The restrictively tight red dress Emily somehow scrounged up for me is quite impractical for the bowling. Things get better when Emily takes us to a fancy Italian place where, after a few glasses of champagne, I loosen up a bit.
All of us head back to my apartment for the rest of the night to open gifts and play silly bachelorette party games.
The presents are quite predictably scandalous and sexual: lingerie, a sexy dice game, and even a pair of pink fuzzy handcuffs.
I try to laugh with them, but even with champagne dulling my senses, it's hard to enjoy it all. Thinking too much about my sexual future is enough to send my brain into a panicked frenzy.
"What did you think?" Emily asks after everyone has left.
"I had fun," I say with a forced smile, striving to keep my doomed outlook a secret. Emily isn't the best person to share fantastical stories with.
"I know you're worried about something. You've seemed kind of lost today. Is it your Mom again? Is it about the gifts?"
"Yeah, Emily, it's about my mom," I lie, "but there really isn't anything you can do."
"You have three days to tell Mike and your friends goodbye."
What a nice guy for giving me a whole three days!
"Emily, I am thankful for our friendship." I hold her tight in our hug.
"You're welcome, love you," Emily says. She lets me go and turns to the door. "See you later, Lucy."
See you later.
The door closes behind her and my phone buzzes with Mike calling me.
I can't pick it up and I watch helplessly as my phone rings out his number, snapping the rubber band on my wrist until there's a red line on my skin.
My door opens and I jolt.
Thankfully it's just Emily, and not Alvar come to get me.
"I forgot my scarf." Emily smiles apologetically.
"Oh, here," I mumble and take her into the living room.
"I can't believe how cold it's getting out there," Emily says, she picks up her scarf.
The sound of shattering glass in my bathroom causes both of us to jump and scream. We snap our gazes into the direction of the noise.
Holy crap, someone just broke through my bathroom window!
The lights flicker and shut off. We're surrounded in darkness and my unadjusted eyes can't see anything.
Heavy footsteps sound from the bathroom.
I stumble panicked in the dark toward my front door and fumble for the knob.
"We know you're here, filthy Earth human," a scratchy male voice calls. "Now don't do anything stupid."
I bring my phone to my face, the phone illuminates the door and I attempt to dial 911 with shaking hands.
"There you are!" A deep voice exclaims and I hear Emily scream.
"Let go of me! Lucy! LUCY!" Emily's cry comes from the right of me. I shine my phone light in her direction to see two twisted monster-like creatures grabbing my friend by her arms.
"Shut up and come quietly, bride of Alvar," one of the creatures orders. His teeth glint in the light of my phone pointed as he speaks to Emily.
"What are you? Oh my God—!" Emily screams, but her voice abruptly stops when a flash of light illuminates the room. For a fleeting second I see the three figures clearer, two large menacing ones and one small, struggling Emily figure then it falls dark and their presence vanishes, much like Alvar's appearances had.
"Emily!" I scream, and start toward the empty space left behind, grasping at air.
My phone falls from my grasp as I trip over something in the dark.
"911. What is your emergency?" I hear from the phone on the floor.
Someone grabs my hand and I fight them. The monsters must be back for me!
Despite my kicking, I am pulled up from the floor to find myself face to face with Alvar.
"We must go," he says gruffly, his expression intense, worried.
"Emily," I cry, gasping for breath, the shock hitting me and constricting my lungs in panic. "Where's Emily?"
"You must come with me earlier than expected. I apologize if you haven't yet said your goodbyes," Alvar's voice is wooden. His eyes shine a fiery red in color.
I blink up at him. What the—?
Alvar touches my forehead with a glowing white crystal, and wraps his arms around me.
My world explodes into a white oblivion. A rush of cold makes me cling to Alvar for warmth.
We're suspended in a cold black space, with lights passing us by.
"Where are we?" My voice holds no echo to it at all. It's strange. The silence of this place makes my spine tingle.
"The Bridge," Alvar whispers, he holds me tighter. "We are about to enter Underland. I need you to keep holding onto me as tight as you can."
I roll my eyes at him. "Isn't that convenient for you?"
"Oh, you think I'd use this as an excuse to hold you close to me?" Alvar laughs. "I'm not that desperate or hopeless, Lucy. I only say this because if you are lost in the Bridge you are lost forever."
"Where is Emily?"
"Emily?"
"Some of your goons took her," I accuse, realizing I'd just used the word "goons" and wondering whom on Earth uses that word except me and then I start thinking how I'm probably not on "Earth" anymore so it doesn't matter.
"I didn't send anyone to take her so I haven't the faintest idea what you are talking about," Alvar says, giving me a confused look.
"Seriously?" I bite my lip and start trembling. Emily. Who took her then?
Wait.
They'd called her a bride hadn't they?
"Oh my gosh! They thought Emily was me!" I exclaim.
"How do you mean?"
"They called her bride of Alvar!" I exclaim, "Why would they say that if they hadn't come from your world?"
"Maggort!" Alvar growls, his eyes turn a fiery red again.
What is up with that?
"What is going on with your eyes?"
"What do you mean?" He looks down on me, eyes blazing.
"Why are they bright red?"
Alvar ignores my statement and raises the crystal upward. A circular window appears ahead of us. It's a circle of darkness compared to the white space of the Bridge.
"The planet of Axos is very different from the planet of Earth, but it has enough similarities that the transition shouldn't be too difficult," Alvar informs cryptically.
We launch into the portal and fall together onto a soft landing of velvety grass.
"Whoa," I say, panting and staring up at the sky.
We're on our backs in a field. Above us two moons shine brightly in the night. One of the moons is lavender in color and small, and the other is white and closer in size to Earth's moon. Stars spatter the clear purple night sky. A warm breeze whisks my disarrayed hair from my eyes.
I struggle to believe I'm no longer on Earth, but on the ground of Axos, Alvar's world.
"They are beautiful," Alvar says, our hands clasped together as he stares up at the moons wistfully. For some reason I don't want to let go of his hand. "The lavender moon is named Arlith and the white is Vesp."
"It's unbelievable," I murmur, inhaling deeply. The air is light. A wonderful aroma wafts around us, a mixture of fragrant spices, and early morning dew.
"Welcome to Underland, Lucy, the southernmost country in Axos and my kingdom," Alvar whispers in my ear. "All of this land you will be the mother of as my queen."
"It's different than I expected," I murmur. "So beautiful and strange." My awe is cut short by the horrible memory of Emily's screams. "Who is Maggort and why did he want Emily—uh—me?"
"A gobli lord. He lives in the mountains of Ferar in Goblia. He wants you because he does not wish for peace nor does the queen who sent him," Alvar says.
Alvar drops my hand and sits up, scanning the horizon ahead of us.
I note his eyes are back to blue-violet color, but I'm now too afraid to question him about it.
"Right now he most likely believes he has the bride," Alvar says, "Sadly, the queen will know otherwise when she see Emily. Once she learns she doesn't have you she will kill your friend."
My head starts spinning as adrenaline washes over me.
"Kill?" I squeak out and my lip starts to quiver.
No, no, no! Please, let her live.
"Fear not, Lucy. We can save her if we seal our marriage. Once I marry you, killing Earth humans will be a crime against Underland. Remora does not want war with me," Alvar says. "We must perform the wedding before they discover they have the wrong bride."
"How much time before the ceremony, and how do I know you didn't set this whole thing up to get me to marry you right away?" I say dryly.
"You won't know." Alvar shrugs, not sugar-coating a thing. "But it truly is the only way. Once we marry I will order Emily's freedom and have her brought to Underland City."
"And if I marry you, and find you to be lying, our marriage is null!" I snap.
"Fair enough," Alvar says with a grin.
"When I get her back, can I send her home to her family and friends?" I ask. It would be what Emily wants. I can't imagine Emily outside of her wide social circle.
"She must stay here," Alvar says without emotion. "I will give her a job as one of your attendants if you wish."
"What if I don't marry you, could we get her back if I don't?"
"I'm sorry, but that is unlikely," Alvar says, "Remora knows I don't have a claim to Emily's life and she despises humans." Alvar motions for me to get up and continues to search around us. "Shasti should be waiting for me."
"Shasti?"
"My mytonir," Alvar explains.
"Your what?"
"They are like your Earth horses, only much faster. You might have trouble riding it in that outfit you're wearing," his gaze turns to me and he cocks an eyebrow as if surmising my slutty get-up for the first time. "You do look quite enticing, Lucy, but I doubt you were wearing that for me... waiting to meet that fiancé of yours?"
Why? Are you jealous?
"Has anyone ever told you that you're a dick?" I ask.
"I'm a realist," Alvar says with a shrug. "If that makes me a dick, so be it."
"You can jump dimensions, but you haven't invented a non-organic form of travel here?" I say, trying to find my own jab.
"As far as I know, your Earth vehicles cause pollution, and mytonirs are very fast," Alvar says with a challenging smirk. He takes a whistle out of his pocket and blows into it.
The mytonir equivalent to a dog whistle?
He extends a hand down to me. "Come. Get up."
"Yes, my king," I sarcastically quip, taking his hand.
Alvar wasn't lying about mytonirs being fast. A hoofed creature appears next to us in the time it takes for him to pull me up.
The best way to describe a mytonir is to think horse mixed with greyhound: Hoofed, lithe, long-legged, and deep chested, with a smooth-coated body.
Shasti's mane and tail are long and her white coat is covered in black stripes. She trustingly places her long face against Alvar's chest. She is wearing a glossy black leather bridle and saddle. Her ears are elongated and two horns decorate her forehead in a beautiful curl against her scalp.
"She's beautiful," I murmur, my eyes wide.
Alvar hands me the whistle. "Call your mytonir."
"My mytonir?" I blink at him.
"I give him to you as my wedding gift," Alvar says. "Titan will serve you well."
"Titan?"
"That is his name." Alvar nods, and points to the whistle. "Now call him to you."
I take the small instrument to my lips and blow.
A whinny is heard and I turn around to see a mytonir standing behind me. His horns are slightly larger than Shasti's, and his build thicker.
"Hello, Titan," I say, unable to help a smile. This beautiful, strange creature belongs to me?
Titan leans his head into my chest just as Shasti had done to Alvar. He wears the same bridle and saddle Shasti wears over his silky blue-silver body.
Is this even real?
"What do you think? Do you like him?" Alvar asks, as if he hopes he's finally given me something positive to hold onto.
"I love him," I impulsively say.
My hand runs over his neck to find his coat is like silk beneath my fingers.
"Mytonir's are ridden like earth horses, your mother told me that wouldn't be a problem, she gave you lessons," Alvar says.
I nod.
"Now. Let's go home," Alvar says.
Your home, not mine.
I don't know what else to do, so I mount Titan and sit upright in his comfortable saddle.
Alvar mounts Shasti and pats the side of her muscled neck.
"Secure yourself to Titan," he says, pointing to a strap hanging from my saddle. "The speed of a mytonir is much faster than an Earth horse. Only experienced riders are able to stay on."
I do as I'm told and place the strap around myself.
"Titan will follow Shasti so do not worry about steering him just yet. Hold on."
"Okay," I say, bracing myself.
"Kom-rak!" Alvar shouts. The word is foreign to me, and I hope beyond hope people speak a language I can understand here.
Before I have time to ask him what that means, my body jolts as Titan goes after Shasti.
We rush over the fields and I'm sure we're traveling as fast as a car on the interstate. The wind blows my hair in all directions and over my eyes and I fight to breathe.
In the distance a great wall appears and by the way it approaches, I am sure we are about to run right into it, however Shasti and Titan's unnatural halt at the gate entrance is smoother than expected.
Alvar takes the glowing gem he'd used to cross the Bridge, and holds it out at the gate. The gate opens and he motions his hand for me to follow him.
Inside the gates is an organized town with street lamps lit by strange blue lights that cast a blue sheen on everything.
Seeing Underland City for the first time is more than just a shock to my system.
I struggle to believe I'm actually here.
The buildings lining the white cobblestone streets are made of similarly pristine white rock with dark slate roofs. All of them are uniform in appearance. Besides the click of the horse's hooves it's almost eerie how quiet the streets are. Not a soul is out of their home, but I know there must be people residing in them as some of the houses have lights glowing from their circular windows.
"Where is everyone?" I ask him.
"The curfew," Alvar says cryptically.
"Curfew? There's a curfew here?" I ask, confounded by such an idea. Why would there be a curfew? Are the streets not safe?
"Well, homes are the safest place late at night like this," Alvar explains, "It's a safety precaution and not law."
"What do you mean, 'safety precaution'?" I ask.
"There is a dark creature that shadows them from the skies. A creature that sees in the night better than we can," Alvar mutters quietly.
"Should I be afraid of it?" My voice has hushed to a whisper as a chill crawls up my back.
"No, you are with me and with me you are safe," Alvar whispers back. "The creature is not apt to hurt anyone anymore, still my people are rightfully cautious."
"So why do you travel without body guards?" I ask him, suddenly curious, "You are the king, right? Doesn't the king need protection?"
Alvar smiles vaguely at this, as if he finds my question amusing. "I have no need for body guards, Lucy. My guards stay in the palace, and around the gates where they have a better use than by my side."
I'm not getting anywhere with this conversation, despite the fact that I find his dodging my questions suspicious.
"You're working really hard to make me like you," I say dryly.
"I wasn't trying to make you like me," Alvar says with a shrug. "I can tell you're determined not to anyway."
"Why would I like you? Don't you care at least a little about what you did to me? If you did it would be easier to like you," I mutter.
"It must have been quite difficult, growing up apart from everyone else," Alvar says quietly. "I apologize for the distress it caused you, but it was all necessary to save this world and yours from devastation. Sometimes we have to do things we don't want to for the greater good."
I roll my eyes and say nothing because I hate to admit it, but after everything I've endured today, I'm beginning to believe him.
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