Chapter Eighteen Jalisa
Chapter Eighteen
Jalisa
Whatever a list serv was, it was awesome, because a few days later, we got an email from Zoe, saying she’d gotten word about Ivan’s uncle.
He was a high school teacher in Jacksonville, Florida, and he seemed more than excited to meet Ivan when he was able to contact us directly.
He insisted we meet in person and offered to come up to see us.
Pierce Coldpath showed up at our door the very evening we’d talked to him on the phone, having gotten a friend to use teleportation magic to get him here quickly.
If I didn’t know he was Ivan’s uncle, I still would have guessed it.
They looked like brothers. They had the same green eyes, and any differences didn’t detract from their similar appearance.
Pierce had a few forehead wrinkles and smile lines; he was slightly thicker around the middle and his blond hair was greying around the temples and long enough that he kept it in a low bun.
However, other than the physical similarities, he was not what I expected.
He wore a brown T-shirt that said I’d Rather Be Sleeping, tan colored pants with lots of pockets, and comfortable backless shoes which Billie had called Crocs.
Had he jumped out of bed and come straight here?
As an educator, I expected him to look more scholarly with an air of wisdom laced with arrogance.
There was none of that. He looked more like one of my bar patrons.
He reached out and embraced Ivan in a tight hug and then looked at me with a wide, genuine smile. “And who might you be?”
Ivan took a step back, waving his hand in my direction. “I thought I said.”
Pierce shrugged. “Remind me.”
“This is,” he began before pausing.
His face scrunched in a frown and my heart instantly dropped.
No, this couldn’t happen yet. He was playing a joke.
He hadn’t forgotten me. I wasn’t sure I would ever be, but I wasn’t prepared for it now.
However, I knew it was no joke. He didn’t have that glint of mischief in his eyes that he could never contain when he was being playful.
Pierce raised a brow, a quizzical look on his still smiling face. “Must be the memory wiping spell doing its thing that you told me about. Nice to meet you, Jalisa.”
We moved back as he walked inside the pool house. I shook my head, confused. “If you knew, why’d you ask?”
He looked around, whistling. “You got some rich friends here. Nice.” He glanced over to me.
“Best way to tell how the spell is progressing. Trying hard to remember isn’t always a good indicator.
It’s the easy questions when you least expect it that track progression.
That’s how it gets you. One minute, you can’t remember the random things, and the next, it’s the basic things.
Then it’s everything. It comes and goes.
All depends on how strong the victim is. You’re pretty strong, nephew.”
Ivan hung his head, running a hand through his hair and closing the door. “I’m forgetting the love of my life, not sure I’m so strong.”
My heart cracked; he looked so pained. However, I was also sad for me.
I loved this man, and the thought of him forgetting me made me sick.
The first time we parted devasted me, although I had the anger of thinking he was over me to help.
However, now we were both fighting to stay together, and it was feeling like a losing battle.
In this moment, it was horrible for us both, but in the end, I was going to get hurt the most. He would simply forget me and move on with his life.
His mind was capable in everything else but me.
I would be left alone with the memories of us.
The back of my eyes stung with that knowledge, and I rapidly blinked back tears that threatened to overtake me.
Ivan avoided my eyes as he followed his uncle to the couch, and I could feel through our bond an anxious energy.
Pierce’s words had affected Ivan. I knew the spell would progress.
That was its purpose. However, there was a small part of me that believed we’d still beat this thing no matter how many dead ends we faced.
I thought because Ivan hadn’t said anything more about lost memories that maybe our mating had made him stronger.
I knew now that I was wrong. He was hiding the progression.
To protect me. But I needed the truth. I had to walk through this with him.
I walked to the kitchen area. “Can we offer you something to eat or drink?”
Pierce raised a hand and sat down. “No, thank you.”
Ivan sat beside him. “How do you know so much about the spell?”
“I’m older than I look. I know a lot about a lot of things across both realms. I’ve seen many things.
Including someone who was a victim of that spell.
A witch placed a spell on parents to forget their child.
” He shook his head, his eyes wandering off as he gave the retelling.
“They tried everything to fight it. Nothing could break the spell. So, they kept close family support around them, made recordings to refer back to.”
“Were they able to connect to their child that way?”
Pierce grimaced, and my heart dropped, already knowing that answer.
“They couldn’t retain a connection because their mind blocked anything.
It was resistant. It’s like not liking peas, but you see a video of yourself liking peas.
That video wouldn’t make you start to like peas. It’s more confusing if anything.”
I pressed my hands over my eyes, feeling a rising headache that I knew no medicine could cure. “So, you’re saying he’ll one day dislike me?”
“Not dislike you, just not able to ever build feelings about you. At least not long term.”
I pulled out a chair from the table, my legs weakening. When I looked up, Ivan was staring at me. He gave me a weak smile, and I tried to return it, but the effort was exhausting. We were both trying to be strong for each other, but our bonds couldn’t lie.
“So, what happened in the end?” Ivan asked in a quiet voice. “Did they find the witch?”
Pierce rested his forearms on his thighs, nodding his head slowly.
“The spell is erratic in how it works. You won’t see him fade all of the way.
One day, it’ll appear like some memory loss, but the connection is still there.
The next day, they won’t have any idea of who you are.
And the next, they may remember. And it will go back and forth like that for a while, until one day the memories never return.
In the couple’s case, it took around six months.
And almost ten years later, they finally found the witch.
They killed her and their memories came flooding back.
Things weren’t easy. They’d missed many developing years of their child, and you can imagine the hardship to that child, feeling so unloved. But they made it through.”
“Can we break the curse if we can’t kill who did this?”
Pierce sat upright. “I don’t know. It’s easier to kill the witch, mage, faerie who caused it. Sometimes spell breaking isn’t all about power. Sometimes it’s about connection. Meaning a breaker could just be someone blood-related to the person who caused the spell. Do you know who did this to you?”
I gave a dry laugh. This all felt so overwhelming. “It’s fair to say we have a lot of enemies who, apparently, have connections in both realms. We don’t even know what kind of being did this or if it was someone with no connection to us who was hired by the person who really is after us.”
“You need to narrow down who did this.”
“No shit.”
Pierce folded his hands behind his head, looking up at the ceiling in thought. “Start with our family, Ivan.”
Ivan shook his head, rolling his eyes. “Who in our family?”
“Anyone on your mother’s side, now that she’s passed.”
“What would they share?”
He ran his fingers over his hair, a frustrated look on his face, and it reminded me of Ivan.
“I left due to a combination of things. The family and how dragons were treated. We were practically slaves before you were born and then after that we were second class citizens. I may have done some heavy protesting that led to my need to flee the realm for good.”
I cocked a brow. That sounded suspicious. “Define heavy protesting.”
He lifted a shoulder. “Disrupting royal events.”
“Understandable.”
“Organizing marches.”
I tossed my hands out, appreciating his passion. “A true leader.”
“Encouraging others not to support businesses that treated dragons poorly.”
Ivan rubbed his chin. “Commendable.”
“Destroyed buildings and roads.”
I stilled. “Wait, what?”
“Made some plans to overthrow leadership.”
I leaned back in my chair. “Oh, you were an actual criminal.”
Pierce tilted his head from side to side. “You say criminal, I say aggressive dissonate.”
“I don’t know if I’d be the only one who’d say criminal,” I muttered. He really had no problem talking about crime so casually. “You say you teach children? Do you share these kinds of ideas with them?”
He scratched his cheek. “Teenagers and they aren’t as impressionable as I hoped.”
Ivan raised his brows as he considered his uncle. I couldn’t tell if he was impressed or concerned. I, for one, was impressively concerned. “Thanks for taking a stand?” he asked more than said.
“Of course. But, yes, it’s safe to say that if I step back into the realm I will most likely be put to death.”
“Not necessarily, we lost the war to Prinath, and it’s technically a combined territory. A lot of old leadership is gone.”
Pierce leaned back, shocked. “Really? Good. Nodoor was a shit kingdom. Prinath was always a little better to their dragon population.”
“It’s gotten a lot better since the war ended. Maybe what you did played a role in that.”
Pierce waved a dismissive hand. “Eh, I didn’t cause destruction alone. It was a group effort. Our family did some damage too. Although I didn’t agree with all their methods.”