Chapter 2
Silence followed Wilder’s announcement, and his heart hammered with dread as he awaited a response.
Finally, Castor leaned in, pale-blue eyes narrowed consideringly.
“What are you thinking?” Laszlo asked.
“I’m intrigued by the mystery, and I’m bored enough to help.” Castor grinned and slapped the table. “Count me in, Thornes!”
Wilder blinked. The unexpected offer cracked open his chest, warming what had been frozen before. With the thawing came hope. He couldn’t say with one hundred percent certainty how a Traveler’s magic worked, but if the man could somehow alter time…
He inhaled a ragged breath, forcefully pushing down the desire to sob his gratitude.
Laszlo shot him an assessing glance, then turned his focus on Ebba to judge her reaction as he spoke. “I’m sorry for being a dick, Wilder.”
She didn’t move, and her expectation hung on a raised brow.
“And I’m sorry for saying you’re being ridiculous, Sweet Ebba,” he added. “I’m scared for you.”
A soft smile curled her lips. “Was that so bad?”
Laszlo held his fingers an inch apart and shrugged.
“I have questions,” Castor said, suddenly all business. “The first one is for you, Wilder. Was your girlfriend a witch? If so, why didn’t she teleport?”
“No, but her mother was. She never knew her father, but I suspect he was incredibly powerful in his own right.”
“Why?”
“It wouldn’t have mattered,” Laszlo cut in before Wilder could answer. “Anyone near us that day had their magic subdued. Had she been a witch, and she was within touching distance, she couldn’t have teleported.”
“But she fell down a mountain,” Castor said. “At some point, she’d have been far enough away to save herself.”
Wilder didn’t answer. He’d wondered the same thing a thousand times.
“Can we talk to her mother? I’d like to get a sense of who Abigail was.” Castor sipped his coffee before adding, “At the very least, if I’ve ever encountered the mother or your girlfriend, I may be able to travel back to that time. Possibly warn one or both.”
And finally, he was given the first inkling of how the Traveler’s gifts worked.
“Do you remember every face you’ve seen?” Ebba asked the question on Wilder’s mind.
“Yes. Every interaction, too. It’s a curse,” the Traveler replied.
“What if we speak to Death?” Laszlo suggested. “She’s your son’s mother, right? She might help locate Abbie on the other side.”
Wilder’s heart slammed in his chest, and he recoiled from the idea she wasn’t alive.
“Abbie’s not dead!” The denial was torn from him. “I’d feel it. Here.” He pressed a hand to his chest. “She’s not dead.”
The looks he received were a mixture of shock and pity.
“May I see her picture?” Castor asked gently.
“Oh, wait! I have one!” Ebba ran to the mantle and returned with a framed photo. “Here.”
He stilled. “Her mother,” he rasped, expression pale and tight. “What’s her name?”
“Beth Monroe,” Wilder replied. His pulse quickened in anticipation of the answer to his next question. “Why?”
Castor turned the frame. “The blonde is Abigail, I presume.”
His brother’s jaw dropped, but Wilder had seen the connection the second Castor greeted him. The resemblance was uncanny, the white-blond hair unmistakable.
“You guessed?” Laszlo asked him.
“I came here to ask Ebba’s wolf to see what she could find. When he opened the door, I knew.” Wilder didn’t look away from Castor. “You and Beth had an affair, didn’t you?”
“I’d have thought the picture was enough evidence for you. You’re asking for a DNA match?” Castor asked dryly, appearing to have recovered from his shock.
“What does that mean for her?” Laszlo turned thoughtful. “Wouldn’t she have similar abilities to yours?”
“I don’t know. One would think she’d be powerful, but that’s not how magic works. Sometimes it’s diluted. There are those with witch DNA whose powers never develop.” Castor rubbed the back of his neck as he studied the image. “I can’t believe Beth never told me.”
“How could she? Weren’t you in hiding for years?” Ebba asked. She clasped Castor’s free hand, squeezing it.
“Yes. I suppose you’re right.” He exhaled a heavy sigh. “How old is she? Abbie.”
Wilder sipped his coffee and swallowed hard. The man should know when he’d been with Beth, but his curiosity made Wilder consider whether traveling altered one’s perception of time.
“She would be forty-one next week.”
“Older than Quentin.” Castor’s expression cracked, giving a hint of deeper emotions. “Christ! I need to tell my son he had a sister.”
“Has,” Wilder stressed, unable to keep the edge from his tone. “Has a sister.”
The Traveler’s regretful eyes locked with his, and resolution settled on his face. “If she’s alive, I’ll find her, Thorne. Get some rest. We leave tomorrow morning for the mountain.” He stood and hugged Ebba. “You won’t be needed on this trip, love. I’ve got it covered.”
Wilder hung around a while longer after Castor teleported away. “Is this guy on the level? And yes, I know he’s a friend of Alastair’s, but I need him to take this seriously.”
“You can count on him, Wilder,” Ebba assured him. “He saved my life, a virtual stranger, not once, but twice. I imagine he’ll go to the ends of the earth for his own flesh and blood.”
“Yeah, man,” Laszlo added. “You can trust him to do the right thing.”
The pressure on Wilder’s chest lightened, making it easier to breathe.
“Okay. That’s good,” he said, almost to himself.
“I’m sorry I failed you the first time,” his brother said equally as soft, as if the words were difficult to voice. “We shouldn’t have left that fucking mountain until we had solid evidence one way or another.”
“You did all you could, Lo.” Wilder couldn’t downplay it. His family had stepped up, not stopping until they’d run out of options. “You were right about the rescue effort. No amount of scrying was going to find her if what I believe is true.”
“And what’s that?” Ebba asked with a tilt of her head.
“Some witches have latent magic. It only comes out under high-stress situations.” Their bewildered expressions said they had no idea what he was talking about.
“If Abbie is Castor’s daughter, it stands to reason she’d have magic, despite all the sometimes-they-don’t shit he was spouting.
He wouldn’t have agreed to go there if he thought she didn’t. ”
Ebba shot a sharp look at Laszlo before speaking. “You believe Abbie had latent power, and once she was far enough from you, the trauma of the fall sparked it to life? And maybe she sent herself to a different time without knowing how her magic works?”
“Something like that.” Wilder studied them both closely. “It’s possible, right?”
“Dude, I’m a wolf shifter. I’ve only read about it in paranormal romance novels. Anything is possible.”
Laszlo laughed. “Wait! You read paranormal romance books? That’s the best ironic twist of fate ever. You’ve become part of a trope you love.”
“Stuff it,” she growled, but her grin gave her away. “Truthfully, I wasn’t mad to learn you had magical abilities.”
“You totally were.”
“No, I was angry you lied to me throughout our entire friendship,” Ebba corrected.
Wilder wisely remained silent as his brother apologized yet again.
“So, back to Abbie,” Laszlo said. “It would be a miracle, but they’ve been known to happen. I, for one, am hoping it did.”
“But where would she have gone that she couldn’t return from?” Ebba asked. “Why not try to get a message to someone if she were in the recent past or return to Wilder if she went to the future?”
“That’s just the thing. I don’t know,” Wilder confessed.
“I think I do. And your dream, the one where you believe Abbie spoke to you through Ebba, it actually happened,” Laszlo said.
Wilder fumbled his coffee cup. “What? What the fuck are you talking about? How?”
“Castor and I changed the timeline when we went back the night of Ebba’s accident. In the first one, you stopped by here when she was in her ghostly state. She channeled Abbie.”
“And you didn’t think to tell me this?” Wilder’s desire to punch him in the fucking face was an acid burning through him, destroying his brotherly affection. “Why wouldn’t you tell me, Lo? For God’s sake! Why?”
“With everything that happened, I didn’t have time.” Laszlo embraced him. “I swear it was next on my list. Today, as a matter of fact.”
“You could’ve mentioned it earlier, while Castor was here,” Ebba said with an edge in her voice.
“Yes, and I should’ve, but I wanted to hear what he had in mind. To see if he’d volunteer to help.”
“You were testing him?” Wilder could believe it. His brother didn’t have much faith in others.
“Something like that.” Laszlo refilled their coffee cups. “Look, I didn’t recall the thing about Ebba channeling Abbie until this week when the timelines merged. It all sort of clicked into place, and I’ve been trying to make sense of it in my head. It’s a total mind fuck.”
Wilder could see where warring memories might be. “Do you think my dreams are shadows of that time, too?”
After giving it thought, Laszlo nodded. “Possibly. Spirits leave an echo, so it would make sense, somewhere in the ether, their residual energy is floating about.”
“It helps to know I’m not going crazy.”
“You’re not, Wilder. I swear.”
“If anything happens when Castor and I go to the mountain, and I don’t get back—”
“Don’t say that,” Laszlo snapped. Softening his tone, he said, “Please, brother. Remain positive. It’s so important you do.”
“I can’t continue to exist without Abbie, Lo. I don’t want to.”
“I had much the same thought about Ebba,” his brother confessed.
She gasped and pressed her hand to her mouth. Cupping her cheek, Laszlo smiled so lovingly it caused Wilder’s heart to ache.
“When I thought I would lose you forever, I finally understood what my brother was going through with Abbie,” Laszlo confessed to Ebba.
“You and I hadn’t even begun, not really, and I was nearly destroyed by learning Death stalked you.
” He turned and met Wilder’s gaze. “So I get it, man. Whatever it takes, we’ll find her. ”
Closing his eyes against the sting of fresh tears, he nodded his gratitude. The thickness in his throat refused to allow anything else.
“We love you, Wilder,” Ebba said with a fierce hug. “Come back to us.”
“I’ll do my best,” he lied.
If Abbie weren’t with him, he wouldn’t be coming back.