“Shut up,” I hissed, lunging at her and stealing them. I held the vials close to my chest, my wolf huffing in contempt. “They’re mine.”
“Actually, only one is yours.”
When I bared my teeth, Ezra took a step forward and pulled me away from her, my wolf shining through my eyes.
His words were a soft warning. “Julia, I would suggest you quit talking as Queen Ruckler stated.”
“Yeah…the wolf seems pissed.” She chuckled quietly, an evil gleam in her eyes. “I haven’t even heard a word of gratitude for bringing her something she wants so badly.”
Antonio snorted and stopped circling to bend, placing his face next to hers. “It’s time for you to go away now, Julia. Elder Harcourt was right about timing. Yours is a smidge off.” He had grinned like a fiend while he had threatened her. “You are still young yet.”
“Fuck off.” She glared with haughty air, sticking her nose up at him. “I’ll leave when I wish, not when a Mage tells me to.” Her eyes narrowed. “How is your new-found ache—”
Antonio slapped a hand over her mouth, all pretenses of humor gone, his eyes turning deathly cold in a heartbeat. His voice was choked in discomfort when he hissed, “Leave now. Or I will be the one to kill you.”
In the silence, my wolf went quiet, hearing agony deeply seated in his tone.
Behind his hand, her voice was muffled as she growled, “Mage, oh Mage, be wary. Your own cockiness is blinding. Blank spots are not always as they appear…and sometimes, they are.” She jerked her head away from him and abruptly turned on her heel, griping over her shoulder, “This is me, leaving of my own free will. When I wish it to be so.”
His golden brows puckering, Antonio watched her back. “Goodbye, Julia.”
She waved a jerky hand over her shoulder, her words still whisper soft. “Later.”
I watched as her bare feet peeked out from under her cloak that whipped in the wind. Just as suddenly as she had appeared, she disappeared into the brush of the trees lining the two-lane road. My gaze gradually altered to Antonio where he still stared at the woods. “Antonio, what was she talking about? What new-found—”
“Shut it,” Antonio instantly snapped, turning a sharp glare on me. He pointed a finger at the vials in my hand. “Drink up, kiddo.”
I still stared. He had just gotten Cahal back in his life. He had no reason to be hurting. “What are blank spots?”
Antonio scowled, his gaze beginning to shine in the dimness.
Ezra grunted quietly, ignoring the searing menace from Antonio. “A blank spot is when a Mage cannot see certain occasions. It doesn’t matter how powerful they are. They cannot see when they will meet their mate, a loved one’s death, the act of sharing sexual intimacies with a partner, or their own death.”
I blinked. “Oh.” My lips thinned. “I think I do need one of those damn books the Com brat was talking about.” I pointed a finger at Antonio. “So what blank spot do you have that’s bothering you?”
“Enough,” Antonio growled. He started marching right at me. “I cannot speak on it, which you know full well.” He grabbed my hand that gripped the vials. “Drink yours.”
My tone turned extremely soft. “I am sorry for everything you see…and don’t see.” My lips turned up in a bittersweet smile. “You’re amazing.”
He went completely still. “Lil?”
“Yeah?”
“Quit stalling.”
Instantly, I scowled. “This is a big decision!”
“No, it’s not. It’s not a decision at all. It is your past. Your life.”
I nibbled on my bottom lip, turning my gaze to the vials. “I don’t know if I’m ready.”
“You are.”
I did not shift my attention from the sloshing golden liquid. “Ezra?”
Instant. “I’m not drinking one. I haven’t made that decision yet.”
Antonio barked, “Cahal, talk some sense into your f**king son before I beat the living shit out of him.” A pause, then his tone changed to calm. “I say that with much respect, of course.”
Cahal snorted softly. “Just get your kid to drink it. After she does, mine will soon follow.”
Antonio’s head teetered from side to side. “You’re probably right.” His lips parted…and he made that gurgling sound I had become so accustomed to hearing from him. Golden eyes narrowed. “Just drink the damned thing.”
Carefully, I picked just one vial. I lifted it to eye level. I stared. “Why would Elder Harcourt do a memory wipe on us…only to give us the memories back?”
Antonio gurgled once more. Growled. Shook his head. “You don’t have time for this.”
My eyes met his. “What do you mean?”
“Just. Drink. It.”
I stared. Blinked. “What happens next in time?”
His lips pinched, not a word uttered.
Tearing my gaze away from him, I peered…at my husband.
He gazed back, his spring green eyes dead set on mine. “It’s your choice.”
Slowly my chest rose and fell. “Okay.”
Chapter Fifteen
With my eyes on my husband’s, who was a stranger still, I popped the cork on one of the vials.
Breathed in once deeply. Out came the breath just as gradually.
Then I closed my eyes and lifted the vial to my lips.
I drank it down in one shot.
My body jerked as corked spells and time washed through my veins in a chilling rush. Flashes erupted behind my closed eyelids.
Scenes…so many scenes.
Feelings…so many feelings.
My body convulsed as the missing pieces of my life replayed in a continual loop, invading my mind with reality. Everything I hadn’t known that was in my past. Every cherished moment I now remembered. Every heartache I had known was now a part of me again.
What radiated the most…was my love for my husband.
My heart broke time and again, then blistered with agonized adoration. It pumped deep within my soul. The blackness that had consumed me was flooded with nothing but pure, gut-wrenching love.
The vial dropped from my fingertips as I sucked in a harsh breath.
My eyelashes fluttered in the night breeze, while hot tears, which I hadn’t even known I had shed, were cooling against my cheeks. My chest ached with a new madness to embrace my husband and never let him go.
Ezra was mine.
Directly behind me, Elder Merrick sniffed the air, his words whisper soft. “It worked.”