Mack (King #4)(47)

Then it dawned on me: my gift. I reached out and placed my hand on his, attempting to duplicate the healing process from earlier. Nothing happened.

“It’s not working,” I said, pulling away and inspecting my hands.

“Some pain cannot be erased,” he said regretfully. “Nor should they be.”

Meaning, he wanted to suffer? Meaning he actually did it? “Oh, God. Please don’t tell me…No. No. Not with her.”

He looked straight ahead at the doors. “I did what I had to.”

“You didn’t…” His wife would be devastated. I mean, if Mack screwed Talia after marrying me and my having his child, there would be no excuse on earth that could wash away my pain or prevent me from removing his dangly parts with my fingernails. That wasn’t to say that I wouldn’t understand the why. But could I live with it or forgive it? No. Not when I loved him so deeply and passionately. There could be no sharing for any reason when you’ve given your heart so completely to another.

“Thank you, Theodora,” King said sarcastically, replying to my thoughts.

“Sorry. But there’s right and then there’s real. Real is never wanting to share the person you’re in love with. I mean, could you forgive Mia if she slept with Mack to save your life?”

He swiveled his head in my direction and snarled.

“Exactly,” I said. “But…” I shook my head. “Did you really…do…that?” I still couldn’t believe it.

“I do not wish to discuss this.”

The doors slid open, and we stepped out of the elevator to make our way to the awaiting limo outside. After we got in, King murmured, “You will have to make Mia understand, Theodora. Make her understand how much I love her. She will listen to you. Seers have a special bond.” The heart-wrenching sorrow in his tone was almost too much to bear.

Crap. I think I’m going to cry.

I scrubbed my face with my hands. “I’m not a magician. I can’t just make her feel happy—or—I don’t know.” I sighed. “Maybe I can.” This was all still so new to me. “But…Okay, don’t get pissy on me for saying this, King, but you’re King. People fear you. You squash anything that gets in your way. Why didn’t you fight?”

“Who says I didn’t?” He cleared his throat and straightened his tie.

“Meaning?”

“Talia has upped her game. I was unprepared.” King’s aura instantly turned to a dark blue. This mood-ring feature was very strange.

I frowned at him, wondering what the ever-living hell that meant. Then it dawned on me; the little tidbits I’d heard and seen. These 10 Club people were ruthless.

I gasped and covered my mouth. “She has something on you, doesn’t she?”

“Not on. Over,” he corrected solemnly.

I heard the wheels in my head go click!-click!-click! Talia had leverage on him. And the only thing King loved more than Mack was likely his wife and baby son.

Reading my thoughts, King said, “And you would be correct in your assumption.”

Fucking bitch. I didn’t know the details, but what did that matter? Talia had backed King into a corner so dark and tight that he’d had no choice.

King’s head whipped in my direction. “Don’t. You. Say. A f*cking word, Seer. Or so help me I will disembowel you. Are we clear?”

I nodded stiffly. “I’ll do my best to make Mia understand.” I slid my hand over his and gave it a squeeze. I think that was the moment that I realized that hate and revenge were like unwelcome viruses in my soul. I was built to forgive and heal. And now, more than ever, I wanted to make King’s pain dissolve but couldn’t. And it was a strange, strange thing wanting to help this man. He’d been my nemesis for an eternity. Now I felt protective of him like a big sister. “I’ll do everything I can to make things right. I promise.”

~~~

Six hours later, around nine in the morning, King and I were back at his San Francisco palace, making preparations to resurrect Mack. And once again, I had to keep my head from exploding. It had been a week—yes, only one week—since I’d first laid eyes on Mack. My entire life changed in that moment. I changed in that moment. And I guessed that was only the tip of the iceberg. Because, yes, I had regained the part of myself that felt connected to this world, but I still couldn’t remember my past. I suspected that once I fixed that, it would open up yet another whole new world for me—how to control my gift, the feelings that I had for those I loved in my past lives, the lessons I’d learned along the way.

But for now, I had to take stock of the vast metamorphosis I’d undergone in just seven little days. No light, no love, no passion in my life to now…Performing resurrection rituals to bring back the love of my existence. I almost laughed. Almost. Nope, not one bit of logic or the old Teddi in this room.

According to an ancient text King’d procured “many dark lifetimes ago” he’d said, there were specific steps that had to be followed to open the fissure between worlds and beckon a soul to return. Once the soul arrived, somehow a body…appeared. Or something. That was where his plan became a bit—okay, really, really vague.

“Sooo…” I said, pacing back and forth in King’s living room, the same living room that had been filled with 10 Club members yesterday evening and had been cleaned spotless. Probably by one of King’s people possessions. “You are going to bring Mack back and put him into his old body?”