Time Slipping

by Elle Casey

  “What may I do for you, Mother?” he asked, his eyes full of questions and if I wasn’t mistaken, compassion.

  “Call Falco.”

  His eyes went dark. “I don’t understand.”

  Tears rushed to my eyes and my heart ached. I knew I only had one shot at this thing before someone tried to grab me and the Earth element made them sorry for it. “Just do it, Robin. Call Falco.”

  “But he is …”

  I shook my head and turned around, facing the fae who I’d seen die once and almost a second time, sitting in the chair in front of us. “Just do it.”

  Chapter Forty-Two

  ROBIN CLOSED HIS EYES AND took a deep, cleansing breath, letting it out as his face relaxed. Everyone was staring at him, waiting to see what would happen. I sensed that all of them expected him to open his eyes and give the verdict that I was too gone from sanity to be saved.

  His eyebrows screwed up. His lips quivered.

  “I read you loud and clear,” Falco said so I could hear it, a smile covering his face. It was the first time since I’d discovered him in the afterlife that he looked truly connected to what was going on.

  Robin’s hand came up, and I took it. His fingers were trembling, as were mine, so we made quite the pair. We looked like addicts detoxifying together or something.

  “I don’t understand,” Robin whispered. A tear slid down his cheek, but he didn’t move to wipe it away.

  I let go of his hand and grabbed him, hugging him really hard and not giving a single crap about what the protocol might be for embracing elves as their Mother. “Thank you, Robin. You just saved me, I think.”

  His body was stiff at first, but then it softened. I pulled away and his eyes opened. He was sad. “I don’t know what is happening, but it cannot be good.”

  “Well, don’t keep us in suspense,” Red said sarcastically. “What happened?”

  Robin looked around, confused. “Falco is here. But he is not here.”

  I gestured to the chair that held the green elf ghost. “He’s sitting right there. You can’t see him?”

  Robin moved closer, staring and staring at the chair. “No. I see nothing but an empty seat.”

  I motioned at Falco. “Come over here. Please.”

  He stood and walked toward us, stopping next to me. I took him by the hand.

  “Are you sure this is a good idea?” he asked me. He looked nervous, and seeing a ghost look nervous is really weird. A part of me thought a phantom should be above those very human-like emotions.

  I shrugged. “No.”

  “What are you doing?” Red demanded, striding over from his spot, his cloak swirling around his legs.

  “I’m going to connect them together. Through the Earth element.”

  “No!” he yelled, stopping on my other side, next to Robin.

  “Why not?”

  “Because. You do not know what will happen.” He said it like it should have been obvious, and I was the dumbest girl on the planet not to have realized that.

  He had a point there.

  Robin’s hand came up to stop the conversation from going further. “I want to do this. Please. Connect me to my brother.”

  I had no idea whether he meant literal brother or just brother-in-arms, but I took his hand anyway. Now I had one of each of them and I wasn’t letting them go no matter what Red said. Robin had been nothing but loyal and kind to me since the day I’d met him — except for that one time where he ordered everyone to kill me, but that wasn’t really his fault. I owed him this.

  “You got it.”

  Red tried to reach for me to karate chop our hands apart or something, but the Green bubble I had around me ended that little plan in a hurry. A spark flew out between us, and he bounced off, falling onto his ass on the floor, his cloak coming up to cover his head.

  As several fae rushed to his side, I closed my eyes and started my poem…

  “One here, one there, brothers torn apart

  Bring them together here and mend their elven hearts…”

  A bolt of energy came up from my feet and shot out of my hands into the elves, the one in this realm and the other with a foot still in the other. Their eyes grew wider and then Robin’s nearly bugged out. His form started to fade at the same time Falco’s complexion gained some color. When I realized Red’s warning was turning into one of those I-told-you-so moments, I let go of the connection, forcing The Green to go back into the earth and leave us all without any elements involved.

  Robin collapsed on the floor at my feet as everyone stared open-mouthed at the elf who’d just returned from the dead, right before their very eyes.

  Chapter Forty-Three

  I WAS SITTING IN THE council meeting room, rushed there in a crowd of fae and dumped unceremoniously inside the door by the ones not permitted to enter. The chair that used to be for Ben remained empty, as did the one for Maléna. A sadness descended on me when I realized I was missing the little weight on my shoulder that should have been Tim there taking his rightful place at the council’s table.

  “Tell us the story, Jayne,” Céline said, “and please accept our sincerest apologies for not listening to you sooner.”

  The old Jayne would have savored that moment a little while longer, but the new Jayne, the girlfriend of Othello and bringer of ghosts into our world from the afterlife had better ideas.

  I leaned in. “Okay, here’s the deal. Someone out here wanted to keep me from going to the portal, so they tried some time slips, tried to trap us in the Hotel California up on the Isle of Skye, and then sent us with a troll to another realm.”

  Red sighed and banged the table. “Does anyone understand anything she’s saying now?”

  “Shush!” I shouted. “Just listen!” I focused my attention on the silver elves and the werewolves in the room. They seemed to be the only ones capable of using their brains today. Red and Niles could just catch up later as far as I was concerned. “There is a witch named Judith at this bed and breakfast. She put spells on us a couple times. They were meant to make us forget why we were there and to keep us from going to the portal. She didn’t want Tim there, so she put a spell to keep him out, which is why I didn’t go in and get caught right away.”

  Dardennes nodded and I could tell he was on the edge of his seat. I hated taking precious time explaining everything, but I knew it was the only way I was going to get buy-in for the plan that was forming in my head.

  “When I was trying to leave, the witch or fate or whatever she was said a rhyme.”

  “A rhyme?” Niles asked gruffly.

  “A poem. A prophecy, whatever. Anyway, I didn’t remember all of it, but it sounded to me like she was giving me a choice to either cut the troll open to rescue Tim…” I paused to sigh and explain. “I thought the troll had eaten him, but that didn’t actually happen…” I shifted my gaze to Céline. “Anyway, the other option was to shed my own blood, and since the troll was frozen and hadn’t done anything to me, I felt bad about killing it, so I cut myself instead.”

  “You felt bad about killing a troll?” Niles asked, like he thought I was joking. “Have I not taught you anything?”

  “Yes, Niles, you have! And thank you for that because I did do pretty well out there, if I do say so myself! But I wasn’t about to gut a giant troll because it was the easy thing to do, now was I?”

  He rolled his eyes and hissed out disappointed air, but Céline and the old witch lady were nodding, so I kept going with a little more confidence. “So anyway, I cut myself with my sword and it hurt really bad, so I fell down and then I woke up in another place. Everyone was pulled over with me too, including the troll.”

  “What place?” Red asked. Clearly I wasn’t telling the story the way he preferred it be told.

  “Another realm. I’ve never heard of it. It’s farther back in time from us. There was a dragon-rider there named Ish. Ishmail, actually, is his whole name and his dragon is Othello.”

  Jaws dropped, and you could have
heard a pixie fart in there even without the listening amplification spell Maggie was crappy enough to bestow on me.

  “Did you say … dragon-rider?” Niles asked.

  “Ishmail Windwalker?” Red asked, his tone slightly reverent.

  “What?” I looked around. “You guys know him?"

  Dardennes stood. “Someone get Gregale in here. We need to talk to the gray elves right away.”

  Aidan jumped up and ran to the door. He was gone before another word was said.

  I sat back in my chair trying to read the expressions around me. My heart calmed down little by little as Dardennes sat and faced me. All traces of exasperation and humor were gone. “Jayne. My humblest apologies for not trusting you or believing you.” He placed his hand on his heart and bowed.

  I nodded all regal and shit. “You are forgiven.” I looked over at Red with my eyebrow up.

  He bugged his eyes out at me, wiggled his second chin a couple times, and then looked away.

  I smiled. “You’re forgiven too, Red.”

  Red ignored me, looking at the rest of the fae around the table. “So what are we to do now?”

  I held up my hand.

  Everyone turned their heads to stare at me.

  Dardennes had the tiniest smile on his face. “Jayne? Do you have something you want to say?”

  “Yeah, duh, that’s why I had my hand up.” I rested it on the arm of my chair. “Just thought you’d like to know that I haven’t even told you the worst part yet.”

  “This ought to be good,” Niles said, leaning forward. I could swear, I saw bloodlust in his eyes then, and I couldn’t say as I blamed him. Just thinking about it made me get pissed all over again.

  “I met Othello, the dragon. He took me to his lair, we took a nap, and when I woke up he said we were mated. Then he flew me over to the Overworld portal, and I went inside by myself, and unfortunately, right now it’s full of angels and fae fighting a huge battle. There’s blood flying everywhere, that Fate Judith is there, and that’s where I found Falco. I gave him a drink from my special cup that the dragon gave me —kind of like a wedding present maybe— and it brought him back to life. Judith sent out this bolt of lighting at us while I was doing it, and I think that’s what sent me back here to this realm to the time before we left for the trip in the first place. Another massive time slip.”

  Red’s face went stark white, and every single person there including him slumped back in their chairs, their stunned gazes dropping to the table.

  “What?” I looked around me waiting for an explanation. “What’d I say?”

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  OTHER BOOKS BY ELLE CASEY

  CONTEMPORARY URBAN FANTASY

  War of the Fae (10-book series)

  *Book 1, The Changelings, is a free ebook at most retailers*

  Ten Things You Should Know About Dragons (short story, The Dragon Chronicles)

  My Vampire Summer

  Aces High (with Jason Brant)

  DYSTOPIAN

  Apocalypsis (4-book series)

  SCIENCE FICTION

  Drifters’ Alliance (3-book series)

  Winner Takes All (short story prequel to Drifters’ Alliance,

  Dark Beyond the Stars Anthology)

  ACTION ADVENTURE

  Wrecked (2-book series)

  PARANORMAL

  Duality (2-book series)

  Pocket Full of Sunshine (short story & screenplay)

  ROMANCE

  All the Glory

  By Degrees

  Rebel (3-book series)

  Don’t Make Me Beautiful

  Shine Not Burn (2-book series)

  Full Measure (written as Kat Lee)

  Just One Night (romantic serial)

  Just One Week (romantic serial)

  Love in New York (3-book series)

  Mismatched (with Amanda McKeon)

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  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Elle Casey is a prolific, New York Times and USA Today bestselling American writer who lives in Southern France with her husband, three kids, and several furry friends. She writes in several genres and publishes an average of one full-length novel per month.

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