by Amber Lynn
Feeling where Nate was, I made my way in his direction. I saw him talking to a person, who I could only see the back of. When Nate noticed me, he smiled and waved me over. The man with him turned so I could see his face, and my eyes widened in surprise.
“Oh my God, Jimmy!” I yelled, running over to give him a hug. “What in the world are you doing here?”
“Hey, pretty lady,” he said, hugging me back. “Where did the shy, timid girl I remember go?”
“I’ve been spending too much time with Nate, obviously,” I replied, stepping back and standing next to Nate. “So again I ask, what are you doing here?”
“Your brother called and told me to get my butt to New York. Didn’t sound like I had much of an option. I didn’t really need a command to come see you again, though.”
“But if you’re here for the meeting, that means,” I said, trailing off.
“What? That I’m not human. You’d be correct. I would be the leader of the fox groups,” he replied, looking at me questioningly.
The Mr. Fox comments made a lot more sense. Thinking back to when Jimmy and I first met, I couldn’t remember anything that would’ve given me any clues that he wasn’t a normal person.
“Shut up,” I said, smacking his shoulder. “You gave me some sob story about your parents dying of cancer. You’re such a jerk. I believed every word of it.”
“Well, you pretended to be a college student,” he countered. “It’s not like you didn’t already know otherwise.”
“Of course I didn’t know, and they are totally not the same thing. I was undercover for one, and two, I told almost all truths. You told a bunch of lies. Is Julie even your sister?” I asked.
“Yes, she really is my sister, and was really kidnapped and the case itself actually really happened. We both just pretended to be things that weren’t really true,” he answered. I was pretty sure he threw in that last really just for good measure.
“You were so scared Julie would get shot, but the bullet was never a threat to her,” I said, smacking him on the other shoulder.
“No, it wouldn’t have killed her, but it would have hurt like hell. You’ve been shot before. How good did that feel?”
“You’re still a jerk.” It felt odd smiling while I said that, but it couldn’t be helped. “That being said, how’s my friend Ettie working out? She told me she ended up taking a job with you.”
I’d only been able to keep up with the woman via email, as she’d been in the middle of moving and I’d been in the middle of remembering I was a phoenix queen. She seemed stoked to work with people who weren’t pompous idiots, though, and I was happy I could help her out.
“Real well. She has an amazing brain in between those ears of hers,” he replied. I was pretty sure it was a compliment, so I didn’t hit him again.
“Good, you better be treating her well or you’ll be answering to me,” I said, turning to Nate. “I assume, being the supreme leader, you already knew who Jimmy was the entire investigation, or should I say what he was.”
“Yes, I knew who and what he was, I didn’t know how he was involved, and I didn’t want to ruin the case, so I pushed you to be the lead undercover person. That almost ended up backfiring on me when, like every other male you run into, he showed an interest in you.”
“It looks like jerk is going to be my word of the day. What time is it anyway?” I asked, still not really oriented from being out for days.
“It’s morning, so you have the full day to utilize your word of the day,” Nate answered.
“Good, where did Rick go to? I’m sure he’s done something jerky within the last five minutes.” I didn’t need any magic crystal balls to know that was true.
“He’s entertaining some of our other guests. The big meeting won’t be until tomorrow, and Jimmy wanted to get a chance to say hi without everyone else around,” Nate said.
“I also wanted to pledge my support for any decision you end up making during this conference,” Jimmy said.
“Are you sure? We may be suggesting that we kill all firstborn children.” It wasn’t my best comeback, but it was the first thing to come to mind.
“I know you well enough to know that’s not the case. Even if you’ve stepped out of your shell, I doubt you’ve turned to the dark side,” he said.
“You never know, I hear they have cookies,” I replied. “So what are the plans for the day?”
“Sorry, my little butterfly, but you’ll be in training most of the day. Nadine has agreed to stay at least a week to help you learn as much as you can before you may be called on to use those powers,” Nate informed me. “Oh, but before that, your parents wanted to see you. They drove up when we first brought you back here.”
“Good, I have a few questions for them anyway. You could probably answer them for me, but I want to get it straight from the horse’s mouth.”
“Avery, silly, your parents aren’t horses,” Jimmy said jokingly. “I heard the horses weren’t even coming to this meeting.”
“Very funny, jerk,” I said back to him. I turned to Nate and asked, “Does he know about all the issues with my head?” The funny looks I kept receiving made me think Jimmy didn’t know the whole story of what was going on in my life.
“Not really. We’ve kept that little issue out of general unique gossip. Most of the leaders will be learning for the first time tomorrow. He probably thought you were a little odd when you met, because you didn’t act like you recognized him for what he is. None of us had officially met, but you should’ve known he wasn’t human.”
“I am in the room, you know,” Jimmy said. “Are you saying she really didn’t know who I was when we met last year? It wasn’t an act?”
“No, I didn’t know who you were, jerk. You probably made that story more depressing because you thought I’d see through it, but I didn’t.”
“Holy crap, what happened to her?” Jimmy asked Nate before I could explain anything else.
“’Her’ can answer the question better than he can. During my last resurrection I decided to take on sorceress powers, but in order to do it, I had to give up temporary knowledge of all my memories. I didn’t know who Nate was when we were set up on a blind date, if that’s any indicator of how bad things were.”
“She’s regaining memories now. In fact, today is the first day she really remembers who I am without me reminding her we’re soulmates,” Nate added.
“Shut up,” Jimmy said, copying my line from earlier. “This is just too funny.”
“It’s not, jerk. Can you imagine forgetting your own children?” I asked.
“Since I don’t have any children, I don’t have that issue, but I could see how that might get you down. Especially with your children, they’ve all made something for themselves,” Jimmy replied.
“Just wait for the next one, I hear eventually we get a real overachiever,” Nate told him.
“No one said that would be our very next child. I don’t want you putting undue pressure on any future children,” I said as I elbowed him.
“Wait, future children?” Jimmy said, looking disturbed by those words. “Have you guys both been hit in the head? We’ve stopped having children for a while now.”
“Yeah, that’s exactly what I need to talk to my parents about. Where are they?” I asked.
“You seem to be in one of your moods, let me call them for you,” Nate said. He then proceeded to send them a message warning that I was a little testy.
“No fair warning them,” I said when he received the confirmation they were on their way. “You do remember with this whole bonding thing we don’t even have to try to listen in to each other’s thoughts anymore. They’re just there.”
It kind of reminded me of what Eva was saying about not really reading my mind. It was probably a good thing that I had my memories back of how it felt. If I hadn’t been expecting it, I would’ve wigged out hearing Nate constantly.
“I know. Now if anyone wants to keep a secret from you, they have to keep i
t from me as well. You’ll remember that I always find ways to surprise you, though.”
“Congratulations, you two,” my dad said, entering the room. “It’s nice to see you guys bonded back together. I thought we’d had a few more weeks before the big event.” Rick’s big mouth had evidently been working overtime if they’d heard we’d set a date.
“I can’t believe you didn’t let others witness the ceremony,” my mother said, coming in and giving me a hug. “After all these years, we should’ve had a chance to join in the occasion.”
“You missed how romantic I was about the whole thing,” I told her sarcastically. “It was not exactly a Hallmark moment.”
“I wouldn’t say that. We weren’t there for it, but we felt the love behind the words you said. It brought tears to my eyes,” she said. I didn’t bother telling her it did the same thing to me.
“Yeah, but you cry at everything. You cried when that singer shaved her head. Anyway, that isn’t why I wanted to talk to you guys. I want to know how in the world I was born.”
“If you really want to know, your mother made me tape it, but I don’t think it’s a video anyone should actually watch. We’re pretty open about things, but I think that video is a tad bit private,” my dad said.
I quickly glazed over the fact that a video existed. I didn’t want my mind to have a chance of imagining what was on that tape.
“No, you say I came out of mom that’s fine, but how in the world did I get put in there? Everyone says we don’t have babies anymore, yet twenty-five years ago I was magically born.”
“Oh that, will it help if I say we don’t have a clue either?” my mom said.
“No, that would probably make it worse,” I told her. If anyone had the answer, the two of them had to know.
“We really don’t know. We weren’t trying to have a baby, if you get my meaning,” my dad said, winking like that would help me figure out what his words meant.
“So I just appeared in your stomach one day?” I asked.
“Yeah, similar to that whole Immaculate Conception thing in the human bible,” my dad said.
“Please don’t tell me I’m some second coming of Jesus,” I said. If I was, the world was really in trouble.
“God I hope not,” Nate said. “You’re already difficult enough to live with.”
“I don’t think so,” my mom said, but not before I stomped on Nate’s foot for his comment. “I just think that because we’re cursed or whatever, that it was the only way for you to come back. I mean, we didn’t know it was really you, so we were shocked to even be pregnant. Looking back over the years, it was obvious who you were, though. I can’t believe how long it took us to figure it out.”
“So I’ve heard. While I was recently napping, I got to relive my tenth birthday party that I thankfully was forced to forget. A circus, what could you have been thinking, Mom?”
“You ended up enjoying yourself, but you’re right, it’s weird you never mentioned it after that day,” she replied.
“One of the Fates gave me a visit that day and when she realized I didn’t remember her, she wiped the whole day from my mind. Supposedly the warlocks spell was going to make me relive a day as a baby, so I’m semi thankful for her intervening and steering it towards ten-year-old me,” I explained. “So, if I would’ve come back like I normally do, I would’ve just appeared at your house one day fully grown, right?”
“Yup, this time you were baby you, which we hadn’t seen in centuries, so we didn’t recognize you” my dad confirmed.
“Okay, you’ve totally lost me,” Jimmy says. “I have a feeling I should just wait until tomorrow and hear the whole story with the rest of the group.”
“That would probably be best. It’s a pretty long story and Avery needs to get to her training. I’m hoping the next time you get put under a spell, you can figure out a way to counteract it yourself,” Nate said.
“I’d really like that. I could’ve cut out before the clowns arrived.”
Nate started laughing, the big jerk. “Nadine is waiting for you in the gym. She sectioned off an area for your training. Have fun and try to stay away from any wayward clowns.”
I gave him an evil glare and said, “Jerk,” before making my way out of the room.
I heard Nate’s mind say, “You still love me.”
“Only on Tuesdays,” I replied back.
CHAPTER 23
Hey, magic really is easy
