“Well,” I started, “if I’m here, that means the other Cora is there. And if she’s like you say she is… um, I don’t think that’s good. See, my job is in danger. I’ve been there years and I make okay money but they’re looking for reasons to get rid of people. If she doesn’t figure out she has to work for a living, or decides not to, or figures it out, goes in and doesn’t know what she’s doing, which, by the way, in my world she can’t possibly know, or by some miracle, pulls that off but pisses someone –”
“I get it, love,” he cut me off quietly.
I sucked in breath. Then I said, “I can’t lose my job, Tor. And Lord only knows what else she might get up to and the longer I’m here, the more time she has to get up to it.”
“This is true, the gods only know what the other Cora would get up to,” he agreed and I didn’t know if it was actual agreement or him humoring me but I didn’t ask because I didn’t want to know if was the latter (though I figured it was).
“This is important,” I told him, “and it’s kind of freaking me out.”
“Freaking you out?”
“Worrying me,” I explained.
He lifted his chin and ordered, “Look at me, Cora.” I did, twisting to look up at him to see his eyes tipped down to me. “You have no control over that. Let it go.”
“But –”
“Let it go.”
“I can’t!” I exclaimed.
“I can understand this but do you know how to get back there?” he asked.
I shook my head. “No.”
“Do you know how you got here?” he went on.
“No,” I repeated.
“Then you have no control over it. If you go back,” he stated and my heart somersaulted at the same time it clenched, “you’ll be forced to deal with it then. Since you have no way of knowing what you’ll face, you have no way of strategizing your response. So you simply have to wait and deal with it if it occurs.”
He was right. This was logical and wise.
“That’s logical and wise,” I told him.
He grinned at me.
“I’m still going to worry,” I admitted and he chuckled.
I smiled at him because it felt good to unload that, even if I didn’t have any firm answers, and I turned to face forward.
We fell silent for awhile before I broke it.
“There’s something else.”
“Yes?”
I stared at the scenery. Then I swallowed.
Then I shared on a whisper, “I don’t know if I want to go back.”
Tor’s body went completely solid behind me and even Salem missed a step before righting himself.
“Pardon?” Tor asked.
I pulled in my lips and bit them. Then for some wild, crazy, insane reason, I kept right on talking.
“It’s beautiful here. Horses communicate with you. Birds talk to you. It’s unpolluted. Life is simple. I would never, not in my life, have guessed that I wouldn’t miss cars, cell phones, microwaves, martinis and high-heeled shoes. If you told me I would come to a place such as this but if I did I’d have to stay, I’d say no way. But now that I’m here, I want to explore. Every sight I see, I like. Every village. Every flower. Every beast. Every blade of grass. Sure, a curse is pending, but you’ve got that under control, right?”