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Chapter Nineteen

Remi

“I’m so glad you got here safely,” Alec said, hugging us both the moment we stepped though the portal. “I was actually about to call you home myself.”

“Why?” Juno asked, stepping away from the hug.

“We found the man.” It was Henriette who replied, walking over to us with the rest of the rulers. We were in the portal room and it looked like it was only us and the rulers for now. The room was way bigger than I thought, being able to see its entirety now that it wasn’t filled with people.

“My bio dad?” I asked, just to be certain we were on the same page.

“Yes,” Alec replied. “We got permission from Derek to visit his memories, even those he’d repressed. We promised not to tell anyone what we saw, but we got his face and name easily.”

“So?” Juno asked hopefully.

“He’s been stripped of his magic, or what was left anyway,” Trise replied.

“He’s here?” I asked, feeling uncomfortable being close to the man I shared DNA with.

“He’s in our prison, not here,” Alec reassured me. “We’re having a meeting later today with everyone. We won’t tell you anything else until then.”

“We can wait,” we assured them, understanding they didn’t want to tell the story a hundred times but just once.

“What was your bad news?” Alec asked, likely remembering why we’d come home early.

Juno, being amazing, answered for us. “We went to say goodbye to Remi’s parents, but his mom got weirdly defensive over him leaving the country, to the point where I had to force them asleep.”

The rulers shared knowing looks. “We figured they wouldn’t be happy.”

“Why?” I asked.

“Later,” Alec assured me, holding my shoulder and giving me an understanding smile. “Rest until then. We’ve called the others and they’ll be here in five hours.”

We left their property and returned home. Walking in silence as I processed everything. My mom had grabbed a knife, did she plan on using it? Would she have locked me up in their house? Was someone after me? All these questions and no answers.

Once we were home, we went straight for the couch. “Want to watch some reality TV?” Juno asked, wanting me to think about something else. I loved him. I didn’t care if it was because he could sense my emotions, just that he cared enough about me to fix them.

“I would love to.” I snuggled into him and began flipping through the channels. It would’ve been so much easier if the remote held a keyboard too, making typing easier. Maybe with magic it could be done like their slates. I began searching underneath the coffee table for some paper to write it down.

“You know,” Juno began. “Wouldn’t it be cool if you didn’t have to pick one letter at a time. It would be much easier if you had keyboard attached instead of a remote control.”

I thought I’d died.

“Yeah,” I replied, smiling and tearing up a little. “Maybe I can make that for us some day.”

“I hope you can.” He smiled.

I finally had someone to share my passion with. It was the best gift ever.

Two hours later, we were still on the couch.

“That’s not realistic at all!” Juno complained. We’d set it up so we could watch TV from my world, using magic, of course, and now we were watching Hallmark Christmas movies, because I needed cheering up, and this always worked.

“That’s the point!” I defended with a laugh. “It’s like magic in some ways. That’s why people love these movies.”

“But without mates they can’t be certain they’re forever. It makes no sense why they say it’s happily ever after.”

I loved how passionate he got. “I doubt it would be as fun if it was with mates. We already know we’re mates, there’s no drama, no what ifs,” I countered.

“I bet people would still love it.” He pouted, crossing his arms and looking absolutely adorable.

“We can make our own reality TV show,” I teased. “We’ll call it Portal Matchmaking .” We laughed, then snuggled together until we had to leave.

The room was packed. I wasn’t normally claustrophobic, but I was feeling it here. Alec and the other rulers stood on some kind of platform, making them tall enough so everyone here could see and hear them.

“Welcome everyone,” Trise said, taking the lead. “We can finally answer every question but we ask that you wait until we’re done to ask your questions.” When no one spoke, just nodded in silent agreement, Alec stepped forward.

“We had, with Derek’s permission, a deep search through his memories. We figured early on that he’d likely dealt with your biological father in other ways than any of you, and we were right.” There was a soft murmur in the gathering, and Alec allowed it to pass before continuing. “We found the man testing him for magic, how we won’t tell, that’s for us, Derek, and Nolen to know, but we quickly located the man and arrested him.”

Henriette stepped forward then, “we searched his memories too, as soon as his magic was forcefully taken.” People bristled and even I felt unease over it. I would feel so empty without my magic now, I couldn’t even imagine how painful that would’ve been for the man. “We found some troubling things when we looked through all his memories. First off, he kept tabs on all of you as you grew up; he knew your parents. You weren’t normal donor children. He’d paid your parents to carry you and forced them to stay in the areas he chose. He had full control over your future, threatening your parents with his magic, letting them believe he was everywhere.”

Fuck. I could see how a man using magic would be scary as hell.

Alec took over again. “But it’s important to note that everyone that took the deal with him basically agreed to give birth to a child he could do whatever he wanted with. These people wanted money, not a child. He wanted you to grow up with good educations, making you important in this world, hoping you would have magic and eventually he, together with all of you under him, would take over that non-magical world and rule it.”

Henriette continued, “he just hadn’t thought about his magic running out. Fathering children and giving away what he had made it impossible for him to open the portal again. Which is why he stopped doing it. He was stuck here in our world. He’d paid for your parents’ houses and your educations, all of you had to attend the same college, making it easier for him to find you.”

I shivered. Was I attending a school filled with my half siblings? Thank God, Hayley hadn’t been one of them.

“We, um, we know he tried to impregnate women without it being a donor situation too. Those women he lost track of so there are more children out there who we won’t easily be able to find. But there is a boy, his first son, he would be around thirty-five now. He stayed with his mom for five years hoping the son would show his magic, but when he didn’t, he abandoned them. We have an idea of this boy’s, now man’s, appearance and the mother’s too, making it our highest priority to find them.”

I was speechless. My parents hadn’t actually wanted me, they were paid to do this man’s bidding. It made sense when I thought about it. My dad had likely felt less worried over time since the man couldn’t visit, but my mom had remained afraid. I found myself feeling sorry for them, not that they deserved that, I guess I was just a better person than they were.

“Questions?” Trise asked. “Yes?” she said, pointing to a girl.

“Where’s our biological father now?” she asked, sounding just as shaken as I was.

“He’s locked away in prison for the rest of his life,” Trise replied with a serious expression.

“Can this happen again in the future?” Someone asked from behind me.

“Sadly, it can. We can’t stop people from making portals if they know how, like this man did,” Alec replied. “We have made it illegal and everyone who doesn’t have a portal license risks losing their magic if they’re caught.” I almost laughed, portal license.

“Any other questions?” Henriette asked. They looked tired as they stood there, the rulers. They’d obviously been working day and night to catch this guy. “Very well. Magic training starts next week. If any of you have questions later on, you’re welcome to contact us. We would appreciate that you stay here for the next month so our portal makers can take a well-deserved break, and meanwhile you can get your magic under control.”

There were murmurs of agreement, and then we started trailing out of there, all in a daze it seemed.

Juno

It had been a week since the meeting and Remi was thriving here. He’d had his first magical lesson today, from someone other than me, and it had been a blast for him. He’d beamed with the others as they learned their new magic. I would never forget how his face had brightened with pure joy when he got it right. My perfect mate.

Derek and Remi had truly bonded this week, Nolen had called me and asked for Remi so we’d visited. Derek needed another friendly face, still getting used to things, not that we knew what he’d been through exactly, but Nolen was highly protective over his mate, so I guessed Derek felt uneasy most of the time. Remi had taken it as some sort of challenge to be there for Derek. No matter how long it took him, he was determined to help Derek out, and now they laughed together as they used their magic to turn the ceiling lights into a disco show with different colors.

We got a few more answers from my dad about our world and the magic. They believed the man had stolen magic from our world and used that to continue having children. Normally you could only have a maximum of two, since you had to give away some of your own magic. Considering how lively our world was now, compared to before, it was likely the reason. How so few people could affect our world was a mystery, but if he’d stolen the magic, as they said, he could’ve spread it out to hundreds of children in Remi’s world. I truly hoped that wasn’t the case. The rulers knew how he’d stolen it, but kept it a secret among them so others wouldn’t be able to do the same in the future. I completely respected that.

A new group of people, who all had a sense they might have a mate waiting on the other side, were being trained to enter the world next. I was lucky enough to help train them, no longer seeking out another world. Not since my whole world had become Remi.

Nix had found his mate and was dealing with that situation in Remi’s old world. I missed my best friend, but I’d gotten closer to Nolen, which was nice. Charlotta had found her mate too, a beautiful black-haired girl named Ellie. Ellie had been accusing Charlotta of witchcraft at first, stating she wasn’t into people so that had to be the case. They laughed about it now, happily mated and living in our world too. None of the mated pairs had wanted to stay in Remi’s world, which sadly proved they hadn’t felt at home there either.

I heard Remi’s laughter and caught him pointing at me, his eyes filled with tears as he and Derek tried to stop laughing. I looked down at myself and found a glamour on me. A black t-shirt with letters in bright pink. I read it upside down so it took me a few seconds. “Big Dick Energy” was written on it. I had no clue what that meant, but I took it as a compliment and winked at my gorgeous mate.

Remi ran over to me, still laughing and looking so unbelievably beautiful I tried to take a mental image of it. “I can finally use glamour on others!” he exclaimed proudly. He was getting better at everything magic, but they also had to learn what was illegal or not, so not much time was spent actually learning it.

“I’m so proud of you,” I said, kissing his cheek and hugging him against me. “Ready to go home?”

“Always,” he replied, taking my hand in his and leading us home.