“A month?” I asked, choking on my tea.
Craig helpfully pounded me on the back until I finally stopped coughing.
My eyes were teared up from the coughing fit. “How is that possible? Were we locked up that long?”
“Locked up?” Mama Lucy glared at Forrest and Craig. “Explain, now.”
Forrest and Craig exchanged a look over my head and seemed to be debating who was willing to risk Mama Lucy’s wrath from explaining what happened when we left.
As entertaining as it would be to watch them stammer through our side of the story while Mama Lucy debated on what to turn them into, temporarily, of course, I told them to answer my question first.
“Were we seriously gone a month? A whole month?”
“Technically, in the dragon realm, we were only gone a little over a week,” Forrest stated. “However, since the realms have been split, the time between them does not always coincide.”
Mama Lucy pointed to the calendar behind me on the wall. “I marked the day you left, and you can see when you came home, today. It’s been a month, Kate.”
And from the worry lines on Mama Lucy’s face, she’d been worrying endlessly every single one of those days.
I reached across the table and squeezed her hand. “I’m sorry, I had no idea we’d be gone that long.” My mind wasn’t willing to believe what they said was true.
What happened in that month to change Mama Lucy from the gentlewoman I knew to someone who chucked flaming bottles with potions at undead dragon warriors?
“I tried to send word to you, but nothing could get through.”
“What do you mean?”
“In your knapsack, there’s a tiny compact mirror I enchanted so I would be able to call out to you if need be,” she said, and got up from the table to grab the bag in question and brought it back with her. Her next words were muffled as she dug around. “I worried it was broken, or worse you’d been taken captive.” Her brow arched at that last bit, and I swore I heard Forrest and Craig gulp. “Ah, here it is.”
She pulled out a silver etched case and set it on the table before opening it. The glass was intact, and it looked alright to me.
“Damn, I was hoping it was broken.”
“Is this bad?”
“It means something is blocking light magic from getting through the barrier between realms.” Mama Lucy sighed, and plopped back down in her chair. “The darkness is growing much quicker than we first realized I think.”
“That undead thing, it wasn’t the first one to attack you,” I stated, and Mama Lucy barely nodded. “How many have you seen?” I asked, ready to let panic take over.
This realm was supposed to still be safe. If they were here, then they might already be in every realm, and our chances of success dropped.
“Counting that one? Five, and all very easy to kill. Not too bright.”
“Not these,” Craig muttered under his breath.
I kicked his foot under the table. Mama Lucy was already worried enough. There were some details of our adventure I wanted to keep quiet for a little while longer at least.
“I don’t understand, how can it be this strong?” I thought back to the undead we saw while searching for the Darrah ruins and a chill shot down my spine. Hearing those things screech at each other would be etched in my mind for a very long time. A haunting sound, one that meant death was coming.
“Because someone made us forget it was coming back,” Forrest growled. “Someone betrayed all of us, and we’ve spent the last hundreds of years bickering amongst ourselves instead of preparing for this day as those three wanted us to do.”
“Three? What three?” Mama Lucy’s eyes narrowed impossibly more, and I slumped in my chair. “Kate, what happened to you three over there?”
I felt their eyes on me, as I always had since the day I met them. Another perk, I guessed, from being so deeply connected. I sensed their emotions, too, raw just like mine. Confusion, anger, fear we were all trying and failing to hide from each other. I was starting to think the three of us would never be able to hide anything from the other, not anymore.
“We found something,” I started, “more than just information about the Darrahs.”
“Like what?”
I wasn’t sure how to even begin with what we found, and glanced at Forrest and Craig for help.
“Apparently,” Craig started slowly, “the three of us have met before… over fifteen hundred years ago. Well, I guess even longer than that, given when the blade was actually forged.”
Mama Lucy blinked blankly back at us. “I’m sorry, what?”
“We had past lives,” I told her. “When we reached the Darrah ruins after being attacked by fractorns and undead dragons... Well, we reached the ruins and once inside, things started happening. Memories came back to me, but they weren’t mine. They were Celandine’s, the first Vindicar.”
“Fractorns? You fought those beasts?” she asked alarmed.
Craig smirked as he added, “Kate ate half of one.”
My stomach clenched at the memory, and I smacked his arm, making him wince. “Thanks for the reminder, jackass.”
“What? Just saying, it was quite impressive watching you tear them to shreds.”
I covered my mouth with my hand, shaking my head as that horrible metallic, warm taste of fresh blood in my mouth returned. “I hate you right now, want you to know.”
Mama Lucy looked like she was ready to deck him too, but asked me to explain everything that happened.
I started with us landing in the dragon realm and ended with our being taken captive after Allis attacked us. I wanted to keep pushing onward, but Mama Lucy rose from the table, and paced around, mumbling under her breath, too quietly for me to hear.
“Mama Lucy?”
She held up her hand and didn’t look at me.
I itched to go to her, hug her and let her know we were alright, but something on her face told me the names of these three were familiar to her in ways that no one else seemed to remember. Maybe we’d been right, and somehow, the magic that erased everyone else’s minds hadn’t worked in the human world.
“I need to make a phone call,” she mused finally. “I thought they were just stories, but I think… I think I know those names.”
“At least someone does,” Forrest said, sounding relieved. “The only one anyone recognized was Broden.”
“And only because Raghnall found something explaining why the Executioner blade was forged in the first place. A prophecy about a hero,” Craig added.
Mama Lucy said something to them, but a horrible ringing had started in my ears, and I couldn’t hear their words. I knew I’d seen something else, something important, but it remained just out of reach. I needed to know, needed to understand what we were missing…
“Kate, did you hear me?” Mama Lucy said loudly, and I jumped.
“Huh? What, oh sorry,” I mumbled.
Forrest and Craig both looked at me worriedly, the latter going so far as to check my ears before I swatted his hands away. “What? Just checking for blood.”
“Blood?”
I groaned at Mama Lucy’s outburst and kicked Craig’s foot again. “Thanks, really, you’re making this night so much better.”
“I’m going to assume I don’t want to know what he’s referring to.”
“No, you don’t. You know what, how about you two fill Mama Lucy in on what happened after we were taken captive by Kadin? I need a shower and five seconds away from both of you.”
The chair legs scooted harshly across the floor, and I stormed upstairs, ignoring their worried gazes watching me.
There was no reason for me to be on edge like this, but I couldn’t help it. My sanity was growing more fragile by the second and those memories I needed merely teased me. Telling me exactly what I’d have to do to get them.
How far I’d be willing to push myself.
I locked myself in the bathroom, turned on the hot water, and after stripping out of my dirty clothes from the past week or so, slipped into the clean water, bubbles and all.
I hadn’t realized how much everything ached until that moment and decided I’d say in until the water turned cold… but being a dragon, that might be a while.
I grinned, ready to relax for an hour at least, and closed my eyes.