by Shannyn Leah
Victor’s face turned every possible shade of red. “Because I’m the man of this house and am their father,” he gritted out.
“Yes,” Magnus said, as he ran his fingers across the length of a shelf. At the end, he turned to Victor with a wicked smile that sent chills through Brea. “I had a father, too, and now he’s dead.”
The tension in the room tripled.
“Is that a threat?” Victor held Magnus’s cold stare.
“It’s a fact of life,” Magnus said, shrugging. His casual demeanor began to scratch at Brea’s nerves. This wasn’t a game or a little hiccup in life, this was their lives on the line. “Just as it’s a fact that I am the higher power until Brea takes her position in Lexcon−”
“So you say,” Victor said. “What makes you think we will so easily believe that you, a man imprisoned in Lexcon, is an elder?”
A reasonable question, thought Brea.
“Dad,” Gabrielle interjected. “We were all there when the other elders called Magnus an elder.”
“We were also there when the elders told us not to trust him,” Declan said.
Magnus met Declan’s untrusting stare with his own.
“Yet, I wasn’t the one trying to kill you,” Magnus pointed out. Point for him.
“And this all could have been prevented if you’d given them Brea,” Victor said. “If everything you’ve told me, and that’s a huge if, is true, you’ve pissed off the elders for doing their job. Correct?”
Jax stood angrily from the chair he’d collapsed into when they’d arrived back, knocking it over. “We will not give them Brea.”
“Son, your opinion is almost as worthy as this uninvited nuisance.” Victor hitched his thumb in Magnus’s direction, without looking at the elder.
“If you plan on handing her to council, it’s over my dead body. Literally.” Jax stormed over to Brea and took her hand in his. Their souls were perfectly aligned, but her heart was far from it and she knew his was too...if their hearts had anything to do with it.
Brea pulled her hand away and ignored the hurt look on Jax’s face as she said, “Maybe we can reason with council. I will go willingly to the elders if they spare Jax, Declan, and Gabrielle’s lives.”
Victor looked happy for the first time since she’d arrived at the estate. She didn’t even know he knew how to smile. “That’s a perfect plan,” he said.
“I did not rescue you just to hand you back over to them,” Jax hissed at her.
“I didn’t ask you to rescue me.” Brea felt her own anger rising. His soul needing to protect her exhausted her. The man needed to ignore the feelings consuming him and think with his brain.
“We didn’t have a choice,” Declan said. “Magnus would only help us if we saved Brea.”
Brea folded her arms and faced Jax.
“That’s not exactly how it went down,” he said.
“Brea is essential to the big picture,” Magnus agreed.
“Let’s go back in time and fix this,” Victor said.
“Now you’re being irrational, Victor,” Annalieese said. “They’ll simply send another set of Gatekeepers to stop you.”
“Except the change will benefit them,” Victor said. “According to what I’m piecing together with all their rips, I’m to understand that Jax and Declan met an elder in their first rip at the Unborns house.” Victor looked at his sons.
Only Declan nodded and answered. “Yes, and he was strong. Excessively strong, tossing us both around. He knew exactly who we were.”
“He was obviously there to make sure that baby didn’t leave,” Victor continued. “Because who do you think that baby was? You say Brea was the first to slip into the real world, then who do you think you two were sent to save from the elder who was there to take her? Kill the doctor? Set time right?”
“That’s not setting time right,” Jax said. “That’s creating time the way they want it.”
“They want Brea,” Victor snarled. “All this is about her.”
“And if she’s willing...” Declan said.
“Declan, Brea is family,” Gabrielle cut in.
“I won’t say this again,” said Jax. “We are not handing over Brea.” Jax’s voice was low and stern cutting through everyone’s high pitched commotion.
Brea rolled her eyes at his controlling ways instead of telling him to stop, because it was clearly a waste of breath.
“If we go back−” Victor suggested.
“Nobody is going back,” Annalieese yelled.
“Annalieese, sweetheart, step away,” Victor said.
Annalieese stepped away from Victor’s touch, and sent him an ice cold stare before repeating herself and adding, “You better start brainstorming a better solution. One in which keeps our children safe.”
“Besides, we are forbidden to go back in time and try to change it,” Declan pointed out.
“Technically, you children shouldn’t have been in an elders’ rip,” Victor shouted. “And bringing home an elder...a supposed elder...”
“I assure you, I am unquestionably an elder,” Magnus said, but it went unnoticed as the Winters’ voices rose octaves, falling deeper into a family discussion.
“I didn’t want to bring Magnus home,” Declan shouted into the conversation. “Jax is so stubborn.”
Jax jumped in. “Don’t blame this on me. I didn’t put us in the elders’ rip.”
“No, but you damn well made sure to stir up trouble once we got there,” Declan blamed.
“I wanted answers that I think we are entitled to,” Jax yelled.
“You’ve always thought you were ‘entitled’ to more than what was offered,” Victor yelled back. “Look where your recklessness has gotten us.”
Their voices increased as their argument continued, but their tones became background noises drowned out by Brea’s thundering heart.
Her breathing increased, panic and anger raced through her veins, until her whole body trembled. She squeezed her hands into fists at her side in an attempt to calm herself, but emotions overwhelmed her body.
What was happening to her?
She saw Magnus silently watching her, curiosity embedded across his face. Did he know what was happening to her?
Deep in her gut, she felt a coming storm...something that would be her fault, but she had no idea how to stop the progress.
Calm down, she told herself.
She fought back against the rising tension in her body. Her in-laws were not the cause...she feared her own power.
Magnus nodded at her and she sensed him telling her to let go of her fear. She stopped fighting the feeling resonating inside her.
“Stop!” Her loud, booming voice compared weakly to the power that came from within her. The books trembled and began to fall off the shelves. The chandelier swayed above them, floorboards shook and the lights flickered.
Everyone stopped yelling and all eyes fell on Brea. But it didn’t end there. Chairs scraped away from the table and landed perfectly behind each person. The Winters’ eyes flickered from Brea to the chairs.
“I suggest we all take a seat,” Magnus said, lowering himself into a chair.
No one else sat down.
Brea had seen their look a dozen of times from Seconds: they were scared. Brea had to admit, so was she.
She remembered the elders warning of her dangerous powers. This incident was proof the Winters needed to hand her over...sooner rather than later.
Deafening bells rang through the room, startling everyone. Everyone except Victor covered their ears against the screeching sound. Victor’s quick steps took him to the far wall, where he pulled open two cupboard doors to reveal a panel of flat monitors connected to a high-tech security camera system.
Brea’s eyes fixated on dozens of screens that appeared to cover the entire estate. There, on one of the screens, she glimpsed a familiar hallway. Jax’s wing. Thankfully, it did not show the inside of his suite, but the exterior showed ever angle leading to it.
&nb
sp; Disturbing.
Brea hadn’t seen any indication of cameras in the halls...or in any of the hallways.
Were they in the suite, too, and she just hadn’t seen them? Were they everywhere on the estate?
Victor typed a code into the keyboard silencing the alarm, then reached for the phone inside.
“They’re everywhere,” Gabrielle said, slowly inching toward the cameras. Brea could see full size vans surrounding the house, and people in black suits jumping out of each, swarming the estate, forcing their way into every entrance and down every hallway in search of Brea...of all of them.
“This is magnificent,” Magnus said. Brea could think of many other words to describe what was happening: angering, terrifying, a horrible injustice. However, Magnus was referring to the new-age electronics. “I once traveled to a future era with a system like this...”
The future?
How had Magnus traveled to the future? Was future time travel even possible? If so, did Jax know about it?
Brea’s head swam. Her brain still reeled from her...powers. She’d moved chairs with her mind. Was it telekinesis? What else could she do and were these powers permanent?
“Brea?”
She looked at Magnus.
“Open us a rip,” he said, remaining calm throughout the growing chaos.
“We will talk to council,” Victor said, overriding Magnus’s order with his man of the house status. The testosterone in the room suffocated Brea and the additional men crawling through the house like cockroaches closed the distance with each passing second. Brea didn’t take orders from any of these men. It was clear what needed to be done. She needed to give herself in and demand peace with the rest of the Winters.
“You kids wait here,” Victor ordered. “You, too, Magnus,” he added.
In a huff, Victor started toward Brea, closing her window of opportunity with each step. What did she want to do? Open the door and surrender or let Magnus and Victor control and order her around?
As if sensing Brea’s actions, Jax’s fingers slowly entwined in hers, tightly gripping, hers in a plea not to bolt.
It’s your soul, Jax. Not your heart. You’ll be fine when I leave.
When she worked up the courage to look at him, she could have sworn love stared back at her. There was so much in his look, it grounded her in place.
Victor didn’t make it to the door before Annalieese gripped his arm, bringing him to a halting stop.
“Do you see how many of them are out there?” she demanded. “They are minutes from crashing this door down. They’re not here to listen. They’re here to take Brea. To take all our children. You might not believe what our children have been through and witnessed, but I do. And if it is so, their capture will be fatal.” She paused, only long enough to mirror Victor’s eyes of steel. “I will not let them kill my children. I will not let you let them kill my family and Brea has been our family from the moment she was born, Unborn or not. Bonded or not. She is our family. Like it or not.”
Brea felt tears brimming her eyes. Even knowing Annalieese’s confession was solely the result of her birthmark, she felt loved.
“You can talk to these armed men or council and try to reason with them, but first, Jax will open a rip and they all leave until we are certain their lives aren’t in danger,” Annalieese said.
Victor’s face was poker hot red. She would bet money that every last person in this room expected him to argue, but when he spoke, he surprised them all.
“Fine,” Victor growled. “Go. We’ll talk to them, sort this out and we’ll meet in two days at town hall. Inside.”
Victor hadn’t even finished speaking before Jax had grabbed Brea’s hand, once again, acting like the Neanderthal, and headed toward the gateway.
Magnus stepped in front of them.
“Old man, get out of my way,” Jax gritted, sounding so much like his dad.
“If you open the rip, the elders will track you down in an instant,” Magnus said to Jax. “But, if Brea opens her own rip, it will take them longer to locate us, giving us more time between jumps.”
“How long will we be...on the run?” Brea asked, a sickening feeling rising up in her chest. She somehow sensed this was not going to be a one day trip.
The look Magnus gave her confirmed her suspicions. He said, “As long as we have to.”
We’re going to war.
Gabrielle and Declan joined them and Gabby laced her hand in Brea’s. “It’s easy,” Gabrielle said, with a little squeeze of her hand. “Open the rip exactly like you did last time and, as we begin to walk through it, simply vision where you want to go.” Gabrielle smiled a half smile at her and added, “Like the island.” Then she sobered. “Except not the island, because they will look for us there.”
Great. Where wouldn’t they look for them?
She could do this.
As Brea raised her hand to the air, a pounding noise sounded on the entrance door, pulling her from her concentration.
“Hurry up,” Declan snarled. “Before you get us captured...again.”
Brea felt the tug of Gabrielle shifting and heard Declan groan. She assumed her sister-in-law had elbowed her brother-in-law for his comment. She wished she’d sent a punch over to Jax’s side, too.
Barbaric baboons.
Brea looked at Victor and Annalieese standing in the middle of the room. The shouting on the other side of the door increased and a slam, like a body, thudded against it. Digging deep somewhere inside her where she’d felt her powers stir, Brea conjured up a vortex. Their time rip.
“Think of a place,” Gabrielle said.
The island came to mind, being one of the best places and times of her life and she glanced at Jax again. Her soul loved him. Wanted him. Claimed him. But when she found her husband watching her closely, like he was anticipating she would make a mistake, she grew angry. She needed a break from this man.
A sinful smile crossed her lips and she started through the rip, guiding the others.
This would keep him at bay and give her the break she required to figure out her next move. She was tired of him deciding for her.
It was Brea’s turn to take over her life. Lexcon and the society had controlled her long enough, she would find her own way now. First, she needed to distract Jax and what better way than a little motion sickness?
Chapter Twenty-Three
AS THEY LANDED in Brea’s rip, Jax knew where they were right away, and so did the rest of his siblings.
Jax inhaled deeply and could smell the water, the ocean...the boat.
Firecracker.
It was Brea’s idea of payback. His stomach lurched.
“How lovely, the Titanic,” Magnus said, obviously impressed at Brea’s decision. “I love visiting this ship...before it sank, of course. No one wants to stick around for the collision. But during its floating days, this ship was a magnificent piece of work.”
Jax folded his arms, finding Magnus’s knowledge of the future, suspicious. He’d been locked up since the beginning of time and yet, he’d been on the Titanic? “How many times did you visit the future?” he asked Magnus.
Magnus shrugged. “A few.”
“You’re exceptionally comfortable with new technology,” Jax said. “Technology which would terrify people who had never experienced it before.”
“I am not an ordinary person. Before I was locked away, I visited the future often to gain knowledge of what was to come.”
Jax’s fingers tightened around his arm. “Was that wise?” he asked.
“Are you questioning me?” Magnus asked.
“Yes.”
“One of my favorite things to do when I was aboard the Titanic was to wager high bets at the casino,” Magnus said, ignoring Jax. “Remember, we have not taken a body, so don’t get your picture taken or change the course of time. Which means stay out of trouble and find suitable attire before leaving this room.”
Magnus moved past Jax and he caught his upper arm. “We’re not
finished talking,” Jax said.
“None of my answers will appease you, Jax.”
“Why don’t you try giving me ones that will. I didn’t come here to gamble; I came here to escape a death you don’t seem afraid of. That makes me wonder how far into the future you have been.”
“I’m not the enemy,” Magnus said.
“So you say,” Jax said, letting him go and stepping back. If Jax hadn’t trusted him before, he certainly didn’t trust him now.
Magnus walked across the room to open a metal travel trunk. He rummaged inside, while Jax exchanged looks with his siblings, noting from their looks they didn’t trust Magnus either. Even Brea looked hesitant.
For someone warning them to stay out of trouble, the piles of clothes he was creating would surely draw attention. Deciding on a dark suit, Magnus disappeared behind a door to change. The Winters siblings huddled around Jax, and he pulled Brea to his side.
“He’s sketchy,” Declan whispered, glancing over his shoulder, then back again.
“I don’t trust him,” Gabrielle agreed. “He’s given us no real answers to anything, but expects everything from us...including risking our lives.”
“We need to keep an eye on him,” Jax agreed. “If he can travel to the future, what is keeping him from leaving us here?”
“He’s weak,” Gabrielle suggested. “He couldn’t open a gateway in the elders’ rip, so maybe he needs time to heal. We could ask him, but I’m sure we won’t get a straight answer.”
“That could have been a show,” Declan said. “This whole thing could be a show.”
“You mean, everything involving me,” Brea said, breaking into the conversation. Jax was so used to debating with just his siblings, he’d temporarily forgotten she was with them. “Because me being more than a Second terrifies all of you. Right?”
“After the moving chairs and flickering lights back at the house, I’m worried about all our decisions up to this point,” Declan said.