Doc surprises me as he nods, “No, you were. He,” he points at a smirking Pete, “was standing outside of the barrier and made the branch push Neith into the barrier.”
“What the fuck, dude, why?” I immediately ask Pete.
“First, you shouldn’t be able to remember that I took the memory. It appears I must have underestimated you,” he says to Doc. He continues without waiting for a response, “I did it so that your magic would strengthen the wards around the house. They needed to be as strong as possible so that I knew that you were as safe as you could be. Especially with Casimir hanging around, which is why I couldn’t be near you. Casimir does not know who you are, in fact, he doesn’t even know that you exist. He had fled Trieneliea by that point, and your mother had managed to block all communication between his followers who were left behind and him.”
“So that’s why you didn’t tell me who you were to me, or were more involved in my life?”
“It is one of the main reasons, yes. Casimir can not know who you really are, and the fact that he has an interest in you already is extremely troubling,” Pete replies with a dark frown.
“So you know everything that’s been going on?” Van asks.
“I have been caught up on most things, yes,” Pete replies, but of course, he doesn’t tell us how he knows or what exactly he knows.
I stand there and stare at him, he’s still in his Pete glamour, although he looks younger and decidedly more put together than he did when I used to see him at Bobby’s.
He’s answered the main question that I have.
I think I had more, there are quite a few pressing questions actually, but as I predicted, I can’t fucking remember them.
“What’s the other reason?” Baz asks.
Pete studies him for a moment and then frowns, but looks back at me, “I will give you as much of an explanation as I can.”
“I appreciate that,” I reply.
“I have tried to help you as much as I can over the years, but since I was never supposed to be in this realm, the Gods took great offense to my being here. However, luckily for me, they couldn’t send me back. The gates were too firmly closed and wouldn’t open again. Not for a long time, if ever. They also couldn’t kill me, not without potentially losing one of their own. So they had to find another way to punish me. The way that they decided to do that was to use their vast magic to ensure that I couldn’t tell you who I was, and I couldn’t look after you. I had to go ahead with the plan as it was supposed to be as if I wasn’t here. They also made me put a memory spell on you, but that was never a part of the original plan, at least not the one that we were made aware of.
“It killed me to do that to you. Putting the memory spell on you as I dropped you off was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do, and keeping the smile on my face and not allowing the tears to fall was another. The only thing that made it marginally better for me was that I wasn’t leaving you with some random humans, which was what the Gods first suggested, and your mother and I vehemently refused to do. We knew how some of those humans treated their young, and there was absolutely no fucking way that we would allow our daughter to be treated the same.
“So, it was agreed that you would be left with Calia and Eamon. They had a son of a similar age, and Wynonna had already told us that they would mean a lot to each other and protect each other at all costs.Also, thanks to Wynonna, we were all made aware of this situation years before it actually came to fruition, which meant that we had time to plan. It didn’t make what had to happen any easier. You see, the original plan was for you to come here by yourself, and you would be safer here.”
“I’m glad that the Gods allowed us to have the first five years with you, although I don’t think it was entirely their doing. Wynonna seemed to struggle with the spell that was used to open the gates just long enough to get Neith through them, even though she knew that it was expected of her for decades before it actually happened. We were all warned that it was a one-time thing, that even for the Gods, it was magic that was so massive that it could only be done once and not again. It was in the hours before Neith was to cross over that, using her incredible magic, Nymeria, my Queen and your mom, shielded us from even the Gods for just long enough to make the plan to send me through as well.
“Neith you have to believe me, she so desperately wanted to go with you, it was breaking her heart that she had to stay behind, but the kingdom needed her, and Wynonna warned that you wasn’t safe here, that was the whole reason that we had to send you across, if you stayed in Trieneliea you would die, and if Nymeria went she would die.”
I nod, “I understand that, actually. When I was younger, I may not have, but I understand it now.
“The war in Trieneliea was still raging, and we had managed to keep your birth hidden for five years. We couldn’t keep it hidden any longer. Someone had betrayed us, and one of Casimir’s generals was coming for you. We would not allow that to happen. You were safer in the Earth Realm. For now, at least. It’s something that we had alwaysknown, something that we had been preparing for, but nothing can prepare you for having to separate indefinitely from your child.
“We didn’t want you to have to go across without one of us, and since Wynonna had already said that Nymeria was needed in Trieneliea and would be killed if she left, tipping the fate of the war and magic itself toward the stupid fucker that started it, it meant that there was only one option, and that was me. Wynonna warned us that it was risky, but she had been trying to work on a way to get two across in secret since we had known that it was going to happen. That’s why it had taken her so long to work out the spell and gather the power.”
“I didn’t want to leave Nymeria, but it was clear that this was our only choice. Sully made the sacrifice and left without Wynonna, knowing that it was for the greater good, but Sully has always held his faith closer than I have mine. When the portal was opened, I was to gently place you inside and then step back, allowing you to go through it on your own. I didn’t, I went in with you. The world shattered as the magic shifted us to the Earth Realm. It didn’t take the Gods long to find us, and they were mad as a box of frogs, but fortunately for me, other than Nymeria, I was one of the only people in the realms who could stand toe to toe with them. Unfortunately, I am no match for multiple pissed-off Gods, which is why I still had to wipe your memory and leave you with Calia and Eamon.
“For a long time, the god’s magic held fast, and I was unable to be in the same fucking state as you, so I couldn’t even keep an eye on you from afar. Calia and Eamon kept me in the loop as much as they could, but we all knew that when Evander went off to the Magical Academy, you would disappear, too. What I hadn’t banked on was how well you would disappear. None of us had even a vague inclination of where youwent, and when you finally resurfaced, and I realized that I could not only be near you but interact with you as well, it was clear that you had been through some truly horrific things.”
I gulp and look away, he’s thrown a lot at me right now, but that last thing is something that still affects me. I feel Coen move up behind me, and I lean back, resting against him.
Pete smiles and then continues talking. I have a feeling that this speech is something that he has practiced over and over again, waiting for the day that he could finally tell me.
“We had no idea how your magic would develop. We didn’t know if you would take after your mom or me, or if our combined strength would nullify you, and you really would be human. The Gods quickly realized that their magic had worn thin and that I was in your life, sort of. I’m not too proud to admit that I begged them to allow me that, just to be close to you. What concerned me the most was that they had lost track of you for years before you popped up in that tiny town too, just like I had. How had the Gods fucking lost you? I still don’t fucking know. But it meant that they were willing to allow me to be close to you. With fucking rules, of course. I couldn’t tell you who I was, and I couldn’t get too close to you. I had to remain on the fringes of your life. I’ve done that.”
We all stay silent, as I try to absorb what’s been said. I was right, there was no way that I was going to remember to ask any of the questions that I needed to, but Pete has successfully answered pretty much all of them.
“Wow,” I finally mutter. “Are the Gods going to be a problem for us now? Are we still going to have to live on the fringes of each other's lives?”
Pete frowns, “I don’t know. Now that you know what you are, and you’re all grown up, then they may be okay with it, or they could want to keep us apart and continue punishing me because I disobeyed them in the first place. They’re petty fuckers like that.”
“Awesome,” I mutter. How else am I supposed to respond to that?
