Page 28 of Lost in the Fog

She leaned against him and sighed. “Let’s go.”

They locked up the house and got into the cars. Zhin smiled. “So, you had to get authorization for this?”

“Yup. The palace is not for males yet. It is a refuge. We are going to have our conversation outside, and they will bring things out to us.”

“Things?”

“Cookies and lemonade.” She headed down the drive, and the gates swung open at her approach.

“Okay, how does that happen?”

“The real estate agent is one of ours. So, when we ask to see a house, it opens.”

She smiled as she drove down the quiet lane. “I guess that is why you were all thrown back ten years.”

“So, you knew about that.”

“Yes. Regis discussed it with Poppy, and since most of you guys had been thrown back that far so that you could finally sync up with us, ten years it’s going to be.”

Zhin nodded. “Sensible. It was enough time for us to get modern certifications and set ourselves up. And not to put too fine a point on it, but it gave our mates time to become complete adults with control of their own power.”

“Yeah. I mean, I wasn’t even here until a few years ago.” She chuckled. “I did make some haunted areas, though. That was fun.”

“Haunted?”

“Yeah, tales of mist that rises up and stops date rapes of either gender are now circulating the internet in a dozen countries.” She flicked her blinker and made a slow right with Knur right behind her. “He really is close. It makes me worry about his sex life.”

Zhin laughed. “You are his sex life, or you will be.”

“Yeah, how long do you think I can delay that? He makes me nervous.”

“He was catatonic from the point where we lost you until they came to send us back. At that point, I got the idea to make an illusion he could keep with him.”

“Hm. Interesting. So, I have to plant that idea.” She shrugged as she pulled into the very long drive toward the palace. “No problem.”

Knur was still right behind them as they drove the kilometre to the palace and parked in front of the enormous building.

“Holy shit. This was here the whole time?”

“Yup. Well, it wasbuiltslowly over the last twelve years, and so was this little minx.”

She opened her car door, and Knur was there, helping her down. Zhin chuckled and got out to join them.

She hugged him and walked around to meet her family. “Amiraith, also known as Ira, this is Knur and Zhin.”

Ira looked at them and giggled. “Horns and leaves. You are stuck outdoors, Auntie Pandora.”

Regis came out to stand next to her daughter. “She was first seen in our pond, so it makes sense. Gentlemen, please come with me. Pandora, go get a tray from inside and meet us in the pergola.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“Ouch. Sorry. I need to talk to these two privately for a moment.”

“Fine. Don’t let Rex rough them up. I need them mostly intact.” She grinned at the two as they followed the queen around the edge of the house.

Ira waited until they were around the corner and whispered, “Why are they so muchmorethan standard alphas?”

Pandora put her hand on the little girl’s shoulder as they walked through the building and into the kitchen. “It is the difference between some alphas andthealphas. This world had alphas, betas, and omegas already, so it was the perfect place to send ambassadors of a sort to help the naturally occurring Elite to train themselves. The mage betas were peaceful in the beginning, but when they saw the kind of power the dark Elite could wield, they wanted it and set about trying to find out how to get it.”

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