The Breaker's Resolution: (YA Paranormal Romance) (Fixed Points Book 4) (9 page)

Eleven days before I was devoured by the Dragon, I was assaulted with questions. Not long after Casper came in, disrupting the underwear party Royce seemed intent on having with me, Dahlia joined us.

Instantly, I wondered where Jiqui was. With any luck, he had fallen off a cliff during my three day timeout. But I had no time to ask those questions, because I was met with so many from the others.

Of course, Dahlia wanted to know where Echo was. It was her first question, as it should have been.

“I don’t-I don’t know,” I answered, realizing that, with the exception of my snake filled Sevie/Wendy fever dream, my drug fueled trip to the other side was completely uneventful. “I don’t remember any of it. I don’t-I don’t think it worked. I’m sorry.”

My heart fell. After all we had been through, after what we had sacrificed to get here, we were just as lost as we had always been. Sure, we were close to Clarity, close to Casper’s baby and the Damnatus, but Echo’s whereabouts were still a mystery to me- as was Laurel Luna’s part in all of this.

“That sonofabitch,’ Casper muttered. “He lied to us. He must have wanted to kill you or something. You know, I bet dollars to doughnuts that he’s working for the Council.”

“If he was working for the Council, they’d be here by now,” Royce spit, shaking his head. “Besides, Jiqui was working with the Raven.”

“You’re the Raven,” Casper answered.

“The fake Raven. Whatever,” Royce answered. “The point is, his loyalties ain’t with the Council. They never were. And Allister Leeman might have been a grade A asshat, but he never wanted Cresta dead.”

“So what do you think is going on?” Casper sighed. “I mean, obviously things didn’t go the way we hoped.” Looking at me, he asked. “Do you remember any of it, Cress?”

“I saw Sevie,” I answered, careful to leave the giant snake and the whole ‘Wendy’ thing out. No one would believe anything I said after the snake part, and Wendy was a grenade I didn’t particularly feel like tossing right now.

“What, is that like a car or something?” Casper asked, narrowing his eyes.

“Sevie is Sebastian Lightfoot,” Dahlia answered. “Owen’s brother. And whether or not you actually saw him has a lot to do with the way he acted.”

“Owen has a brother?” Casper asked, his eyes narrowing. “And he’s named after a car?”

“It’s not a car,” I answered. “Owen couldn’t say Sebastian when he was a kid, so they ended up calling him Sevie.”

“He’s engaged to Cresta,” Royce smirked.

“What?!” Casper asked. “I thought you were engaged to Cresta.”

“Nah,” Royce shook his head. “I’m just her one true love.”

“But I thought Owen was her one true love.”

“Stop it!” I yelled, exasperated. “When I was in the Hourglass, we found out that Sevie was genetically my perfect. The Council almost forced us to get married. It was a whole series of events that I’d rather not relieve,
thankyouverymuch.
And we’re not still engaged, so-”

“Actually,” Royce started, his irksome grin spreading into a full blown cocky smile. “According to breaker law-”

“That’s enough,” Dahlia cut him off. “Cresta is right. The past doesn’t matter. But this does.” She leaned toward me, her eyes steeling over. “What did he say to you when you saw him Cresta?”

I bristled. None of it even made any sense, and Lord knew I wasn’t about to go spouting off to Dahlia about seeing her dead daughter…again. “What does it matter?” I asked.

“Sevie is a dreamwalker,” Dahlia answered. “Which means he technically has the ability to intrude upon your sleeping mind. While I’m not sure how your particular, and very curious, powerset might affect that, it’s still a possibility.”

“Well, why would it even matter?” I asked, my eyes shuffling uncomfortably.

“Either your subconscious manifested him, the way it might in a dream state, or he’s ventured into your mind; which would open us up to all sorts of complications,” Dahlia answered.

“Because if the Council is monitoring him-“ Royce started.

“They might follow the trail right to our doorstep,” Casper finished.

“Gosh, you guys have really developed a rhythm, haven’t you?” I asked, looking around.

“A road trip will do that to you,” Royce answered, slumping against the wall. “So go ahead, Sweetheart. Tell us what the puppy dog said.”

“He’s not a puppy dog,” I murmured, realizing that- against my better judgement- I actually felt guilty about what had happened between Sevie and I. I didn’t do anything wrong, not really. I had never been the type of person who was going to marry someone just because someone said I needed to. Not Owen, not Royce, and certainly not Sevie.

But he was a good guy; the best I had ever known maybe. And, in his way, he did care about me. Though I hadn’t meant to, I had hurt him. That much was clear from what he had told me in the dream. If, in fact, that was him.

“He mostly just apologized,” I answered, coating over his tear filled words. “For the way things happened, for what we ended up doing to each other, I guess.” My eyes drifted to the floor. It was amazing how raw all of this still was, perhaps because I had never really taken the time to process any of it. For the last few months, we had all been bouncing from one twist and turn to the next. Maybe now

”that we finally seemed on the verge of settling somewhere (at least for a moment) the emotional toll of all I had been through was readying to smash into me.

That sounded fun.

“This is going to sound like a strange question, but did he seem like himself?” Dahlia asked.

“Yes,” I answered quickly.

“Or did he seem too much like himself?”

“That is weird,” I answered.

“When we dream, we see people the way we believe them to be, not as they are. Because of that, they don’t surprise us. They are, for lack of a better phrase, a shadow self that we create to take their place in our minds. So let me ask you Cresta, was the Sevie you spoke to actually Sevie or was it the shadow?”

The question lay on my mind, sort of scrunching it up with the craziness of it. Sevie was…well, he was Sevie. But was he actually him? And how the hell was I supposed to know anyway?

“He was him,” I answered. “He had to be. He said things that didn’t make any sense. He seemed confused, like he was in pain or something. “

“Which means there’s a good chance the Council knows exactly where we are,” Dahlia sighed.

“Not necessarily,” a hoarse voice sounded from somewhere I couldn’t see.

“God, this again?” Casper scrunched his nose.

“Is that Jiqui?” I asked. “Where is here?”

“Where he belongs,” Casper tossed his hand. “In the toilet.”

“He’s tied up in the bathroom,” Royce shrugged. “Didn’t have any other place for the waste of space to go.”

“I know what you’re thinking,” Casper grinned. “You wanna know what we do when nature calls.”

“That’s not what I was thinking.”

“Yes it was.”

“I don’t want to know that.”

“Of course you do. And the answer is, we go to the other room. That’s right, we have
two
fleabag hotel rooms. Big pimpin’, I know.” Casper answered the question I never asked.

“What is he talking about when he says that?” I asked, turning to Dahlia. “Not necessarily.”

“It’s nothing,” she sighed. “He’s been throwing out veiled nonsense ever since you went unconscious; making up things in an attempt to prove himself still valuable. I suppose he thought we’d do away with him after you failed to wake up.”

“Which wasn’t completely off the table,” Royce answered, yelling back toward the bathroom.

“I wanna see him,” I answered, setting my jaw.

“I don’t see where that would help anything,” Dahlia answered. “You’re just waking up, just getting your bearings back. I need to look over you a bit, try to figure out what that mixture he gave you actually did. Do you feel any different?”

“Yeah,” I answered, shaking my head and sliding my hands in my pockets. “I’m pissed. I just lost three days, which you can throw on top of the month that I already lost.” I huffed hard. “I’m sick of having my life stolen away from me piece by piece. And, if we want to know what that bastard did to me, the only way we’re going to get that information is to beat it out of him.”

“So you’re gonna smack your uncle around?” Royce asked, his eyebrows darted up. “Cause I wouldn’t mind seeing that.”

“I’m going to do whatever it takes,” I answered.

“No you’re not,” Dahlia answered.

“Yeah, I don’t think you’ve seen her hands people,” Casper pointed to me. Hands in pockets means we’re not getting anywhere with this.”

“Well she hasn’t seen me,” Dahlia answered, which-of course- didn’t make any sense. She was standing right there. Of course, I saw her. But I got the point. “I’m the only adult here. Like it or not, you people are under my charge. I’m not about to let you throw yourself off another cliff, no matter how much you seem to want to.”

“I’m an adult,” Jiqui said from his confinement.

“I’m just going to talk to him,” I sighed. “No fighting. No shade. I won’t even raise my voice if it makes you feel better. But I need to know what he knows, and if his mind is shielded then this is my only option.”

“Cresta, I-”

“He’s here for a reason. Laurel Luna told me to trust him for a reason. If I’m going to continue with this and manage not to lose my mind, then I need to know as much as I can about what’s going on around me. You understand that, don’t you?”

Dahlia studied me for a second, eyeing me up and down. Something inside of her seemed to relent. “Fate help me, I do.” She grabbed my arm. “But one flinch from him -“

“And I’ll knock him on his ass,” Royce answered, stepping forward. “I’m coming with you.”

“No you’re not. You’re not even wearing a shirt,” I said.

“Good of you to notice,” he winked at me. “But the last time I took two steps away from you in this guy’s presence, I almost didn’t get ya back. That ain’t happening twice.”

“You’re damn right,” I answered. “But you’re still not coming. I can take care of myself, Royce. And, like you said, he’s my uncle. Maybe he’ll tell me something useful. But my best chance is to do this on my

“Sweetheart, I-”

“Hands in pockets,” Casper interrupted, motioning to me. “Sorry dude, but hands in pockets is no joke. You’re wasting your time.”

“He’s right,” I answered, and I was already on the way to see my uncle in the bathroom; which was not a sentence I ever thought I would (or wanted to) say.

“One word, Sweetheart,” Royce shouted. “One word and I’ll be in there like a flash.”

“Like a safe word?” Casper murmured from behind me.

“Yeah,” Royce piped in. A safe word. Mango. Our safe word is mango.”

“Sure,” I muttered, turned the corner, and laid a foot into the door that flung it open quickly. Jiqui didn’t seem surprised by my act of force, not that he could have done much to react, given the fact that he was-at this very moment- tied to a toilet seat.

God, life takes me in weird directions.

“Glad to see you’re awake. It took longer this time. Did you have trouble finding him?” Jiqui smiled from his seat. The orange glow of the single bulb that lit this room gave him an even more devilish glow. And as I looked at him, all I could think about was my mother, about the chain of events that cost her her life- the chain of events that
he
helped start.

“Trouble finding who?” I asked, closing the door was being careful to stay physically as far away as possible.

“You don’t have to keep your distance, Cresta Blut. You know I couldn’t hurt you, even if I wasn’t caged like some animal.” He shook his head. “How many times are you morons going to treat me like the enemy?”

“Every time,” I answered. “Cause you are the enemy. You’re a horrible person who’s done horrible things. And you’ve done them to me. So, no. I’m not going to cut you slack. I’m not going to forget about anything you’ve done. And I am absolutely never even going to trust you. No matter how much your eyes look like mine.”

“You noticed that too,” he grinned.

“Who?” I repeated. “Trouble finding who?”

“You know who. The dream boy, the one you were supposed to couple with. Who was he with this time? The wench? The lover?” He must have noticed something on my face, because his eyes got wide. “Fate’s hand. He was with the serpent, wasn’t he? We have less time than I thought.” He wriggled with the ropes. “You need to let me out of here now. Every minute we spend here, every second we waste trying to save some pregnant girl who was dead the instant she was born is another second we could be preparing for what’s to come. If the Constants are aligning, then we’re in more trouble than you could ever imagine”

My mind spun. How did he know about Sevie? And how did he know about the giant snake?

“You’re reading my mind,” I finally muttered.

“You know better than that,” he answered. “Your mind is a vault. I couldn’t penetrate it if I wanted to. No one could. Your father’s was the same way.”