Finally, she slammed her fingers down on the keys with a
thunderous crash and screamed as her panic turned into the all-consuming sorrow
of utter loss. She had no way to reach Liron now. She wouldn’t be able to
access the portal without the music. She couldn’t get home! He was her home
now. His world was her home. And she couldn’t get back!
Her heart splintered and shattered like it had when she’d
found out her parents had died, and she let out an otherworldly cry that didn’t
sound human. She wrapped her arms around herself, as if doing so could hold all
the pieces of her heart in place. She rocked back and forth on the piano bench,
sobbing uncontrollably.
The one piece of happiness she had found after feeling
nothing but emptiness had been ripped from her. And the gaping chasm it left
within her was so much worse than she remembered.
Where Liron had filled her with light and beauty, dark
coldness seeped in like a disease. The man she loved and the future she had
finally been able to see for herself were hopelessly out of her grasp now, and
she had no idea how to get them back.
Her house suddenly felt like a prison, and she felt utterly,
bitterly alone.
Chapter Sixteen
Liron paced in agitation across his living room floor. Something
was wrong. He felt it in every part of him. Muses had a telepathic connection
to the humans they inspired, and he could feel Melody’s emotions—horrible loss
and devastating pain, sorrow and rage. He ran his fingers through his hair and
growled out a frustrated sound. She had been gone for half the day, which meant
it had to have at least been twenty-four hours in her world, if not more.
He had been barraged by her intense distress almost as soon
as she’d gone through the portal. It hadn’t abated and he’d been slowly going
insane knowing that she was hurting, but he was unable to do anything about it.
He knew he should have listened to his instincts, should have gone through the
portal with her. What if she was hurt? What could have happened to make his
Melody so distraught?
He finally abandoned the pacing and sat down in a chair, and
for another agonizing hour, he endured her pain before it quietly dwindled in
its intensity. That fact alone snapped him to action. The fact that her
emotions had abated meant that she had to have finally gone to sleep, which
meant he could connect with her.
He bolted out into the sunset and hurried to the beach where
he and Melody had made love. All creatures had an energy signature, and it was
that which he needed to connect with in order to find her through the
telepathic link they shared. It would be easier and faster for him to lock onto
her energy signature in a place where they had been connected and in tune with
one another.
It was brisk with the evening fog, and he made a hasty fire
out of driftwood in order to stave off the chill. He had to concentrate in
order to find Melody and speak with her in her dreams, and he couldn’t afford
the distraction of being cold.
Once his fire was going strong, Liron sat down across from
it, closed his eyes, and tapped into his talent, one he hadn’t used in such a
very long time. He went deep into his mind, letting his senses heighten and fan
out, transcending the barrier between his realm and the human world, to detect
Melody’s unique song amidst the sea of sound. Because he was a music muse,
Liron heard humans’ energy signatures as songs. Each person had a different
song, and he had to sift through them to find the one that was Melody’s and
Melody’s alone.
He didn’t know how long he searched for her. It could have
been minutes. It could have been hours. But, finally, he detected the soft,
wonderful notes that signaled his wife. They were faint, tinkling, and light.
She sounded like wind chimes and sunshine, like happiness and life.
He locked onto the sound and pushed his mind toward her
energy signature, invading it and wrapping his own around it, hoping he could
reach her and get her to listen to him. He would only be able to speak with
Melody if she let him, if she recognized him. He hoped with all his heart that
she would. He couldn’t bear feeling her pain any longer and being helpless to
do anything about it.
* * * *
Melody could hear the sea. The waves were crashing against
the shore with a rhythmic beauty that called to her. It sounded like Liron, all
power and elegance, nature’s music in its purest form. She tried to nestle into
the sound, wrap it around herself, and lose herself in the wonderful memory it
brought to mind.
Suddenly, she was there, sitting on the beach where she and
Liron had made love. It was sunset, and the sky was tinted with pink and
purple. She blinked in bewilderment and trailed her fingers through the sand,
but felt nothing. It was as if she was in some strange and tormenting mirage.
Horrible loss and pain weighed on her heart and she pulled her knees to her
chest.
“Melody.”
She jerked her head up and looked around, confused, her heart
beating hard.
“Melody, can you hear me?”
She stood and spun around, looking for him, knowing his
voice, but she could see nothing but the waves and the shore. “Liron?” she
murmured.
She swore she heard him heave a sigh.
“Thank goodness.”
His
voice had an echoing, otherworldly quality to it, as if he was everywhere and
nowhere.
She frowned and stepped forward. “Where are you? Where am I?
Why can’t I feel the sand beneath my feet? Nothing has any solidity to it.
What’s going on?” She felt frantic, afraid she was somehow caught between her
world and his. What would happen if she got stuck there? Would she float around
in this half-existence forever?
“Melody, listen to me. You’re dreaming.”
She blinked. “I am?”
“Yes. I found you through the telepathic connection we
share. A muse can contact humans this way, through dreams. We use this method
to impart visions, or words, music, whatever we need in order to inspire. I
have never had to do this with you, as you have always come to me physically.”
Horrendous despair clutched at her heart while, at the same
time, she basked in the knowledge that she could communicate with him. Tears
filled her eyes and spilled down her cheeks. “Liron, I can’t get home.”
“What has happened? I can feel your distress and it’s
killing me.”
“It was Rob. He freaked out on me, was pissed because I
dumped him, even though we were never really together in the first place. H-He
burned your score, Liron! That was the key to accessing the portal! I don’t
know how to get back! I tried to play your music from memory, but I couldn’t.”
She wiped at her eyes, aching to be in his arms. He was so close, but just out of
her reach.
“Shhh. Please stop crying, lovely. It’s breaking my heart.
Everything will be fine. I promise. Are you hurt? Did he harm you?”
His voice went from soft to holding a harsh bite in 2.5
seconds. His protectiveness brought a small smile to her lips. She shook her
head. “No, he didn’t hurt me. Actually, I almost hurt him. I chased him out of
my house with a butcher knife.” His rich laughter surprised her, but rumbled
around her like thunder and soothed some of the ache in her heart. Her bottom
lip trembled nonetheless. “I tried all day and most of the night to get back to
you,” she murmured. “It was terrible. Every time I tried to play your song, I
forgot more and more of it. I was afraid I was never going to see you again. I
don’t know what time it was when I finally fell asleep. I was so exhausted.”
“I wish you had fallen asleep sooner. I couldn’t come to
you until you did. Humans think too much when they are awake. Their logic
overrides everything. The subconscious is what opens the mind enough to let
muses in. Why do you think so many artists, writers, and musicians keep
notepads by their beds? To write down their dreams. Dreams are what inspire
them because we speak to them in dreams. We show them what they need in order
to create.”
She shook her head. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”
“Of course you didn’t, lovely. I’m not reprimanding you.
I’m just informing you.”
“How did you know I had fallen asleep?”
“I could feel your strong emotions. It was terrible to
endure them when I didn’t know what was happening. All I knew was that you were
in pain and I couldn’t get to you. When they subsided, I knew your mind was
finally resting.”
Tears burned again. “I thought I’d lost you. I thought I’d
never be able to find you again.”
“There will be none of that. You cannot marry me and then
discard me so easily.”
She smiled in spite of herself and wished she could touch him
and see his blue eyes.
“Things have become a little more complicated is all. Do
you think my music score would open the portal if you could remember it?”
“I think so. That was always how I was able to come back to
your world before.”
“All right then. I am going to put the music in your mind.
It should be there when you awaken, like an annoying song you can’t get out of
your head.”
Her smile grew ever so slightly. “Your music could never be
an annoying song, Liron. Your music is magnificent. It’s not like you’re some
pop star or something.” His chuckle warmed her.
“Play the music when you wake up. If the portal opens and
you are able to return to me, wait for me once you get here. I am going to talk
to someone about a plan B.”
She frowned. “Plan B?”
“Yes. I know for a fact there is a way for muses to travel
to the human world. I know someone who can help me with that. If you can’t get
back to me, I will come to you. I promise.”
His words filled her with relief and joy. To know that they
weren’t irrevocably separated was a burden lifted from her battered heart.
“Thank you, Liron. I was so afraid.”
“You can’t get rid of me that easy. Now, sleep. I will send
my music to you. And I will hope to see you soon.”
She sighed. “When I get back to you, I’m never leaving your
side again.”
“That is a promise I fully intend to make you keep.”
She didn’t want him to go. She trusted him, but didn’t want
to feel like he had vanished into oblivion. What if none of this worked? What
if they couldn’t get back to one another? She had ruined everything. He had
wanted to come back with her. Why hadn’t she let him? She thought she could
play with the laws of physics forever and they would just bend to her will? How
stupid was she?
“Lovely, why are you so upset? I can feel your turmoil
again. Please, believe me. If you cannot come to me, I will find a way to you.
I admit I am a selfish man. I refuse to live without the rapturous music you
fill me with.”
Her anxiety quieted and she smiled, forcing a calming breath
into her lungs. “That’s a promise I intend to make
you
keep.”
His laughter was faint; it sounded like he was fading.
“Rest
now. All will be well. I love you.”
A rogue tear streaked down her cheek against her will. “I
love you too, Liron.”
She awoke with a startled gasp and sat up in bed. She frowned
and searched her mind for Liron’s music, but couldn’t locate it. With an
annoyed growl, she lay back down and flipped over on her side. Yeah, so her
traitorous body woke up before he could give her his music. Awesome.
She closed her eyes and tried to fight against the grief and
pain of being separated from him, of the nagging possibility in the back of her
mind that none of this was going to work, that it had all been a fantasy and
she was alone again.
The fact that she still wore his shirt was an anchor. It was
real, therefore he was real. She clutched it closer to her, breathing deep the
cedar and violin rosin smell that was uniquely Liron. It calmed her, and she
imagined she could feel him sleeping beside her. He would be with her soon. It
wasn’t a fantasy, not a delusion. He would put his music in her mind and she
would open the portal again. They would be together soon. He wasn’t going to
vanish like her parents had. This was not the same.
She repeated those things over and over to make herself
believe them and to stave off her irrational fear of abandonment and
loneliness. She would not go back to that dark chasm of hopelessness she had
been in before finding Liron. All would be well.
All she had to do was trust Liron. Trust he knew what he was
talking about and trust the love they had for one another. Their connection had
been powerful enough to transcend the boundary between their worlds once. It
would happen again. And when it did, she could return to his world and begin
her new life there. A life full of creativity and music and fresh adventures. A
life with her muse by her side.
Slowly, as she focused on the possibilities for her future,
she drifted off into sleep. As she slipped back into the place where only
dreams reside, the first few haunting notes of Liron’s beautiful score filtered
through her mind.
* * * *
Liron tried to ignore the slightly nauseous feeling in his
stomach as he approached the inner courtyard of an estate he had not set eyes
on in so long it felt like it had been another lifetime. He paused to stare up
at the three-story mansion, sprawling and pretentious, a blatant flaunting of
wealth. He sighed and briefly debated turning around and heading back the
direction he’d come, but he knew he couldn’t. Not when Melody was trapped in
the human world, depending on him should his music fail to open the portal.
He drew in a deep breath and forged ahead, walking the
cobbled path up to the front door, where he knocked loudly. He only waited for
a few moments before the door opened to reveal a lovely woman with dark hair
and sapphire eyes.
Those eyes widened upon seeing him, shock mirrored in their
depths.