Indeed, they were running on fumes and the largest part of her did not expect a happy outcome. Morgan would most likely not be able to return to her, and the small shred of the soul that still belonged to her would fade into nothing once Darkness took over completely.

It was only logical.

Her heart thudded against her chest at the sheer intensity of her feelings for him, and she once more wished they had met at a different crossroads. Then there was the possibility she may not have given him a second look—and would have been worse off for it.

“If we never see each other again, then I need you to know that finding you has been the most amazing thing in my life. And I love you deeply.” She smiled bitterly. Wouldn’t it be just her luck? She’d finally met a man who could be her match and their time together was cut short. “Whatever we have to do to get our chance to be together, then I am willing to do it. I’ve paid the price for someone I love once. I’m no stranger to it.”

Morgan growled and tightened his grip on her. “Don’t talk. There’s a way and we’ll find it,” he insisted. “I swear it.”

She cupped his cheek. “I’m afraid for you. What will happen if I try to hurt you? Or if I succeed?”

“You won’t. Your sisters and I are fighting for you. We’re going to find a way.”

A tone sounded in his ears, low and insistent.

Karsia was aware the instant his posture changed. “Morgan?”

“Our time is up.” Already consciousness tugged at him and he saw her form growing insubstantial. He bent for a final kiss and his lips passed through her. “I’ll find you again. Remember to fight.”

Her mouth moved, although no words emerged.

Still he spoke to her, wanting her to understand. “You fight for yourself, and you fight for us. Hold her back and give us the time we need to get prepared. We’ll take it from there and get you out. I promise!”

There in the protection of his arms, the shred of Karsia, the embodiment of her purest self, disappeared the moment her physical body awakened. And Morgan was forced out.