Page 16

Chapter 16

Timey Wimey

Xavier

Blake looked real handsome today. Not that he didn’t look good every day, but something about today had him glowing. Maybe it was the short ride I had taken him, or maybe it was just his inner shine breaking through the stress of the last few days. He smiled wide, his hair a little messed up from the wind but in a way that only made him more attractive. His bottom teeth were slightly crooked, just enough to enhance his appearance even more. Especially when framed by those plump, pink lips of his.

I found myself wanting to grab him, dip him down, and kiss him like a sailor coming back from sea. He had that kind of effect on me. And it wasn’t the only effect he had on me either, not by a long shot.

Being around Blake was asking for a perpetual hard-on. Which was complicated, considering that I had to be around him for my job. Even when I wasn’t necessarily on the clock—when he was safe with one of my siblings in the castle—I still wanted to be around him, and that made things even more complicated.

I wonder if he wouldn’t mind being locked up in my horde?

“This is the street where Kalen lives, right?” Cassius asked.

I glanced at the streetlight. Vineland Boulevard. “It should be.”

We stood on a residential street, more calm and quiet than the busier road we’d turned down from. When Cassius said he wanted to join this info hunt, I was initially skeptical. I didn’t want to show up at Kalen’s place with a full entourage. But he was a good talker and knew more about the starlight dagger than any of us did, which meant he might pick up on things that would have escaped Blake and me. Besides, I was a bodyguard, not a detective; I didn’t know proper protocols for this kind of shit.

“And he knows we’re coming?” Blake asked.

“He does, yes. Caleb connected us.” I cracked my knuckles. “He seemed fine over the phone, but don’t forget Caleb’s warning. If he starts acting up, then my focus is on getting you both out safe.”

“We’ll be fine,” Cassius said with a casual wave of his hand. He seemed a little too confident for being the only human in the trio. It made him much more vulnerable. I’d need to keep a close eye on him before that overconfidence got him into trouble.

I led them to a small Spanish-style home with an arched doorway, its soft red terra-cotta roof bouncing off the sunlight. The slice of a front lawn the home had was cluttered with small windmills, all of them painted white, their blades spinning in the breeze .

“Guess he’s got a thing for renewable energy sources,” Blake said under his breath. I opened the creaking white gate and walked down the crooked cobblestone path. Before I could even knock, the door was thrown open. A man stood wearing a flowing, ocean-blue kaftan, a glass of wine in one hand and a bloody butcher knife in the other. He had eagle feathers coming out the back of both his ears. “I knew I heard footsteps. Are you Xavier Blackthorne?”

I kept my gaze trained on the knife. “Yes, I am.”

Kalen followed my gaze. He lowered the knife and placed it behind his back before taking a long and loud sip of the wine. “Sorry. You caught me as I was preparing dinner. Come in.”

My guard was instantly up. I considered turning back. I should have left Blake and Cassius at the castle.

Fuck. Was I already messing this up?

Kalen walked into his home. Cassius and Blake both looked at me, skeptical.

“Hello?” Kalen called from inside the house.

“Let me go in first,” I said to them. I was on high alert, ready to dip into the time stream at a moment’s notice.

Inside, Kalen’s home was as eccentric as the outside. Instead of a field of windmills, there were tiny wooden figurines all over. On the old brown couch, on the crooked shelves, on the cluttered coffee table. They appeared to be handcrafted, with disproportionate heads that were smaller than the bodies. Wispy blond hair was attached to them. The room smelled of musty carpet.

“What. The. Fuck,” Cassius said under his breath.

Blake glanced around with saucer-wide eyes. Kalen came out from the kitchen, sans bloody butcher knife, and walked over to the only chair in the living room that didn’t have figurines on it. He sat, crossing a thin leg over another. He placed a ring-covered hand over his knee and smiled.

“Well? Are you three here to give me a massage or ask me questions? Because I could use a little stress relief. I’ve been up all night cleaning my Rachels.”

“Your… Rachels?” I asked. Caleb had really undersold just how weird this guy was.

“Yes, my Rachels.” He leaned over the chair and picked up a figurine from under his chair without even looking, as if he knew it’d be there. “These are my pride and joys.”

“They, um, are great.” Cassius held his arms tight around his chest.

“But you aren’t here to speak about my daughters, are you?”

Daughters…

“No, we aren’t,” I said. Blake still stood a step or two behind me. I went to move some of the figurines off the couch so we could sit but was interrupted by a high-pitched screech, something belonging to that of a bald eagle. Cassius swallowed down a frightened yelp.

“Don’t you dare touch them.” Kalen jumped to his feet and gathered the figurines off the couch. He was delicate with them, but the look he gave us was one of pure anger. This encounter was giving me terrible vibes. How were we going to get any valuable information from someone acting like this?

“The lack of respect is shocking.” He cooed at the figurines he cradled in his arms before gently setting them down on the coffee table with the others. He turned his green gaze toward me. “What is this about?”

“We’re here to ask you about this symbol.” I took a folded paper out of my pocket and handed it to him. He snatched it, nearly tearing the paper. He unfolded it, took a look, and then turned his dark eyes upward to the ceiling. The feathers behind his ears twitched.

“I should have known to never invite this into our home.” He looked back at us, eyes raking across our faces. “I am no longer a part of the movement. I need you to leave. Immediately.”

“Movement?” Blake broached.

“If you do not know of the Time Turners, then I am not one to educate you. Go. Now.” He stepped forward, holding the kaftan tight around his thin frame. The tension in the cramped and cluttered room rose. It felt as if someone had placed a lid on the house and set the temperature to boil.

“We just want some quick answers,” I said. My hands were at my side, but I was poised to defend us if need be. “You were a part of this ‘movement,’ so please tell us what it’s about. Who are the Time Turners?”

“They are monsters. Manipulators. Users. Tumors. I excised them from my body. I don’t need them back. Go. Go!” Another screech split my ears. Cassius, spooked, bumped into Blake and then hit his hip against a table.

“Sorry, sorry,” Cassius said. He nearly knocked over a framed photograph. It was of Kalen holding an arm over the shoulder of a young woman who looked very much like him. Blake moved a little closer to the frame.

“Is this Rachel?” Blake asked, surprising me.

Kalen looked to Blake. The anger that had flared up seemed to momentarily ease. His expression softened, the feathers pressing flat against the sides of his head. He gave a small nod. I looked around the living room, the pieces of Kalen’s puzzle beginning to click together.

“And these figurines are all of her?”

“Yes,” Kalen answered. He picked one up off the table and kissed the head. “These are my Rachels.”

Now I understood. These weren’t manifestations of someone losing their mind; they were physical representations of the grief that held Kalen in a taloned grip. Grief was a faceless monster that loved to dwell inside the darkest parts of you, slashing out at random intervals, creating wounds that never truly healed, barely even scabbed over. These figurines were Kalen’s form of bandaging his wounds, staunching the invisible blood that flowed from the hole in his heart.

“I’m so sorry,” Blake said, hand on his chest. I echoed his sentiment.

“She was taken from me far too soon. I… I need you all to leave.” The anger returned with the blood-red tinge of raw grief. We couldn’t leave without the information we came for.

“The Time Turners. Who are they?” I pressed.

“They are the ones who promised I’d get my Rachel back. They lied. They’re all liars. Everyone. The world. Liars. You three, liars. Go!”

I glanced at Blake and Cassius and motioned to the door. Cassius started toward it, but Blake stayed at my side. “We’re on your side,” Blake said gently.

“That’s what they said. I found them because I was lost without my daughter. They offered me help in exchange for my devotion to their cause. They worship the starlight dagger, the tool they say can be used to solve all our problems. They recruit broken souls only to drain them of any hope, asking the impossible of us while they reap the rewards. They never wanted to help me, help us. Their goal is ultimate power. They want the Chaos King to reign again. To have never been imprisoned.”

That revelation chilled the room. It settled on me like toxic dust from a nuclear fallout. “What did they do to you?” I asked. Kalen looked down at the figurine in his trembling hands.

“They were running experiments. They were trying to find the key to the dagger.”

My head spun. A hundred different questions swirled like a whirlpool. “Who is running these experiments?”

“It doesn’t matter.” Kalen practically spat the words out at me. “They’ve figured it out. They know what they need.” Those dark, pained eyes flickered to me. His thin lips slipped up into a crooked smile. “And what they need is you.”