Lucian wasn’t the only one of Claire’s former lovers who returned to her with that new century. Though the other who returned did so in a much more ethereal form than Lucian had.

On the night of his own birthday, just over two weeks later, it seemed his untethered mind had finally allowed Eliot to see a glimpse of the present at last, rather than the past or future that it had been slingshotting him all over, for years now.

When he found his astral self witnessing Claire’s actual life in her actual time that night, he arrived at a moment just before the sun was about to rise. There he found she and Sean standing in Eliot's old room, just inside the door that led through the bathroom and into the master bedroom.

“Are you sure that you really want to sleep in here tonight instead?” he asked her quietly.

“You know that I do this every year that he’s gone,” Claire answered with a slight sniffle. “It’s my own small way of being with him, even if I can’t actually be with him,” she whispered sadly. She then squeezed his hand and the two nodded to each other before Sean moved back through the bathroom and off to sleep in his own bed alone that day.

A moment later, Claire moved to wrap herself in the covers atop his old bed and hug the pillows to her chest. She curled herself around them as though holding Eliot against her the way she had done so many times in years long past. Just as a red tear slipped down her cheek, that burning sun peeked over the horizon outside and shut her body down all over again, as it had for over three hundred years now.

Eliot forced down his own tears, such as they even were, seeing that he was not truly there at all. “I’ve been gone so long it’s a fucking tradition at this point,” he mumbled bitterly, knowing that Claire no longer could have heard him anyway, at least not in her current state. He moved closer to the bed, wanting to wipe that tear away so badly. And that’s when his anger and sadness forced a promise from his lips, unheard though it would be by the woman he longed to be able to hold again. “I will find a way back. And I will stop those fucking snakes, I swear it.”

With a determination to keep the promise he had just made, Eliot moved toward where she remained locked in that deep, deep sleep. Then, despite the morning sun shining brightly outside, Claire awoke with a start and opened her eyes to find Eliot's looking back at her.

Seeing him there in that moment, she could only assume it was somehow a dream of some kind, after all these years. But it immediately brought back memories of that morning long ago, when he used his magic to let her stay awake long enough to once again see the tiny rays of sun that peered into that same room, centuries after she had nearly forgotten what the sun even looked like. But even if his presence there before her after all this time were only a dream, her shock and joy were still beyond tangible in that moment.

Claire then quickly pushed herself free of the covers and pillows she had tried to lose herself in when she had drifted off moments earlier. As she got free of them, she was smiling and crying at the same time, immediately reaching to wrap her arms around him.

Only, when she made that attempt, her arms passed right through Eliot, causing her smile to immediately fade to match his own sad expression. Forcing back his emotions, as time was not something he could any longer depend on, he spoke, “I’m not really here, Claire. It’s only my mind,” he told her with remorse.

“Your mind, or mine?” she whispered back, reaching up to brush away her tears despite the amazement of Eliot standing before her, and the sun shining outside; neither seemed enough to counteract the sorrow of his words.

“You don’t dream, love. It really is my mind, here, with you right now,” he attempted a small smile. Seeing as her sadness remained, Eliot made a further explanation, “I was always terrified to speak to you when I saw into your past. Afraid of undoing entire lives if I ever let myself intervene. But right now, my mind is finally letting me see the present. Our real timeline. But I don’t know how long it will last, so I need your help, and I need it right now,” he told her desperately.

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Claire swallowed another wave of emotion as she moved her teary eyes back to him, “How can I help? I’ve tried, we’ve tried, for so many years... And nothing...”

Focusing on the fact that he could be pulled away from her again at any moment, Eliot interrupted, “My mind and my body are finally in the same time again, at last. But because of our connection, my mind is tethered to you. It can’t go anywhere else. So you’re the one who has to help get me back to where I need to be. And I need you to do it now, Claire. Before my mind is pulled away again, possibly forever,” he added in a pained whisper.

Choking down more tears, she stood, “Where you need to be?”

“Take me to my body, Claire. It’s the only chance I may ever have to finally get back. Just take me there now, please.”

“But will you even still be able to...”

“It could drag me away again at any second,” his desperation made his volume rise.

Claire simply swallowed hard and nodded. She then began leading him from the bedroom, past the wide eyes of the servant who was on their way to guard her that day. Giving no explanation, Claire simply moved down the hall and the stairs, Eliot’s wisp following behind her, unseen by any of the shocked servants’ eyes as she hurried past them. Those servants rushed to close any nearby open curtains, their bond to she and Sean managing cancel out the shock of seeing her moving determinedly through the house during those deadly daylight hours.

Once they arrived in that tiny room in the cellar, Eliot’s wisp moved right through her, to a place next to his dormant body. Focusing every bit of the power he had still managed to cling to, he attempted to force his mind back into his own body after so very, very long trapped outside of it, being hurled through Claire’s past, as well as her future.

A long, tense moment passed after his wisp had disappeared from Claire’s sight again. She stood waiting in the doorway of the room, almost shaking with the fear that it somehow hadn’t worked and he may be truly lost after all. And then his dark eyes finally shot open with a pained gasp.

Though, due to the incredible amount of willpower and concentration it took to wrench control of his amazing mind back to the domain of his body, and the shock of being coporeal once more, after a decade and a half, Eliot could not expend the mental power needed to preserve his other current enchantment: The one that allowed her to stay awake while the sun was high in the sky. Just as he regained the ability to force his eyes open at last, Claire’s eyes closed, and she collapsed to her natural deathlike state that was forced upon her at each day's sunrise.

Still gasping for breath as he tried to reorient himself to the feel of having a body once again, he just barely comprehended her own body falling to the hard floor of the basement. After several long moments, he seemed to remember how to even move and function in his true state once again. That was when he shakily pushed himself up to his elbows and noted Claire’s body in a heap there on the floor next to his long held resting spot.

He let out a heavy sigh as he shakily sat the rest of the way up, dragging his legs to the edge of the bed and taking several more long shaky breaths. After another moment, he stood, and then took a few moments more to allow the world to stop spinning and his eyes to focus fully. At last, he managed move toward Claire and lean over her with another shallow breath.

He thought about whether he should try to enchant her into wakefulness yet again, but something told him that pushing his mind any further at that particular moment would probably be an unwise plan. He swallowed as he looked down at her once more, took another breath, and lifted her body into his still shaking arms.

Upon moving past the even more shocked and worried looks on the faces of the servants who were waiting upstairs for some explanation for the morning’s events, Eliot returned Claire to his old bedroom. He gently laid her back atop his bed and placed a soft kiss upon her forehead.

He looked down at her for another long moment as he struggled with equal helpings of relief and fear. Yes, he was back, but all the reasons he had stayed away so long, even before he had lost his mental control, they were still all very real reasons, and they would have to be faced and dealt with somehow, some way.