The World Beyond the Mirror - 12. Tomorrow

A faint noise came from behind me and I turned, not really alarmed for some reason. I saw a shape in the mist, so I walked closer, watching as it approached me at a slower pace. As I neared it, I began to be able to make out details; I frowned as I realized the form was limping as it walked towards me. I wondered what it was; other than this limping form, I seemed to be in the same place as last night, when I’d met Erin.

Wait…

“Erin!”

He didn’t respond, not so much as looking up as he walked into me, pushing me back onto a bench that hadn’t been there a few seconds ago. He collapsed onto the bench next to me, wrapping an arm around me and burying his face in my chest before inhaling deeply, obviously needing comfort. I gently wrapped my arms around him, suspending my shock and just holding him for a minute.

I couldn’t help running my hands over his body, looking for the injuries I knew had to be there, and I was more and more horrified with each bruise I found. He didn’t seem to notice my reaction, or even my touch; I could almost believe that he was asleep. I could feel his chest slowly rising and falling against me as he breathed softly, and I raised my hand to his cheek carefully, tilting his head to see his face.

“Erin?” I asked, worried. “Are you OK?”

He just shook my hand off and buried his face in my side, hugging me tighter.

“I just need a minute,” he whispered, his voice sounding painfully raw.

I pressed my lips to the top of his head, trying to keep my worry inside and be the pillar that he needed me to be, but I wanted to cry after seeing him like this. I squeezed my eyes shut, forcing myself to be strong, and I’d managed to get control of myself by the time Erin sighed and looked up at me.

“They’ve closed off the city,” he told me. “Even if you managed to get in, they’re prepared.” He took a deep breath, looking down to compose himself. “I think you should leave me,” he said finally.

“What?!” I demanded, shocked. “Never. Don’t even say that,” I pleaded. “I’m going to come for you, and I’ll get you out of there, and then I’ll make each and every one of them regret ever laying a finger on my baby!” My voice had gotten angrier and angrier as I spoke, and I’d almost been shouting at the end. I forced myself to calm down, erasing those bastards from my mind, and kissed Erin’s head again. “Sorry,” I said. “For the yelling and calling you…” I trailed off, embarrassed. I hated that I’d said that; sometimes I felt possessive of him, but I had no right to feel that, and I’d been able to control myself before this.

Erin rested his head against me, closing his eyes. “It’s OK,” he said tiredly. “But you really won’t leave me? I don’t think you could even make it in without being killed, let alone out. Please don’t waste your life for me.”

I raised a hand to his chin, tilting it up so he’d look into my eyes. “I won’t leave you,” I told him. “It’s out of the question.”

He sighed in a mixture of relief and disappointment, collapsing against me again as soon as I released his chin. “Then can you hold me, for tonight at least?” he asked, looking up at me pleadingly. “I just want to feel your arms around me.”

Too many emotions were warring around inside me: hatred for whoever had done this to him, fear for him, dread of the time it would take for me to rescue him, and love for him. I tried to block out all the others and only let the love show as I took a deep breath in his hair, his smell only making me miss him more.

“I’ll hold you,” I promised him, gently kissing his head. “I’ll do anything I can to help. No matter how small you think it is, if something will help and I can do it you’ll tell me, right?” I asked, knowing he’d probably keep quiet if I didn’t.

He didn’t answer, instead looking up at me, a little embarrassed.

“What is it?” I asked gently.

“Can you… will you call me your baby again?” he asked. “You make me feel so safe.”

I couldn’t stop a small smile from spreading across my face when I heard that, and the sight of it seemed to make him a little happier. “OK, baby,” I answered, leaning down to kiss him softly. He tilted his chin to meet me, snuggling a little closer. “Do you want to lie down?” I asked, and he immediately nodded.

I couldn’t let him lie down on the hard bench, so I imagined a soft bed, assuming that was how he’d made the bench. It worked, and the bench changed into a bed that was almost cloud-like. I gently lifted Erin onto the middle of it, and then lay down behind him, wrapping my arms around him protectively. He hissed in pain when I touched his right arm, so I immediately pulled my hand away from it and looked over at him in concern.

He shook his head, not wanting to explain, so I carefully eased my arm under his and held him. He sighed in relative comfort when I kissed his cheek, and I began to rub slow, gentle circles on his chest. He seemed to be happy to lay there with me for a while, but after far too short a time he opened his eyes again.

“We need to talk,” he said, obviously forcing himself. “This communication is our only advantage over them, we can’t waste it.”

I stayed silent, respecting his unspoken wishes, as he steeled himself.

“I’ll tell you everything that’s happened, but first, since we don’t know when we’ll be interrupted, some things need to be dealt with.”

I kissed his head, showing I understood.

“First, the governor said he hurt you before, he was lying to me, right?” he asked, a little desperately.

“The governor is involved in this?” I demanded, feeling my anger rise up again. “I should have known. I’ll kill him!”

Erin turned to look at me. “He did hurt you, didn’t he.” It wasn’t really a question, and he sounded like he was ready to wake up just so he could tear the governor’s head off.

I nodded, hugging him a little tighter to calm him.

“Are you OK now, though?” he asked.

I hesitated, not wanting to lie but not wanting him to be worried about me, even for something this small.

“Let me see it,” he begged, easily figuring out my dilemma.

I reluctantly reached down to my waist, pulling my shorts and boxers down over my right hip, exposing the barely-healed cut without showing anything else. It was fairly small, only as long as one of my fingers, but seeing it again just pissed me off even more.

“How long ago did he do that?” Erin asked, his face a thunderhead. “A week? Two? Was it when you left for so long? I’m going to kill him!”

I shook my head, covering the wound and rubbing his chest again to try to calm him. “It was years ago, and it’s small, don’t worry about it,” I told him.

He paused, confused. “Years?” he asked. “It looks so fresh!”

I shrugged. “His blade is enchanted; the cut will never fully heal while he’s alive. When I kill him, his will is going to slowly unravel, and it’ll become a normal cut that I can heal.”

Erin nodded. “I like the sound of that, except for one thing: I want to kill him myself. Nobody hurts you and gets away with it,” he growled.

I hesitated. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” I told him. “Killing people is… it’s not something I want you to have to go through. Even with sick bastards like him, it can be… disturbing.”

He slumped a little bit, and I held him tighter. “No, I… I killed someone today,” he said softly. “I almost forgot… so much has happened. I didn’t even mean to, it just…”

I kissed his head. “It’ll be OK,” I promised him. “He deserved it, and the world is better off without him.” I didn’t need to know who it was to say that; if he’d been part of this, I was happy to see him dead.

Erin nodded sadly. “That’s still not an excuse to kill, though,” he said.

I squeezed him gently. “No,” I agreed. “It’s not… sometimes there’s nothing else, though.”

He nodded, and we fell silent for a second before he put his hand over top of mine on his chest. “The second thing I wanted to make sure of is that you know to be careful,” he told me. “They didn’t let me see much of the defenses, but I know they’ve diverted the waterfall to cover the city. There’s traps everywhere, made specifically for you – the governor has been preparing for this since last time you met – and the only entrance into where I am is a big black doorway with silver thorns.”

I nodded. “Don’t worry about me,” I told him. “I’m not far from the city now, I’ll get there by late tomorrow morning. Besides, that’s the governor’s ‘secret’ house, I know how to get there.”

He nodded, looking happy about that. “Then there’s just one last thing, I guess.”

“Mmhm?” I prompted gently, and he half-turned to face me, biting his lip as it hurt more of his bruises.

“I just wanted you to know, in case I get woken up and I don’t get to tell you…” he smiled a little bit, seeming to be almost happy again. “I’ve learned a lot so far,” he began, kissing my nose. “I learned about the Shroud of Jewels, I learned about the mountain overlooking Falay Falls…”

He stopped for a moment when I chuckled softly, amused that he could be happy about his curiosity being sated even now. “I’ll try to answer more of your questions after this, don’t worry,” I promised, smiling, but he touched his lips to mine to quiet me.

“That’s not where I was going with this. The more I heard about, the more I wanted to see it… but most of all, I wanted to see it with you,” he said, making me blush. “The best thing that I’ve learned so far, the thing that almost makes this worth it…” his smile was infectious now. “I learned that I love you, and it’s not something I can – or want to – hide from anymore.”

I didn’t know what to say, or even how to react, but apparently my eyes did, because he leaned in and kissed me.

I opened my mouth to try to say something, anything, that would let him understand just how much I loved him back, but he put his finger in front of my lips.

“Not now, OK?” he said. “We need to use the time we have strategically. Just… I love you.”

He seemed to like saying it almost as much as I liked hearing it. “I love you too,” I told him, feeling like a dam in my heart was breaking. I’d been trying to suppress it for so long now that when it was freed I could barely contain myself.

Erin seemed to be able to tell, because he kissed me again, a slow, long kiss, and I was able to calm down a little when he finally pulled back.

“I almost forgot,” I told him. “Your eyes are pink!”

He smiled, nodding. “I know, that’s part of what I have to tell you,” he said. “Want me to start?”

I nodded, and he snuggled back against me, getting comfortable.

“OK,” he said, figuring out how to start. “Yesterday, when I was trying to find something to bring you for breakfast,”

“I thought you were exploring?” I asked, surprised.

He shrugged. “Yeah, but the reason I didn’t wake you up was that I wanted you to have something nice to wake up to.”

I smiled, flattered. “Thanks, but the nicest thing I could wake up to is you, don’t worry about trying to find breakfast for me,” I told him.

He nodded. “I won’t need to,” he said, with a suggestive grin. “Now I can wake you up in other nice ways.”

He didn’t give me time to think about that, instead kissing me and continuing on with his story, which quickly captivated me.

“When the governor killed Clyde, I snapped,” he admitted, looking down. “I still can’t believe he’s gone.”

I hugged him close to me, trying to comfort him, but he shook himself and continued on. “When they… subdued me, the governor told me that I was his pet now, and then he dragged me around the city. I didn’t see anything useful, because the waterfall was covering everything, but he told me a lot. For one, he doesn’t want to kill me unless he needs to, because I would apparently make a perfect pet. If what he says is true, I’m the same as you, and my bruises won’t even swell before they heal. He says that every time I try to use magic the collar will absorb it, and he’ll use that as free power for any magical devices he wants to use, and that I’ll never get sick, cold, warm, or tired. He even said that no matter what he does to me, I’ll be back to normal the next day: even on the day he dies of old age I’ll still be unchanged, until he kills me at least.”

I shrugged. “I don’t know if that’s true or not,” I admitted. “We heal fast and we don’t get sick, he’s right about that, but we can still feel temperature, and we get tired. I don’t know about immortal or the collar, but considering how he exaggerated the rest, I don’t think it’s true. The collar, probably, but not aging? That seems unlikely.”

He nodded tiredly, obviously all talked out.

He must really be exhausted, if he can’t even muster the energy to ask a question, I thought fondly, squeezing him gently.

“Just wanna rest now?” I asked softly, and he nodded. “OK, night baby,” I whispered, kissing his cheek. “Love you.”

He tilted his head to kiss me back. “Love you too,” he told me, smiling, and relaxed.

I held him in my arms for a long time, softly rubbing his chest, just enjoying how it felt to love and be loved.

Tomorrow, I thought. Tomorrow I rescue him, and we heal all our wounds.

I couldn’t wait.