Chapter Twenty-Five #2
“We can soon change that.” He scooped her into his arms, and she wrapped her legs around him. “Better?”
She grinned. “Much.” Kia bit her lip. “Hi there. ”
Aelryn closed the gap between them, and their mouths met in the sweetest kiss ever. Then Scott moved in behind her, one hand on her waist, the other over Aelryn’s, and there they were, connected at last.
“We have a lot to talk about.” Then Aelryn laughed.
That had to be the understatement of the century.
RAEL WAS overjoyed to have Jake, Seth, and Brick home again, but ever since they’d walked through the front door, Rael’s stomach had been churning.
Something is coming . He could taste it on the breeze, feel it crawl over his skin, hear it in the way Jake spoke. Then Jake had asked for everyone to gather in the big living room, and that had been enough to send Rael’s pulse racing.
“What’s wrong?”
“There’s something I need to share with you all, and I’d rather do it once, because it’s going to wipe me out.”
“I’m on it. Let me go find everyone.” Dellan dashed out of the kitchen.
Horvan gave Jake a hug. “You doing okay?”
“Not really. You’ll understand why later. And then I’ll need some time with the three of you.”
Rael blinked. “This is sounding pretty mysterious.”
Jake snorted. “By the time I’m finished, you’re going to need a new word, because mysterious simply won’t cut it anymore.”
That was all it took to have Rael’s imagination going wild.
JAKE CLOSED the office door. “Okay, now you know everything.”
“Hearing all that is one thing,” Rael muttered. “I think you blew several minds out there.” Once Jake had finished talking, there’d been nothing but stunned silence for a moment.
Then the questions started, and it soon became apparent to Rael that Jake didn’t have all the answers.
Rael held out his hand. “Let me see that again.” Jake handed him the phone, and Rael stared at the image on the screen. “This… this is a joke. Tell me it’s a joke. ”
It had to be. Jake had told them what he’d discovered in the rest of the Missal of Godwin , and that had been earth-shattering enough, but this?
I know, right? Dellan sounded as numb as Rael felt. Those lines at the end….
“It’s a lot to take in, I realize that, but—”
“A lot?” Horvan gaped at him. “You sit there and calmly tell us we’re the reason all these mates are appearing left, right, and center?
We’re the catalyst? And someone predicted us how long ago?
Almost a thousand years? That isn’t a lot to take in —that’s something so humongous that my brain keeps telling me Does not compute. System overload. ”
“I think we’re all in the same state,” Rael remarked. Doc hadn’t said a word the whole time Jake had been talking, and Eve, Hashtag, and Roadkill had stared at him openmouthed.
“And what are we supposed to do, now that we know this?” Dellan demanded.
“Nothing.” Jake stared at the three of them.
“All you need do is accept it. You’ve begun the process—now it will gather momentum.
” He paused. “But you need to be prepared. Because once word of this gets out—and it will—you’ve going to be the focus of a lot of attention.
Not everyone will believe it, and I expect the Gerans will take the most convincing.
And remember… you’re not the only ones. I’m in there too, as Seth keeps reminding me.
Remember the last line. Because of you three… all things shall become possible. ”
“Now wait just one minute.” Rael thought fast. “It isn’t enough.”
“What isn’t?” Jake gave him an inquiring glance.
“How many billions of people are there on this planet? What are the odds that we’re the only lion, tiger, and bear out there?”
Jake blinked. “Okay, but Dellan’s probably the only tiger who was freed by a lion and a bear. I’d say that’s pretty specific.”
“Sure, it seems that way,” Rael remonstrated. “But there’s no guarantee it couldn’t happen elsewhere. It needs something definitive.”
“But do you believe it?” Dellan asked, his gaze locked on Rael.
“I… I don’t know, okay? It seems so… fantastical.”
Jake’s phone buzzed, and he pulled it from his pocket.
“It’s Orsini. He says it’s urgent.” He clicked on Answer.
“Hey, what’s up?” He listened intently for a moment.
“Where? … So what is it?” He froze, his eyes wide, and the hairs stood up on Rael’s arms. “You’ve got to be kidding …
Sure, send it.” He hung up, his brow furrowed .
“Dad?” Dellan stared at him. “You’re scaring me here. What’s wrong?”
Jake met Dellan’s gaze. “Nothing’s wrong. Just absofuckinglutely mind-blowing , that’s all. And until now, I thought I knew what mind-blowing meant. If what Orsini is telling me is correct, then it seems I was way off the mark.”
“Dad…. Take a breath.”
Jake took a moment to calm himself. “Okay. Orsini has been working on the artifacts—and he’s found something else.”
“What more could be left to find?” Horvan exclaimed.
“When we opened the caskets, all the sheets, documents, whatever, they were lying on layers of fabric. You know, to protect them from the stone. Then Orsini and his team started removing each document, putting them between sheets of glass so they could be studied.” Jake paused.
“Except then he thought to peek under the fabric. None of us had done that. Because who would do that, right?”
Dellan gaped. “There was another document hidden under there?”
He nodded. “Not in every casket, just the one that contained the Chronicles . And no text this time, but another painting.”
Rael arched his eyebrows. “Let me guess. A gorilla and two humans? A polar bear, a tiger, and a kitty? Or maybe a Greenland shark with two humans riding on its back?” He stared at Jake. “I’m right, aren’t I? We’re not the only ones mentioned after all.”
“I only have Orsini’s description to go on, but it didn’t sound like that. He’s sending me a picture.” Jake’s phone beeped, and he clicked on the screen. “Holy fuck,” he croaked.
“Dad? What is it? This is torture.”
“Don’t do this to us,” Rael pleaded. “Show us what he sent you.”
Jake swallowed and handed Rael his phone.
Rael gazed at the screen, and his first thought was that he was thankful to be sitting down. “Oh fuck.”
The painting was in two halves. At the top were the lion, tiger, and bear from the previous painting, the one Jake had shown all of them, though this was obviously a different piece. But below it….
He was staring at portraits of three men—men who could only be himself, Horvan, and Dellan.
It was like looking in a mirror.