“It’s that bad?” I blurted.
She gave me a kind smile, but her lack of response was answer enough.
Henriette cleared her throat. “We had a meeting this morning with the others from your team and their mates.” I nodded, eager for her to finish. “We haven’t told them how involved Derek was with their father or much other than, from Derek’s memories, we found out it was a man from here.” I was glad they’d kept the rest a secret for now, it seemed cruel if everyone knew of Derek’s past while he was in the dark about it.
“And,” Trise continued. “We know his name now and where he’s located. He’s alive and living here in our world. We have someone who’s on their way to arrest him as we speak. We figured it would be best if we searchedhis memories and let Derek rest. No need for him to experience any more trauma than necessary.”
“I wholeheartedly agree with you on that,” I said. “But he wants to know everything once he’s healed.”
They nodded. “He will. We hope to find out more about his twin, too. If he’s alive we need to find him.”
Grovar and Mia were both silent as Trise and Henriette continued to inform me of their findings. There wasn’t much new info, but I was glad they’d taken the time to visit us and inform me on their progress. The next step was for them to search the man’s memories and see what he’d done exactly. Trise feared many more had been born into that world and that they would need to be found. Henriette seemed intent on punishing the man for keeping so many people away from their mates. It wasn’t until she’d said that, that I realized how many of our people could live out their lives without ever meeting their mate. Unless we were to find every one of them, it could very well happen. It wasn’t as if it never happened, people died in accidents and such, but more often than not, fate seemed to help those out in the end. Whether that meant them meeting their mate later in life, or making them meet someone else they might not have been fated with at first.
No one knew how fate worked, but whenever an older person found their mate in someone much younger than them, I couldn’t help but think that the older one had lost their mate early in life, and somehow fate was making it up to them by bringing them someone new. Again, I had no clueon how all of that worked, but I doubted fate could help all of these people if their mates were all born in Derek’s world.
“What happens after you’ve searched his memories?” I asked, wanting to know the next steps.
Surprisingly, it was Grovar who answered. “We’ll inform you of our findings, then we’ll tell the rest of your team and their mates. It depends on what we find, but if Derek’s twinisalive, we need to tell Derek so you can find him.”
“You want me and Derek to travel back to his world?” I felt torn on keeping Derek here where he could finish healing, and finding his brother.
The rulers shared a look I wasn’t in on, before Trise answered. “If his twin is alive, he might be the key to Derek’s healing. What we saw…” She took a steadying breath, her eyes were closed and if I wasn’t mistaken, she seemed to hold back her tears. “They aren’t just twins who shared a womb, Nolen. Their bond went much deeper than that. We felt Derek’s feelings in those memories. His brother was his other half; they needed each other. There’s no doubt that Derek will need him. We just hope he's still alive. And if he is, he will be just as broken as Derek is.”
“Then let’s hope he’s alive and that his mate will come forward as soon as he enters our world,” I agreed, ready to help this man who’s somehow the key to my mate’s happiness and healing. I would do anything to find him. I just hoped Derek would be able to travel without getting ill.
They shared another look, much like the other one, but this time it was with a tightness to their lips. Whatever they spoke about silently, it didn’t bode well for me.
Derek and I spent the day just resting, and even if it sounded boring, it was anything but. I enjoyed this calmness that was our relationship. I wasn’t one to sit still for long, maybe Derek was the reason I was an early riser and wanted to travel, but now that I’d found him, I wanted to sleep in and stay on the couch watching random movies and cuddling. It seemed Derek wanted the same thing, always eager to touch me and stay close to my side, like he needed the comfort of my presence as much as I needed his.
Our peace didn’t last long, though.
Three quick knocks on the door startled us from the couch.
“The rulers?” Derek asked, following me to the front door.
“No clue,” I muttered, annoyed we got interrupted yet again.
I opened the door to five glum faces that turned into forced smiles. “This isn’t good news, is it?” I dared ask.
Henriette stepped forward. “We apologize for interrupting your day, but we need to talk.”
Figuring it would be best to hear them out, I held Derek’s hand and led them to the living room. Derek was about to sit next to me, but I needed to hold him, so I grabbed his waist and placed him in my lap. Whatever information they had, it seemed to be bad, so I wanted Derek safe in my arms for it.
They all sat and gave us their full attention. Alec was the one who spoke first. “We just finished scanning through Derek’s father’s memories.” Derek’s breath hitched and he tensed in my arms. I’d told him their plan of finding him and searching his memories, but nothing more than that. “We spent hours searching and we wanted to tell you about our findings first.”
Trise continued. “We know he came to Derek’s world to overpower the people. He believed his children would grow up having their magic, and with that he could take over their world. He worked alone, so that at least helped us some. But there’s a lot of children we now need to find, all half siblings of Derek.” She gave him a sympathetic smile. “We found something in your memories, Derek, that we believed should be forgotten until we knew more, and we do now. But we also felt it would be best to simply tell you the things you’ve forgotten, instead of bringing your memories back.”
“That makes sense,” Derek whispered. He was still tense, with his emotions all over the place.
“One of the reasons we took your memories away,” Henriette continued. “Was because a person close to you might have died, and until we knew if he was alive or dead, we wouldn’t tell you.”
“He’s alive?!” I blurted, unable to stop my hopeful tone.
“We believe so,” Trise replied. Then she looked at Derek and seemed to gather herself for the next part. “You have a twin brother and you need to find him.”
Chapter Nineteen
Derek
