“He knew. He knew about me…about my past.”
I unlock the car and go around to the driver’s seat. “It happened long enough ago to be a past life.”
“It doesn’t feel like it,” Thomas says quietly and gets in the car.
“The whole passage of time thing is weird,” I say once I’m in the car. I fire up the engine and pull away from Henry’s house.
“Yeah, it is. Sometimes it feels like ages have passed since we were cursed. Then sometimes I remember things that happened and it feels like yesterday.”
“I’ll fix it, you know.”
“What will happen?”
“Happen?” I look away from the road for a moment.
“When we’re not cursed anymore.”
I shake my head. “I don’t know. You’ll stay with me and have to get real jobs, I guess.”
“I’ve never had a job before, you know.”
“I figured as much. What was life like for you before you had to join the Knights?”
Thomas’s lips curve into a half-smile. “All right.”
“Just all right?”
“It was cushy, I’ll admit. Being rich back then had perks like it still does today. But those who weren’t rich had it bad. Really bad then.” He looks out the window. “I think deep down Gil and I always knew we’d end up cast out. The prospects for arranged marriages were always…dismal, and that’s putting it nicely.”
“Your only options were to marry into another wealthy family or join the Knights?”
“Yeah.”
I shake my head. “I’m glad I was born in this time.”
“Things have changed a lot. For the better.”
“They have, though there are still places with old viewpoints like that. And I don’t know what it’s like to be born into a rich family, but I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that rich people want their kids to marry other rich people.”
“Your parents…what were they like?”
“They were great,” I say with a smile on my face. “We were close and did stuff together a lot. I was so normal back then, though I guess I really wasn’t. I didn’t know it.”
“They would have been proud of you, I’m sure.”
“I think so too.”
“Mine never would have been proud of me, no matter what I did,” he says. He’s not trying to get sympathy, merely stating a fact. “Is it terrible to admit I don’t miss them?”
“No. I’m all for cutting out toxic relationships.”
“Do you think you would have become a police officer if your parents hadn’t died?”
“I don’t know,” I tell him, shaking my head. “I’ve always been a little obsessed with details and figuring things out. I was really into puzzles as a kid. Though when I was that young I wanted to be a professional ice skater.”
“You can get paid to do that?”
“Yeah, and if you’re good enough you can compete at high levels. I was never good.”
