“Lahn –”

“Get on with it, Circe,” he demanded impatiently.

“I… okay,” I shook my head. “My world is different. Much different. It –”

“It has things called hormones,” he interrupted to say, “and germs.

And they do what you did to Bohtan’s son to stop people choking.

They do not allow their women to drink wine when pregnant. They sew the flesh of wounds together, before and after bathing it in spirit. They have a place called ‘Mexico’. They say ‘freaking out’ to explain just about any emotion as long as it comes with shock or fear. They treat slaves like family. Their queens walk freely amongst their people; they do not hold themselves aloof as all queens should.”

Wow. He’d really paid attention.

Lahn kept speaking. “You have given me many indications you are not of this world and I’ve been so drunk on your xaxsah, so bewitched by the spirit shining in your eyes, I ignored every one.”

“That isn’t how it was,” I said softly.

“No?” he asked on a brow raise.

“No,” I shook my head and lifted my hand. “Lahn… I… this place is very strange to me too but I… well, I endured, I got over it, I

adapted and I…” I hesitated, swallowed and whispered, “I fell in love with you.”

The energy in the room went brutal, so brutal it pounded against my flesh.

“Do not ever speak those words to me again unless you wish to feel the back of my hand,” he growled.

I stared at the wrath burning in his eyes.

He meant it.

Oh God.

Was this happening?

I kept staring into his furious, stony, beautiful face.

It was happening.

It was happening.

And with that thought it occurred to me that I was, again, blameless. I was innocent. The only thing I did was fall asleep. And I’d borne countless nightmares since that time, bouncing back from each stronger and stronger. I had been a good queen. I had been a good wife. I had been a good lover. I had given him everything. My body, my world, my love and I was carrying our child.

Fuck… this!

I dropped my hand, squared my shoulders and locked eyes with my husband as outside, just above our house, without either of us seeing it, a bolt of lightning rent the air.

“I know it sounds unbelievable,” I stated, “because it is unbelievable. Fantastical. Extraordinary. Bizarre. But it… is…” I leaned forward, “true! ”

He opened his mouth but before he could speak I carried on.

“Right here, right now, what you’re feeling, I felt too and it was probably a hundred times worse than what you’re feeling now, Lahn, because in my world, they do not hunt women and rape them.

In my world, if you do that, you go to jail for a long, long time.

Everything, everything, ” I threw out my hands, “was different. Your clothes. Your language. The landscape. Your homes, food, furniture,

shopping. And I don’t mean a little different, like here warriors wear hides and up north, they wear armor, I mean a lot different. In my world, we don’t ride horses, we drive cars. In my world, we don’t have chamber pots, we have toilets. We don’t have slaves. That was outlawed years ago. Most countries don’t even have kings or queens!” I was now shouting, lightning striking fast and hot outside our windows. “And if they do, they hold no power but are only figureheads.”

He glared at me, it was scary but I didn’t care. I was too far gone.

I just kept talking.

“I was terrified when I got here. I don’t even know how I had it in me to breathe much less move or speak. This doesn’t happen in my world, this changing of beings, me taking her place, her taking mine.

But I suspect powerful sorceress Circe had had enough at men’s hands, her king, those pirates, your scouts, and she knew what was about to befall her during your fucking Hunt as she stood in that pen or she found out and therefore she got the fuck out of Dodge! And when she left her world, she changed places with me. I had no control and I’ll tell you, Lahn, so many times in the past months, I wished, I fucking prayed to go back home because you and your people and your practices scared me and they sickened me.”

“It is unfortunate for you, Circe, that just from your words, I cannot know this is true,” he stated.

“Yes,” I hissed, “it is. And guess what, big guy, even I don’t know if it’s true. The only thing I know is that I’m here and she’s not.

That’s all I know. I’m just guessing.”

“And I am guessing, because even as we stand here, you command the heavens, that you wield extraordinary power. You have not hid it, it is at your command and since it is, I can only wonder what other power you have wielded for what other results.”

“It isn’t at my command, Lahn,” I flashed and threw an arm toward the windows which now flared with lightning and roared with thunder as the rain pounded down. “That’s happening and

everything that has happened is because of what I was feeling. And you,” I jabbed a finger at him, “fucking know it.”

“I also know that you say you were sickened by my people’s practices, but it didn’t take long for me to win you, did it, wife?

Three days you gave it before you were rubbing against my hand and rearing into my cock,” he, unfortunately, stated the God’s honest truth with that. “It has taken Zahnin’s wife months to yield to his endeavors to win her. But not you,” he threw an arm out toward me before locking it back across his chest. “No, not my golden bride, not only was she riding my cock, moaning while I drove it in her, she was offering to take it in her mouth if I gave up the Xacto, doing everything she could to keep me drunk on her charms while she manipulated me into capitulating to her whims.”

“That’s insane! ” I screamed on an accompanying crash of thunder.

“I did not take free woman nor slave while I plundered, Circe, because you demanded it!” he shouted back.

“That’s because it was important to me!” I returned, just as loud.

“Yes, keeping me bewitched is indeed, for whatever reason, important to you. This, at least, I believe is true.”

I shook my head and went silent.

I couldn’t believe this.

This was unbelievable.

It was also heartbreaking.