Chapter 52 Generational Ties #4
“He is no longer my best friend.”
“Oh, no?”
His angry blue eyes drop to my waist then find their way back to my face. “No.”
“Why not?” Am I bored? Do I still crave that vengeance I wanted before we started traveling through time? I don’t know. But this feels like a needed distraction.
“Are you still best friends with Mabel Rose?” The question swings into my gut with brutal force.
My molars grate against each other as I stare ahead. I shake my head.
The jokes have ended.
The humor at poking him to get a reaction has ceased to exist.
“Why did you do it?” I ask as I wind my arm around the bars. “Why did you have to fuck my best friend?”
His exasperated breathing becomes heavier. “Mabel Rose had it out for you, Spitfire. She spent many months making advances on me at the tavern while we were intoxicated. On a night she was drunk off her ass, she admitted that she was tired of living in your shadow.”
“What?”
“You really never noticed?”
My chest stings with a sudden epiphany.
“You and I had a nasty fight, and you got me suspended from sword training. That’s when I eventually gave in.”
“You got yourself suspended for being a piece of shit,” I retort.
Niklaus chuckles.
“That fucking killed me, Niklaus.” I stare at him until he meets my eyes.
“I don’t know if I’ll ever get over it. That sounds so dense and vapid after everything we’ve been through.
But it’s true. You wanted to hurt me, and it worked.
Mabel Rose was my best friend. Granted, her being a jealous bitch had nothing to do with you, but she still took you…
and you rubbed it in my face to wound me. ”
Niklaus sits up, opening his mouth to argue my point—but I stop him.
“I’m sorry. It’s ridiculous to even rehash this now. Jesus, look at me. I just met my dead grandparents in prison. And I’m over here talking about petty drama.”
Niklaus watches me closely. Several seconds go by. And I can’t tell if he’s frozen in his spot because he’s still hanging on to my last words about our previous discussion or if he’s just pissed at me for changing the subject.
“My mother told me they both met violent ends,” he finally says.
I dip my head. “Jack ended his life. And Sophia was sexually assaulted by men from Demechnef in front of my father and—they forced him to murder her with a sickle at the age of six.”
“Yeah, I remember something about that.”
“My father watched both of them die, actually.” The image in my head of him lying in that bed at home jumpstarts my brain. “Holy shit! I have his antidote!”
Niklaus shakes his head. “Not an antidote. Not really. He would have had to drink the red oak leaves in tea before…you know, with your mother in order to be saved.”
“Then it’s a good thing I can move through time!”
“You can control it now?”
“No.”
“Okay then.”
“Do you not get how incredible that information is, Niklaus? All I’d have to do is warn him.
Just once.” My skin tingles from the warmth that is spreading to every inch of my body.
“Can you imagine my mom’s face? She’d get to see him again.
I’d get to bring him back to her. And Krimson?
Oh god, what he wouldn’t give to meet our dad. He’s Krimson’s hero.”
“And you?”
“And me.”
It took years to bury this blasting river of hope inside my heart. It’s been an unwanted guest for so long, knocking softly even when I refused to answer, even when I turned out the lights and pretended not to be home. That swell of hope was always there, praying that I’d meet him one day.
“What if it makes our future worse? Changing something like that?”
“Future could get worse.”
A cold, wet snout nudges the back of my arm. Whiskers. Soft fur. I balk at Dellilian looking up at me from her seated posture to my left.
“Dellilian!” I yelp, throwing my arms around her. I nuzzle my face into her black fur and grin. “I didn’t get to thank you. Not just for saving us from Vrath, but for keeping me alive and breathing when I was buried!”
The precious little creature starts to purr, leaning into my hug and burrowing into my chest.
“I don’t know who sent you, but I’m so happy they did,” I tell her.
“You think warning Sapphire’s father could harm our timeline, Dellilian?” Niklaus interrupts. His approach toward her isn’t nearly as agitated and hostile as it usually is.
Dellilian peeks around me to acknowledge Niklaus.
“Save lives. Lose lives too.”
Niklaus and I freeze.
“Tell me that doesn’t mean what I think it means,” I mutter.
My pulse is heavy in my throat. The strange circus bulbs start to dim.
“New births. New funerals,” Dellilian replies vaguely in her childlike voice.
“No, Dellilian. I need a firm yes or no. If we prevent Patient Thirteen from falling into his coma, will someone else have to take his place?” Niklaus sits upright, grabs on to the bars by my face and leans toward us.
“Yes.”
“Fuck!” We throw ourselves back against the bars.
“There has to be a way I can warn him!” I slam my hands on the ground.
“Are there any ways around it?” Niklaus asks.
Dellilian takes a few seconds to think. “Kill.”
I lock eyes with Niklaus, sharing the same thought. We seem to follow a similar train of thought as his eyes spring between mine at a steady rhythm.
“If we kill Vrath, could it be done?” I ask.
“Yes. Bad Man.”
“But there could still be catastrophic consequences to the future we came from, Sapphire.”
I scoff. “I doubt it.”
“If bringing him out of his coma ensures that your brother dies in fatal attack from one of your father’s enemies? Or maybe that his existence triggers another deadly war? Are those seriously outcomes you’re willing to risk?”
The disbelief comes simmering off my skin in hot bursts.
“How can you even ask me that?”
His face does not soften. It’s as though he found that infuriating expression he used to wear all the time. The one that is uncaring, unfeeling, unbearably cold toward my feelings.
“How can you ask me to let you do this and risk everyone’s lives?”
I ignore his question and lie down next to Dellilian, inviting her to curl up next to me.
My mouth stays shut. My eyes stay closed.
And Niklaus doesn’t try to talk about it either.
This is something we will never agree on.
Is there logic to his concerns? Of course.
I don’t want anything bad to happen to anyone we love because I changed the future with my warning.
But I have to believe that ensuring my father never falls into that coma would only make our home a better place. If he can’t see that, then we have nothing to discuss.
With his help, or without it…
I’m going to warn my dad.