King Tomb (Forever Evermore, #3)(79)

I lurched forward a step…not of my own free will. My words were not even my own, pulled from my throat. “I’ll go with you this time. You have my word.”

Ezra grabbed my arm in a blur when I took another step toward the Shifter. “What are you doing?” His eyes darted across my face. “You just gave your word to a stranger.”

I yanked my arm away with Shifter strength, again my body acting like I was a drone. “I have no choice. It must be done.” I leapt through the air, landing directly next to the man I did not know, having pledged my loyalty to doing what he asked. “Ready?”

“What the f*ck?” Ezra boomed, blurring to stand directly next to Tipkin and me. “If you’re going, I’m going too.” He paused. “Antonio said so.”

Tipkin grinned. “Antonio said so, huh? Do you do everything he says?”

“Fuck you,” Ezra growled quietly.

“Maybe another day.” Tipkin shrugged.

“Wait a goddamn second,” Elder Merrick hissed and stepped closer. “I don’t know this man, and I know damn near all Shifters. I want to know who the hell he really is.”

“I said my name is Tipkin,” he explained calmly, even as he handed Ezra a large robe, then gifted me with a smaller one. He pointed at us. “Put those on.” His golden eyes swung to Elder Merrick as we dressed. His words were blunt, and they would have knocked me on my ass if I were in control of my own actions instead of doing exactly as he bid. “I’m a hybrid. I’ve been in hiding. I’m Shifter and Mage, just like Philip Masterson. My Mage power, like his, is reversed because of our dueling nature. Where powerful purebred Mages can see the future, and a few lucky ones can travel there, I have the power to see the past and travel there.” He shrugged. “That’s where we’re going. To the past.”

Cahal grunted. “Bullshit. No one has the power to do that, because it would change time.” His words were heated and he looked as if he was constructing all kinds of deadly scenarios…for Tipkin. “Changing time is not allowed, if you don’t f*cking know!”

Elder Merrick’s wolf growled softly. “I agree with Zeller. No one should go back in time.”

Tipkin shrugged a shoulder, watching as we finished buttoning the cloaks…and as I slipped the two remaining golden vials into one of my cloak’s pockets. “Since Philip is no longer winning this war, he is going back in time to try to change it. These two are going with me to stop him.” His hands landed on one of my shoulders and one of Ezra’s, keeping contact with us. “Don’t move.”

Ezra’s nostrils flared in fury, but he hurried to bark, “Dad, watch Isa for us.”

The roar of a Vampire and the growl of a Shifter bombarded my ears, even as a frantic rush of wind hit. But Tipkin was already glowing and a golden sphere surrounded Tipkin, Ezra, and me.

Again, my body did exactly as he had commanded, allowing him to take me where he wished, and I stood stock-still inside the golden sphere of non-entity. All I could see were sparkles of gold, but the ride was rougher than anytime I had transversed with Antonio. I steadied my legs as the sphere jerked side to side. I grunted quietly when it became exceptionally rough, and I grabbed onto Tipkin’s shoulder — one of Ezra’s hands landing right next to mine — so I didn’t lose connection with him.

The sphere was abruptly gone…and I scented decay in the night air. We stood inside a forest, the trees appearing as tall as the sky. But just as suddenly, we were back inside the sphere, but now we moved differently. I stared, trying to understand what was so perplexing about it. Slowly it dawned on me that we were going back in time now. It was the way the Mage magic felt, like a slow creep running down my spine, a shiver of backwards time.

It took much longer than our first ride.

Minutes passed by slowly inside the kinked magic.

Ezra and I kept a death grip on Tipkin’s shoulder.

I went to scratch my nose with my other hand, but my arm moved as if it were in quicksand, the pull against my action impossible…so my damn nose burned with the urge to be rubbed until the sphere disappeared in a rough jerk.

Ezra grunted, grabbing my shoulder with his free hand when I stumbled forward.

Since we each still had a tight hand on his shoulder, Tipkin lurched with us.

We all went down in a tumble of limbs.

“Your f*cking arrows are on my face,” Ezra grouched, the upper portion of his frame buried under Tipkin’s torso, while both of their legs were lying heavily over my stomach and trapping me.

“Well, your gun is poking me in the ribs,” Tipkin griped.

Rubbing my nose, I blinked repeatedly, the sun bearing down through the trees right into my eyes. The sudden change from night to day had my wolf stalking inside. “Are we here?”

“Yes,” Tipkin muttered, lifting his head. “Our first stop anyway.”

I flinched, my teeth grinding as searing pain radiated from my forearm. The sleeve of my cloak was up to my elbow, so the three of us watched as a golden bracelet of power formed on my skin then sizzled into the air. Gone. I shuddered hard as Clarice’s power dissipated in the air.

Two down. One to go. Whenever that was.





Chapter Sixteen


Still staring at my forearm, Ezra’s Vampire growled softly. “Lily…”