Time Mends (29 page)

“
I’m just saying, you
weren’t in that room. Sure, it sounded like Jase is making a deal
to turn you over to the She-Devil in exchange for a place in the
Alpha Pack, but that might not really be what is going down. You
should have a little more faith in your brother.”

I wanted to have more faith in Jase. I
really, truly did. But Jase is nothing if not opportunistic. He
likes being on top, being one of the cool kids. Sarvarna was
offering him admittance into the coolest of the cool kid clubs in
all of Shifterdom. Would he being willing to turn his back on me to
get in? Twenty-four ago I would’ve said no, but that conversation
was hard to dispute, no matter what Alex said.

“
What’s the trial going to
be like?” I asked, watching as my feet moved across the dirt. Step,
two, three, four. Pivot. Step, two, three, four. Pivot. Second
verse, same as the first.

Alex shrugged. “I don’t know.”

“
What do you mean you
don’t know?”

“
I mean, I don’t know. It
wasn’t like I ever got put on trial for anything. Unlike you, I was
a good little Shifter.”

I stopped so he would get the full brunt of
my evil eye. “Now you’re just being a brat.”

He leapt up in one of those graceful, only a
Shifter can do it moves that always managed to give my heart a
little jump. He really was beautiful. If nothing else, I was glad I
continued to have these dreams just so I wouldn’t forget what he
looked like.

“
Sorry,” he said, coming
to a stop in front of me as the puppy leapt around our feet
eagerly. I shivered slightly as he pushed a strand of hair behind
my ear. “I was just trying to lighten things up a little bit. I
don’t really know what to say or do here. This Spirit Guide gig
doesn’t come with a manual or anything.”

“
What? You didn’t get
your
Handbook for the Recently
Deceased
? I’m pretty sure those are
standard issue.”

Alex showed his dimples. “Big, hardback
thing with a cover straight out of 1955? Looked boring. Tossed it
in the garbage.”

I stepped into his arms and rested my head
on his shoulder. Things had changed since my big revelation about
how this was all just another aspect of my newly minted mental
illness. We still touched, but it was more out of comfort than
hormones. Still, the feel of his body against mine was one of the
most divine things in the world. If only I could stay there
forever.

Wait…

“
Alex, what happens when
someone dies?” Muscles tightened beneath my cheek. “Will I get to
come here and be with you?”

“
You are not going to
die.”

“
Sorry, but the Magic 8
Ball says, ‘All signs point to yes.’” I was to an odd point of
acceptance about the whole thing. Maybe it was the depression
talking, but ridding myself of all the drama didn’t sound like the
worst thing to ever happen. And if dying meant being with Alex,
wherever he was now, I was okay with that.

Alex, however, was not okay with it. At all.
Most of my sleeping hours in the cage were spent on the beach, and
an overwhelming number of them involved Alex hatching stellar
defenses and elaborate escape plans. I went back and forth between
being annoyed by his single-mindedness and feeling relief that my
subconscious was fighting so hard to keep me alive.

“
It’s not going to happen,
Scout. There is no way we came this far just to have you die now.
You have so much more you have to do.”

For the love of Pete. “Is this a destiny
thing? Because you know how I feel about that crap.”

Alex pulled back and locked his grey eyes
onto mine. “Why must you be so stubborn?”

“
I’m not stubborn, I’m
realistic.”

“
You’re
special.”

“
I’m a freak.”

His fingers played with a strand of my hair.
“You’re wrong. You’re the exact opposite of freak. You’re like the
anti-freak.”

“
Is that the same thing as
the Anti-Christ? Because I think that’s one of the things the
Alphas are charging me with.”

“
The Thaumaturgics aren’t
the Anti-Christ. I think most popular belief has them as Satan’s
minions on Earth.”

“
Do I look like a minion
to you? Or a witch for that matter.” I pulled back, freeing one of
my hands so it could grab a clump of my hair. “This? Not black and
bristly. I have no warts to speak of, and my nose is both dainty
and straight. Seriously, what is wrong with these
people?”

“
Actually, you’re supposed
to be able to tell a Thaumaturgic by her ethereal beauty.” He ran a
finger down the length of my nose and then tapped the end. “That’s
probably how they got so confused. They saw how gorgeous you are
and assumed you had to be otherworldly.”

I rolled my eyes, hoping it distracted from
the blush I could feel spreading across my cheeks. “You seem to
know a lot about these Thaumaturgics,” I said. “You know, it might
have been helpful for you to have mentioned them before. Like maybe
when I was asking if witches were real you could have said, ‘Sure,
but my people call them Thaumaturgics, because we’ve enjoyed way
too many role playing games.’”

Alex let me pull away completely. I rested
my hands on my hips; he folded his arms across his chest. All
systems go for what my father would call a “deep discussion.”

“
I didn’t tell you about
them because I don’t believe they really exist. And what would you
have done if you had known about them in the first place? At least
this way you have the advantage of being honestly lacking in any
knowledge of Thaumaturgy.”

“
At least I would’ve known
what I was dying for. The way it stands now, I’m going to get
executed for doing something, but I don’t even know what it
is.”

“
You. Are. Not. Going. To.
Die.”

I took a deep breath, reminding myself this
was just a dream and nothing more. Sometimes that worked. I was
able to let go of the emotion and drama and move on. But sometimes,
like this one, I couldn’t convince myself it wasn’t real. I felt
too much, was too worked up to let it go.

“
Can we just agree to
disagree on this point and move on?”

Alex was holding himself so rigidly I kinda
thought he might break, but instead of arguing he said, “Move on to
what?”

I made a conscious effort to appear less
confrontational, dropping my arms to my side and shifting my weight
to one foot. “You could tell me what you know about
Thaumaturgics.”

“
I really
think—”

“
Please?” I dipped into
the Angel arsenal, attempting to make puppy dog eyes. “I just want
to know what it is I’m being accused of, Alex. Please tell
me.”

“
I think using that face
qualifies as cheating.”

I dropped to the ground, crossing my legs
criss-cross-applesauce style as a big grin spread across my face.
“Story time!” I declared, knowing I was going to get my way.

Alex scowled, but came to sit by me all the
same. The pup climbed back into his lap, angling her head so he
would scratch it.

“
So, what do you
know?”

I searched my brain for all pertinent bits
I’d been able to pick up. “Thaumaturgics are women, the female half
of Immortals. They are the enemies of Seers and Shifters. And
although everyone seems to think there are Shifters and Seers who
believe in them, no one who would ever tell me anything is among
that number.”

Alex’s eyebrows quirked. “That’s not
much.”

“
I think I’ve said that.
Repeatedly.”

“
Well, you’re right about
Immortals and Thaumaturgics.” He stretched his long, frayed-jeans
covered legs. I noticed for the first time that he was barefoot.
“According to the stories, they have the same sort of relationship
as Shifters and Seers, but it’s reversed. There are more
Thaumaturgics than Immortals, and the Thaumaturgics are the ones
with the active power.”

“
Which is…?”

“
They can change things,
manipulate them.”

“
Like turn a prince into a
frog?”

“
I think that’s on the
Super-Thaumaturgic side of the spectrum, but yeah. They’re supposed
to be like Seers and have a specific affinity. Like there are
Thaumaturgics who can do stuff with water and others who can
manipulate earth.”

“
This is starting to
remind me of Captain Planet.”

“
Now you see why all of
your nice, sane friends don’t believe in them?”

I kicked at his ankle, somewhat surprised to
see that I was no longer wearing shoes either. “Keep talking,
Narrator Man. I want details.”

Alex used his toe to fling dirt at me. “I
don’t have details. Seriously, if Thaumaturgics and Immortals
exist, there aren’t very many of them. I’ve never heard of a
Shifter or Seer meeting one.”

“
And until last Christmas
I’d never known anyone who had met an actual werewolf. Just because
they aren’t getting all buddy-buddy with their known enemies
doesn’t mean they don’t exist.”

“
You know what? I think
you are a Thaumaturgic,” Alex said. “You’ve got this weird ability
to manipulate logic in a way to make it sound like you’re
right.”

“
That’s because I
am
always right,” I
said, eyelashes batting. “So, is that all you’ve got? Because
that’s not much more than I had to begin with.”

Of course it’s
not
, my inner-Scout whispered.
This is all in your head. How could you know
something you don’t already know?

“
Okay, Smarty Pants. Did
you know Thaumaturgy required a ritualistic sacrifice and Immortals
stay young by eating babies?”

“
Are you
serious?”

Alex’s smile was unrepentant. “No, not at
all. Really, ‘agents of the devil’ is the only thing they’ve got
going against them as far as I know.”

“
You’re useless,” I
sighed. The pup made an adorable little barking noise, which was
probably supposed to be filled with righteous anger. I reached over
and scratched behind her ears. “Sorry. Let me amend that. You’re
useless in terms of information gathering. Don’t ever seek out a
career as a librarian. On the other hand, you’re a wonderful wolf
sitter. Keep up the good work on that front.”

The pup laid her head back down, appeased. I
started to pull my hand away, but at her whine it went right back
to where it was.

“
I told you, knowing more
about Thaumaturgics isn’t going to change anything.”

“
And I told you I wanted
to know what it is they’re accusing me of.”

“
Knowledge
junkie.”

“
Hallucination.”

He threw a hand dramatically over his heart
and fell backwards. Nicole saw this as a grand opportunity to see
how his face tasted. “Your lack of faith wounds me,” he said
through giggles.

Even though it’d been
daylight the entire time I was there, the sun started rising over
the lake. Dawn was coming, and with it my last day on earth.
Suddenly, I felt very, very tired. Not the
boy I need to sleep
variety, but the
kind that settles into the very fiber of your being. The kind that
leaves your heart heavy and soul weary.

I lay back, my head resting mere inches from
Alex. Nicole nearly burst from the excitement of having a new face
to torture with her sloppy puppy kisses. I echoed Alex’s giggles as
her warm puppy tongue tickled my ear before bounding back over to
her original prey. His eyes met mine as he batted playfully at his
attacker. I tried to smile but couldn’t seem to get the corners of
my lips to comply.

“
Can you give us a
minute?” Alex asked Nicole. She gave him a couple more kisses, then
came to drop one on my cheek before disappearing into the
forest.

“
She’s very considerate,”
I said when her absence and silence became a little
awkward.

“
She has her moments,” he
agreed. His hand stretched out and found mine. His skin was warm
and soft, though I could feel callouses on his fingers.

“
I don’t want to wake
up.”

“
I know.”

“
I’m scared.”

His hand tightened on mine. “I know.”

The tear darting down my temple felt like
lava. I didn’t bother wiping it away, or any of the ones that
followed. I didn’t say anything else, because there was nothing
left to say. As the sun continued to rise in the sky, I just lay
there, holding his hand, looking into familiar grey eyes I would
never see in the living world again.

Almost made me glad I wouldn’t be in the
living world much longer myself.

“
You’re going to wake up
soon,” he said as the sun breached the top of the trees.

My lips quirked as I repeated his refrain.
“I know.”

He pulled himself up to his elbows without
releasing my hand. “I need to tell you something before you
go.”

“
Okay.”

He sat up the rest of the way, pulling me
with him. We were sitting face to face with my back to the morning
sun once we got settled. The rays played over his hair and face.
His jaw was set. His eyes blazed. To me, he looked like one of
God’s avenging angels.

“
Promise you’ll believe
me.”

Another repeated line, another quirk of the
lips. “I promise to try.”