“It’s not possible.” Thor spoke up. “My mother spent decades in the Optimus Unit. Their tech is everywhere. They track every transport. Every message. What you are saying is not possible.”
“But it’s the truth.” Leo’s father leaned back in his chair, suddenly looking his age, which was several years older than my mother. “Whoever orchestrated the attack was a genius. It was no random or hasty action. The plan was executed perfectly. They murdered the king and his parents and left absolutely nothing for us to trace.”
“Perfect, except for Mom’s escape,” Trinity added.
“That’s because she’s a troublemaker, like me,” I tossed out there. I had to grin at Mom, break up the tense mood. All this talk of death was making the air too thick to breathe. I had heard the stories before, but it had never been real. Not until now.
I looked around, felt the blood drain from my face as an idea occurred to me. “Wait. Here? It happened here? In this room?”
Mom looked around, her eyes taking in everything, but seeing the past. “Yes. I am not pleased to be back, but at least the décor has been changed.” She looked at the dark green silks on the windows, the pale green sofa cushions, the dark marble table. “It used to be dark brown and burgundy. The cushions on the couch were like red wine.”
“Okay.” Faith waved her hand through the air. “Enough of this bullshit trip down memory lane. If everyone died, who was looking for you all these years? And how did they find you?”
Trinity squirmed in her seat and I leaned forward, my hand on Nix’s thigh squeezing tightly. I didn’t notice, until his warm touch covered mine. I let up, but didn’t lean back. Whatever Trin was about to say was going to be good.
“I think that’s my fault, actually,” Trinity said.
Oh, hell yeah. Called it.
Faith’s head looked like it was about to explode. “What?”
Trinity looked from Faith to Mom to me. I was nodding in agreement. I’d figured it out a while back. “You contacted Warden Egara, didn’t you? Asked about Alera. The Ardor.”
Mom offered Trinity a small smile.
“Yes,” Trinity continued. “My stupid Ardor. And less than two days later, Mom was gone and we were running from the CIA.”
“I don’t think they were CIA, Trin.” Faith leaned to the side and into Thor’s shoulder. She processed fast. We all did. “Those Men-In-Black were probably NSA or some other way-top-secret organization that doesn’t exist.”
Nix went stiff next to me. His glare focused solely on me. “Are you in danger? Are these males from Earth hunting you, mate? Do we have more to worry about than just a ruthless killer on Alera?”
I sighed. God, he was so damn cute. “No. They were after us, but we ditched them at the Bride Processing Center. You should have seen those big Atlan guards back them down.”
“God, they were huge,” Trinity said with a laugh.
“And hot,” Faith added, waggling her eyebrows.
“Enough.” Mom interrupted before we could go into a full-out assessment of the Atlan warriors and their big... everything. Not that Faith was wrong, but I had Nix now, and absolutely zero interest in any other man, or alien, touching me.
“How they found me is irrelevant. I was transported using a mobile transport beacon. I have no idea how they acquired such rare technology from the Prillons, but they did. They slapped the beacon on me and transported me right out of our house and into a prison cell aboard a spaceship orbiting Alera. They held me there for several days, beating me, sta
rving me, demanding the jewels. Once the spires lit for you three, I was transported again, to the planet, into the custody of Lord Wyse.”
“That bastard. I knew it! If he wasn’t dead, I’d kill him again.” Trinity, in a full rage, was a sight to behold, so much like Mom it was scary sometimes. “We saw signs of a struggle, heard you scream, but nothing more,” she said. “We immediately went to the Interstellar Brides Program because we knew that was the nearest transport center on Earth. We had to get to Alera.”
“And your father?” Thor asked.
“He said you two had talked about things before,” Faith replied, looking to Mom. “He said he had a safe place to go until we could send for him.” Faith reached across the table and offered her hand to our mother, who took it. “He’s fine. He’s smart as hell and not afraid. The Men-In-Black were after him, but I know Dad. They’ll never catch him.”
“Yes, you’re right. Good.” Mom sighed in relief and leaned back, breaking Faith’s hold. “So, Lord Wyse is dead?”
“As a doornail,” I said. Nix looked confused by the term, but he could figure it out. Context was key. Although, now that I thought about it, a doornail… dead. Yeah, it was stupid phrase, but Wyse was dead. Sooo dead.
I thought back to how our house on Earth had been trashed. Not a lot, but enough to know something had happened. Mom had warned us about the possibility of someone eventually finding her. We’d heard her scream, but by the time we got upstairs, she was gone.
But we were ready. Our entire lives, she’d told us what to do. Still, we’d only imagined the scenario. Then it had become real. All of it. The stories of a faraway planet. The strange language she’d forced us—and Dad—to learn. The culture and customs she’d drilled into us but we had never used. Until now.
The car chase on the way to the Bride Processing Center felt like a lifetime ago. Earthlings. God, it had been so simple. Just a car chase. No ion blasters. No transport technology. No aliens. Or assassins. Or thirty-year plots to unravel. It had been like the Wild West, now that I looked back. Some of my last moments on Earth.