“Truth to all,” King Townsend stated in wonder, staring at me a bit dazed like all the Kings were.
No one said a word for long moments, so I stared between them, nowhere near in control of myself right now, chest burning, my lungs working in overtime as my heart pumped way too quickly.
King White finally broke the silence, asking King Samson, “Is what she said accurate? Can only Elder Harcourt take her back to her time?”
“Yes,” King Samson stated slowly, running his hands through his golden hair. “Elder Farrar would be next in line,” he shook his head, “but he’s not powerful enough yet. Not old enough.” He paused, his gaze flying to me, his mouth opening, eyes widening.
Instantly, I interjected, knowing what he was going to ask. “No, living here a hundred years until he’s old enough would not help me.”
He blinked, and then held up a quick hand. “Don’t answer questions like that. We shouldn’t know the answers.” Eyes to the ceiling as he ran his hands through his hair again. “And Elder Farrar,” a pause, “I have no clue how you really found him, by the by,” a throat clearing, then he was back on track, “he was correct. Elder Harcourt would have found you if you weren’t supposed to be here.” A shake of his head, golden gaze to me. “Tell me this much, because it may help. Did a Mage, in a completely unheard of act, bring you back?”
My lips pinched. “Yes.”
King Samson teetered a hand. “The truth, but not completely.”
King Samson appeared pensive for a moment, and then waved a hand absently at the Shifter King. “It doesn’t matter.” Eyes on me. “Can you seek out this same individual, or individuals, to take you back?”
“No, he went back without me when a bullet stopped—”
I stared wide-eyed at the hand over my mouth, King Samson having moved damn quickly, and he stated slowly, “Too much information. Keep it simple.”
“Okay,” I mumbled against his breaking hand. When he lowered it, I stated honestly, “I’m okay being here now.” I paused, my chest aching fiercely. “Or, I was before. But, either way, I’ve come to grips with being here in this time.” Another pause as I peered down at the cuffs I still wore, and back up to the Kings. “Now that you know why I have no past, or why I don’t exist, what type of Mystical I am, and I’m not here with any damn malicious intent toward any of you, can you get me and the Prodigies out of these freaking cuffs?”
The Kings concurred, but King White ordered gruffly before moving to do so, “Everyone stays. Don’t even think about leaving because we’re not through talking.”
Hell, I still couldn’t move, and it wasn’t because of the cuffs, so I had no clue how anyone was going to move with the drugs in their system…until I saw each Prodigy slowly stand as the cuffs were removed from their wrists, Fergus yanking the gag from his mouth, tossing it on the ground before cracking his back to lean back against the wall, arms crossed, ankles spread, green curls dangling down around his hooded eyes, hiding his gaze, and expression further as he stared at me across the room…exactly as each of the Prodigies did. Dark gaze, golden gaze, blue gaze, all three hooded and cold on me. King White removed my cuffs last, and I instantly felt my Core flare to life…but dammit, I still couldn’t move, and I asked quickly, “What the hell did you drug us with?”
“Just a mild sedative,” King Bridges muttered, waving an absent hand as he began pacing.
Instant. “For a Mystical or a Com?”
Everyone stopped to look at me, King Bridges eyebrows puckered, and he stated slowly, “A Mystical, of course.”
“Of course,” I muttered under my breath, and tried pushing a bit of my power…and nothing.
Tried again…and nothing, the drug overpowering my system, not having been exercising the use of my power unless it happened in bed with Cain, my body already drained from the broken bones, and such.
“Is there an issue?” King White asked calmly as he threw the handcuffs into the silvered cabinet.
My voice was bland, blasé, even if a little raw, tears still choking me. “I’ll be fine.”
King Bridges forehead crinkled. “I gave her an even smaller dosage than the other four because of her weight.”
“I’ll be fine, so please move along in whatever you’re going to say, because, as everyone here I’m sure knows, mum’s the word for a spirit Elemental,” I stated coolly, keeping the answer relatively simple.
And…everyone in this room was breaking my heart all over again as they peered at me…like a stranger from under hooded lids…everyone, absolutely everyone.
So, sitting frozen on the couch for the next hour while I slowly started to move bits of my body, trying not to burst into tears as they continued staring at me as they were, the Kings talked endlessly about the perils of knowing the future, trying to change the future, the temptation to know the future, and ordering each of the Prodigies to never tell another soul I was from the future. Then the danger my life could be in with the information I had inside my brain, to the point, the Kings then stalled, going into a discussion themselves about spelling me to forget the future, but since it wasn’t a Law, and when I kindly interrupted, threatening to make them forget they even knew this information—in a roundabout way—they instantly moved past that issues when King Samson said I was telling the truth, and continued on in their long discussion of the threat that was…me.
At the end, when each of them ran out of things to say and dismissed us, the Kings probably sporting a few new wrinkles from their impassioned speeches, I stood on shaking legs, gripping the arm of the couch carefully, making sure I could stand alone, because that was what I was, alone. I lifted my black purse with the pink skull on it, placing it over my shoulder, and walked calmly, and carefully, from the mansion to my car. No one stopping me as I went.
Chapter Eight
Two weeks.
In the two weeks after that dinner I had seen no one, except for the multiple tails I now had, not only Elder Jacob’s men following me, but King White’s as well. Everyone had forsaken me in the light of my lies. I couldn’t say I blamed them, my actions inexcusable to those who trusted me. My nights now empty, only filled with a routine I made myself do to not fall too deep in a slump, but always ending in the bathroom, enjoying the scalding water to wash away every damn tear my body could shed as I sobbed, my neighbors probably worrying it was the return of the old me.
I had finally come to terms no one was coming to see me, and written letters to the Prodigies, placing them in the outgoing mail at work that day, apologizing again and hoping for something more in the future with the subtlest of hints…but Elder Cain Alek Merrick was another story. Our relationship had been different. I wasn’t sure what I would say to him, but I planned to sneak onto his property the next day to apologize—again—in person. If after covertly probing him on what I feared, hoped, wasn’t true, that I could have been that stupid…again…the two weeks being alone without him somewhat clearing my head.
