Antonio scowled, his gaze beginning to shine in the dimness.
Ezra grunted quietly, ignoring the searing menace from Antonio. “A blank spot is when a Mage cannot see certain occasions. It doesn’t matter how powerful they are. They cannot see when they will meet their mate, a loved one’s death, the act of sharing sexual intimacies with a partner, or their own death.”
I blinked. “Oh.” My lips thinned. “I think I do need one of those damn books the Com brat was talking about.” I pointed a finger at Antonio. “So what blank spot do you have that’s bothering you?”
“Enough,” Antonio growled. He started marching right at me. “I cannot speak on it, which you know full well.” He grabbed my hand that gripped the vials. “Drink yours.”
My tone turned extremely soft. “I am sorry for everything you see…and don’t see.” My lips turned up in a bittersweet smile. “You’re amazing.”
He went completely still. “Lil?”
“Yeah?”
“Quit stalling.”
Instantly, I scowled. “This is a big decision!”
“No, it’s not. It’s not a decision at all. It is your past. Your life.”
I nibbled on my bottom lip, turning my gaze to the vials. “I don’t know if I’m ready.”
“You are.”
I did not shift my attention from the sloshing golden liquid. “Ezra?”
Instant. “I’m not drinking one. I haven’t made that decision yet.”
Antonio barked, “Cahal, talk some sense into your fucking son before I beat the living shit out of him.” A pause, then his tone changed to calm. “I say that with much respect, of course.”
Cahal snorted softly. “Just get your kid to drink it. After she does, mine will soon follow.”
Antonio’s head teetered from side to side. “You’re probably right.” His lips parted…and he made that gurgling sound I had become so accustomed to hearing from him. Golden eyes narrowed. “Just drink the damned thing.”
Carefully, I picked just one vial. I lifted it to eye level. I stared. “Why would Elder Harcourt do a memory wipe on us…only to give us the memories back?”
Antonio gurgled once more. Growled. Shook his head. “You don’t have time for this.”
My eyes met his. “What do you mean?”
“Just. Drink. It.”
I stared. Blinked. “What happens next in time?”
His lips pinched, not a word uttered.
Tearing my gaze away from him, I peered…at my husband.
He gazed back, his spring green eyes dead set on mine. “It’s your choice.”
Slowly my chest rose and fell. “Okay.”
Chapter Fifteen
With my eyes on my husband’s, who was a stranger still, I popped the cork on one of the vials.
Breathed in once deeply. Out came the breath just as gradually.
Then I closed my eyes and lifted the vial to my lips.
I drank it down in one shot.
My body jerked as corked spells and time washed through my veins in a chilling rush. Flashes erupted behind my closed eyelids.
Scenes…so many scenes.
Feelings…so many feelings.
My body convulsed as the missing pieces of my life replayed in a continual loop, invading my mind with reality. Everything I hadn’t known that was in my past. Every cherished moment I now remembered. Every heartache I had known was now a part of me again.
What radiated the most…was my love for my husband.
My heart broke time and again, then blistered with agonized adoration. It pumped deep within my soul. The blackness that had consumed me was flooded with nothing but pure, gut-wrenching love.
The vial dropped from my fingertips as I sucked in a harsh breath.
My eyelashes fluttered in the night breeze, while hot tears, which I hadn’t even known I had shed, were cooling against my cheeks. My chest ached with a new madness to embrace my husband and never let him go.
Ezra was mine.
Directly behind me, Elder Merrick sniffed the air, his words whisper soft. “It worked.”
Goddamn right it did.
My eyes shot open, a feral blue shining like a blaze of warning in the darkness.
Instantly, I lowered my eyes at the sight of my husband. I didn’t want to frighten him.
Ezra’s nostrils were flared, inhaling and exhaling deeply, scenting everything I was feeling. His own green gaze was just barely shining in a frigid wariness. Every muscle on his body was poised to flee from what he sensed from me, his body even slightly turned…but his feet were firmly planted on the moonlit grass. He was just watching me.
My wolf howled deep inside my mind…but I pulled back with steel mental gloves all of my desires to tackle him to the ground and shove a vial’s liquid down his throat. I had become the ice queen bitch this last year. I knew how to shut off my emotions now.