Page 115 of Carnal: The Beast Who Loved Me

“I gave Glen an ‘if this, then that’.”

“We remember,” Storm said.

“He didn’t comply and I thought that meant he didn’t love me. At least not as much as I wanted to be loved. So I decided to disappear for a while, partly to teach him a lesson, partly to protect my pride. I asked Kellareal for a place to stay. He said there were some people, hybrids, who owed him a favor.

“So that’s what happened. I stayed in their house and became fond of them. I worked in the bar slash café and sort of learned to like it.” Storm glanced at Litha with a raised eyebrow at that revelation. “I didn’t forget about you. Sometimes I thought about coming home, but I liked it there. I felt useful. I liked the people. And after a while I started to have feelings for one of them.” She looked up. “Strong feelings.”

Litha nodded slightly, silently urging her to continue. “Like I said, these people, they called themselves Exiled, had made a deal with Kellareal. He’d learned that they were going to be killed. All of them. He told them that he would free them and give them a new home if they would protect the humans in another world from their own version of hybrids who’d escaped and caused a lot of havoc.

“That was twenty-five years ago. This whole time the Exiled have been sacrificing their loved ones for a cause that wasn’t even their own to save people who wanted them dead. So, yeah, I wouldn’t say I started a war, exactly, but I did tell their leader they should merge their society with the humans and end the cycle of responding to raids. I said they should take the fight to the terrorists and end it.”

Big tears began to roll down her face again. “I’d give anything if I’d kept my mouth shut and minded my own business.”

Litha and Storm exchanged a look. “The person you loved. Did he die in the battle?” Litha’s voice was full of compassion and she hoped Rosie knew that if she was hurt, her parents were hurt, too.

Rosie tried to speak, but could only nod as a flood of new tears coursed down her face.

“Kellareal says I’m not supposed to change things, buthechanged things when he moved the Exiled to another world. Didn’t he?”

“Yes,” Litha said. “I’m not going to pretend that I understand that reasoning. It seems mind-bendingly complicated, but I can say this. If Kellareal is concerned about your special gifts drawing the wrong kind of attention then I’m worried about that, too. With great power comes great responsibility. Seems like you’ve gotten more than your share of both, which means that you’re going to have to learn to be just as super-careful as you are supernatural. Do you understand?”

Rosie stared at her mother for a few seconds. “I do understand that.”

“Your dad and I are very sorry you lost someone you loved. Either one of us would always choose to take your pain for you if we could. Since we can’t, we’ll just promise to always love you and be here. For you.”

“No matter what?” Rosie asked.

“Of course. No matter what,” Litha answered. Looking at Storm, she said, “How are we going to fix this?”

Storm looked at the two frozen in combat on the floor beside the kitchen island. “I never could have imagined myself saying this, but let’s find out if the angel fella has a suggestion.” He lowered his chin and asked Rosie. “Okay?”

“Okay,” she answered, and just like that Kellareal and Deliverance were sitting on their stools at the island with full, steaming cups in front of them.

“Listen,” she said, and both elementals gave her their rapt attention. She directed her question to Kellareal. “First, what’s the difference between moving the Exiled to a different world and just wiping out a nuisance that was about to be wiped out anyway?”

“First,” began Kellareal, “there’s a big difference between moving something from one place to another and wiping it out. It’s the difference between relocating wolves to a wildlife refuge and wiping their entire species from existence as if they had never lived, including all photos, art, historical and literary references, and domesticated dogs. No Jack London. No Little Red Riding Hood. Everything gone.

“Second, the Rautt were not about to be wiped out. If you’d been paying attention, you would have noticed that the Exiled spared everyone who was prepubescent. One or more of those young, given an entirely different nurturance, might have made a contribution of monumental proportions.

“Third, since you wiped the Rautt from existence and, therefore, from everyone’s memories except yours and mine, the Exiled have no idea why they are where they are or what they’re supposed to do. In the blink of an eye you wiped out decades of their own history. Is any of this getting through?”

She crossed her arms over her chest. “What about the motorcycles?” He glowered at her. “Yes. Okay? I get it. It’s different.” She sounded miserable but belligerent at the same time. After a minute of processing, in a quieter voice, she said, “Can I change it?”

“Yes.”

“How?”

Kellareal sneered, having given up all pretense of being polite. “How do you think?”

Rosie took in a deep breath. “Go back in time.”

He continued to look at her as if he was speaking to her telepathically, but said nothing out loud.

Looking between the two of them, Litha asked, “Can you do that?”

Kellareal flicked a glance at Litha. “Yes. And no.”

“Stop with the riddles, angel! Spit it out!” Litha said.

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