Page 2 of The Time Of Queens (An Afterlife Story #2)

2

TIMELINE TRICKINESS

“ Y oohoo, tickle tickle.”

My nose twitched as I felt something brushing against the tip.

“My dearest, I don’t think that wise.” I heard a male voice and in my sleepy mind, I tried to make it out. Wait… was that… Adam?

“Why not? She’s been asleep forever and I want to play with the time traveller.” Okay, so that was definitely Pip, I would know that excited voice anywhere.

“No, you want to question her and ask if carriages fly in her time,” Adam replied dryly. She clapped her hands together, and it was enough to jar me wide awake, making my eyes open with a start.

“Oh good, you are awake,” Pip said.

I took in the beams overhead, before shifting until I was sitting up on a hard sofa that was more like a padded bench with striped fabric.

“Something that was bound to happen when you clapped in her face,” Adam added calmly.

Pip stuck her tongue out at him and, in turn, he simply grinned and snapped his teeth at her. As for the room I now found myself in, it was quite plain. With nothing more than an old-fashioned window, a double bed, a few small side tables, a single chair, and the hard sofa I was lying on. There wasn’t even a single picture on the walls or a rug on the worn, wooden floor.

“Why are you wearing men’s clothes?” Pip asked, making me laugh before shaking my head at her. Because this was my first-time meeting a version of Pip from the past. There wasn’t a mad hair colour in sight, and there weren’t any tattoos or piercings, telling me she wasn’t the same girl I had time travelled with. If anything, it just made her look even younger, as if no older than seventeen or eighteen, at the very least.

“Where am I?” I asked, ignoring the question about why she thought I was dressed like a man. This was when Adam folded the paper he had been reading before placing it down on the table next to him. He was wearing pinstripe blue trousers, an ivory waistcoat, with a blue cravat tied at his neck over his white shirt. His blue tailored jacket was folded over the end of the bed.

As for Pip, she was wearing a duck egg blue dress, with a huge skirt that must have had hoops underneath, as it could have fit a whole kindergarten class worth of kids underneath. To this she added a cute little red jacket with puffy sleeves and lace cuffs.

Her dark hair was parted in the middle, with each side twisted back into a plaited bun at the base of her neck. She looked like an extra from Gone with the Wind.

“We are in the Hundred House Inn in Great Witley,” Adam told me, and I looked to Pip who was grinning like a mad woman nodding her head.

“We saved you,” she added, making me grin at her, because well, it was Pip. Meaning that when she looked at you in the excited childlike way of hers, it was hard not to smile. Of course, she was also beautiful and from the adoring way Adam kept looking at her, he knew it too.

“Although what we saved you from exactly, we are still unsure,” Adam added, giving Pip a pointed look before turning one of curiosity to me, making me sigh.

“This is going to sound complicated,” I stated, making Pip snort.

“I’m a forest Imp born on the wrong side of the mother tree and he’s the most feared monster in all of Hell… trust us, we are Mr and Mrs Complicated, right, Bonbon?” Pip said, winking at her husband and making him grin while I burst out laughing.

“Well, when you put it like that,” I commented, making Adam raise a brow at me before asking,

“I must say, for a mortal you don’t seem surprised by all my wife just told you, why is that?”

Pip bounced on the bed and lifted her massive, hooped skirts up before folding her legs down under her and dropping to her bum. Therefore, she ended up sitting in an island of material that surrounded her.

“Because like I keep telling you, Treacle Top, she’s from the future… this one, honestly. Plus, I even know her name is Toots, although I must confess that is a peculiar name,” she added, tossing a thumb over her shoulder to point at her husband. However, my mind spun as I shouted,

“Wait! You know?!”

“Of course. Hence why you are here now,” she said, spreading out her hands as if the reason was laid in front of her and written on her skirts.

“But how?” I asked, shaking my head, but she simply tapped the side of her head and told me,

“My brain is magic.”

I frowned slightly before prompting for more.

“Magic?”

“She dreamed of you,” Adam offered helpfully.

“Oh… so you know all about me?” I hoped this was the case, as that would mean this next part would go a lot quicker, seeing as I wouldn’t have to explain the last thirty years of my life.

“Nope, just a dream that told me where you would be, so as we could save you, although I would have been there earlier had sugar bunny over there not argued with me,” she replied, crushing that hope.

“Yes, and must I remind you, we are still going against our king.” At this she rolled her eyes.

“And as I keep telling you, Biscuit, better to go against a king than the Fates themselves. Anyway, I dreamt that a distant traveller… that’s you by the way… a damsel from a different time… also you… would need our help and that’s about it… so, your turn… go,” Pip urged, making me roll my lips in my teeth to try and stop myself from giggling.

Christ but she hadn’t changed.

No, only her style had gotten more outrageous over time, but she was still the same quirky Imp I knew. Which is why I told them,

“You’re right, I am from the future.”

“HA! See? I knew it! You owe me a tiger cub!” she said, wagging a finger at Adam who was now frowning.

“Prove it,” he said firmly.

I took in a deep breath, reached for an apple from the bowl next to me on the side table, and while rolling it round in my hand, I told him,

“Your Demon is Abaddon, a mighty beast who was made by the devil himself. But when you became uncontrollable, he cast you into a pit to live out the rest of your days. Pip got sent to Hell after she was tricked into bringing the plague to London and they all believed you would eat her. You didn’t, against all odds, you fell in love, and she went to the surface to find your counterpart. I believe Adam Fitzwilliam was your name. But if that isn’t enough to convince you, then she has a habit of tying you up and annoying your Demon side by running from you. Although, we all know the reason why is to help tame your beast, so as you can control him better… good enough?” I took a bite of my apple and saw for myself the shocked look on his face.

“No… no one should know all of that, least of all a mortal,” he stammered, looking first to me and then to his wife.

“No, I can imagine only Lucius knows, seeing as he was there and helped Pip do all of this.” At this Pip was beaming, looking between me and her husband with a big knowing grin on her pretty face. Then she nodded to him and said,

“See, what did I tell you!”

“Look, I get it. This is all bat shit…” I started to say, only she was quick to interrupt me.

“Oooh I like that word.” I gave her a smile before continuing on, because of course she liked that word, she used it often in the future.

“…My point is, I know you both. I’ve known you for thirty years, in fact, you kidnapped me for Lucius.” At this Pip burst out laughing and looked to Adam.

“Are you hearing this, my sweet?”

“I am, my dearest one,” he replied in his usual loving way.

“Like I said, we have history, lots of it. But through it all, you guys are like my family. Pip is my best friend,” I told him, making his features soften, especially when she went bat shit at this, bouncing off the bed and into my arms before hugging me tight.

“Oh, my lord! I have a best friend… I always wanted a best friend! Can we keep her… please, oh please!?” Of course, naturally, I hugged her back and felt myself even close my eyes as the emotion washed over me. However, when I opened them again, I found Adam watching me with interest. He released a deep sigh before raising to his feet and placing a hand at his wife’s shoulder.

“Alright, my love, let’s give her a little space.”

“Oh yes, can’t go strangling my best friend now,” she said, winking at me, making me wink right back. If anything, she was even more innocent and childlike now than she was when I had first met her. Basically, she was just as lovely and adorable.

“Why are you here?”

“Oooh good question that, well done, Honey,” Pip praised, patting his shoulder, making him grin down at her. Jeez, these two, they were just the cutest.

“It’s a long story but…” I paused to take a deep breath before telling them, “…I am the King’s Electus.” At this Adam’s eyes widened before he was suddenly hissing,

“Fuck.”

Pip’s mouth dropped into a perfect O shape and Adam snapped his head back to her, making her shrug her shoulders and lift her hands up. I leaned closer and whispered,

“This is the part you usually say, my bad.”

“Oooh I like that too… My bad,” she said, trying it out for size.

“Damn it, Winnie!” Adam scolded, slashing a hand down through the air and her face fell… because well, it wasn’t usual that you saw Adam get mad at her. But before she could say anything, I placed a hand on her shoulder and got to my feet, walking closer to where he stood at the window.

“Okay, so I know it sounds bad.”

He gave me an incredulous look, so I held up a hand to stop him from saying something to the effect of ‘yeah, no shit, Sherlock’.

“But trust me, if he discovers who I am to him, he will never let me get back to my own time, and then the whole reason I am here in the first place will be for nothing.”

“And pray tell, why are you here?” he asked, his voice firm but no longer mad at least.

“I don’t know yet but Fate… well, Fate always has a reason,” I told him, looking back at Pip as if to make my point. His eyes followed before he closed them, knowing exactly what Fate had in store for him all those years ago. Hence why he released a big sigh, and asked,

“Alright, Toots, what can we do?”

“Well, this is when it gets tricky… oh, and only my best friend calls me Toots, my actual name is Keira,” I told him, and once again, Pip squealed in delight.

After this I spent quite a bit of time explaining everything that had happened since stepping foot in the fountain. Needless to say, Adam was shocked to hear that Pip had followed me through… As for Pip, not so much.

No, if anything she just looked excited by the idea. Like there was another her running around, like a Pokémon she needed to find and train. Of course, I soon had to crush this hope by telling them what I already suspected.

“I think I might have created a new timeline.”

“Why do you think this?” Adam asked, ignoring Pip’s disappointment at not having the chance to meet her older self.

“Okay, so you know the King and Lucius pretty well… right?” I asked, making him nod and answer a simple,

“Yes.”

“Have any of them ever spoken about finding their Chosen Ones before and then losing them?” Adam’s eyes got wide at the thought, whereas Pip gave me loved up, puppy eyes and said,

“Aww you hear that, Luc gets his very own Chosen One… Oh, I mean… hell no, not even a hint at finding them or that would have made big, big, Supernatural news that.”

“Ah I see,” Adam replied after his wife, understanding now what I meant by this being a new timeline.

“I think he could have recognised the kiss,” I admitted, making Pip skip closer, which was quite a skill in her big ass dress. Then she plonked herself down next to me and said,

“Wait, you kissed him…? Oh, now we get to the good bit.”

“You would call it the juicy part but yes, I kissed him,” I told her, making her smirk and tap a finger to her lips.

“Juicy part… See, I am learning all kinds of great stuff from her,” Pip added, winking again and making me giggle. God, she was a riot.

“Yes, I had no choice, because last time, the second he saw me in Muncaster, he recognised me as being his straight away. So, I needed to distract him from seeing me.” I told them about how I got there, and everything up until the point that I ran and they saved me in the woods.

“That’s the part where I came in, making them believe she had run a different way,” Pip added, puffing up her shoulders with pride.

“And you don’t know how grateful I am for that,” I told her, making her grin and say,

“What are best friends for?”

Gods she was killing me here with her sweetness. Although I could also see that Adam was worried about her, as his first thought was no doubt how much trouble his wife could get into, and rightly so. But I also knew that with Pip here, willing to assist me… well, she was the only one with the type of mojo that could help. The only person that could get me inside and hide my true self from Draven. After all, she had done it before and thankfully, this time I didn’t have a Harem to deal with.

“So exactly what is your plan here?” Adam asked, forever the sensible one.

“All I want is for a way home, thankfully the fountain gives me that, the only thing I need now is a coin to get inside the temple.”

“Oooh that’s a tricky one,” Pip agreed before continuing to point out the obvious, “But the King is sure to have one of those.”

“A little difficult to do when she wishes to remain unknown to the King,” Adam said, highlighting the obvious part that Pip was missing.

“Oh, that’s going to be a pickle, but what if…” Pip’s thieving frame of mind was quickly stopped when Adam stated sternly,

“No, I will not have you stealing from the King and nor will I.”

“And nor would I expect you to or even ask it of you,” I replied, making him frown.

“But you would ask something of us?” Adam questioned. I sighed before looking to Pip.

“The last time I went back in time, you came with me, and you hid who I was to the King. You could mask the fact that I was his Chosen One.”

“Oh yes, I could do that,” Pip said, nodding enthusiastically.

“And what when the King discovers our part in this…? No, I cannot put my wife in harm’s way.”

She snorted a laugh and bounced up to him before taking his face in her small, dainty hands.

“Oh, my handsome husband, no one would ever dare try anything to punish me, not when they fear your wrath and the destruction it could bring. Trust me, sugar plum, no one but you can punish me.”

He scoffed but the second she said, “Please,” he softened quickly and pulled her into his arms.

“Why is it I can deny you nothing?”

“Because of what I can do with my mouth?” she offered with a wink, making me laugh.

“Mmm indeed, but I think more to the deep love and affection I hold for you, my dear,” he replied smoothly, making me nearly melt.

“Oh well that too, of course, for it is true, I am great at being a wife.”

I giggled at that, but not enough to miss his sweet reply.

“That you are, my Winnie…”

“…That you are.”