I grinned. “You can try.”
* * *
Elex’s hand spun small circles on the skin of my back.
“Anything?”
I turned the page of the book I was leafing through. “Nothing. I keep trying to figure out how I don’t know this, but there’s nothing.”
Dropping a kiss on my cheek, Elex climbed out of bed where we had finally made it hours earlier.
Sneaking around the temple grounds in a ripped tunic and my legs still trembling from the amazing fucking I’d just had was more excitement than I had needed.
Naturally, as soon as we got into my apartments, Elex pushed me against the wall and made me come again.
Then again in the shower.
And at least twice more in the bed.
I delighted in the feel of him, fully inside of me. And, thankfully, there would be no children until we’re ready.
With the way we were fucking, it was a very good thing.
The volume we were reading in the bed was one of the most concise, most recent books on the Breaking Times and the Breaker of the Spine.
I still didn’t remember reading this story. Ever.
Shortly, I lost interest in the book as Elex’s naked glory moved around the room. I was falling for him and his animalistic bedroom persona, hard.
And there was nothing wrong with the fine, tight ass he had either.
“Are you reading still or are you gazing at my dick?”
“I’m not reading, but I was more interested in your rear end at the moment.”
He angled himself to see his backside in the mirror. “Mm. Yes. I can see why you’re looking.”
Rolling my eyes, I turned back to the book.
“Put on some underclothes, please. I do want to read some of this. My poor girl bits need a break, too.”
Laughing, he trotted into the bathroom, and I was finally able to turn back to the book.
The Breaker of the Spine was a significant part of the legends. They were more than just a strong magic wielder. They were meant to command the spine as it fell and direct the power of the crumbling stone and keep the people of S’Kir safe.
I felt as though I had failed my students by not telling them the story.
Elex reappeared and sat on the edge of the bed, peering down at the pages in front of me.
“Was there anything ever in your life that would make you forget this legend?”
“You’ve known me how long?”
“Since you were in college. Not your whole life, but quite a bit of it.”
“Then you tell me if there was anything out of the ordinary.”
His eyes bore into mine. There was nothing suggestive or sexual about this stare. “You don’t think there was?”
“No. Why would I?”
He stood and folded his arms. “Your parents are gone.”
“There are a lot of us who have lost our parents.”
The bed dipped as he sat down next to me. “Not everyone loses their parents the way you did.”
“It was an accident.”
“But it’s not something that everyone experiences. Is there anything there that might have caused you to forget?”
My forehead wrinkled. “Forget just one thread of thousands of my life?”
“We live in a world of magic, Kimber. Isn’t it possible?”
I plopped my face into my pillow. “I can’t believe I would lose just that story.”
The pillow partly absorbed my words, but I knew Elex heard me when his hand stroked my hair.
“It happened out in the Great Western Bay, didn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“Let’s go.”
I snapped my head up. “What?”
“Let’s go. Maybe being there will jog your memory for the story or something else that happened there to rob you of it.”
“It will take three days to get there by horse and carriage.”
Laughing, he stood. “We can take the train. We’ll be there in half a day.”
“The train? I’ve never…”
“We’re part of the temple now, my sweetness, and we can get the train in the morning.”
I rolled to my side and stared up at him. “The morning?”
I knew damn well I wasn’t wearing anything at that moment, and the sheet was down at my waist.
His eyes went straight to my now-bare breasts.
“Definitely in the morning.”
* * *
I hadn’t been to the Great Western Bay since the day my parents had died. I had nothing but good memories of the place destroyed by that awful day.
As the blue bay rolled into view, a terrible shiver ran up my spine. I didn’t want to be here.
No, it was more than just not wanting to be there. It was almost a push against me. As strong as when the mountain had pulled.
Elex’s fingers entwined with mine.
“Take a deep breath, Kimber.”
“I’m trying.”
He shook his head. “If I had known that you were going to react this badly, I might not have suggested this.”
“I had no idea I was going to react like this, Elex. I haven’t been here since they dragged their bodies out of the water.”
He sucked a breath in through his teeth.
My words were harsh, but it was how I dealt with the anger that remained from their deaths.
“You’ve never come back?”
“What reason would I have? I can swim in the river or in the southern sea.”
I saw the marina where my father hand launched our boat from as the train passed by it, pulling closer to the station.
I still had their boat docked somewhere in that marina.
My stomach roiled.
“Elex, I’m not getting off this train. I’m not. I don’t want to be here.”
“I’m sorry, my sweet. This was a bad idea.”
I shook my head. “This isn’t your fault. They were young when they died. Younger than we are now.”
“You were not a child.”
“No, but it wasn’t fair and it—”
The words got caught in my throat. I didn’t want to throw up, but I was getting close.
“Do you remember the accident?”
The train track turned, and the sun flashed in my eyes, making me cringe. I didn’t want to remember that day, not today, not ever.
“It’s just a stupid story. Take me home. I’ll read about it there.”
Clearly disappointed, Elex drooped into his seat. “As you wish, Kimber. I was just hoping…”
“I was on the boat when they died, Elex.”
He swiveled around in the seat. “What?”
“I was on the boat when they died. I was in the accident too.”
“I didn’t know that.”
I nodded slowly. “Most people assume that I was sitting on the beach with my nose in a book. But I wasn’t. I was on the boat with them. I loved sailing.”
I froze.
I had loved sailing. Why had I not remembered that until just now? Why was so angry at the boat? The boat did what it was supposed—
Oh.
Gods.
I grabbed Elex’s forearm with my other arm.
“The boat did what it was supposed to, Elex. It kept me above the water. But my father died making sure I was on the boat, making sure I could get my hands on the topside.”
His eyes searched my face. “Go on.”
The blue ocean flashed in the corner of my vision, and again, it was like someone unlocking vaults deep in my brain.
“It was a good day for sailing. There was a substantial wind, but nothing outrageous. We weren’t all that far out but around a cove. I was on the boat because we had come out for the weekend. Mom insisted and said I spent too much time tucked in a book.
“Something rammed the boat. I remember the main mast shaking wildly and the sails losing their billow. Mom screamed and…disappeared over the side. Dad went after her.”
I gas
ped and snapped my head around to the water.
“They were soul mates, Elex. Bonded soul mates. He would never have been able to live without her. That’s why he went after her. He didn’t care if he lived or died, just as long as he followed her. And when the… ropes…nets came and pulled me off the boat...
“I saw my mother dead on the bottom.”
Elex barely had time to get the bag over to me before I vomited.
My mother’s dead body was caught in a fishing net, and she floated in the kelp there.
“My father swam over to me and used every ounce of his magic and energy to get me out of the nets. He swam me back to the boat and shoved me up out of the water and onto the dive platform on the back of the boat.”
I smeared the tears off my own face.
“He never came back up. Why didn’t I remember this? Why was all of this missing from my mind? Someone murdered my parents!”
I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t see for the tears that were crowding my vision.
Someone had murdered my parents.
Why?
I didn’t know what happened in the next few moments, but somehow we were on the platform for the train, and I could smell the fresh ocean air tinged with salt.
“Breathe, Kimber. Breathe,” Elex whispered
“I’m trying.”
I was, desperately.
It wasn’t easy, though, after thinking for forty-five years that my parents had died in a boat accident, and they hadn’t.
Elex had me tucked into his side on the bench and just waited for my hysteria to clear.
It did, eventually. Only took about three more hysterical outbursts.
“And you were never able to remember that until now?” Elex’s voice was low and kind.
“Not until we just got here.”
“Someone suppressed the memories and left this area as a trigger if you ever came back.” He smoothed my hair carefully.
“Why? Why did they kill them?”
“We don’t have to figure that out right now.”
“They were only twenty-five years older than I am. They were young. They were so lucky…”
“Please breathe, Kimber.”
It hit me that he was horribly worried about me, and I sucked in a few deep, slow breaths to steady myself.
“Back to the city, Elex. Take me back. I don’t want to be here. I don’t want to be near this place.”
Nodding, he helped me stand, then we walked toward the train, and he helped me on. We ambled to the seats.
“I didn’t remember my parents’ death.”
This was a nightmare.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
~KIMBER~
Dorian ran a hand through his hair.
Danai offered me another cup of tea. “Are you feeling a little more collected?”
“I am.” I accepted the cup.
Elex hadn’t left my side in nearly twelve hours, and he looked just as frazzled as I felt.
We both needed to sleep.
Tymon walked back into the room holding a folder with dozens of papers inside that he paged through.
“The police dug up the reports for me, as quickly as they could,” he said, sitting down next to me. “They had archived them, so that’s why it took so long.”
“Anything interesting?” Lunella asked.
“Curiously, it’s obvious in these reports they were murdered. There’s no question about what happened.”
I dropped my face into my hands. “They messed with my mind.”
“I’m afraid so.” Tymon flopped the folder onto the table. “So the question then would be who had access to you immediately after their deaths?”
“And what was their motivation to keep those memories oppressed?” Danai asked.
I didn’t know how to feel or what to think. Someone had been in my brain, as a grown woman, and messed with my memories.
“Would you like one of the doctors to come and give you something to calm down?” Lunella considered me.
“If I need that, I’ll have a drink, instead,” I answered.
“Let me just take her back to her apartments.” Elex’s eyes had a pleading in them, and I knew he was worried about me.
Dorian’s finger waved a ‘no’ in the air between all of us. “All he’s going to do is take her home for a romp.”
“For your information, Master Dorian, this poor woman needs a long nap, and I’m the only one here who seems to actually care that she’s exhausted. She won’t be vertical much longer.”
Nodding, I curled into him. “Yes. He’s right. I need to sleep. Please. This has been open for forty-five years. It can wait another day or two.”
After a long pause, Dorian nodded to the others.
“Yes, it’s fine. We’ll deal with this later.”
“Thank you.” Elex stood and offered his hand to me so I could stand more easily.
I didn’t know what happened in the few seconds between his hand reaching out for me and the next time I opened my eyes to see the sky above me filled with billowing dust and the smell of rancid fire.
Coughing and trying to sit up, I discovered that I couldn’t hear much more than ringing in my ears.
Slowly, carefully, I turned my head to scan the area.
My neck was stiff, but nothing seemed to be broken in any way.
I could see parts of buildings still standing, and other parts collapsed into themselves. There were a few fires around here and there, and the bushes on fire were the source of the stink in the area.
Everything came together in the next moment.
The building had been bombed.
I was sitting in the rubble and breathing in the dust of the collapse.
“Elex!” His name was the first one off my lips. “Elex!”
“Kimber!”
The voice, not Elex’s, came from my right and under some bricks. I scrambled over some of the rubble and started throwing bricks off the piles
Just a few dozen bricks revealed Tymon’s face, cut and bloodied, but alive and relieved.
“Thank you,” he gasped.
Pulling more bricks back, I freed his arm, and with that, he was able to help me start to free him as well.
“What happened?”
Tymon tried to shrug. “Building was bombed. We’ll have to figure out by who.”
The next brick I pulled off revealed a very distinct lock of hair.
I froze.
Tymon rose from the brick tomb he was in and saw me standing with the brick in my hand. He looked down and nearly leapt to his feet, yanking me away.
“Go find Elex. Go.”
I wasn’t about to disobey. Not when I was almost sure that Danai was lying there dead below the remains of the Rotunda.
Picking my way carefully but quickly over the rubble, I kept calling for Elex.
Fear gripped me as I did.
I didn’t want to find him in the same position as I had just seen Danai.
I needed him in my life.
I wanted him there.
He might not have been my soul mate, but I loved him.
I loved Elex.
“Elex!”
I saw a little firework of magic pop above a brick, and I rubbed my eyes. I had to be hallucinating.
Another one popped up.
“Elex?”
Another.
My feet carried me to the source of the magical pops. I fell to my knees on the rough cement in the area. I dug through, heaving pieces of concrete and plaster out of the way, physically and with my magic.
Elex’s face appeared in the rubble.
I saw his face clearly for just a second before the tears crowded in.
“Don’t cry, gorgeous,” he whispered.
“It’s the dust, asshole. It’s in my eyes.”
He chuckled.
At least we still had our sense of humor.
“Kimber!”
Grabbing Elex’s outstretched hand, I turned to see Dorian practically fl
ying over the detritus of his now-former home.
He landed on his knees next to Elex and me, nearly ripping my hands off my arms as he pulled me away.
“Go. You have to go. You have to get out of here.”
“What? No! I have to stay!”
He grasped my hands in his, letting his eyes bore into me. “You must go. This was to kill you, to weaken the temple. Go.”
“Elex—”
“Will be cared for and safe here with us.”
His grip was careful, but firm, and his eyes shown with something new, something…
“Go!”
“Where?” The word tore from my throat and rent the air.
“To the cave. Go to the cave. It is there for you. It’s meant to shelter you. Get out of here!”
The urge to lean back and kiss Elex for reassurance nearly broke me, but I managed to pull away.
After just a few steps, my feet found their strides, and I ran like the wind, hoping that I could make my way to the Cave of the Breaking before someone tried to snatch me away.
They needed me safe as much as I need them to be safe.
I would see Elex—and Dorian—again soon.
CHAPTER THIRTY
~ GWYNNORE ~
I stood before the Council again, barely 24 hours after the Challenge was issued. I had showered and napped before calling them to the chamber.
Nial was sitting back in his chair, flipping through some inane human magazine once more. He had showered as well but had disappeared for a few hours. I’d had to wait for him before I could call the meeting.
“Back so soon, Gwynnore?” Lord Belshazzar showed no emotion.
“I trust you didn’t just gut him like a fish?” Lord Otto was definitely smirking.
“No, my Lords. I didn’t gut them. I resoundingly defeated the Challenge as Lord Cato had issued it.”
“Master Niallan, what say the Monitor of Challenge?”
He flipped a page. “She beat the snot out of it.”
“Could you please be a little less flippant?” Lord Otto sighed.
Nial pointed to the television monitor, and it flipped on. He never let the overlords forget his druid power. I watched as the current news came up, and the handiwork I had put in was on full display a moment later.
“Ginter, his fiancée, and a third unknown woman were found dead at his estate this morning. Preliminary reports from the police and the coroner’s office are pointing to a suicide pact the three made. A note left for Ginter’s brother stated that they could no longer handle living in a polyamorous lifestyle and hiding it constantly from public eyes. The note directs his brother, Paul, to take up the torch of justice and run for the seat in the Senate this coming fall. There is no evidence of foul play and the—”
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