Chapter 8

I listened to loud music, cried, listened to sad music, cried, then listened to no music and cried. I felt stupid. I was lying on the bed staring at the ceiling in the silence when someone knocked on the door.

“Paisley, it’s Daxx.”

I looked at the door, then rolled off the bed and went over and unlocked it.

She gave me a meek smile and came in. “I told them this wasn’t a good time to meet with the Elder that may be your relative, but,” she shrugged, “they’re men.”

I took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “Elder?”

She nodded, “there’s an elder’s council.” Her eyes widened, “they’re all over a thousand years old,” she waved her hand, “but they need to meet with him to get permission to do a DNA test.”

I tucked my hands into the jeans I’d put on. “I honestly don’t know how I feel about that.” I ran my hand through my hair. “I’m kind of emotionally spent right now.”

Daxx nodded. “I know.” She motioned to the door. “I can go tell them to get stuffed and reschedule it.”

I shook my head. “No. I think scheduling time with someone that age shouldn’t be postponed.” I motioned to my face. “How bad do I look?”

She bit her lip then winced. “Like a train wreck.”

I nodded. “Give me two minutes to slop some makeup on.”

She nodded.

I went into the bathroom and gave myself a moment to look in the mirror. Train wreck didn’t exactly cover it, it was worse.

“I don’t want to mention his name right now, but there’s more that he who-we-won’t-be-named hasn’t told you.”

I paused and looked at her in the mirror. “Bad?”

She hesitated. “Not really, but among the men, they’ve managed to screw up in some pretty epic ways.” Huffing out a breath she shook her head. “We’ll talk about it later. Have a girls’ get together, because honestly, if you wait for him to explain you could be in your eighties.”

I blew out a breath and turned back to try to cover up my puffy eyes. “I don’t know if I want to know, when you put it that way.”

She grinned. “These guys have live hundreds of years without women guiding them…”

I laughed and turned to look at her, “right—when you put it that way.” I nodded. “Okay, we’ll have a meeting and you ladies can fill in all the blanks.”

As we stepped out the door, Alona jolted. “I was just coming to find you.” She held up her phone. “I was told to meet at Troy’s office.” She pouted, “I don’t know where that is.”

Daxx pointed, “We’re headed there now.”

“Are we meeting Elder Roan at Troy’s office or in the council room?”

Daxx shrugged. “No idea. I just agreed to come and get Paisley because the men are afraid of her.”

I gave her a shocked look.

Alona grinned. “Milk it for all it’s worth, I say.”

Daxx motioned to turn, we went around the corner and she held up her hand and pointed to a door. It was open a few inches. She glanced to Alona and then walked quietly toward it.

“…that’s not what we’re saying, Arius.” Chase said sounding frustrated. “Just stay away from her until the blood bond wears off.”

“How did that work out for you with Alona, Chase?” Arius growled.

“Arius, how long have you known?” Troy sounded calm.

Daxx and Alona both glanced to me, I held my hand to my mouth. I wanted to hear what was said as much as they did.

“I knew when I pulled her out of the bay.” Arius said, sounding so upset. “Holding her against that rock to keep her from drowning, and all I fucking wanted to do was mark her. Right there. Right then.” He made a sound like a wounded animal would. “Her essence—fuck.”

Daxx raised her eyebrows and glanced at me.

I frowned. I didn’t know what he was talking about.

“It’s hard, I know…”

“The fuck you do, Troy.” Arius hissed. “You fucked it up with Daxx so badly we thought she was going to let you die when you got hurt.”

“He has a point.” Chase agreed.

“Fine.” Troy sounded annoyed. “All we’re trying to say is give her some space. We’ll look out for her interests when she meets Elder…”

“I’m going.” Arius insisted. “Don’t even look at me like that, or I will have you both on the floor mewling like cats without another thought.” He warned.

Alona covered her mouth. I wasn’t sure if she was laughing or crying.

“Arius…”

“Chase. My mate. You have no say.”

Alona tapped Daxx on the shoulder.

Daxx nodded and knocked on the door. “We’re here.” She went in.

I walked in behind them and then stopped to see what looked like a table in pieces on the floor.

“Excuse the mess, Arius was offended by its existence.” Chase said kicking debris to the side.

Troy motioned to come all the way in. “We’ll be meeting Elder Roan in the council chambers.” He tucked his hands in his pockets and glanced to Arius.

“You coming with us, Arius?” Daxx asked quietly.

He nodded. “The more of us there, the less chance that Chase tears his head off.”

Chase snorted. “I’d never—” he shrugged, “okay, I may have thought it a few times.”

I gave him a startled look.

“He can be a bit of…” Troy waved his hand around.

“An asshole.” Chase finished for him.

The silence was awkward. I tried to avoid looking at Arius. He looked nowhere but at me.

Chase clapped his hands. “Shall we go? Don’t want to keep him waiting.” He ushered me toward the door, giving Arius a quick look as he did.

The walk was quiet for several minutes.

“We didn’t dress formally.” Troy said glancing to Chase.

“No we did not, brother.” Chase grinned.

“You’re loving this aren’t you?”

Chase nodded. “Immensely.”

“Is it the whole council?” Alona asked.

Chase shook his head. “No. Just the stuck up one.” He glanced to me. “Sorry. I know you may be related to him, but he’s…”

“Been looking at you for two hundred and sixty years like you’re a parasite.” He scowled at me. “You are a king, not a bug.” I tried not to smile, but I needed to do something to distract myself before I walked in to meet a man that may be a relative I never dreamt existed. Never mind that he’d existed for over a thousand years.

“Figures you’d remember word for word.” Chase said while giving his mate a hard look.

Alona covered her mouth. “You asked to try it, just remember that when someone reminds you that you were running victory laps through the halls.”

Troy chuckled.

“Shut up cave man.” Chase said, “At least I didn’t carry my mate slung over my shoulder like a sack of feed.”

I gave Daxx a curious look.

She shook her head. “I’ll explain later.”

The men stopped walking, I almost walked into their backs.

Alona took a deep breath and took Chase’s hand. “You’re not even going to try to behave, are you?”

He shook his head slowly. “Not a chance in hell.”

We walked into a room with two long tables facing each other. I didn’t stop to count the chairs, but there were a lot on the side we were on. I stood in front of the chair beside Daxx. Arius stood beside me. I didn’t want to admit it, but I was glad he was there. My stomach was tied in knots.

A man in a black robe came in. He was average height, by Alterealm standards, with sparse grey hair. He stopped at a chair and bowed his head formally. “Your majesties.”

The four to my left sat down. Arius put his hand in front of me to stop me from sitting, then moved it once they were seated. I glanced to him, and sat as he did.

The man across from us squinted and glanced from Chase to Arius slowly. He paused then looked back to me. “It has been some time since I held a lone council.” His squinted his brown eyes in Chase’s direction “Perhaps I’ve missed something in the hasty request that was made,” he looked pointedly at me, “but I do not see a royal medallion adorning this woman’s neck.”

I looked at Daxx and then Arius, they both wore a chain and pendant.

Chase leaned forward. “We could have partitioned the council to bring Paisley before you, but we are paying you the courtesy of keeping family business—” he glanced down to us, “private.”

The Elder gave him a startled look. “What family business could possibly be…”

Chase raised his hand and motioned to me. “I’m so sorry, I’ve been quite remiss.” He smiled in a mocking way. “May I introduce Miss Paisley Roan.”

I looked from him quickly to the man sitting across from us.

“Did you say Roan?” He squinted at Chase.

“Why, yes, Elder Roan. I did.” Chase said, with a real grin this time.

Elder Roan looked slowly from me to Troy. “May I implore, you Day King to shed some light on what this,” he motioned to me, “woman has to do with this council?” He gave me a haughty look.

“Careful.” Arius warned in a low tone.

Elder Roan looked shocked but bowed his head politely to Arius. “I apologize Warden of Justice, I’m quite taken aback by this.”

Troy sighed, “Paisley was recently—” he looked at me, “recovered from one of the factions being led by Mister Hubert.”

“She’s from the other side?” He asked, looking serious.

Troy nodded. “She is, and we believe there may be more of a connection as Cris—The Seer of truth saw Miss Roan prior to that point.”

The man bobbed his head. “That is quite certain. We’ve been going through the relevance of the visions that have come to pass from The Seer.”

Chase nodded slowly. “Paisley’s past and family story has a few suspicious rings to it.” He grinned a wide grin.

“Such as?” Elder Roan asked.

“Her parents passed away when she was a baby, she was raised by her grandmother—her grandfather, a Roan, vanished before she was born.”

Elder Roan looked from Chase to me, and sat there for a several moments not moving or speaking. “Paisley?”

I nodded.

“How old are you?” He squinted his eyes and waited for my answer.

I cleared my throat. “Twenty-six.”

He leaned back, a frown on his face. His eyes flicked to Chase, then back to me. With a different light in his eyes, he studied me. “My son disappeared on the other side.” He said quietly.

“We don’t wish to bring up any disagreeable memories, Elder Roan,” Alona said quietly, glaring at Chase so he would stay quiet, “what we’d like is permission to do a DNA test on yourself and Paisley—”

He looked at Alona. “I suppose,” he nodded slowly. “Yes. I would be remiss if we didn’t.”

Alona smiled. “That was my mate’s feeling as well.”

Elder Roan looked back to me. “You’re not wearing a device, so you were meant to be in our realm.”

“She has an ability as well, Elder Roan.” Daxx added.

He looked intrigued. “Oh, which is?”

“She’s a Chronos.” Arius said with a hard look, almost daring the Elder to say something a wrong.

“A-a chronos? That’s—so very rare.” He motioned to me, “may I see?”

I looked to Daxx, she nodded. I glanced back at him. “Yes.” I stood up slowly, trying to figure out what I was going to stop.

Arius got up. “Use this.” He pulled his knife from his back and held it out.

I nodded. “Okay.” I backed up a few feet and held my hand out. He tossed it above the table. I focused, stopping it in mid-air.

“Oh my. That’s marvelous.” The Elder said.

I lowered my hand the watched as Arius caught it before it hit the table.

I turned to see Elder Roan looking more animated. “That was something.” He stopped and then looked at Arius. “She holds time.”

Arius inclined his head. “She does.”

Troy and Chase both looked at each other. Daxx frowned and looked from them to Arius.

I gave her a curious look, she shrugged quickly not knowing what it meant.

“I will contact the lab about the tests.” Elder Roan nodded, then looked to me. “The sooner, I believe, the better.” He smiled and glanced at Arius. “So we can put this matter behind us and move forward.” He stood up and bowed his head. “I look forward to seeing you at the ball, your majesties.” He turned and quickly walked out.

Daxx looked at Arius then to Troy. “So why did he change his tune so fast? She keeps time?”

Arius cleared his throat. “It could have gone much worse.”

Chase stood up, “I wanted much worse.”

Alona took his hand as she got up, “we know you did.”

“Okay,” Daxx said and stood up, “we have a girls’ meeting to get to.” She pulled out her phone. “I’ll message Criss.”

“We do?” Alona asked.

Daxx nodded. “I promised Paize some answers.” She looked at Arius and tucked the phone back into her jeans.

Chase and Troy both looked at Arius.

“We have to catch a spy.” Chase said quickly.

I looked at Arius, and then turned toward the door.

“Arius.” Troy said with a sound of authority.

I glanced over my shoulder to see Troy with his hand on Arius’ shoulder as he watched me walk away.