“Forgiven you?”
“Yes. For Charity.”
“Oh, that?” She shrugged her shoulders. “Duncan, there’s nothing to forgive. Like I told her, lying to you doesn’t count, and as for the others …” She frowned. “We all have a past and have made bad decisions. It’s part of who we are, right?”
He knew what she was trying to tell him, of course. And while the thought of Julianna having been with other men made him want to break things, he knew that was part of her past, and what made her who she was. His wonderful, beautiful, smart Julianna. “You were magnificent tonight.”
“Really? Which part?”
“All of it.” He stepped forward, crowding her so she had to move back. “When you charmed the prince. All your witty insults. This dress.” His finger caressed the top edge of the silky fabric, and his knuckles brushed against her soft skin. “You were so regal, like a queen.”
“Why, thank you. Oh!” She glanced around, probably just realizing that he’d walked her back all the way to the edge of the bed. “Duncan—”
“No more talking.” He swiftly cut her off with a kiss before pushing her down on the mattress. Kneeling down, he lifted one long, slim leg and slung it over his shoulder. “It’s time to lie back and think of England, my queen.”
Chapter Twelve
Julianna slipped from under Duncan’s heavy arm and quietly crept out of bed. Not that she needed to be silent, because he slept like the dead. After brushing her teeth and doing her business in the bathroom, she put her robe on and headed to the small desk to sit in front of her laptop. With all the distractions of the last few days, she hadn’t had time to properly answer emails and get some work done.
There were a dozen new emails in her inbox, but the very last one was what made her fingers hover over the trackpad reluctantly. It was from Lucas with the subject line Next Steps. She didn’t have to open it to know what it was about. Lucas had her next assignments all lined up and was probably asking when to send the jet to pick her up.
If he had asked her two days ago, she would have said to get her out of there ASAP. But now … Her chest tightened, and her wolf let out an unhappy yowl. The animal had grown too attached to Duncan.
Fuck.
She had grown too attached to Duncan. It was something she didn’t want to happen, did everything in her power so it did not happen, but it happened anyway. Somehow, someway, that damned Scot had wormed his way under her skin. Last night, she didn’t need him to defend her against Charity; indeed, she’d almost expected him to stay quiet so as not to offend the Alpha, but he stood behind her and supported her when she refused to take the other woman’s rudeness.
Part of her sang with happiness. But then she remembered all the work she had to do and what was ahead. Lucas was counting on her. All the Lycans were counting on her, and now she was torn. Fate had barreled into her and knocked away all her plans.
She reached into her robe and lifted the gold disc into the palm of her hand. The wolf stared back at her forebodingly. I can’t let Lucas down. This medal was a reminder that he trusted her and that she had so much more work to do in order to stop the mages.
“Haven’t I exhausted you enough to knock that jet lag out?” came a sleepy, raspy voice from the bed.
She couldn’t stop the smile forming even if she tried. “It’s eight in the morning, Duncan. Most normal people are up at this hour.”
“Aye, but we’re far from normal.” She heard him let out a grunt as he stretched. “Come back to bed darlin’. Oliver’s going to be disappointed if we don’t use up that box of condoms he gave me last night.”
“You mean, the one you stole from his bathroom?”
“Potato, potatoh.” The sheets rustled, followed by light footsteps as he came up behind her, so she closed the lid of her laptop. “What’re you doin?”
“Catching up on emails. Don’t you have work to do?”
“I haven’t had a real vacation in five years.” His talented fingers massaged her shoulders as he leaned down close. “My da and Finlay can spare me for another day or two. Speaking of vacation, maybe it’s time you had some fun, too.”
“This isn’t exactly a vacation for me,” she said. “I’m supposed to be working.” That was something to she needed to tell herself, no matter how distracting Duncan was.
His mouth hovered over her ear; his breath hot. “Aye, but you’ve done so much already. Getting an alliance with two clans, plus the assistance of the royal family. That has to count for something, right?”
“I … uh … suppose.” Damn him, it was hard to say no when he doing lovely things to her neck with his mouth. “What did you have in mind?”
“A day out in London,” he murmured against her shoulder. “Just you and me.”
Later—much later—that morning, Julianna found herself in the passenger seat of the sleek Aston Martin borrowed from the Alpha’s fleet of cars as Duncan drove them into London. Seeing as he’d lived here for a few years, he already knew where to go to show her the highlights—London Bridge, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, and Piccadilly Circus and—though Julianna thought it was terribly touristy—they also went on the London Eye.
“How about some food?” Duncan asked as they alighted from the glass cage.
“I’m famished,” she declared. “But believe it or not, I’m getting tired of scones and pastries. I miss all the diverse food I can get in New York.”
“I know just the place to go then.”
They drove south, to a trendy little area called Brixton Market. He explained that this was the center of the Afro-Caribbean community in London. They popped into a Turkish cafe and feasted on meat skewers and flat bread. Afterwards, they walked down the rows of shops marveling at the colorful handicrafts, fabrics, bric-a-brac, and exotic spices all around them.
She dragged him from shop to shop, and while he didn’t seem to mind, she could tell he was getting impatient. “One more store, I promise.” While she wasn’t a fan of shopping, she realized she hadn’t gotten anyone any souvenirs from her trip. She had seen the cutest baby onesies in one of the shops, and she wanted to go back to get matching ones for her future nieces or nephews. “Oooh!” She held up little socks in a blue color. “Aren’t these adorable?”
“You’d prefer a boy, huh?” Duncan wiggled his eyebrows. “I’d be happy with either, as long as our baby was healthy.”
“Moron,” she said playfully, swatting him on the face with the socks. A warm feeling spread in her belly at the thought of a tiny baby with dark blond hair and mismatched blue and green eyes.
He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close. “Julianna, we need to talk—”
“Help, me please!”
The cry made them both stop. “What was that?” She glanced around. There was a woman frantically running in their direction, stopping to talk with one of the shopkeepers. He shook his head and her face twisted in agony as she turned away. When she locked eyes with Julianna, she sprinted toward them.
“Please, miss.” Hands grabbed at Julianna’s arms. “My baby. I can’t find her.” The woman’s breath came in big heaving gasps. “I turned around for one second and then she was gone. You have to help—”
“Calm down, ma’am, I can’t help if I don’t understand you.” Julianna placed her hands on the woman’s shoulders to still her. “Breathe. That’s it. Now, tell us what happened.”
“My baby … she’s only two.” Tears pooled in her eyes. “I told her to stay put, and she usually does. I handed my card over to the cashier, and when I looked down, she was gone!” A sob escaped her throat. “Please, you have to help me find her!”
“If she’s only two, she can’t have gone too far.” She remembered her mother saying that toddlers did have a tendency to wander off. “I’m sure we can find her quickly. Where did you last see her?”
“Julianna,” Duncan cleared his throat. “Maybe we should go to the information booth and ask them for help.”
“Please,” the woman cried. “The information counter is all the way at the other end. It’ll take too long.”
“Fine,” Duncan relented. “Show us where you were when she wandered off.”
They followed the woman as she zigzagged through the various alleys and lanes of the interconnected arcades. It was dizzying, with the riot of colors and smells of spices overloading her senses, but Julianna didn’t want to waste any more time. There were so many places a small child could get into and lots of dangers abound.
“Where the bloody hell are we?” Duncan asked in an impatient voice.
“We—”
A wail sounded in the distance. “That’s her!” the woman said. “My baby!” She darted into the nearest alleyway with Julianna and Duncan right behind her. The alley stunk, like rotting food and trash. The woman stood there, with her back to them.
“Did you find her? Is she here?” Julianna asked.
Slowly, the woman turned around. Her anxious expression was gone, now replaced with a menacing smile. “Stupid dogs. Can’t believe you fell for that one.”
Julianna’s wolf’s hackles rose, but before she could spring into action, her vision was filled with green fog. Potion!
She crumpled to the ground, and Duncan fell right beside her. This time, the potion felt stronger, as even her mind was shutting down. The last thing she remembered was three figures standing over them chanting strange words.
Slowly, Julianna regained consciousness, and while it took a while to get her wits about her, she instantly knew she was in big trouble, if the fact that she was lying on her stomach on a damp cement floor was any indication.
A groan beside her startled her. It was dark, but her eyes adjusted, and she saw Duncan was there too. Scratch that earlier thought, they were in big trouble.
“Duncan!” When she tried to move, she felt something wrapped around her tighten. “Fuck these fucking ropes!” She relaxed her body, and while the magical bindings stopped constricting her, they still kept her from struggling.
“Are you all right, darlin’?”
“I’m fine. I just feel like an idiot.” Fucking mages. God, how could she have fallen for their tricks? Maybe it was the thought of babies and then seeing someone in distress that made her blind and naive.
“Och, don’t be too hard on yourself, we were both duped.” He groaned as he propped himself up against the wall. “Fine performance that lady gave. Shoulda won an award.”
Well, no use crying over spilt milk. “We need to find a way to get out of here.” Though it took her much effort, she managed to sit up.
“These fucking ropes …” Duncan struggled, then let out a frustrated gasp. “How are we going to get these off?”
“Short answer, you don’t.”
A single bulb lit up above them, making her shut her eyes as the brightness overwhelmed her enhanced sight. Slowly, she opened her eyes. Her vision returned to normal, and the blurry figure in front of her came into focus.
Standing in front of them was the same mage who attacked them back in Scotland. He was wearing a red robe that matched the color of his eyes and made his pale skin look even sallower underneath the yellow light. “Amazing bit of magic, aren’t they? Took a while to perfect them … same for all our new tricks, really, but we’ve had three decades to plot our revenge.”
“How many people did you have to kill and blessed witches to coerce?” she asked.
The mage laughed. “Does it matter? Magus Aurelius himself sacrificed hundreds of lives to ensure his legacy and power would live on.” He leaned down to capture her chin in his bony fingers. “One more won’t make a difference.”
“You keep your hands to yourself, mage!” Duncan shouted. He tried to lunge toward the mage, but was quickly held back by the rope.
“Tsk, tsk, you dirty dogs really aren’t too smart, are you?” Stained teeth bared in an evil grin. “Please, keep going. The more you move, the more the rope will squeeze every last bit of air from your lungs. It’ll save me the trouble of killing you.”
“No, stop! Don’t hurt him!” The words came out of her mouth too fast, and she realized she had shown her cards too early. But she would do anything to save Duncan. “What do you want?”
“What else? I want the dagger.”
“You already have the ability to teleport yourself and others,” she pointed out. “That’s how you were able to ambush us and escape, right? And how you got us here from Brixton?”
The mage laughed. “Smart girl. But that’s only one piece of the puzzle. We need all three. Of course, with just the dagger, we may be able to change everything. But you already know that.”
She swallowed, and a truly terrible feeling washed over her. They couldn’t possibly know—
“So, why else do you think we want it?” He stared down at her with those scary crimson eyes. “No answer? Perhaps we should ask His Grace, Reed Townsend, Duke of Huntington.”
Ice froze in every vein in her body. They know.
“Julianna?” Duncan looked at her, confused. “What are they saying?”
She swallowed and closed her eyes. He was never supposed to know. And even if he was, this wasn’t how she wanted to tell him.
“I can see you’re confused,” the mage said. “We were too, until you and your companions came back from 1820 and proved that Hugh Richardson—or Malachi, as we now know—hadn’t been lying in his diaries.”
“Diaries?” Julianna asked.
“The day before he died—rather, before you and your companions killed him—he had his solicitor draw up an agreement with a large London law firm to act on his behalf in the event of his death. In the agreement, he stated that once a Ms. Elise Henney was born in the United States two hundred years into the future, that his diary was to be sent to one of three people.” He took out a worn, leather-bound book from inside his robes. “Of course, in all that time, the law firm had gone through so many changes, and the agreement wasn’t executed until an intern found the contract gathering dust in the archives and had it sent to me a few weeks ago. Too bad it came too late, really.” He sighed. “We could have avoided all this, and you and your dreadful kind would now be our slaves.”
“What’s going on, Julianna?” Duncan’s brows drew together. “I don’t understand.”
“Let me dumb this down for you, you sniveling dog,” the mage said. “Julianna, Elise Henney, and that damned hybrid were transported back to England in the year 1820. Reed ‘Wakefield’ isn’t who you think he is. He is Lord Reed Townsend, former Duke of Huntington, who traveled through time to wind up here in our present.”
“England in 1820?” A cycle of emotions flashed across his face—disbelief, confusion, hurt—before settling on one that made the pit in Julianna’s stomach grow. Hurt. “You … it was you …”
“Ah, finally, you’re getting it,” the mage sneered. “Now, it’s only a matter of time before we get our hands on the dagger and the last artifact as well. Daly left some clues as to where it could be, and soon we’ll track it down, too.”
Julianna ignored the pain in her chest. “You’ll never get it! I’d rather you kill me first before they hand it over.”
“Oh, you will die for sure,” he said. “Both of you will.”
No! Her wolf struggled inside her, yearning to be free. To kill the mage for daring to threaten their mate. “You monster!”
“Some might say you’re the monster.” His expression was chilly, making Julianna shudder. “You and your kind are abominations! The fact that you’re still around makes me want to scream with the injustice of it all. When I am finished with you, there will be—” He stopped as the lightbulb above them began to flicker. “What’s going on out there?” he barked.
The door flew open and someone—the woman who had tricked them—came inside. “I don’t know! It’s happening all over the building.”
Realization flooded the mage’s face. “It seems your idiot friends are mounting a rescue. No matter, we are
prepared. At least the hybrid saved us the trouble of having to capture her and her mate.” He turned toward the door, red robe sweeping the floor as he left the room.
The sound of the door slamming shut sounded so final in Julianna’s ears. Fuck, this was a mess. The mages. The artifact. And then there was Duncan, who was still and silent as a rock beside her. Taking a deep breath, she turned to him. His face was inscrutable, but from the way his lips thinned and his jaw tensed, she knew he was not happy. “Duncan, I—”
“Julianna.”
Every hair on her arm stood up as the familiar voice echoed in the dank, empty room. She double blinked at the person who had appeared out of thin air beside her. “C-C-Cross?”
The tall, Viking-like man nodded. With a wave of his hand, the ropes around her went limp and fell to the ground. “We don’t have much time. Elise is distracting them—oomph!”
She didn’t care if she hugged him too hard. Cross reminded her of home, plus it had been months since she’d seen him. She was overcome with emotion, and she had to find out if he was really here. And he was, if his solid bulk was any indication.
When he coughed discreetly, she let go of him. “But how did you know … have you been here before?” Although Cross’s power allowed him to move across great distances in the blink of an eye, it had one limitation—he had to have been there before or have seen it on a map.
“No. I tracked you down with the necklace. It’s infused with my magic.”
With a gasp, she placed her hand over her chest, feeling the gold disc under her shirt. “Holy shit.”
The lights flickered again. “Like I said, we don’t have much time.” He grabbed her hand and reached out to Duncan who looked like he wanted to protest, but it was too late.
A coldness wrapped around Julianna’s body. It wasn’t unpleasant nor unfamiliar, as she’d been transported by Cross a few times before. It was almost comforting in a way, reminding her of the past. Back when all she had to worry about was finding that dagger so she could get back home.
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