Chapter Thirteen

Nick's staring down at me when I wake up from the sleep that he had put onto me. I shove up from my reclined position and lean up so that our faces are only a few inches away from each other. 

"How fricken dare you!" I shout angrily, "Do you even know what that little dream-like state you put me in feels like?" He raises his hands in a defensive position. 

"Sorry, sorry I didn't know that you'd have that reaction to it. From what I had heard from other people who experienced it, it's just like sleeping. Seriously, I'm super sorry you had such a bad time in there." His face is contorted with regret, and I know that he's being genuine, however, I'm still ticked. I huff and lean back glancing over to Skay. And... he's not moving. 

"Oh my god, Nick! Why isn't Skay waking up? Is he ok?" I scramble over the divide between the back seats and front seats so that I'm crouching in the tiny space between the passenger's seat and the floor. He's still breathing, I put my hand against his neck to check his pulse and take a deep breath. He's ok. 

I feel a hand on my back, "Beth, he's ok. My magic just has a set time amount to it. He won't wake up until he's spent an equal amount of time in there that you did." 

I nod slowly understanding, "So, how long was I in there?" 

He swallows nervously looking back out at the round. We're parked onto the shoulder of the interstate, with cars flying past us. "Um, you were out for about two days." 

"What?!" I whisper, dangerously quiet. "What?!" I yell this a lot louder and much more exasperated. 

Nick winces, "Yeah, again I'm sorry about that. While your body doesn't feel like more than a few hours has passed, it's actually been much longer. That's the beauty of the spell. It used to be utilized as a method of time-hopping if someone wanted to feel like they got somewhere quicker. Eventually, it's use died out as people began getting addicted to the spell and wasting their entire life. You see some people would stay there for years because seeing the future was too tempting but in turn, they lost years of their life." 

I glare at him, peeved yet again. "So are you telling me that you used an addictive spell on me that could potentially waste my entire life away?" 

He rolls his eyes, "You're not going to get addicted, you'd have to use the spell at least 10 times before any types of side effects start to show." 

I glare and slouch back into my chair like a small, angry child. "Fine, time to wait for Skay to wake up. Fun!" 

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Several hours after waking up, I grow tired of just sitting in silence. I've tried everything to entertain myself. I've counted to a thousand about three times in my head. I've tried to pretend to play the drums with my fingers on the back of Nick's seat (much to his irritation). I've hummed almost every single song that I know, which turns out not to be that many. 

I groan, "Fine! I'm so bored. Let's talk." 

"What do you want to talk about?" He sounds very suspicious when he askes this, which makes me grin. 

"Did you know that Nick kissed me? Twice." He whipped around to look at me in surprise. "What the road!" I yell and he immediately whips back around. 

" Well, that's sort of surprising," he chokes out through his shock. I chuckle what an understatement. Maybe I shouldn't have told him, but I couldn't help it. I'm so bored, I just need a little bit of mischieve. Also if it's just going to be the three of us for a little while, then we definitely don't need to be hiding things from each other. Not to mention, I might need someone to confide in if things with him get even more complicated. 

"Why are you telling me this?" He grunts, gripping the steering wheel even tighter. 

"To rub it in that I got him first?" I joke, "Naw I just needed someone to talk to. To be honest, this is kind of a lot for me to process. He's literally the first guy I've ever kissed or even been slightly into. Not to mention, how fast everything's happening. I mean what if I'm just latching onto the first guy who's nice to me after everything that's happened?" I hadn't even thought of this until I asked, but it makes so much sense now. Nick and Skay are the first two men I've ever really talked to outside of the coven. Nick's gay so that just leaves Skay. He's been semi-nice to me, though the bar is pretty low. Down there with just not physically assaulting me. 

Nick shakes his head, realizing my fears. "Beth, this is not a joking matter. Let me assure you, this is much bigger than you, me, and Skay combined. You're not just latching onto anyone who's nice to you, there's a method to this madness. God, we knew this would happen!" He slams his fists into the steering wheel angrily. I flinch as the horn sounds and the driver of the car next to us flips him off. 

"Please, tell me everything. Tell me why this is such a bad thing, I want to understand. I'm tired of being left in the dark." I beg, now insanely stressed that I went against some rules that I didn't even know existed or something like that. I know nothing of this world that I've been carelessly thrown into, it's up to them to help explain it to me. 

He sighs sounding exhausted, "I can't tell you most of it without Skay with us, for it's both of our stories to tell. But clearly, Skay abused his power to keep these things from you, so I'm going ahead and getting it started." I nod for him to continue. 

He clears his voice and begins, "I'm not going to blame you for anything that you did with Skay, because you simply didn't know, but please give me the same courtesy. I would have told you these things sooner if I had known what was going on, but I just didn't want to overwhelm you. Do you know what a prophesy is, Beth?" 

I nod mildly confused on what it has to do with anything, "It's like a prediction, right?" 

"Exactly, well our world, the magical portions of it anyway, sort of runs on them. Us magicians, hold seers in the highest esteem, our entire world revolves around their predictions. We call their predictions fate. Something that no one, no matter how strong or powerful, can change. Just like any other magical being in this community, I just accepted all of them and watched them play out, that is until one involved all of us." 

I shake my head confused, "Wait, sorry I'm stuck here. Who even is us? My parents, you, Skay, me? How do you even know Skay and me anyway?" 

He stares out onto the road, clearly avoiding my eyes in the rear-view mirror. "Um, well, this is where things get kind of tricky. When you're parents came along and met Skay, they ended up ruling happily together for a while, as you know. They settled down and started to make a life for themselves. Then your mother got pregnant," He clears his throat, "Beth, I'm your brother." 

I'm dumb-struck. For once in my life, I have no words to speak. It's like my entire mind went blank, except for the same words echoing over and over again, 'Beth, I'm your brother.' How am I even supposed to process information like that? Finally, I break out laughing in disbelief. 

"Ok... brother, so I can't even process this right now. Having said that, please continue, I have a feeling that I know how this story ends." 

His gaze flies to the rear-view mirror clearly relieved that I haven't jumped out of the car or something. I mean should I have done that? He did keep this huge secret from me, something that I would have thought should've come up at least once before this, but I don't feel like reacting that way. A very large part of me feels like I should be grateful that I even have a living relative after all of this time. I was so, so lonely and helpless for the longest time, that in a way this feels like an absolute miracle. 

"Well, after that we were peaceful for several years. They were scared to death that some seer would show up and make a prophecy about me that they couldn't fight off. You see for people who were as powerful as them, the only thing that they had to fear was fate itself. And fear it they did. I lived a very sheltered life for the first few years of my life. Then our mother was pregnant again, with you." He takes a break from the story to collect himself as he merges onto another lane, "The day that she gave birth to you, a seer decided to show up on our doorstep and gave her haunted speech. I still remember, even though I was very young, my mother's screams of agony, not from the labor, but from the unmoveable sentence that was placed upon our heads."

Again, this is so, so, so much information to process. Yet, I can't stop eating it up as if I am starving for the information. In a way, I guess I am, I've been kept in the dark for such an incredibly long time. 

"Ok, I think I've got this all straight. I'm a part of a magical world that believes in fate above all things, you're my brother, and some seer placed some scary prophecy onto us. Please, continue." I cross my legs sarcastically trying to act like I'm super calm and ok with everything. Hell, I'm freaking out. I need to know though. 

"I can't tell you about the prophecy without Skay because it involves him, but I can tell you what happened next. Our parents fled with you to take you somewhere safe, foolishly trying to escape fate. That's when the car crash happened, me Skay had thought that we had lost all of you. We were devastated. Since I was still very young at that time, Skay took over raising me. He trained me to be what I am now. I know that what had happened affected him deeply, but he kept it away from me." 

Nick sadly chuckles as if he was remembering bitter-sweet times, "Skay put me before everything else, and as I grew older we became great friends. What he told you was true about me having a little crush on him, but I soon outgrew that and now we're where we are now."

I'm stunned into silence, this makes me see Skay in a completely different light. He lost two of his closest companions and his first course of action was to take care of someone else? There's a lot more to him then I had originally given him credit for. That also explains his coldness to me when we first met. I was the reason that they were in that car wreck in the first place. I swallow hard trying to wash away the guilt. 

Nick sighs, "Now we just have to wait on Skay to wake up for the rest of the story." 

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Skay finally wakes up a day later when we're in a hotel room somewhere in a place called Nevada. The room has two incredibly soft full-sized beds that I have already jumped back and forth on once we first got in. One of which, Nick is taking a nap on after driving for several nights straight, and only getting a few hours of sleep the entire time.  Skay's laying on the other one. 

"Come on, wake up sleepy head. We have a lot to talk about." I walk over to the side of his bed and pat his head with a cold washcloth in hopes of helping him wake up. He shoots up and grabs my hands away from his face. I squeal and jump back spooked by the sudden movement. He laughs and shakes his head at me. 

"Once that spell leaves, I'm as good as new. You don't have to pat me with that cloth or anything. Though I am open to you playing nurse with me later," he winks. I roll my eyes and throw the washcloth at him. 

"Nick told me about the prophecy, also he got super ticked off when I told him that we had kissed. What is that all about?! Seriously, Skay if something's going on I deserve to know." Skay groans and puts a pillow over his head for a few seconds, then throws it off of him. 

"Thanks a lot for telling him, yeah I definitely shouldn't have kissed you. The prophecy was a long and winding tale, of wars to come and such, but then it got way more personal." He groans again as if he's really trying to stall telling me. "The seer said that you and I are destined to end up together. She also said that our love for one another would destroy the magical world as we know it." He glances over at me to register my shocked expression. 

"So yeah, I definitely shouldn't have kissed you."