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“She’s having trouble staying regular,” I translate. “You really are as dumb as a box of rocks.”
His lip curls. “Not too dumb to know kissing up to your sister is the only way to keep the Parallel separate from Human Side.”
I arch a brow and shrug, pretending I know what he’s talking about. “Doubt that’s true, but…whatever you think, Pax.”
“It’s not what I think,” he says, falling into my not-at-all-clever interrogation trap yet again. “Bane had it all set up. He was working with the wraiths lost in the space between the worlds. He promised he’d free them if they helped him blow up all the portals between Human Side and the Parallel so they would collapse into each other or some shit. Kelley could still do the same thing if we don’t talk her out of it. And I don’t want to live in that world. That world would suck.”
I’m inclined to agree with him, though I think it would suck to have Human Side full of Parallel scum.
There are some very nice people living in the Parallel, but there are also a lot of assholes, bullies, and just plain criminal monsters. Even with their faults, I’ll take a majority human population over a majority supernatural one any day.
“Maybe it’s because it’s so much easier for them to be killed,” I wonder aloud, pacing around Pax’s chair. “And they don’t tend to live as long.”
Pax explores another confused look, but Hermione is on my wavelength. “Why they’re less violent? Could be,” she muses. “Or maybe they’re just further along in their evolution toward a civilized society than we are. Their world was pretty brutal in the middle ages.”
“You two deserve to be Kelley’s slaves,” Pax mutters. “Fucking human sympathizers, both of you.”
“What did she promise you?” I ask. “In exchange for kidnapping me and taking me back to Victor, you get…”
“I get you,” Pax says with a snort. “Who’s dumb now?”
I cross my arms over my chest. “Pardon me. I didn’t realize your love for me ran that deep.”
“The guy who’s mated to the queen’s sister is going to get treated right,” Pax says, proving he does have at least a few braincells. “And you’re going to hate being married to me,” he says, grinning. “I’m going to make your life fucking miserable. And show you who’s boss. I haven’t forgotten what you said.”
“About your tiny dick?” I ask, playing it cool, not wanting Pax to know how much it hurts that Kelley promised me to a monster.
Guess she’s not interested in my happiness or well-being anymore, now that I’m no longer her prisoner or being forced to play by her rules.
His grin widens. “No, about me shooting blanks. I’m not. I had my shit tested, bitch. My swimmers are fucked in the Parallel but they’re fine Human Side. So, I just get you pregnant here and take you back there.”
“I’m already pregnant,” I murmur, something about his words pricking at my memory. A moment later, a horrible worry begins to rise inside me. I turn back to Hermione. “Can I see you out in the hall?”
“Yeah, you better run,” Pax jeers as we open the door. “Before I get both of you bitches knocked up.”
“Can I rip his dick off?” Hermione asks beneath her breath as we step into the hall. “It’ll take me two seconds. One hand. Give the go ahead and it’s done. We’ll say he attacked us or something.”
“He doesn’t matter,” I say softly. “But what he said… It makes me wonder…” I pull in breath, trying to corral my unruly thoughts. “In my vision, I saw two different futures. One where Maxim defeats Kelley tonight and eventually becomes king of the united packs. One where he doesn’t, it takes more time to beat my sister, and Diana eventually becomes queen, but under pretty fraught circumstances. But I didn’t see anything about the Parallel. Nothing. And I didn’t feel it either, didn’t even sense it.”
Her pale brows pinch closer together. “I don’t understand.”
“Usually, in my visions, I have a sense of the Parallel, even though I’ve never had a vision take place there yet. But today it was like…” I bite my lip, willing my panicked brain to calm down and come up with a good analogy. “It’s like when you’re on a boat. You can only see what’s happening on the surface, but you can feel the waves rocking the ship and sense the creatures moving around beneath the water. Like that.”
“Okay,” Hermione says, but she still doesn’t look completely satisfied by my explanation. “But in the vision you had today, there were no waves?”
I shake my head. “No, it was completely…still. Flat. Like it was taking place on solid ground with no water under it at all. Like there was no water.”
“Like the Parallel had been destroyed?” she asks in a tone that says my worry is catching.
Neither of us live there anymore, obviously, but we know people who do. Almost everyone living Human Side has friends and family in the Parallel and the majority of the supernatural populations of the world live there. Its destruction would be genocide on a scale our kind has never experienced.
My shoulders hunch closer to my ears. “Maybe? Or maybe just…cut off in some way. Maybe the wraiths Bane was working with go ahead with their plan to blow things up and it goes awry somehow?” My breath rushes out. “Or maybe Kelley has something planned that we don’t know about. Either way, Maxim should hear this before they land.”
Hermione is already backing toward the enforcer bull pit at the front of the offices. “We’ll call him now. They won’t land for at least another hour. We have time.”
But when wetry to reach the lead helicopter, the call won’t connect. We try the other helicopters with the same result. Then we try Maxim’s cell and the cell of every person in the lead chopper with him and get more radio silence.
“The cloaking spell must be interfering with the signal,” the man running the communications desk says, sweat breaking out along his receding hairline. “This is why we don’t put together a mission without a dry run first.” He curses softly and runs a hand over his head. “We should be able to reach them as soon as they land and the spell is banked, but that won’t give them much notice. And that’s assuming the other side doesn’t have some kind of scrambling device and that there’s a steady cell signal in the deep woods.”
