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Okay, maybe not a metaphor. “I don’t understand how ground and trees whisper.”
“Doesn’t the wind whisper to you sometimes?” Trent asked. “Sometimes when you’re still, you can sense what’s about to happen. You might not understand it fully, but you know deep down something’s coming.”
That I could go with. “But that’s instinct, not prophecy.”
“Because that’s how you perceive it,” Gray countered. “You call it instinct. Lucifer experiences it as something else. He often talks about how he can find fate written into the fabric of the universe. Think of it like how Eddie creates this pocket world we’re in.”
Liv had explained it to me a couple of times. The magic came from being able to manipulate the natural world. “Eddie uses the space between atoms.”
“Yes,” Gray agreed. “He draws that space together and creates whole places. Lucifer does something similar except he’s looking for clues there, for echoes of what happened in the past. What has happened in our future. We experience time as a through line, but it’s not. What happened in the past is still happening, as what will occur ’til the end of time is occurring right now. Time is in layers all around us. It’s how Myrddin tricked you. Up until the moment you walked through that painting, you were still living the same days as we were. The painting was basically a wormhole through time on the way back.”
“So we should have found a way to get home without using the painting.”
“No. It wouldn’t have worked.” Gray sighed and twisted his big body, sitting up. “It’s what I’m trying to explain. What happened to you and the royals was an event that was written into the fabric of the universe. Not even the nexus point could have changed it.”
“But I thought the queen’s choices changed fate itself.” Zoey Donovan-Quinn was a nexus point. It meant she was a being with no ascribed fate. Fate was apparently a real thing, and prophets and death gods could often see the fate, or the most likely fates, of those around them. Zoey’s choices often changed the destinies of people she came into contact with.
“There are some events that are immutable, and nothing anyone does will change it. In all timelines, the trap is sprung,” Gray replied. “It is from that moment, the moment of your return, that the roads diverge.”
“Lucifer is looking into the different timelines? Into what happens in each?” Trent asked.
Gray nodded. “He wants to figure out why he is sometimes triumphant and why he fails so he can avoid the pitfalls.”
“And he uses you to do that?” That seemed like something we would want to avoid. Lucifer taking over the planes was a bad thing. It was life lesson 101 in the supernatural handbook—Don’t let the Hell lord take over.
“I am his focus. When I transitioned, my body changed. I am capable of seeing these different timelines. Most of the time I do not. Lucifer uses my unique chemistry to force the issue. Think of me as a prism. When he properly uses me, he filters the whole of the universe through my soul, parses it out and can select which plane or timeline he wants. He can study it through me.”
“Maybe we shouldn’t let him do that anymore.” I kept my tone as gentle as possible because I wanted to avoid Gray hulking out again.
“He is not the kind of creature you say no to,” Gray replied. “Especially after one signs a contract.”
I felt my eyes narrow. “I just got you out of a fucking contract, Gray.”
Trent moaned behind me. “Didn’t we go over this?”
I forced myself to shove the anger down. We’d won the war against Gray’s father, against his legacy status. He shouldn’t have been forced to descend. “Fine. I’d like to read the contract.”
“Eddie can explain it to you.” Gray stood and walked to the dresser where he opened a drawer and pulled out a pair of sweats. “It’s certainly not open ended. I owe Lucifer focal time for as long as you are gone plus six weeks Earth time. So if I don’t reup the contract, we need to move your family to Frelsi as soon as possible.”
My brothers would be thrilled with the forced relocation from the homes they’d built. I was sure their wives would love it, too. Not. My mom would likely get there and start explaining to the brownies why they all should have husbands or partners. My mom didn’t care about sexual status, merely that all of the plane’s creatures have mates and start producing babies for her to adore. “I don’t think Jamie and Nate are going to want to go. They have jobs and homes and families here.”
“Then I’ll reup,” Gray vowed.
Trent shook his head. “They’ll be fine. They’ve already expressed an interest in coming with us and you know it. They can work for the king and the resistance. They’ve always wanted to be more involved than we’ve let them. Gray is not reupping that contract. You might have only six more weeks on this plane, but time is different on the Hell plane. You’re spending months down there for every day you’re gone. Maybe more. Lucifer controls the way time works on the Hell plane. He can fuck with you.”
“How long do these sessions last?” I didn’t like the idea that Lucifer could screw around with time and cost Gray years.
“I don’t know.” He pulled a T-shirt over his head. “I’m not necessarily all there during those sessions. And no, it’s not painful, but being in Hell and in the presence of Lucifer…changes me. It takes Trent longer and longer to bring me back. This is why Fenrir and I are distant. He was around once when I returned from Hell and I didn’t mean to, but I threw a boulder his way. If he hadn’t been quick…”
“He knows you didn’t mean to hurt him,” Trent argued.
“He didn’t seem to know that yesterday,” Gray pronounced with gravity. “He looked perfectly prepared to defend his mother, and I happen to know you have told him time and time again how well Kelsey can defend herself.”
“I think that was more about his brother,” Trent said and then stopped. “Fuck. She hadn’t told you yet.”
Gray had gone…well, gray. I hadn’t thought about it. I’d taken all the pleasure Gray and Trent could give me and then let myself rest. How could I have gone so long without telling him I was pregnant? “I’m sorry. It slipped my mind. I was wrapped up in seeing you again.”
“You’re pregnant.” The words didn’t come out joyous. Gray stared at me like something terrible could happen any minute.
