I paused a few feet from the low, narrow entrance to world outside the cool, echoing cave. Magic burned in the back of my throat and the pendant lay heavily on my chest.

"Will I forget?" Magic knotted my voice, desperate to overflow, to escape my mortal confines.

"Only for a moment. You've been here long enough to change. Time's wastin'. You need to go."

Just like breathing. I raised my left palm to my lips and puffed against my palm. Magic welled out, drizzling through my fingers like finely-flittering syrup. I breathed in the fragrance of cinnamon and shadow. The slow leak of magic swirled around my ankles. I pictured my cozy attic apartment on the other side of the cave entrance. Magic built low in my belly and pulsed through me, deep and gripping like the waves of an orgasm. The waves reached my chest and I pushed through the gummy barrier to the next realm.

I lost sensation in my entire body, yet I sensed myself falling, plummeting into a thick cup of indigo and black and silver threads. The colors wrapped around me like a thick blanket made of midnight.

For the briefest moment, I smelled vanilla and amber. Red light flickered, familiar red light. Soft and indistinct, I grasped that slice of eternity. My knees and palms connected with a hard stone floor. The impact jarred my entire body. I bit my tongue and blood flooded my mouth. Even with my lips shut, blood squeezed out of the tiny gap created by the unnatural grimace of my right cheek.

I knew where I was.

I rose, joints aching arthritically. Come to me, I whispered into the velvety ether that hovered just above my skin, just out of reach, yet deeply ingrained in my flesh.

Seconds passed, each one a tiny chip of infinity. Then I sensed his presence, the warm taste of his magic on my tongue, the scent of amber and musk in my nose. Revelation smashed into my mind.

He called me here.

Not Jareth.

I didn't know his name, and I sensed the differences that separated him from the dark Jareth. His hands closed around my waist. "How?" he asked, his lips warm against my ear.

"We need you. How do I find you?"

He stiffened and drew back, though he didn't break contact. "I can't."

"He's killing Aleeathar."

"They despise you. Why do you care? You've found freedom. Find me, and we'll live our lives without the burdens of rule."

"I can't let them die. They loved me once."

He kissed my neck, hard and possessive. I gasped from the sharp little pain. He'd marked me, as his twin had, but much less devastatingly. "I love you now."

I twisted in his grasp and threw my arms around his neck. I held him tight, savoring the differences that separated him from his vile twin. "Tell me your name."

"I can't. It's against the rules."

"What rules?"

"The rules that govern this place. You can never look on my face here, as I can never see yours. We are shades of ourselves, just shadows that have been separated from substance. Here, the rules of physical existence don't exist as they should."

I pressed my lips to his warm neck. Magic tugged at my back. His hands tightened. "No," he murmured. "Stay with me."

"I'll find you, and we'll stay together."

We dissolved, condensed breath into cold air. I closed my ethereal eyes and let the currents of magic carry me where they would.

Because there, in that land of lavender skies and blue grasses, I was queen. The mural on the wall across from my bed, hidden behind layers of thoughts and memories scribbled on scraps of paper, illustrated by vivid, consuming dreams.

I was a warrior queen. I wore armor that fit like a second skin, made of the scales of dragons I'd slain myself. I wore the stains of my enemies' blood on my clothing. I tasted it on my lips as I roared into battle like a demon.

I was feared. Admired. Loved.

Loved.

He loved me. He of the stormcloud-slate eyes, the wry grin, the cocky attitude. Broad-shouldered and well-built, he could use the same hands he'd used to rip an foe's throat out to bring me to absolute rapture.

The jarring bark of the alarm clock shattered the cool stillness of my apartment, shattered the pixilated remnants of the sweet dreams. With a groan, I slapped the 'off' button.

Mrs. Harkness rapped on the thin wooden door. More like a grandmother than a landlady, I kept the door unlocked. She swung it open and poked her head in. "Rise and shine—Holy shit!"

The tray she had in her hands clattered to the hardwood floor. The food on the tray splattered everywhere. Hot tea splashed her legs.

About the same time the last sounds of her exclamation left her lips, searing pain shot through the right side of my chest and face, burning beneath my skin until I cried out and clasped my left hand to my cheek. My right arm lay against my ribs, locked there by stiffness and pain.

"What happened, Sarah?" Mrs. Harkness cried, dashing to my side. Like a mirage, I saw through her hunched, aging body and glimpsed a thin, young woman. Something pressed against the back of my throat, urging me to cough.

I caught a glimpse of my left forearm.

Your name is Sarah. In smaller letters underneath, words in unfamiliar handwriting urged me to say it aloud.

I looked up at Mrs. Harkness just as she reached the bed.

"Sarah," I said aloud. The name left my lips in a rush of magic strong enough to blow the old woman backwards a few steps. The papers on the wall ruffled, then tore from their tape and thumbtacks to blast around the room like hurricane-blown debris. "Sarah," I said again, forming the sounds slowly, carefully, reveling in the hot rush of magic through my body. Something formed in my clenched right hand, pushing knotted, cramping fingers apart.

"The water will slow the effects of the poison somewhat. It'll buy you enough time to find him."

Torvan, warning me. Helping me.

Mrs. Harkness dissolved, her old flesh fading. Clea remained on the floor. "Sarah?" she whispered, her eyes bright and wide with something like fear. "Are you…here?"

I grabbed my cell phone from the nightstand. The date, the time…the magic had whisked me back to the morning before my seizure, the morning before I remembered.

"Clea, get Cadelio here. We have to find him."

"Who? What? Zade, what happened? Do you remember?"

"Everything. I was there, Clea." I got up, nearly stumbling when my upper right thigh cramped, and staggered to the dresser. I yanked open a drawer and snatched out a long-sleeved shirt and a pair of jeans. I knew I couldn't manage a bra, so I didn't ever try. I got dressed as best I could, accepting help from cold-fingered little Clea when my right arm wouldn't cooperate. "I was in Aleeathar. Dark Jareth is killing the entire kingdom. I've got to find his shade and take him back, because he's Aleeathar's only hope."

"No part of Jareth can save Aleeathar," Clea said, brow troubled. "His line has been the bane of our existence for generations."

"You don't understand. When I spoke the curse I split them, and myself too. I separated the Consort from Jareth's—" I couldn't figure out the right word. I fluttered my hands up and down, gesturing to my body. "And the Vessel from myself. I've got to put everything back together or Aleeather doesn't stand a chance." I pulled my hair over my left shoulder. "You can help me or not."

I stuck my feet into a pair of sneakers. As Clea tied them for me, and snagged my bag off the top of the dressed. I hung it crossways from shoulder to hip. I needed to search for Jareth's shade, and the only way I could do that would be to use magic. The house had a weird feeling, like some sort of shield surrounded the house. It was probably one of Clea's glamours. I headed outside with Clea hot on my heels. In the front yard I paused near one of the many, jewel-toned gazing balls.

This one wasn't just a tacky yard ornament. I dropped to my knees and placed my palm on the smooth surface. Instantly, the surface clouded and warmed to my touch. Magic swirled over the curves like static electricity, tingling my skin and soothing the sharp ache of damaged flesh. I breathed in and out, savoring the sensation of rejuvenating magic. Power eddied through my skin, sweet and comforting. I laughed, and the essence of the universe filled my lungs. I lifted my face to the sky and let the natural energies of the human realm, perpetually untouchable by its inhabitants, soak into me. The bauble hanging against my sternum warmed and thrummed. I could make out a bright blue-white glow at the lower edges of my vision.

Deep, deep inside my heart, I heard the goddess murmuring in her sleep. I wanted to weep with joy. She and I were still connected, however tenuously. I wanted to ask her what I need to do, how I could save her—and save myself—but words wouldn't come and I could only close my eyes and listen to her whisper to her lover, her Consort, her eternal companion.

I listened closely. Though she whispered to him, the Consort wasn't with her. Her distress grew with every moment of silence. In the black void of nothingness that formed her prison, she remained alone and blind, bound by my curse. She slept, forever captive to a nightmare tyrant. My heart broke for her. Tears ran hot down my cheeks. I had all but locked her in her sepulcher with my selfishness. I let myself forget about her, about myself, about Aleeathar. She would never forgive me and I didn't blame her one bit.

She sensed me, even in her sleep. Anger roiled around her like storm clouds. Vicious promises raged on the currents of time and magic, each a dagger to my heart.

The Consort walked the human realm. I had to take him back to her. Perhaps even when I reunited them, she wouldn't pardon me, but I had to try. The tenebrous connection the goddess and I maintained haunted me with her lingering loneliness. Perhaps, when they were reunited, her madness would subside and the unintelligible curses she murmured into existence would vanish.

My grip on the gazing ball tightened. Despair threatened to drag me down into that black place with the goddess.

Where is he?

I shoved through my dense clouds of depression and self-loathing. My demons floated up from the ether and taunted me. I pushed on, seeking the red light, the scent of vanilla and amber, cinnamon and shadows.