Fergus lowers his gaze. “It was not my choice.”
“Then whose was it?” I’d like to find them and wring their damn necks.
“The Council decided upon your backstory. My job was to enforce it.”
“And the Council is?”
“The Travelers Council is a group of witches. They govern the laws of time travel and protect the secrets of the paranormal world.”
Even after everything I’ve seen today, it still feels weird as fuck to be talking about witches and time travel so casually. “Do they, what, have an office somewhere?”
“They do, actually. Several.”
There’s so much more I want to ask, but I need to stay focused. “So they made you lie to me about my past.” My hands curl around the back of my empty chair.
“Yes, and about your reason for being here in this time, that being your exile and life with the Erikson Pack. But the details of your childhood, your life before you were adopted into the pack, were unknown to us. It’s something I had wondered about myself from time to time.”
“Really?”
When he nods, the fist in my stomach unclenches. “Yes. So if you’d like to share what you learned, I would be interested in hearing it.”
I settle into my seat at the table. Where do I even start? “I had two parents. My mom and dad. We lived in a little village by the sea. We owned a farm. Wolves attacked the village.” A lump rises in my throat, and I pause to clear it. “Pa held them off long enough for Ma and me to escape. Ma hid me inside a tree trunk and led the wolves away from me.”
My parents are gone. I can’t remember them, but I wish I could. I wish I could talk to them, wish I’d been able to feel the love they had for me.
At least when I’d believed they’d abandoned me, I’d known it was possible to find them again.
But my parents are dead.
I’ll never get to meet them.
“Oh, Soren.”
As I gulp in a breath, tears wet my cheeks, and Fergus comes to me and cups the back of my neck.
I hide my face in his stomach and sob. I don’t know how long it lasts. He holds me through it, and though he doesn’t say a word, he rubs my back until there are no more tears left to cry.
“Sorry about that,” I croak, wiping my face dry. He leaves and returns with some tissues. I blow my nose and try to get myself back in semi-functional shape.
“Soren…” His voice is hesitant. “If you want me to, I can make the pain go away.”
“No.” I recoil from him, shaking my head emphatically. “I don’t want to forget. Not again.”
Fergus holds up his hands. “All right. I won’t. I promise.”
I lean back in my chair, eyes closing from exhaustion. “It hurts. A lot. But I’d rather know the truth than some lie the Council made you tell me.”
“I understand.” He squeezes my shoulder.
“He’s going to show me how we met tomorrow. Hopefully, that’ll be more cheerful.”
“Soren, you know he’s expecting you to remember.”
My jaw tightens. “And?”
“If you can’t, do you think he’ll still want anything from you?”
I don’t know how to answer. “I’m tired. Need to get some sleep.”
