I hadn’t deliberately hidden it from her, but I knew she wasn’t going to be happy when I explained the exact process. It was the only way, though, and this was still my mistake to fix. A mistake that would have been a hell of a lot easier to reverse had they let me deal with it days ago when it first occurred.
“I’m going to have to shift the timeline,” I said against the top of her head.
She reacted immediately, lurching back from me, her eyes flashing. “No!” she gasped, pressing a hand to her chest. “No, I won’t let you do that. You’ll be killed!”
There was a moderate chance that I could be killed, but I also had enough faith in myself and my power to take the risk. Her eyes went wide and shiny, her throat working as she tried to get herself under control. “This is why you changed your mind, isn’t it?”
I was taken aback for a beat, wondering where she was going with this.
“Changed your mind about having a mate again. Because you knew you would have to take this huge risk soon, and then we’d be torn apart anyway.”
Tears were streaking down her cheeks now, and my energy trembled at my fingertips, desperate to be released. She was killing me, absolutely ripping my heart from my chest.
“No, Tee! This is absolutely not the reason. You’re the reason. I need you more than I ever expected to need anything. I will not die.”
“How could you strengthen our bond like this,” she cried, pushing me hard. “Knowing you’re going to kill yourself.”
My lips tilted up, and even though I knew it wasn’t my smartest move, a small laugh escaped.
She hit me again, her power behind the punch this time, and I actually let out a small oomph as the air was knocked from me. “It’s not funny, Louis.”
I captured her hand when she went to hit me again. “Always a little spitfire, Tee.”
Before she could yell or bite me, both of which she appeared to be considering, I dragged her into my arms. “Why do you have such little faith in me? I’m the strongest mage in the world, and I’m mated to the second strongest. Our bond has given me more energy than even the darkness did. I will not die. There is nothing on Earth, or any other world, that could tear me from you now.”
Another choked sob against my chest, but she had stopped fighting me.
“You have some explaining to do, Louis!” another voice snapped from behind me.
I turned to see Jessa, Braxton, and the rest of our pack all there. Glaring. Jessa especially as she stormed forward. “Is Lizzie right? Is there a chance you could actually die from reversing this spell?”
I shrugged. “There’s always a chance. I mean, any of us could die at any time, right?”
“No!” Jessa snarled. “Not right. Very, very, not right. We’re supernaturals, we’re not fragile like humans. We don’t die easily. So, I’ll ask you again, Louis, what the fuck is going on?”
“Answer her, man,” Jacob said from nearby, and he almost looked ruffled as he stared at his best friend. “She hasn’t eaten in hours, her kids are not here and we all miss them—and they ran out of cake at the bakery. Something about a group of bears eating it all….”
Tee shuffled her feet, her eyes darting over to where her friends were still standing, watching us closely.
Using my magic, I manifested Jessa the sort of chocolate cake she loved, lots of layers with cream filling between each one, rich, thick buttercream icing on top. “Peace offering?” I said, holding it out to her.
Her teeth snapped together and her nostrils flared a little as she tried not to stare at the cake. “You can’t fucking bribe me to forget.” Her words had less bite to them this time, and already her focus was wavering.
“We have to have faith in him.” Tee took me by surprise when she said this. Not one minute ago, she’d been just as upset as Jessa.
She stepped up to my side, and I wasn’t sure my body could contain the new size of my heart as it swelled in my chest. “Since the first day I met him, Louis has been defying the odds. If he says he can do this, I trust him. He wouldn’t leave any of us without a fight.”
Jessa held her glare for a few more moments, before her rigid shoulders relaxed. She snatched the cake out of my hands, hugging it close to her chest. “If you die,” she said, her blue eyes locked on me. “I will track your soul down, and I will torture that fucker for eternity.”
“I believe that, and I love you too.”
She sniffed at me, and then she lifted the fork I’d added to the plate and took her first bite of cake. Her eyes closed and she let out a breathy sigh. “Holy gods, so freaking good.”
There were probably tears in her closed eyes; she was well known for her emotional outbursts over food. Especially cake. Braxton watched her with that look he got, the one that said he would fucking die and kill for her without question. I understood it now. More than I ever thought was possible, I felt the same way about Elizabeth. The supes of this world needed to start thanking their stars that she was alive, because right now she was the only reason all of them were. They should probably thank Jessa as well, because Braxton as a dragon shifter was almost as scary as me.
Almost.
22
