King Tomb (Forever Evermore) (31 page)

Tipkin shrugged a shoulder, watching as we finished buttoning the cloaks…and as I slipped the two remaining golden vials into one of my cloak’s pockets. “Since Philip is no longer winning this war, he is going back in time to try to change it. These two are going with me to stop him.” His hands landed on one of my shoulders and one of Ezra’s, keeping contact with us. “Don’t move.”

Ezra’s nostrils flared in fury, but he hurried to bark, “Dad, watch Isa for us.”

The roar of a Vampire and the growl of a Shifter bombarded my ears, even as a frantic rush of wind hit. But Tipkin was already glowing and a golden sphere surrounded Tipkin, Ezra, and me.

Again, my body did exactly as he had commanded, allowing him to take me where he wished, and I stood stock-still inside the golden sphere of non-entity. All I could see were sparkles of gold, but the ride was rougher than anytime I had transversed with Antonio. I steadied my legs as the sphere jerked side to side. I grunted quietly when it became exceptionally rough, and I grabbed onto Tipkin’s shoulder — one of Ezra’s hands landing right next to mine — so I didn’t lose connection with him.

The sphere was abruptly gone…and I scented decay in the night air. We stood inside a forest, the trees appearing as tall as the sky. But just as suddenly, we were back inside the sphere, but now we moved differently. I stared, trying to understand what was so perplexing about it. Slowly it dawned on me that we were going back in time now. It was the way the Mage magic
felt
, like a slow creep running down my spine, a shiver of backwards time.

It took much longer than our first ride.

Minutes passed by slowly inside the kinked magic.

Ezra and I kept a death grip on Tipkin’s shoulder.

I went to scratch my nose with my other hand, but my arm moved as if it were in quicksand, the pull against my action impossible…so my damn nose burned with the urge to be rubbed until the sphere disappeared in a rough jerk.

Ezra grunted, grabbing my shoulder with his free hand when I stumbled forward.

Since we each still had a tight hand on his shoulder, Tipkin lurched with us.

We all went down in a tumble of limbs.

“Your fucking arrows are on my face,” Ezra grouched, the upper portion of his frame buried under Tipkin’s torso, while both of their legs were lying heavily over my stomach and trapping me.

“Well, your gun is poking me in the ribs,” Tipkin griped.

Rubbing my nose, I blinked repeatedly, the sun bearing down through the trees right into my eyes. The sudden change from night to day had my wolf stalking inside. “Are we here?”

“Yes,” Tipkin muttered, lifting his head. “Our first stop anyway.”

I flinched, my teeth grinding as searing pain radiated from my forearm. The sleeve of my cloak was up to my elbow, so the three of us watched as a golden bracelet of power formed on my skin then sizzled into the air. Gone. I shuddered hard as Clarice’s power dissipated in the air.

Two down. One to go. Whenever that was.

Still staring at my forearm, Ezra’s Vampire growled softly. “Lily…”

I cleared my throat, back in control of my actions. “Hush. It needed to be done to save you.” I sat up slowly, glancing left and right. My head cocked. “Do I hear gunshots?”

“Probably,” Tipkin murmured, also staring at my arm as he jumped to his feet.

Ezra ignored all of this. “Lily, what else did you promise her?”

I hummed absently, standing and brushing off my cloak. “Nothing important.”

Ezra couldn’t scent the
lie
even if Tipkin could. Luckily, the hybrid kept his mouth shut.

My husband muttered a curse. “Dammit, you’re lying to me.”

Okay, maybe he could still read me better than anyone else.

“We need to focus on why we’re here.” I held a hand down to him. “
Are
those gunshots I hear from the north?”

Another curse was heard, but he grabbed my hand and lifted to his feet. “Yes, they are.”

“Where are we?”

“In the state of Washington,” Tipkin answered, walking toward the gunfire. “More precisely, we’re in Washington the day King Zeller infiltrated a Com extremist’s camp to rescue his Prodigy.”

I gawked, not moving. “We really went into the past?”

Ezra’s head cocked, listening to the sounds in the distance. “It sounds about right.”

“Yes, we did,” Tipkin called over his shoulder, marching farther away through the forest. “So hurry your asses up. We don’t have much time before we have to leave again. Philip is on a damn mission today.”

Ezra stayed by my side, asking loudly, “This won’t disrupt the past?”

“No. We’re meant to be here. Including
him
. Just not what he wants as the end result.”

Ezra glanced at me.

I was already sniffing the air heavily, catching the currents of his words. “
Truth to all
.”

My husband gazed ahead then shrugged a shoulder. “We’d better hurry.”

With his back to us, his long legs taking him through the forest at a fast clip, Tipkin threw his hands up in the air. “That’s what I’ve been saying!”

Hunkered behind brush, downwind from the scents of Com blood floating in the air, I pointed my gun where we had spied Philip Masterson high in a tree, his own silver arrows aimed. He appeared to be waiting as he watched the horde of Coms surrounding Ezra and his Prodigy. My past self hadn’t yet arrived to the scene.

“With this new
surprise
,” I whispered, not sure what I thought about this dangerous aspect, “that hybrid Mages can travel back in time, I bet he’s how the Coms knew who the next Prodigy was. He could have traveled into the past and told them.”

I knew what I was waiting for. In the past, there had been two arrows that had hit us. Now I knew where they had come from. We could not alter time, so we had to wait for him to fire two before we attacked.

Ezra grunted. “It makes sense. Only two people know how to do the spell to find the Prodigies. Elder Harcourt and Elder Farrar. The spell is protected that way. And we already know they were questioned. Though Philip could have found out later who she was if he had any contacts inside King Cave.”

Where our Prodigies now stayed for their own protection.

That didn’t give me warm and fuzzy feelings. “We’ll need to move them when we get back.”

Ezra’s Vampire growled in confirmation.

Ten minutes later, Philip fired his first arrow.

Ezra and I held our aim on Philip.

Tipkin put on gloves and notched a silver arrow on his bow, targeting our prey.

Philip’s second arrow fired.

Ezra and I pulled the triggers on our guns.

But…nothing happened. Just an empty
click
.

I blinked, gaping at my gun.

Ezra’s dumbfounded gaze was the same as mine.

Just as Philip was taking aim again, Tipkin’s arrow flew, piercing through the air like a bullet. It hit Philip square in the stomach, shocking him. His pained shout could not be heard over the gunfire, but we watched as his jaw dropped and his features contorted in agony. He lost his footing on the branch and tipped backward. His mouth was open in a scream as he released his weapons and grabbed the end of the arrow jutting from his stomach. At the last second before hitting the ground in a death fall, he jerked the arrow from his body and tossed it aside…and disappeared in a flash of gold.

My wolf growled furiously. “Where the fuck did he go?”

“Our next destination,” Tipkin replied, standing from his crouch and stretching. Staring up at the sky, he pulled a flask from one of his cloak’s pockets. I blinked as he proceeded to down a few swills of what smelled like whiskey. Just as easily, he capped it and put the flask back into his pocket — like this was just an average day out with friends.

What the hell?

Ezra’s nostrils flared. “Why the fuck didn’t our guns work?”

Tipkin shrugged. “If a weapon’s made after this time period, they won’t work.”

Ezra’s Vampire growled quietly. “Why didn’t you tell us before?”

Our guns were the newest models.

“Eh, now you know,” Tipkin stated cheerfully, taking off his gloves and stuffing them into his right cloak pocket. He extended a hand to each of us. “Let’s go. I don’t know the layout of King Hall like you two do. There were Mys all over the place on graduation day. I’ll need your memories to help find him. I won’t be able to sniff him out as easily as I did this time.”

My wolf huffed. “You need to tell us shit like that, so we don’t get killed!”

Golden eyes stared down at me, a seriousness entering them. “I just did. When you needed to know.” He jerked his hands at us. “Are you coming? Or are you staying in the past?”

We hung on for dear life for two more rough trips in Tipkin’s sphere: one to take us to the forest surrounding King Hall in the present — that was filled with the scents of decay — and the second trip to go back in time where we landed in the same forest…but it was different.

It was graduation day. Before it had become a war zone.

The sun was shining, and there was music blaring in the distance.

The sweet aroma of the buffet foods tickled my nose.

When my stomach growled, Ezra glanced at me.

I scrunched my nose. “The brownies were really good that day.”

His lips twitched. “Yes, they were.”

Tipkin waved in agitation. “Don’t even think about it.” He stared pointedly. “Now, where would Philip target the Elders, Kings, or Prodigies? He knows where to get weapons in this time, since he started the damn war. Was there a point during graduation that the Rulers were alone? Possibly defenseless?”

My brows puckered as I thought through that day.

But Ezra instantly nodded. “All of the Rulers here were defenseless at one point.”

My gaze snapped to his. “When?”

“When the bombs went off. We were inside Mrs Jonas’s office. All the Rulers were laid flat from the direct hit, their mates dying, and from the smoke.”

Tipkin jerked, and his head instantly dropped. His eyes glowed a brilliant gold, coloring the grass. He started swaying like he was hearing a song we couldn’t hear, the country music we
could
hear in the distance not the beat he was moving to.

He was a Mage right now, seeing whatever he saw inside his magic.

Ezra and I stayed quiet, but we moved on either side of him, just in case he tipped too far.

Tipkin was our ticket out of here.

There was no way we were going to let him be harmed — even from himself.

Two minutes later, Tipkin began a mournful tune deep in his chest, humming in sporadic sounds. My own brows puckered when I recognized the song. It was one that I had heard almost every night as a child. When Antonio wasn’t telling me stories before bed, it was a song my mother used to softly sing to me that lulled me to sleep.

My gaze was caught on Tipkin’s when he snapped out of his trance.

He rubbed his eyes for a moment before he stared at me. His entire flamboyant act was gone, his words gentle. “I’ll tell you. It is in the past that won’t be changed, so I’m not breaking any rules.” He gently smiled. “Elder Harcourt spoke with your mother. He knew she would die, and told her so. He helped to guide her thoughts on where you should be placed after her death. She was grateful, but she was confused because Elder Harcourt said your uncle’s home should be your destination. He assured her nothing bad would happen to you…in a beautiful twist of words that spoke
truth
. She thought you would be safe there. All he asked in payment for his ‘guidance’ was that she send a letter to you on your graduation day — one that your uncle must deliver.”

My brows snapped together, but he held up a quick hand.

Tipkin clarified, “Elder Harcourt did it for a purpose. He knows the future. He knew that if you didn’t have a way to breathe inside Mrs Jonas’s office — the one that he had spelled for protection — that you all would have died from smoke inhalation.
It was to be
. You were supposed to kill your uncle that day — this day — and send him through that window. It was a way for the smoke to escape.” His golden eyes were unusually soft, his words a whisper. “Even if your life with your uncle was far from ideal, Elder Harcourt does have his reasons. He saved all of your lives this day by sending you to that man’s home.”

My jaw was slack, but I muttered, “I still want to kill the bastard.”

Tipkin’s lips turned up. “Good luck finding him. He only appears when he wishes.”

“So we have heard,” Ezra growled. His jaw ground back and forth as he stared off into the forest toward King Hall. “I still think that would be the time Philip would attack. Elder Harcourt fixed one problem, but we were still incapacitated for a short time while the smoke left the room.” He shook his head, deep in thought. “He wouldn’t attack from the outside either. There were guards out there. He would transverse inside the building and attack from there.”

Ezra hummed quietly. “If I were him, with his knowledge of the past, I would wait for just the right moment to toss a bomb inside through the doorway. Before the ceiling collapsed in the hall.” He blinked, then he glanced at Tipkin. “Wait, you stated Elder Harcourt spelled her office?”

I grumbled to no one, “I knew that damn room was spelled.”

“Yes, he spelled it.” Tipkin tapped his temple. “I saw him do it. The only access points he allowed were the one window and the doorway. So your theory still works. He could toss some type of explosive weapon inside from the hallway.”

All three of us heard the music stop, the last song played.

It was time to go.

Ezra and I had procured working guns from two snoozing-on-the-job Mys guards.

They weren’t filled with silver bullets, but they would definitely stop Philip.

Ezra and I snuck into the building — pretending to be our selves of that time, the black cloaks almost identical to our black Awakening robes we had worn — and we secreted ourselves down the hallway from Mrs Jonas’s office, to another administrative room. Tipkin transversed directly after the five minutes allotted to find a suitable hiding place. Leaving the door to our room cracked open, we had a perfect angle to see down the hallway to Mrs Jonas’s office.