Page 6 of Discovered Magic
“Dude, I’m a wolf shifter. I’ve only read about it in paranormal romance novels. Anything is possible.”
Laszlo laughed. “Wait! You read paranormal romance books? That’s the best ironic twist of fate ever. You’ve become part of a trope you love.”
“Stuff it,” she growled, but her grin gave her away. “Truthfully, I wasn’t mad to learn you had magical abilities.”
“You totally were.”
“No, I was angry you lied to me throughout our entire friendship,” Ebba corrected.
Wilder wisely remained silent as his brother apologized yet again.
“So, back to Abbie,” Laszlo said. “It would be a miracle, but they’ve been known to happen. I, for one, am hoping it did.”
“But where would she have gone that she couldn’t return from?” Ebba asked. “Why not try to get a message to someone if she were in the recent past or return to Wilder if she went to the future?”
“That’s just the thing. I don’t know,” Wilder confessed.
“I think I do. And your dream, the one where you believe Abbie spoke to you through Ebba, it actually happened,” Laszlo said.
Wilder fumbled his coffee cup. “What? What the fuck are you talking about? How?”
“Castor and I changed the timeline when we went back the night of Ebba’s accident. In the first one, you stopped by here when she was in her ghostly state. She channeled Abbie.”
“And you didn’t think to tell me this?” Wilder’s desire to punch him in the fucking face was an acid burning through him, destroying his brotherly affection. “Why wouldn’t you tell me, Lo? For God’s sake! Why?”
“With everything that happened, I didn’t have time.” Laszlo embraced him. “I swear it was next on my list. Today, as a matter of fact.”
“You could’ve mentioned it earlier, while Castor was here,” Ebba said with an edge in her voice.
“Yes, and I should’ve, but I wanted to hear what he had in mind. To see if he’d volunteer to help.”
“You were testing him?” Wilder could believe it. His brother didn’t have much faith in others.
“Something like that.” Laszlo refilled their coffee cups. “Look, I didn’t recall the thing about Ebba channeling Abbie until this week when the timelines merged. It all sort of clicked into place, and I’ve been trying to make sense of it in my head. It’s a total mind fuck.”
Wilder could see where warring memories might be. “Do you think my dreams are shadows of that time, too?”
After giving it thought, Laszlo nodded. “Possibly. Spirits leave an echo, so it would make sense, somewhere in the ether, their residual energy is floating about.”
“It helps to know I’m not going crazy.”
“You’re not, Wilder. I swear.”
“If anything happens when Castor and I go to the mountain, and I don’t get back?—”
“Don’t say that,” Laszlo snapped. Softening his tone, he said, “Please, brother. Remain positive. It’s so important you do.”
“I can’t continue to exist without Abbie, Lo. I don’t want to.”
“I had much the same thought about Ebba,” his brother confessed.
She gasped and pressed her hand to her mouth. Cupping her cheek, Laszlo smiled so lovingly it caused Wilder’s heart to ache.
“When I thought I would lose you forever, I finally understood what my brother was going through with Abbie,” Laszlo confessed to Ebba. “You and I hadn’t even begun, not really, and I was nearly destroyed by learning Death stalked you.” He turned and met Wilder’s gaze. “So I get it, man. Whatever it takes, we’ll find her.”
Closing his eyes against the sting of fresh tears, he nodded his gratitude. The thickness in his throat refused to allow anything else.
“We love you, Wilder,” Ebba said with a fierce hug. “Come back to us.”
