Chapter 14 #2
Lexi dropped her head into her hands and stared down at the gooey cinnamon roll that would normally have her mouth watering so much she risked drowning. She had no appetite. All she needed was Jeros. And Sevenrest. It was home now. Kentucky never would be again.
Her phone lit up and vibrated across the table with an incoming call.
Maggie. Lexi scrubbed a hand across her eyes and stared at the annoying device that kept rattling and shaking until it hit her plate.
Maggie would never believe any of this, and she didn’t have the energy to explain it. She snatched up the phone. “Hello.”
“There you are,” Maggie said. “I thought maybe ole’ Nessie had gobbled you up. Are you not getting my texts?”
“I’ve had phone problems,” Lexi lied. Well, not really phone problems, but in a twisted sort of way, maybe it was. “Service here is really spotty, and almost non-existent in some areas.” That wasn’t a lie. “How’s everything going? Any problems?”
“Everything’s running like clockwork. Just like I told you it would. Your grandparents knew what they were doing when they set this place up with good people who could be trusted.”
“About that.” Lexi took a deep breath. “What if I never came back?”
“What?”
“What if I decided to stay in Scotland?”
“Is this some kind of joke? Because if it is, it’s a really bad one. I know you. You could never desert Vinemagic.”
“There’s a document in the safe with a clause that says Vinemagic can become fully employee-owned and operated. The board knows about it. They voted to approve it, should anything ever happen to me, since I was the last living family member.”
“You’re serious.” Maggie went quiet. Lexi couldn’t even hear her breathing.
“Are you still there?”
“Why do you want to do this, Lex?” Maggie cleared her throat, her voice trembling. “Did you meet someone? Is that what’s got you talking crazy? You’ve only been there a few days. Slow down. Wait and see how everything works out. This is drastic.”
“When you know, you know, Mags.” Lexi took a sip of her coffee, hoping the brew would stave off the massive headache making itself known. “And I am serious. Have the board email the document. I’ll sign it electronically. I’ll also sign over my practice to you.”
“Lexi?” Maggie’s voice was filled with disbelief, worry, and anxiety. “You really need to think about this. This is massive—like no turning back, massive. I just don’t think this is wise.”
Maggie had no idea just how massive this was, but it felt right, and that was all that mattered.
Mammaw had always told Lexi to listen to her heart and her gut.
Both said she needed to stay in Scotland until she found a way back to Jeros—even if it took her the rest of her life, driving around on foggy back roads hoping to cross into the Seventh Realm.
“I know what I’m doing, Maggie. Trust me. ”
“But…but…I’ll never get to see you again.”
“Sure you will. Come to Scotland. I think you’d love it here.
” That was a lie, too. Maybe. Maggie could come to Seven Cairns, but if Lexi had already found her way back to the Seventh Realm, then what?
Lexi shook the worry away. She had enough to think about at the moment.
Maggie was a good friend, but the girl had a full life that wouldn’t suffer all that much if Lexi weren’t in it.
Yes, they would miss each other, but it didn’t compare with the sense of emptiness and pain Lexi currently felt.
It may only have been three days of current world time, but she’d spent enough time in the Seventh Realm to know this was right.
She didn’t know if it was the hard-to-believe fated mate stuff or that she and Jeros simply had a chemistry off the charts, but she was going to get it back. No matter how long it took.
“Lexi?” Maggie’s voice had taken on that resigned tone she always got when she knew there was no point in arguing. “What am I going to tell everyone?”
“Tell everyone I finally found someone who sees me for who I really am. He looks on the inside—not the outside.” She paused for another sip of coffee. “And he’s never once suggested more plastic surgery or trying to do anything else to change my looks.”
“Then, I’m happy for you.” Maggie blew out a heavy sigh. “I’m not happy for me, and some of your clients are not going to be pleased at all. Mrs. Kirby informed me that Julias doesn’t like me at all, and I tend to agree.”
Julias was Mrs. Kirby’s fourteen-year-old bulldog. “Julias doesn’t like anyone. He’s a grumpy old man with asthma and arthritis. Just talk sweetly to him. Loudly, since he’s also going deaf, but sweetly. He won’t bite.”
“So, you’re really going to do this?”
“I’m really going to do this. Have the board email the paperwork and have your lawyer do whatever needs doing, so you can take over my practice.”
“I will.” Extended silence again. “Lexi?”
“Yes?”
“We’ll keep in touch—right? We are besties.”
“Of course,” Lexi lied while struggling not to cry. “Of course, we’ll keep in touch.”
“All right. I’ll let you go, then.”
“Big hugs, Mags.”
“Big hugs, Lex.”
* * *
Barricaded in his private wing of the palace, Jeros sat slumped over in his chair.
Gads alive. The pain of letting Mairwen rip Lexi away had almost killed him.
If not for Darkcord dragging him to safety, the assassins would have gone for him next, since their previous target, as ordered by the queen, had disappeared.
His father admitting that his brothers were idiots didn’t mean one of them wouldn’t be placed next in line for power.
Especially since they would be puppets controlled by whatever faction had the upper hand at that time.
His father had best watch his back. Jeros had seen a thirst for power in his mother, Queen Nyna’s eyes.
A thirst so strong, she would do anything to quench it.
“We must return to Sevenrest,” Darkcord said, “immediately.”
“I dinna ken if I have the strength, old friend.” Jeros raked a hand through his hair, then clutched it to his chest. “I felt the tear, the ripping away, as the old one took her back to her world. I fear the goddesses will never let her return.”
His sword drawn, Darkcord anxiously paced in front of the entrance to the suite.
“She will find a way, and so will ye. Gather yer wits now and take us back. The palace assassins and guards are a weak, cowardly lot that canna do anything without an element of surprise, but the two of us canna hold their numbers off forever. We must get to Sevenrest and ensure our guard is ready.”
Jeros lifted his head and checked to ensure that Lexi’s maid and seamstresses were gathered close and ready.
The women watched him with tears in their eyes and noses red from crying at the tearing away of their mistress.
He understood. Lexi had touched everyone with her kind heart and generous nature.
“Domus,” he uttered, his hands fisted with the effort.
When he opened his eyes, he was relieved to see his magic had held strong and returned them all to Sevenrest. With the loss of Lexi a raw open wound, he had feared the worst. Once bound, magical beings needed their mates almost as badly as they needed air to breathe.
Cowering, Rill eased closer. “What would ye have me do, Yer Highness?”
“Do?”
She shuffled in place, wringing her hands. “With her ladyship’s things? And my duties? What shall I do?”
Jeros swallowed hard. “Keep her things as perfect as if she were still here. She canna live among us, but her memory can. Until the Realm deserves her return, until it has earned her trust and her presence, her memory is all we have of her. Pray we can survive with what little comfort that brings.”
The maid curtsied, then scurried away, her despondent weeping echoing down the halls. The softly sniffling seamstresses flitted away in a poof of sparkling mist.
Jeros stumbled his way to a chair and dropped into it. Perhaps it would have been better if he had allowed the assassins to take him. Anything would be better than this pain.
“Will the goddesses grant her a return to the Realm? ’Tis rare for a mortal to pass through the mists more than once.
” Darkcord sheathed his sword and moved to the liquor cabinet in the corner of the library.
He poured a pair of whiskies, brought them over, and placed one in Jeros’s hand.
“Is there hope, my prince? Or are we doomed to ages of darkness and war, as the prophecy foretold?”
“Mortal women may travel back and forth through time as often as they wish, because they are the life bringers. But I dinna ken if the feckin’ goddesses will bend and allow her passage into the Realm after the way she was rejected.
” He downed the whisky in one burning gulp.
“The queen fears the Fifth Kingdom will take her power, and the king has become a complacent coward. The Realm does not deserve the likes of my precious Lexi.”
“Another?” Darkcord reached for Jeros’s glass.
“Aye. As many as the bottle holds.” Jeros went to the windows and watched his elite guard spanning out to fortify Sevenrest’s boundaries.
If the magical wards failed to stop any intruders, his warriors would not.
His men were lethal and dedicated. Without them, the Realm would surely fall to the Fifth Kingdom.
But Jeros didn’t care. As far as he was concerned, his parents, the king and queen, had forfeited their right to rule.
Darkcord joined him at the window and handed him the drink. “I was surprised the old one agreed so readily to help ye.”