Page 127 of Between Imminent Fates

“Two months.” Jax met her gaze, unspeakable sadness behind his eyes. “I’ve been here almost as long.”

Key’s head dipped to lay against his chest, her fingers tightening in the soft material of his shirt. Unable to speak, she relaxed against him. Her fears dispelled as she sought out his comfort. Being here with Jax, surrounded by clan and the people who loved her, felt right.

She smirked. “Did Nero roll out the welcome wagon when you arrived, or did he play panther mind tricks?”

“Panther mind tricks.” A scoffing laugh. “He made me want to pet him, then I found myself face down on the asphalt. Five stars for hospitality.”

“At least you didn’t wake up to the panther sitting on your chest.” Luna laughed. “He enjoys that one most, I think.”

***

After a shower and fresh clothes, Key felt a bit more like herself. Though the world had gone dark, she had no desire to sleep or spend any more time in a bed. Gathered around Nero’s living room were her closest friends—and hermate—she found herself on the verge of tears.

Key could scarcely believe it. What she had thought was nothing more than a daydream had become reality, and the man sitting beside her had been exactly what she needed. He had grounded her when her visions had threatened to steal her sanity.

Jax hadn’t been further than an arm’s length away at any point that evening. He stayed glued to her side, supporting her as she found her balance once more—literally and physically. After months in a coma, the state of her body was hardly surprising. Fortunately, Eden had been happy to make an impressive variety of food to fill the hole in her stomach.

When she’d been close to bursting, Jax had swung her into his arms and personally escorted her to a couch. Satisfied and charmed by his sweetness, she snuggled against him on the loveseat. It wasn’t his apartment, but Zeus was chewing on a bone in the corner and her friends filled every available seat.

“Do you remember anything after you went down, Key?” Nero asked. “Or from these last few months?”

“I wasn’t aware, but I do occasionally remember hearing your voice, Jax,” she said. “Telling me about something. I couldn’t quite make out the words, but I heard you.”

His soft smile melted her heart. “We watched a lot of movies. I described them to you when they weren’t talking.”

“I know the entire plot of at least thirty-four Hallmark movies now,” her sovereign lamented. “My holiday plans are foiled.”

“My most sincere apologies.”

Chuckling at Jax’s dry comment, Key looked at the faces around her. “I’m just happy to be here and awake. That vision that I saw after the shattering of the Link—it just showed the three of us on the ground. I had assumed that we were dead.”

“You were.”

Nero’s solemnity startled her. She could see the truth in his gaze, and the horrors that lingered in the past. Luna shifted uneasily in her seat, nodding slowly. “You were dead, Key. Your heart stopped beating. It was a miracle that we were able to revive you.”

Nero grit his teeth. “You and Nina and Isaiah—all of you read like you had no brain activity. We thought there was no hope.”

The heaviness of her sovereign’s words settled on her shoulders like lead.

“Even a foreseer isn’t infallible,” Key finally said. “What I thought I saw was wrong—and I’m quite overjoyed to be proven otherwise.”

Soft laughter hummed around her and lightened the moment. Beside her, Jax gently pressed a massage into the palm of her hand. Every gentle motion made her fall farther in love with him. He had been by her side even when she wasn’t aware, supporting her without fail as he always had.

A spark of passion bloomed within her, and though her body was weak, her desire for him remained strong.

Before she could act on it, Eden cleared her throat. “Speaking of. A group of us have been discussing potentially revealing the immortal nations to the humans, Key. With technology advancing, we’re worried that it could expose us—and strip us of the ability to control the message. We’ve been brainstorming what might come of it.”

Key stared at the young woman. She waited for a flash of the future to streak through her mind’s eye, but nothing happened. So often, the visions of what was to come would drown her in possibilities, but today it was simply … blank.

Frowning, she dove deeper into the foreseer ability that’d been her constant for a millennium. Before, it’d been a bottomless well with no end and no beginning. Now, all she found was a vague, formless idea of what the power used to be.

The essence of what she’d been—a foreseer—had been altered on a fundamental level. A power that she’d both loved and loathed had slipped from her grasp. The mixture of feelings was completely at odds and impossible to understand.

Beside her, Jax stiffened. “Key?”

Her throat tightened. Speaking of it meant exposing a weakness, but here, among her closest friends, she could offer the truth. Fighting through the dryness of her mouth, she gazed into her mate’s eyes.

“It’s as if I’m in recoil or energy drought, but it’s deeper than that,” she breathed. “Almost as if my foreseer ability has changed on a fundamental level. Like even if it were to return, it wouldn’t be the same gift I had before.”

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