Mack (King #4)(50)

“Bear what?” I asked with a dreaded sigh.

“I wasn’t sure what you did at the time—but now I know that your gift is healing. You healed yourself the only way you could: by making yourself forget everything. Mack, me, your past.”

I was completely stunned—yet, I kind of wasn’t. Probably because somewhere in the back of my mind, I already knew what he’d just told me.

“But I didn’t forget—not really,” I said.

He shrugged. “It is like I told you; some emotions are meant to be felt. We cannot truly erase them.”

I finally understood. I’d tried to block it all out, but it hadn’t worked. I was a Seer. Ancient. Powerful. Connected to everything. And asking myself to forget Mack was like asking myself to forget my own soul or who I was. At the end of the day, I could never change or destroy what was inside my heart. It was part of me. So seeing Mack, gazing into his eyes, had restored the piece of me connected to him. It could never be erased. It had only been buried below the surface, just waiting for the right catalyst. My memories—those moments in time that were stored in my brain—well, those were gone.

I laughed out loud, chuckling toward the ceiling of the car and smacking my knee. “It’s ironic, isn’t it? I tried to heal myself, but ended up being more broken than ever.”

“You simply wanted to be free of your own pain,” King said. “I can relate. Regardless, after that, you couldn’t remember a thing. I ended up sparing your life and using your gifts for a while.”

My jaw dropped. “Well, that was kind of rude.”

He shrugged. “Waste not, want not. I ended up killing you anyway.”

“Gee. Thanks.”

“You may have forgotten your past, but you were still just as stubborn and disobedient as always. You ended up crossing paths with Mack one day—you were supposed to be out at a job, but decided to show up at my townhouse in London. I quickly got rid of you.”

“Didn’t it bother you? Killing me over and over again?” I asked.

“No. I was fighting my own demons. And, as you’re aware, there’s nothing I won’t do for my brother. He is my blood. We’ve also established that lost memories or not, you are a hazard to him, which is why I still intend to kill you after we’ve brought him back and you’ve healed him.”

I hissed out a breath. “You’re a ruthless *, you know that?”

He dipped his head. “So I’ve been told.”

“If we bring Mack back, he’ll be free from my father’s curse. And I never vowed to kill him, only to free him. My curse or promise or whatever you call it will be ended, too.”

“Are you certain?” he asked.

I gave it some thought. “It has to be over at that point, King.”

“I am not willing to risk it.”

Seriously? “Well, I sure as hell am not going to let you murder me again, King—and has it ever crossed your mind that this is all your fault? That in your quest to protect Mack, you’re actually being extremely selfish? You can’t stand the thought of losing him, so you destroyed him. You keep killing the woman he loves—and by the way, you no longer have the excuse of being an evil disembodied bastard. I mean, for f*ck’s sake, King, how would you feel if Mack kept killing Mia in the name of brotherly love? But somehow, Mack still loved you. And he forgave you. Again and again. Probably out of guilt because of what he did to you three-thousand-f*cking-who-cares years ago. But you! You just keep hurting him with your high-handed ‘I know what’s best for my brother’ bullcrap, which is probably why he wanted to die. He couldn’t take watching me bite the dust anymore and he couldn’t turn his back on you.” I threw up my hands. “Just let the f*cking man live in peace, King! Let me and him figure out how to fix this.”

King glanced at me with those cold blue eyes, but didn’t say a word.

“Fine,” I said. “But then don’t ask me to help you win back Mia. She can divorce your evil ass for all I care.”

King snapped his mouth shut and growled.

“Oh. Did you forget about that?” I asked. “Your wife who’s going to be heartbroken? You’ll be lucky if you ever get near her or your son again.”

A long, frigid moment passed.

“Perhaps,” King cleared his throat, “we can come to an agreement of sorts.”

I huffed and crossed my arms over my chest. “Yep. That’s what I thought.”

Point for Teddi.





CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO





When we pulled down that long dirt road shrouded in an eerie, foreboding energy meant to keep curious eyes away, I now had the distinct impression that King’s little tricks weren’t the only thing safeguarding these grounds.

“There are many souls watching over this land,” King said, reading my thoughts.

His Mercedes rumbled down the road, the wheels crunching and grinding the dirt.

“Stay out of my head!” I barked over the loud noise. “And how the hell did you and Mack find this place to begin with?”

“The place has power and is considered to be one of my possessions. I protect this land, and in exchange, the souls who reside here assist me from time to time.”

“Like some kind of ghost brotherhood?”