Page 11 of Savage Knight
Lowen blinked and tilted her head as she studied the last brother.Behind the ice in his eyes lurked pain.A pain she was very familiar with.Perhaps he wasn’t cruel like she first thought.“Who said crazy couldn’t be normal?”
A grin slowly spread over his face.“I’ve been saying that for years!Two seconds flat and you get it.It’s like we’re twins.”
“Jesus, another Saxon is just what we need,” Jeremiah muttered sarcastically.“Lowen, were you the one that warned us about the attack last night?”
“Yes,” she replied.
“How did you know about the Jade Grove?”
She thought about lying, but she knew she had to be honest with him.No doubt Jeremiah Delance was a human lie detector.“I heard it in my previous life.”
Jeremiah’s eyebrow shot up.“Excuse me?”
“My previous life.”She maintained eye contact with him, letting him know she had nothing to hide.Would he believe her?“In that lifetime, Scias pushed me over a balcony and I broke my neck.Right before I died, I prayed for another chance and was granted a do-over.”
“A do-over,” he repeated flatly.
“You time traveled?”Saxon asked, obviously delighted.
“No,” she replied, shaking her head.“Not time travel.I’ve been thinking about this.That version of events, where I married Scias and was beaten black and blue on a weekly basis, was a different timeline.He killed me and when I woke up, for lack of a better word, that timeline disappeared.So, I’m fairly certain there’s no future contamination because it’s like it never happened.Except in my memory, of course.”
Jeremiah stared blankly at her, and she could tell he didn’t believe a word she said.It was written all over his face.Saxon’s face lit up with delight.
“Daaamn,” Saxon drawled.“It’s the Time Variance Authority but for real.How did Marvel know?”
Everyone ignored him.Jeremiah put his cup down and sat forward, resting his forearms on the table and intertwining his fingers.“You’re either crazy or playing me for a fool.So, which are you?”
“He doesn’t stay on his side of the street,” she said, ignoring his question.
“Excuse me?”
“Scias.Whatever he told you, whatever he’s agreed to, won’t be the truth.The night I died, I heard him talk about you.How he wants you dead.”
“I already knew that.”Jeremiah sighed and leaned back in his chair.“I’ve had several run-ins with Scias Mailliard over the years.I know what he’s capable of.”
“So do I,” she whispered, looking down.Emotions clogged her throat and it took a moment to regain control of her emotions.
“You can stay with me,” Saxon spoke up.“I could give a rat’s ass what Jeremiah orders.He’s a moody bastard.Oh!I know.We could give each other mani-pedis and watch the Marvel universe in chronological order.”
“No,” Evren immediately countered.“I don’t think your brand of crazy is what she needs right now.”
“Rude,” Saxon retorted.“Crazy is not my fault.I suspect somewhere in my baby-hood, I had been dropped on my head once or twice.Unfortunately, I can’t ask the incubator since she’s dead.”
Lowen blinked.“Incubator?”
“His mother,” Evren answered.
Saxon held up a finger.“Let it state for the record that I was born motherless.God’s honest truth.I just borrowed that woman’s womb for nine months.”
Jeremiah pinched the bridge of his nose.“For fuck’s sake.”
“She’s staying with me,” Evren interjected, eyes narrowed.
“Fine,” Jeremiah huffed.He turned a calculating gaze her way.“A past life, you said?I suppose you’ve heard a few things.Perhaps you could tell me something I can validate.”
“You mean, other than preventing you from getting a scar on your face?”
“Yes,” Jeremiah replied sarcastically.“Other than the scar I don’t have.”
