AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I forgot to tell you earlier, I’m crazy about you and missed you all day while I was in class.”
Okay, maybe my trackies don’t matter so much. I wriggle back into him. He pulls one of the cloud-soft throws over us and tucks us in.
NowI feel safe.
“Do you mind when I talk about future-you?” I ask him as I watch The Mr. Black enter the room and pick a spot on the couch after inspecting the boys’ bar. He’s got a major gurn on. Whatever his questions are, I don’t think I’m going to enjoy answering them.
“No, Teddy.” He slides his elbow under my head and settles in so his cheek is pressed against mine. He rustles around and then holds something soft to my lips. I take a tentative bite and sigh with happiness when figgy goodness melts across my tongue. “I feel lucky that you love me in every Time we’re together. Do you think there are any timestreams where we’re not? Or are we a confluence?”
“We’re definitely a confluence, mate,” I assure him as I gobble the rest of the Fig Newton.
“Good. I couldn’t stand there to be versions of myself out there who don’t have you.” He crunches, his cheek working against mine. I gather he found pork rinds. Although I do like stealing his pork rinds, particularly the salt and vinegar flavored ones, I’ll take Fig Newtons over pork rinds any day.
“Where’s the rest of my bikkies?”
Gabe chuckles. “What makes you think there are more?”
“They come in packets of two. You’re holding out on me, baby boy.”
He holds another soft biscuit against my mouth, which I scran.
Lords clears his throat.
“As nauseatingly cute as the two of you are,” he says. “I have some important questions. Teddy, can you tell me what happened?”
I do, in detail, because while I like winding him up, I respect Lords. He may catch something I missed in the flurry of adrenaline and fear.
He sits back and strokes his beard after I finish. “She definitely had eight legs again?”
I think about what I saw for a moment, then nod. “She’s regenerated the legs she lost. And they cut right through my StoneSkin spell.”
Lords grunts. “Difficult to kill. I’ll have to ask Doctor Prince if she was trying to kill or just protect you. You did well, both of you.”
“We did our jobs, and we didn’t get dead,” I say.
Lords frowns at me. Sigh. Callan would have caught theSpeedreference. Well, future-Callan would have. Now-Callan missed aPretty In Pinkreference. I seriously question his street cred in this Time.
The milky, malty scent of tea precedes Charlie and Darwin as they come into the man cave. Charlie hands out steaming mugs while Darwin puts extra milk and hot water on the table.
“You ordered the salad?” Lords asks Charlie.
“Yeah,dad, I did,” Charlie grumbles.
“I didn’t ask for salad,” I object.
Lords’s frown turns into a glower. “You were just injured and healed. Your body needs more nutrients than lasagna andcurly fries. Eat the salad.”
I pull my imaginary forelock with two fingers. “Aye, sir.”
“You really do like to test my patience, Teddy. One last question and I’ll leave you to your dinner. Doctor Prince said you were reading from one of the Zodiaci Primus. The spells in those books are unpredictable. They don’t work the same way for different mages. Some of them can only be used once. Do you think you could cast that spell again?”
I think of the chant. Like the blood-to-stone spell, it’s right there at the top of my memory. I nod.
“Good,” Lords says. “Doctor Prince has a theory that Klotho will know when a portal opens near you and position herself to attack. We can use this to our advantage to ambush her. Gabe, I’m going to have to ask you to refrain from practicing portaling until we’re ready to spring a trap.”
“Okay,” Gabe agrees. “But I was going to use it on my Aerokinesis final.”
“I’ll let your professor know. It’s too dangerous for any of you to open portals right now. Klotho is actively hunting Teddy at the very least, but I consider all of you at great risk. So much so, I’m considering relocating my base of operations to your apartment until this is over.”
