*Lucas*
“Shit! That’s not good. She might already know what we’re up to,” I gasped when Sasha’s mom told us who Morianne was in this world.
“Yeah, we need to get back to Xander and Lena right away,” Sasha agreed.
“What is it, what’s wrong?” my mom asked nervously.
“Thanks for lunch, Mom. I’m sorry for the quick visit. We’ve got to get back to the Dark Realm.”
“So soon? Sasha, you just got here.”
We didn’t stop to explain. I grabbed Sasha’s hand and we headed back to the car. On the ride from her mom’s house, I scheduled a flight for us back to Egoren.
Morianne in any position of power was dangerous, especially if she had Sasha’s powers. I worried that the entire royal family was in danger.
If anything, Morianne was patient. She’d take her ti, play the long ga, but if she felt threatened or like we were onto her, she’d strike.
It was possible that she could even sense people from other tilines. Wasn’t that how she had found in the tiline where I stopped Sasha from marrying Donovan?
With the right calls and connections, Sasha and I landed in the Egoren capital less than twenty-four hours after we left her mother’s house. It was a fast trip, but it had to be. I felt like we had no ti to lose.
From Sasha’s previous visit, it was easy to get an audience with Lena and Xander.
As soon as the White Queen saw , she gave an apprehensive look.
“I was told you are more agreeable than the last ti we t,” she said.
“For now. I can’t be sure that when I leave this tiline, your Lucas will maintain a balanced ntal state.”
Lena nodded. “Well, it is nice to have my cousin back, even if it is just temporary.”
She held her arms out and I hugged her. It was the least I could do to work toward repairing her relationship with the Lucas of this tiline. I hoped he would have these mories so he’d know what it felt like to have his family back.
Sasha was right. We still had more work to do in this tiline.
“Your desire for an audience seed urgent,” Xander pointed out when Lena and I parted.
“Yeah. We learned that there is a priestess that’s head of the Lycaon Church, Morianne.”
“What of her?” Xander asked, arching an eyebrow.
I looked at Sasha. “How much did you explain to them?”
“Everything up until I ca to find you. They know about the tilines and the orbs and my power.”
I nodded. “We learned that Sasha, in this tiline, doesn’t have her powers. This is dangerous because there is a powerful immortal being after her. We’ve encountered him before, and the only thing that seems to slow him down is Sasha’s power.”
“An immortal being? That’s not soone I’m familiar with,” Lena comnted.
“Honestly, we don’t know a lot about him,” Sasha said, shrugging. “He shows up from ti to ti, but all we really know is that he’s immortal and he wants to end .”
“In every tiline?” Lena cocked her head to the side.
“In every tiline that we’ve encountered him, that’s his only goal,” I confird. “And since we’ve already encountered him here, he’ll co for the Sasha of this tiline again, even after we leave.”
“And if we can’t get this Sasha’s powers back, he will succeed in getting what he wants.”
I noted the look Xander and Lena exchanged.
“And what does that have to do with Morianne?” Xander asked.
“Well, we think that Morianne stole Sasha’s powers.”
“You think that the head priestess stole soone’s powers?” Xander asked incredulously.
“That’s unlikely. She is a very well-loved woman,” Lena added.
“That may be, but the evidence is compelling. She was Sasha’s nanny when she was a baby, and she’s the one who told Sasha’s mother she wasn’t born with powers.”
“You don’t think that was the truth?”
I shrugged.
“I’ve had my dream dancer power in every other tiline,” Sasha said. “And Morianne has co after and my powers in multiple tilines. Can you think of a reason I wouldn’t have them now?” She held her arms out.
I saw the fierce, challenging look she gave Lena and Xander.
I smirked. She wasn’t going to let them dismiss this.
Xander looked at Lena. I could see the concern in his eyes.
“Morianne is respected and well-loved by the followers of the Lycaon Church,” he said.
“The Church as a whole has a lot of power throughout the Dark Realm. Were we to accuse the leader of the Church of stealing soone’s powers... that is a political ss we can’t support until we have hard evidence.”
Sighing, I nodded. I didn’t like it, but I understood it.
“You have to do sothing. The Sasha of this realm needs her powers back. If The Immortal finds her and destroys her... it could be very bad.”
Lena held up her hand. “I understand that you two are invested in helping us fix the problems in this tiline. It is, however, our tiline. We are responsible for fixing the issues here.”
“But we’re here and we can help,” Sasha argued.
I took her hand and when she looked at , I shook my head. “Sasha, Queen Lena is right. They aren’t incapable of solving their own problems here.”
I wouldn’t deny that it wasn’t what I wanted. Going back to our tiline made the most sense. I wanted to get back there and keep anything else from spiraling out of control. I’d been worrying about who was in our tiline instead of us and what they were ssing up.
“We appreciate your concern,” Lena said. “And we will take your concerns about Morianne seriously. She will be dealt with. But first, we need to get the two of you ho.”
“Thank you. We need the orbs for that.”
Lena nodded. “Yes. We will need to excavate the temple beneath the Northern Library to get one of the orbs.”
“Wh-what–” My jaw dropped open. “That’s a huge project!”
“It is. But it is where we will find the past orb. That will be necessary for the two of you two have in order to correct things on a larger scale.”
“Have you started the Northern Library project at all?”
“No. From what I understand, it was your presence in other tilines that prompted the Northern Library project. Since you’ve been... rogue in this tiline, it never happened,” Xander explained.
“Great.” I grumbled.
“Do we even know if the temple is there?” Sasha asked.
Lena shrugged. “There’s only one way to find out. We have no docuntation of a White Queen temple in this realm, but we need to know if it is really there. It could change a lot about our history.”
“That’s what we thought when we first discovered it,” I admitted. “But our understanding of it is minimal because the Church has prevented us from studying it further.”
“That won’t happen this ti, not if the palace is funding the excavation,” Xander assured.
“This isn’t exactly good news. The extraction could take months,” I grumbled.
“Then we’ll have ti to deal with Morianne and get my powers back,” Sasha chid in excitedly.
Lena chuckled and shook her head. “I’m sorry, cousin, but it can’t be helped. We need to find the past orb and get into that temple. I have a feeling it will be important across multiple tilines.”
“Agreed. Its very existence is unprecedented. If you hadn’t told us it was there, we’d have never thought to look for it.” Xander nodded and put his hand on Lena’s shoulder.
I sighed again and looked down. This wasn’t good. I felt like Sasha and I had to stay on the move, even if that was from one tiline to the next. Not to ntion, I had a strong feeling we had to get back to our own tiline.
Here, we were sitting ducks. I had no idea what would happen to our tiline if we died in another.
Would it be the Lucas and Sasha of this tiline who died and we’d go back to our own? Or would we die here and the Lucas and Sasha of this tiline would be stuck sowhere else?
Honestly, I didn’t want to know the truth. I wanted to prevent that possibility by going back to our rightful tiline.
“I get it. But in several months, Morianne or The Immortal could co after Sasha. She needs her powers back.”
“Don’t worry. We aren’t leaving you to fend for yourselves. You’ll have all the protection of the Royal Guard here in the palace. We’ll set you up quite comfortably,” Lena assured.
“I’d still like to help with the excavation. We discovered ours due to a cave-in, and I could help navigate around that to prevent anyone from getting hurt.”
“Yes, your help would be appreciated,” Xander agreed with a nod.
“If you’d be willing to tell more about Morianne and the Church in this tiline, I think I could figure out if she has my powers or what she did with them,” Sasha suggested.
Lena smiled at her. “I’ll help you with that. I have so ideas on how to figure that out as well before we rush in with accusations. Her followers will defend her, no matter what she’s done, even if it hurt soone else. We have to know what we’re doing before acting on it.”
Sasha nodded.
“That’s all good short-term stuff, but there’s another problem. If we get the orbs and Sasha still doesn’t have her powers, how will we use the orbs?” I questioned, arching an eyebrow.
Xander smirked, and Lena giggled lightly.
“Don’t worry. We’ve taken care of that,” she said.
“How so?”
“We know of one person in this tiline who has used the future orb in multiple tilines. He’s also retained his mory from one to the next.”
“Stone Hamline,” Sasha growled beside .
My wolf bristled, and I clenched my fists hearing his na. He was the last asshole I wanted to deal with.
Lena nodded.
“We arrested him shortly after Sasha’s first visit. Interrogations are ongoing.”
“Has he revealed anything about the orbs?” I asked urgently.
Xander frowned slightly. “So far, he hasn’t told us anything. He’s most resistant to supplying information about the orbs. So of our more... persuasive thods have caused him too much distress to be of any use. And yet, he still holds his tongue.”
Sasha sighed, and I noticed how uncomfortable she looked. She stepped toward the king and queen. “Can I see him?”
“What, Shasha? No! He’s the one who forced you into a tiline to be in a relationship with him,” I argued imdiately, my wolf snarling in my head.
“Which ans he has so kind of soft spot for ... or interest in . Maybe I can get him to talk.”
“I’ll make the arrangents,” Xander agreed.
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