Chapter 79 Worlds Colliding
Sage looked out the window. She was nervous to talk about Nana, but if she couldn’t do it here, now, the old woman would control her forever.
She sat up straight and put strength in her voice.
“Would you tell me the prophecy again?” Sage pulled the plant label out of her pocket and found a pen in the center console, then wrote it down while Rhogun recited.
She put the label in her pocket, saying, “But Na—but Abigail doesn’t have a renqua.
” Her voice was hesitant, because she didn’t know for sure.
“It was scraped off, or she hides it with magic.”
“So, it’s a star? She’s Citlali?”
Rhogun nodded slightly. “Don’t you think she is?”
Sage shook her head. No one knew if Abigail had a renqua or not, but if she was a Citlali, wouldn’t they all know? Wouldn’t she say? Sure, she was powerful enough to be a Citlali, but if she’d acquired her power with magic, Sage would call her a witch, not a Citlali.
“Rhogun, I can’t… I can’t cooperate with Abigail, or work with her. She's…” Sage couldn’t bring herself to say more.
Rhogun lifted his eyepatch and the dead eye crawled over her. “You won't work with her, you will surpass her and take over. You, vixie, are stronger than she, especially with your sisters beside you.”
“What sisters?” Sage whispered back.
“I see many powerful sisters around you, some alike, some not, all joined by a celestial link.” He dropped his eyepatch.
Sage felt no firm footing beneath her. The truck might as well have been floating. She was an only child, but what Rhogun meant was…
She squeezed his hand, saying, “Then I really am a One True Mate.”
Rhogun’s eyebrows went up. He looked at the males outside the window. “Did Canyon tell you that?”
Sage nodded, searching his eyes.
Awe filled his voice. “The prophecies are colliding.”
Tingles spread through Sage as Rhogun echoed Mina, but she shook her head. “But Rhogun, I didn’t have a mate reaction and Canyon didn’t, either.”
In the seat near them, the first alarm on the robot chimed.
They both looked at it. Rhogun’s face was troubled.
“Abigail is involved,” he said. “Somehow.”
***
Half an hour later, Sage walked into Big Bad Burgers, holding Canyon’s hand, her head held high. She and Rhogun had talked a few more minutes, then Timber had ushered Rhogun back into his cell, for the time being. They’d left, and she’d never had to talk to any vod.
She felt good. She felt strong. She felt like she could hold her own in a conversation with a foxen about why she was with a vod.
She could find her footing in both worlds, if such a thing was possible, and she was determined to try.
Rhogun had given her strength, and much to think about.
She held Canyon’s hand, barely able to focus on the menu, and not even interested in looking around this restaurant she’d never been inside before.
Her mind was on Rhogun and everything he’d told her.
“Hey,” Canyon said, squeezing her hand. “What do you want?”
She blinked, bewildered, realizing they’d moved right up to the cashier.
“Little Mouse Meal? What you had last time?” he asked.
Sage shook her head. “I’m starved.”
“Big Bad Burger?”
“Yeah.”
Canyon ordered and paid. Timber got their drinks, Canyon took the bags and they went out to the truck, Sage opening doors for them. She climbed into the back next to the robot, who was strapped in with a seat belt, the silver silhouette of a wolf’s head spinning on its screen.
Canyon drove to a park, then went around a barricade and right up onto the grass between some bushes.
He turned off the truck and twisted in his seat, giving Sage a grin.
Timber doled out the food, handing Sage her Big Bad Burger.
Canyon and Timber each had gotten the Three Little Pigs meal, which appeared to be three massive pulled pork sliders, topped with coleslaw, with a tub of Howls dipping sauce, and fries.
Canyon unwrapped a slider, dipped it, then held it out to her. “First bite dibs.”
She bit into it and it was sweet, spicy, and satisfying. “Yum.”
Sage picked up her Big Bad Burger and offered it to Canyon, and he took a massive bite, then grinned at her while he chewed it. “Big and bad.”
Sage laughed. She scooped up some greens with the burger and bit into the combination, thinking what she should tell them first.
“His name is Rhogun Russell Van Crimson,” she said between bites.
“Rhogun Russell Van Crimson,” Canyon repeated. He glanced at the robot, then said, “Did he want you to tell us his name?”
“Yes. He’s convinced you and I are mates, and that was before he knew anything about, uh, you know, me being a One True Mate.” Sage stumbled over her words, then internally steeled herself. She didn’t feel like she fully believed yet, but she almost did. That had to count for something.
She pulled the plant label out of her pocket and unfolded it. “He told you how to get out of the hole because foxen prophecy said so.” She read: “The captive knows the captor’s interests lie deep and many-faceted. Foxen secrets spill or wolven die.”
Timber blinked several times. “Canyon is named in foxen prophecy?”
Sage nodded. “Rhogun says he is.”
Canyon looked like he was considering it, and he nodded, his lips set like he was proud of it.
Timber shook his head like it didn’t make sense. “Why would foxen prophecy care if we stayed alive or not?”
“We have prophecy that says vod and foxen will combine forces against Khain, and someday even work and live together. Rhogun thinks that starts now.” She pointed at herself and Canyon. “With us.”
Timber whistled. “Damn.”
“Why did he think it was me? There were lots of us around that night.”
Sage rubbed Canyon’s shoulders. “How you treated him told him, and then he looked at you with his bad eye, and it confirmed.”
Canyon raised a brow. “I remember him lifting his eyepatch. His eye is…?”
Sage shrugged. “He said it sees differently when there’s something different to see.”
“That prophecy foretold that big-ass spider almost eating us,” Timber said. “That’s spooky.”
Canyon shrugged. “Bound to happen to any wolf who got too close to Abigail White.”
They sat in comfortable silence for several moments, finishing their meals.
“Vixie,” Canyon said, grinning at her, a questioning look on his face.
Sage smiled at him. “It’s a term of endearment for an adult foxen female. Anyone can use it. There’s also vi, and vix, for young children and teens.
“Mmm,” Canyon growled. “I like it… vixie.”
Sage smiled at him, then licked her top lip, moving from rubbing his shoulders to rubbing his chest.
“Dude, I’m still right here…” Timber said.
:Me, too—
Sage whipped her head toward the robot. The wolf’s head on screen had stopped spinning, and it was staring at her.
“Did it just—?”
Timber laughed. “I guess we haven’t told you. Wulf is…” He grasped for a word. “…alive? Sentient? We don’t quite know.”
“Wulf, are you alive or sentient?” Canyon asked.
:I am Wulf—
Canyon shrugged, his eyes locked on Sage, grinning his gorgeous grin.
“How does a robot become… alive?” she asked.
Timber shook his head. “We’re not entirely certain. An explosion was involved though, up on Morning Bluff.”
“Explosion!”
Canyon and Timber looked at each other.
“What?” Sage demanded. “Just say it.”
“Do you know anything about Number Six?”
“Or Number Thirteen?”
Sage gasped and covered her mouth. Shit was getting too real. She’d thought she was strong and could handle the two worlds coming together? She’d been wrong.
“They’re Nana’s husbands,” she whispered, feeling like she was ripping herself apart from her family and her clan and her elder.
“Both of them?”
She nodded, emotional pain striking her in the head and throat, but she continued to answer their questions. “Some people think Nana doesn’t divorce them; she just keeps marrying them. There’s six or seven of them, and some of them might come… from… another world.”
A glance passed between Canyon and Timber.
“Above my pay grade,” Timber said. “I didn’t hear anything you said, nope.” He shrugged and faced forward, muttering.
“How does she change the records?” Canyon asked, his eyes dark and focused on Sage.
“Magic,” Sage whispered.
Canyon shook his head, looking irritated.
Timber picked up a slider and pointed it at Sage over his shoulder. Some coleslaw fell out onto his shirt, and he scooped it into his mouth, then said, “Y’all’re related and all, but that’s fucked up.”
Sage didn’t say anything, emotions swirling through her that she was telling foxen secrets. She took a drink of her soda, giving herself a moment to think. If foxen and wolven really were to unite, all of it would come to light anyway.
She took a deep breath. “Rhogun thinks my nana—Abigail White—is a Primary Foxen.” She watched their faces and they clearly didn’t know what it meant.
“Meaning her father is Khain.” Sage dropped her eyes.
She hated admitting Khain was in her lineage; it was the most shameful aspect of herself, one she never liked to think of.
Canyon put his food into the center console. He wiped his mouth, then leaned over the seat, and kissed her square on the lips.
“Ditto,” Timber said. “Without the kiss. We know foxen came from Khain, but they came from wolven, too.”
Canyon sat back in his seat, nodding. “You’re as much wolven as you are Khain, and that’s hot.”
Sage shook her head, a smile on her face. She looked out the window. She looked at the robot, and then at Timber, and then at Canyon. She could tell by their faces that they meant what they said, and that made her feel wonderful.
“If Abigail’s father is Khain, who was her mother?” Timber asked.
“Serenity Saint Clair,” Sage said automatically.
Canyon and Timber looked at each other again.
Sage took a deep breath, wrestling her emotions under control. Serenity Saint Clair was a touchy subject in her family, and with all foxen. “You don’t know who she is because the vod erased her from history 300 years ago, but you see evidence all around you and don’t even know it.”
Timber cocked his head, his dark brown hair falling over his eyes. “You mean the name of the town?”
Sage nodded. “And the guardian statues. They appeared the day she was killed.”
“Killed!”
“By her own pack.”
“She was wolven?”
Sage nodded. “Wolven Citlali—A Primary Foxen is always the product of Khain…” Sage shuddered, losing her place for a moment, then steeled herself. “…always the product of Khain raping a female wolven Citlali.”
Canyon and Timber both winced.
“There’s almost always two young, Sage said, “and they were always two males, until… until Abigail White—if Rhogun’s right. One served the demon for 150 years while the other came to the Ula to populate it with foxen, and then they switched.”
Sage looked at the plant label again and read the prophecy. “A starred female, celestially joined, is born with the will to evade the demon. The Tether weakens.”
“Heavy,” Timber said.
Sage agreed it was an awful thing to have to talk about. She finished her Big Bad Burger in silence, and the males focused on their food. Finished, Sage wiped her hands, knowing it was time. She took a deep breath and met Canyon’s eyes. “I’m ready to go to the Fuck Farm.”
Timber laughed. “It’s called Village Fucktastic, say it with me now. Vill-lage Fuck-tas-tic.”
Sage grinned. “Dex calls it the Petting Zoo.”
“Ha!” Timber said. “No lies detected.”
“Who’s Dex?” Canyon asked.
“My cousin.”
Canyon winked at her, then he wiped his hands with a napkin, checked his teeth in the rearview, and started the truck.
“I hope the Petting Zoo is ready for us.”