Thirty Minutes to Heartbreak Box Set (Books 1-3)

by Nadia Scrieva

  Para stared at him in wide-eyed surprise as her tiny tickle of guilt began to gnaw at her more intensely. “I’m sorry, Thorn.”

  He suddenly relaxed, realizing that he was taking it out on the wrong person. He stepped closer to Para and placed a hand on her face, observing her features in the moonlight. “Forgive me for raising my voice, sweetheart. I must just deserve this treatment. You’re going to abandon me too, before long, won’t you?”

  Yes, I am. Para swallowed, feeling very small and exposed under his intent gaze. How can I lie to you and tell you that I won’t? She reached up and slid her arms around his neck, pressing her body against his as she looked up, maintaining the eye contact. I will do this the exact same way you lied to me about your loyalty. It feels slimy to be so twofaced, but I was born for the sake of revenge; I’m not going to forget that, not even in the moonlight.

  “Thorn, I’m very young and I don’t know myself as well as you know yourself. I’m not at a really stable point in my life. It’s a rocky moment in time for me. But I promise I will be as loyal as I can be, and there for you as much as I can be. I will always be faithful to you, and kind, and I will always listen when you need me to.”

  “Thanks, Medea.” He lowered his face until his nose rested against the top of her head. “But that’s not how women work. If I make one mistake, you’re out the door. I know this now, but I really wish I could believe you.”

  “I understand if you don’t,” she answered. I have plenty of time to make you love me. Plenty of half-hours. I won’t hurt you until you trust me, like I trusted you.

  “Even my sister left. I tried to ask her to stay tonight, without being explicit that I needed her to stay, but she just disappeared. I can’t even maintain a relationship with my own flesh and blood. Where is she? Where the hell is my sister when I need her?”

  Dammit. Para realized that her telepathy had been malfunctioning so much that she hadn’t even realized when she had been speaking to her brother earlier that he had needed her. But even if I had understood that he needed me, I wouldn’t have been able to stay. I would have had to leave for the plan to work. Maybe I could have said something nicer to him at least...

  With a regretful sigh, Para tried to give an offhanded apology. “I wish I could have come to the ball earlier and met Amara. I’ve heard so much about her from you and Ash.”

  “It’s probably for the best she didn’t get to see you in that dress,” he answered with a lopsided grin. “I’d love to introduce you to her, but I have no idea when she’ll ever be around. Amara and I used to be so close. I mean, we’d fight and bicker a lot, but we spent a lot of time together, and the love was there. We used to double date at least once a week. Now I know the truth—she was never on my side. She was there for Pax. Maybe somewhat for Ash—but never for me. Her love for Pax was greater than her love for me.”

  True. Family isn’t always about blood. We have an alliance, just like you and Ash have an alliance. And this is war, even if you two don’t realize it! Para moved closer to him, massaging his back comfortingly. But I guess I do owe you some quality sibling time. Maybe a little bit of time to catch up wouldn’t hurt, and it could be good for both of us.

  “Thorn, people get really busy and drift apart sometimes. I’m sure that’s all. She’s your sister, and you’re probably still the most important guy in her life. Maybe she was temporarily pissed at you for something, but soon enough things will go back to the way they were. That’s how families are. Why don’t you invite her to lunch or something of the sort next week?” Your treat, of course.

  “That’s a good idea. I’ll try that. I really miss her.”

  I’ll choose a really expensive place and order the most expensive dishes on the menu. “I’m sure you’ll see her again soon and patch things up,” Para said with an encouraging smile. Yay! I get a free lunch out of this.

  “I hope so.”

  Little did Para or Thornton know that an event was about to occur that would change everything and make their little lunch date impossible. It would be a very, very long time before anyone ever saw Amara again.

  * * *

  “Did you find the girls?” Vincent asked.

  “I flew by Pax’s apartment and Amara’s house,” Raymond said. “They weren’t there, and I can’t sense them anywhere else. They don’t want to be found.”

  “Maybe it’s for the best,” Asher said. “Pax has a temper, and I don’t really want her to meet Medea. She might hurt or kill her in a jealous rage.”

  “You would know all about jealous rage, wouldn’t you, darling?” Amelia asked coyly.

  Asher rolled his eyes in response just as Gordin Solyst entered the ballroom. The Earth Deva wore a deep frown on his dark face as he walked forward to join the deva men and their families.

  “Do you really think that this could be related to a future threat? Gordin asked. “I don’t sense anything unusual, and I’ve been meditating nonstop for about a week. Thanks for interrupting, because I was getting a cramp in my leg and my nose was itchy.”

  “Trust us,” said Rose firmly. “It was serious enough to ruin my party and for us to send Raymond to get you.”

  “I’m concerned about my wife,” Gordin admitted. “Is she safe?”

  “She should be fine,” Vincent said curtly. “The demon woman is upstairs.”

  “We don’t know if she’s a demon yet,” Amelia warned. “Let’s not jump to conclusions.”

  “And we don’t know that she’s a harmless bunny rabbit,” Rose argued.

  Raymond sighed. “Well, there’s only one way to find out. Should we call in the lady of the hour?”

  “Yes,” Asher answered. “How do we approach this? Should we ask her politely to explain?”

  “No,” Gordin advised. “We need to trick her. Someone has to send a fireball at her, and we’ll see how much damage it does.”

  “A very, very weak fireball,” said Asher with a frown. “She’s not very strong, trust me.”

  “I’ll do it,” said Vincent enthusiastically, leering and cracking his knuckles.

  “Uh, how about no?” said Gordin. “You’ll fry the poor girl. Let me do it, I can control myself.”

  “That’s a good idea,” said Rose. “Gordin is the only one among the demigod men here with a morsel of self-control.”

  Vincent growled. “I resent that.”

  * * *

  “I made one mistake, Medea. And everyone just turned on me.”

  “What do you mean?” Para asked, with a quick glance at her watch. Twelve minutes. Plenty of time.

  “My sister chose her, my dad chose her, and my mother fired me.”

  “From a job you hate.”

  “That’s not the point! My balance has been all upset. I was in a comfortable rhythm.”

  “Comfortable rhythm,” Para said slowly and angrily. She closed her eyes to suppress the annoyance. Thornton was complaining about the discomfort that his mistake had cost him, when it had cost her immeasurable pain. She could hardly stand any more of his selfish complaining.

  Amara remembered dating a human boy in high school who was a bit of a hypochondriac. If anything would slightly go wrong with his body he would be convinced that he was dying. She had worried for him at first, knowing the human body was much more sensitive than the deva body and much more prone to illness. But on her tenth visit to the emergency room in a year, she was beginning to get the idea that it was more of a psychological problem and need for attention than anything else.

  Her brother’s whining now reminded her of that. If she were in her normal body, she would have put her hands on her hips and harshly told him to, “Suck it up, Princess!” But for the sake of her plan, she had to console him, and make him feel loved, and act like his problems were the worst in the world.

  “I know how damaging it can be to have your rhythm upset. Balance is a difficult thing to find in life, and so precious to hold onto when you have it.” She squeezed his arm in a soothing manner.
r />   “I’m sorry to complain to you so much, but here is my main point: Pax was my anchor, for many years,” he admitted. “For much longer than I realized. Even when I was a teenager and she was just a little girl—I used to babysit her. That sounds creepy, but the truth is that she inspired me. Medea, if you could only have seen the way she looked up at you with those big round eyes, and begged you to teach her how to fight. She was full of energy and life, more than anyone I had ever known. If only you could have seen how curious she was, how tough and relentless.”

  Para stared at him in wonder as he chuckled lightly in memory.

  “I’m sorry, I’m rambling again,” he said apologetically. “I just meant to say that even back then, Pax was my muse; she was my motivation. So as you can see, this goes deeper than a ruined relationship. I’m really far more attached to her than it’s healthy for any person to be attached to another person.”

  “It’s only unhealthy when things go wrong,” she told him.

  “Well, things have gone wrong,” Thornton said, his smile disappearing, “and I tried my best to fix everything and pick up the pieces. But at this point, I’m ready to give up on her completely. I’ve never actually said that out loud before, but that’s what I wanted to tell you. I’m giving up on Pax. I’ve depended on her for over twenty years, and she’s been everything to me. But I’m ready to let go of her and move on. Life changes, and if she can let go of me—then I can let go of her just as easily.”

  Para didn’t realize her hands were shaking until Thornton reached out to grasp one of them. “I want you to know this, Medea. You never have to worry about me prioritizing Pax over you again.”

  She took a deep breath. This is a good thing, Para. A good thing. Remember? She closed her eyes, and chose to echo his earlier words. “I wish I could believe you.” I’ll ‘fall’ for you when you fall for me. Para thought to herself. She knew the day was coming soon.

  Thornton smiled at her. “Thank you for being here with me tonight. You are a jewel amongst all this chaos.”

  Para smiled back at him. This time, when he leaned towards her for a kiss, she willingly accepted. She pressed her body against his with all the hunger she had felt since she had danced with him earlier in her original body. She gave him the kiss that she had wanted to give him then; and then some. They were in private after all.

  Thornton returned the pressure with all the pent up craving he had felt for Pax earlier as well. And then some. He did feel particularly affectionate toward Para, appreciating that she was receptive to his touch and not running away from him. It was comfortable and it was easy, even if it wasn’t perfect. Even if the decades of history and connection had been lost.

  As the kiss caused his mind to relax and the tension to ease out of his body, he realized that it was pretty close to perfect. Maybe, in the moonlight which streamed into his room, he could lose himself in the sensations and just feel—

  Son! I want you to come down to the ballroom now. Bring the girl. We have something serious to discuss.

  Thornton straightened and pulled away from the kiss as his brain was invaded with his father’s voice. He groaned and hit himself in the head. “I’m sorry, Medea. My dad’s summoning us downstairs. Duty calls I guess. They probably got the fire alarm all sorted out.”

  Para had only heard part of the message, but Vincent’s telepathic voice sounded stern. She glanced at her watch. “Maybe I should go home. I’m pretty tired and I have a long day tomorrow.”

  “The ball will probably continue for a few hours at least. Sure you don’t want to come downstairs with me?”

  “No, I really need to head home. I still have a bit of a headache.”

  “That sucks. You were only at the ball for a few minutes really.”

  “I didn’t come for the ball. I came for you.”

  He smiled, leaning forward to taste her lips again. “Even if it was just a few minutes, you made a huge impression on everyone. You’ll be all over the papers tomorrow in that gown.”

  She smiled and returned his soft kisses. Thornton threaded his arms around her waist and pulled her close, using his tongue to gently prod her lips open.

  Thorn! There is no time for you to have a quickie. Come down here now!

  Para and Thornton jumped apart as though Vincent had walked in on them kissing. Part of Para felt as though her father had walked on her kissing her brother, and she had a little shudder at the thought. But at least I heard all of Vincent’s thought. Maybe my telepathy is working again.

  And bring the girl with you! Vincent’s voice came again.

  What is it, Father? She’s pretty tired; how about I come downstairs and let her go home?

  It is mandatory that you bring her!

  Why? Can’t she just—

  Just do it. This is serious.

  “My dad wants us both to go downstairs. Some discussion or something. I’m sorry to keep you, but is it alright if you humor him?”

  She glanced at her watch. “Sure. It’s okay, but I can’t stay very long. Just a few minutes to make your dad happy.”

  Chapter 21: Clock Strikes Twelve

  The king’s son was always by her, and never ceased his compliments and kind speeches to her. All this was so far from being tiresome to her, and, indeed, she quite forgot what her godmother had told her. She thought that it was no later than eleven when she counted the clock striking twelve. She jumped up and fled, as nimble as a deer. The prince followed, but could not overtake her. She left behind one of her glass slippers, which the prince picked up most carefully. She reached home, but quite out of breath, and in her nasty old clothes, having nothing left of all her finery but one of the little slippers, the mate to the one that she had dropped.

  The guards at the palace gate were asked if they had not seen a princess go out. They replied that they had seen nobody leave but a young girl, very shabbily dressed, and who had more the air of a poor country wench than a gentlewoman.

  “That’s awful, mommy! Why did she have to change back to regular at midnight?”

  “She was still the exact same girl, Nyssa. The only things that changed were her fancy clothes and jewels.”

  “But why did they all have to change?”

  Layla wrinkled her brow. “Because magic has rules. It can’t last forever.”

  “Why?”

  “Well, if it lasted forever, it wouldn’t be magic. It would just be... real.”

  * * *

  Para walked into the ballroom with Thornton, descending the stairs while holding his arm. There was silence. No music was playing. Many of the devas and their families were gathered there, but no other party guests. Even Gordin was there, and Para knew that he had been off training in the mountains not long ago.

  Sakra. Something’s really wrong.

  With each step that she took down the stairs she felt her tension grow, and the smile disappeared from her face.

  “Hey! Holy crap! What’s that over there?” Gordin asked suddenly, pointing behind the couple.

  Para and Thornton quickly turned in the direction he had pointed, but finding nothing there, they turned back to face Gordin in confusion. The dark-skinned Earth Deva still had his finger pointed. Everyone in the ballroom was frozen, with shocked looks on their faces.

  Para absent-mindedly moved a hand up to scratch her shoulder. “What? I didn’t see anything.”

  What she hadn’t seen was that Gordin had used his finger to fire a tiny fireball directly at her in the instant she had turned away. It had hit her squarely in the shoulder, but she had hardly noticed it, other than a light itching sensation in the area.

  “That proves it,” Raymond said quietly.

  “That proves nothing,” said Vincent, although a vein in his forehead was throbbing. “That attack was so weak that a newly hatched baby chick wouldn’t have noticed it.”

  “Attack?” Para asked softly, trying to restrain herself from freaking out. Why can’t I read their minds? “Thorn, what’s going on here?”
/>
  “Quit playing innocent, girl. We know who you are!” Vincent shouted.

  Shit, she thought to herself. This is bad. How am I going to lie my way out of this one? In front of everyone?

  Vincent suddenly extended his arm and fired a large beam of prana directly at Para.

  She froze, trying to decide between blocking the blast, taking the blast and playing dead, or sending her own blast back to counter the attack. How much did Vincent know exactly? She was so motionless that the boiling beam of prana would have certainly hit her, but at the last second Thornton dove in front of her and swatted away the missile. It exited the wall of the ballroom, leaving a gaping hole in its wake. “What the hell are you doing, Father?”

  “Get away from her, boy.”

  “Vince! Can you be a little more careful, please?” Rose demanded. She pointed at the damage angrily. “You totally destroyed that wall.”

  Para closed her eyes and tried to focus her telepathy to read Vincent’s thoughts. However, she kept picking up the signals from the minds of all the devas in the room at the same time.

  The thoughts were all very similar. Is she a new enemy? Is she related to the new enemy? A henchman? How strong is she? Am I strong enough to defeat her? Is my family safe?

  “Are you harmed, Medea?” Thornton was asking gently. “It's okay, don’t let my dad scare you.”

  “What’s going on?” she asked, hyperventilating slightly. “I want to go home. Take me home right now, Thorn.”

  “I’ll tell you what’s going on, Medea,” said Rose, walking forward with her hands on her hips. “You left your syringe here when you came over for dinner. I had the contents tested.”

  Para turned to look at Rose in surprise. Dammit. Goddammit, I’m ruined. Mom took it to the lab. She figured it out. Aghhh!

  “Well then, girl,” Vincent growled. “Looks like your ruse is up. We all know what you’ve been hiding.”

  “No! Wait! It’s okay!” said Thornton, turning to Para. “Don’t worry. I accept you. It’s fine. Whatever you’re addicted to, whatever drug it is—we can work through this together.”