Chapter 23
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
FRANKIE
We’d decided to only take our family, we even let Savannah come along because of it.
Though Everest was rather flustered about that.
He was extremely overprotective and overcautious about our great-granddaughter.
Though I couldn’t say I blamed him given who Savannah was as a person. But I loved the chaos in her soul.
“You’re being uncharacteristically quiet, Savannah.”
She sighed. “Father dearest, I have lots of questions and a sinking suspicion I don’t wanna hear any of their answers. So imma shut up and live in as peaceful a state of ignorance as I can.”
Everest threw his head back and laughed. “That’s the spirit.”
“Though I do have a question I’d like answered.”
“There it is,” her mother said softly with a smile.
“Momma,” Savannah hissed which only made her mother giggle. “Lewk. I’ve heard stories about this here Bermuda Triangle vibin’ Old Lands. How are y’all so calm and confident knowing it could be weeks or years in the future when we return?”
“Then why did you come with us, Savannah?”
“For the same reason I pause movies to look up what other movies the actors were in, dad.” Savannah huffed as we walked. “I have questions and if I die before y’all return from the Bermuda Triangle then imma be pissed.”
I frowned. “But you just said you didn’t wanna ask—”
“Yes but as I am with y’all I can change my mind on that at any time.”
“So tell us about Cooper Bishop,” Missy said with a devious smirk.
Savannah squealed. “No, ma’am. Ionwanna talk about it. Lea’me’lone.”
Auryn giggled. “Father, did you ever think a child of mine would end up with a Bishop?”
“Hey, I ain’t ended up with anybody yet. Y’all need to just chill. Be cool, dammit.” Savannah was all flustered and tugging at her clothes. “Never date a Bishop, them be the rules—”
“And you love breaking rules,” Rae said with a laugh.
“Would you say I technically dated a Bishop for a minute there—”
Everest stopped short, spun, and stared down at me. His expression unreadable. He held one finger up between us to point at me. “I am already in a fragile state and you want to remind me that you thought he was your soulmate?”
“What? He’s a good guy—”
Everest cut me off with a growl then he spun and marched off again.
“It’s not like anything happened, though maybe it should have.”
He spun back around so fast I actually had to blink. His eyebrows were raised to his hairline and his eyes were wide. “What did you say?”
I grinned and popped up on my tip toes. “I said, you’re cute when you’re jealous.” Then I kissed his lips before pulling away.
“I am not jealous—”
“Sir, tell that to his damn head that rolled by my feet in the snow.”
We all stopped and looked at Savannah then to Everest.
“I knew it wasn’t really him.”
“Okay, love.”
“Sure you did, papabear.”
“Still fucked up, Papaw Frost.”
We were all giggling as we walked around him.
“I was still undercover,” he yelled after us.
“And I still love you even if you behead men you’re jealous of,” I shouted back.
“Celina.”
I snickered. “C’mon, love, we need to find the lotus flower and get back.”
“Wait, y’all didn’t answer my question.” Savannah turned to walk backwards. “About the time passing shit?”
“Becuase angels are immune to the magic of the Old Lands, or should I say, it touches us differently.” I rolled my shoulders to let my wings pop out. “So we’ll be able to get right back out where we need to be.”
She cursed. “Iontrust it.”
Savannah wasn’t ready to hear the truth about the Old Lands, not that I blamed her, so I just left it at that.
Simple enough explanation. Mortals tended to not question angels.
I held my left hand up and let my pink runes roll across the trail.
As usual, the trees and bushes moved in front of us until we were surrounded by an entirely different forest in the blink of an eye.
“The lotus flowers are right over—” I choked on a gasp.
“What’s wrong?” Everest rushed up behind me then let out a nasty curse.
Auryn, Rae, and Missy stopped and stared in horror at the sight before us.
“Uh, this ain’t a lotus?” Savannah said with a scowl.
“No, it’s not.” I groaned and bent over to rest my hands on my knees. “It’s what’s left of them.”
“What’s left of them?” Savannah yelled. “What does that mean? What happened to them?”
“The Unseelie Prince destroyed them.”
We all jumped and spun around.
Pierce Fenn, Sweyn’s most recent playtoy, stood a few feet behind us with another guy who looked oddly familiar.
“Pierce?” Auryn shrieked.
He scowled and narrowed his red and green eyes on her. “Do you know me?”
Everest sighed. “Pierce, this is my daughter Auryn. You met her while she was using a glamour and called herself Saber.”
Pierce’s eyes widened. “You’re Saber? Wait, did you say your daughter? As in like…you turned her?”
“Why does no one see the resemblance and go straight for the vampire shit?”
“Hollywood,” Auryn said with a chuckle.
“Hi Pierce, do you remember me?”
“Oh shit, Frankie! Yeah, of course.”
“Well my real name is Celina. I’m an angel.” I pointed to my wings which made his eyes go wide. “I’m also Everest’s wife and soulmate, and Auryn here is our biological daughter.”
Pierce blinked several times but didn’t speak.
“Lord Everest of Avolire is married to an angel of Heaven?” The other guy stepped fully out of the shadows and scowled. “What ever has happened that vampires are allies of Heaven and Eden in the future?”
Everest snort laughed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “I have always been on The Coven’s side, and I do believe you damn well know that.”
He crossed his arms over his chest. He was definitely arcana.
The energy radiating off of him was tingling.
The left side of his face was covered in swirling blue lines that sparkled as if his magic ran through them.
It was quite pretty against his olive-toned skin.
The tips of his black hair were the same blue as his markings with gold tips that made his amber eyes sparkle.
“Let’s focus, weirdos. The lotus flowers?” Savannah gestured to the destroyed bushes. “Where they at?”
“They’re gone.” Pierce sighed sadly. “The Unseelie Prince brought me and Sam in here to help him destroy them all. Every last one. Sam distracted him so I could escape but uh…well…”
“I found him instead,” the guy said without a hint of a smile.
I knew that face from somewhere but I could not place it. My memories still hadn’t fully merged.
“How’s Sam? Have you seen her? Did she get out?”
Everest’s face fell. “Sam was recently possessed by Lilith—”
“Noooo,” Pierce said with a full cringe.
“We can’t agree more.” Everest ran his hand through his hair. “All right, well, we might as well get back since the lotus are gone—”
High-pitched shrieks filled the spaces between the trees and echoed around us.
“Chimeras. Dirty bastards.” The arcana guy pulled his sword and eyed the trees.
The world went entirely still around us. The breeze vanished. Tree branches stopped swaying. Birds froze mid-air. The world had completely stopped moving.
“Are you doing this, Gali?”
I shook my head. “I don’t think so. You know I don’t like to play with grandfather’s time magic.”
“Then why does this feel like it?” Auryn asked softly behind me.
“I’m sorry, did you say time?” Braison asked. “Grandfather?”
That made me chuckle. “My grandfather is the angel of time, though many humans call him the time demon. His name is Cronos.”
Braison cursed.
“But I’m not doing this.”
“Then who is?” Rae spun in a circle. “Time is always wonky here but not frozen.”
Everest gasped and stood up straighter.
“Everest?”
He narrowed his blue and white eyes. “So that’s who you are.”
Mr blue face tattoo narrowed his eyes. “What of it?”
““This is his magic.” Everest chuckled and held his hand out, opening the Seelie tunnel right beside us. “Let’s get back, I'll explain.”
Pierce threw his hands up. “Well now that’s cheating.”
“You’re tellin’ me,” the new guy grumbled.
Everest ushered us all into the tunnel with its glowing green walls then pressed his hand to the other side. A new hole opened and through this one we spotted the living room of Coven Headquarters.
“What the fuck?” Warner leapt off the couch. “How? You just left like half an hour ago, how are you already back?”
“They’re cheats, that’s how,” Pierce grumbled but then his gaze took in the sight of the Coven’s home around him and his jaw dropped. “Where are we? It’s nice in here. Smells like cookies.”
The new arcana guy scowled and narrowed his amber eyes. “It looks vaguely similar to Coven Headquarters in Eden’s new Appalachian location.”
“Oh, yeah…” Tegan giggled and gestured to Lennox. “We renovated a bit.”
“Y’all get this…” Savannah gestured to our group. “Apparently angels don’t abide by the wonky time shit of the Old Lands and The Unseelie Prince destroyed all the lotus flowers.”
“Wait WHAT?”
“How?”
“When?”
“How do you know that?”
Everest held his hand up like he was a teacher at a pre-school. When everyone fell silent, he pointed to our vampire friend. “This is Pierce Fenn. The human changed without his consent. He’s from New Orleans. He’s an import from England. He’s a good guy and he’s with us. Understood?”
They all nodded.
“Didn’t you also hook up with Azazel?”
“Auryn, please—”
“Yeah, I did. A few times.” Pierce interrupted Everest. “Wanna compare notes later?”
Auryn cackled. Everest growled.
I rubbed my hands over my husband’s back. “All right, let’s focus because honestly…we might be fucked.”