Page 18 of Their Chosen

Baer raised an eyebrow, and Lennox chimed in, “How'd you know about Tír Na Síoraí if you'd never heard of us before?”

Keeping the panic off my face, I racked my brain, trying to come up with an answer that didn't give me away. Way to start the trip by giving away too much within the first ten minutes, Rho. Obviously, Lennox was less trusting of me than Baer. I'd have to really watch my guard with him in the future. Unable to find any other valid reason, I settled for a partial truth. “I asked my mom some more questions last night.”

“Why give you answers now if she's been so adamant about keeping you in the dark for so long? And who exactly is your mother?” His accusing tone cut through the silent car to sit heavily between us.

Getting angry, I turned in my seat to face him. “I don't know, asshole, except that now that I’m this supposed Chosen, I don't really have a choice about staying away, now do I? And she’s no one but a drug addict. We were never close, so she’s never had the chance to tell me anything before.” He had the decency at least to leave it at that. I continued to glare at him as he held my gaze, searching for the truth of my statement.

“How about Taco Hut?” Baer asked as he took an exit to go there, not really needing an answer but obviously trying to ease the tension.

I turned back around in my seat. “I'm good with that.” Softer, I spoke to him alone. “Thanks.”

He just shrugged it off and pulled into the drive-thru, placing our orders without further incident or comments from the peanut gallery. “You never did answer my question,” I prompted Baer again.

“Oh, ah, what was your question again?” he asked, his eyes widening while glued to the road.

“I was just curious how long it would take us to reach the capital?”

“Ah, well, that depends a little bit on you, but we're hoping no more than two days, one and a half if we push it,” Arryn finally answered me, his deep voice rumbling through me in a pleasant way.

“Okay, that doesn't sound too bad. That'll at least give me some time to adjust, I guess.” Though, I wished it would be sooner rather than later. For some reason, I felt that the more time I spent there, the less likely I would be to return.

The car fell into silence again as we ate our breakfast, but this one wasn't as tense as before. Deciding I had some time and not wanting to spend it pulling answers from them, I settled further into my seat. Putting my headphones in, I pulled up my playlist on my phone. For once, I'd try to go with the flow despite how much I despised that concept.

I gazed out the window as I listened to Three Doors Down, not really thinking about much but trying to keep my mind free. If I allowed myself to dwell on what was happening, I'd succumb to fear and doubts. Neither of those would help me now. Instead, I would treat this like a pre-fight routine. Half the battle fighters faced was in their minds before they ever stepped into the ring. If we allowed doubts to rule us, we were doomed to fail before we even started. So, I focused on preparing to cross into this new world as if I was going into the cage. No one else would stand up for me except me. It was imperative that I fought for myself and my ability to make it back to my students.

I jerked upright in my seat, my heart racing as I realized I had fallen asleep in the car, its declining speed startling me awake. I looked over and saw Baer trying to hold back a laugh at me, his smile pinched but still quite evident. In the rearview mirror, I could see Arryn and Lennox both with similar reactions, and I felt a rush of heat fill my face from embarrassment.

Then I noticed we were turning onto a country road; all the city buildings had been replaced with crops and animals. “Are we close to this portal?” I asked Baer, needing to distract myself.

“We're about five minutes out.”

“Where are we?” Glancing around, there wasn’t a building in sight, and a part of me started to think I’d been the biggest idiot ever. Usually, the only reason three strange men took a woman into the middle of nowhere was so they could do illegal things. One of those was murder. Good job, Rhowyn. You teach teens to avoid situations like this, and you willingly get into a car with these guys. Am I really that stupid? Crap!

“We're just outside of Weatherford, about thirty minutes from Fort Worth,” Baer answered interrupting my internal panic attack. He must have noticed something on my face or in my body language. After all, I was grasping the door handle and arm rest until my knuckles turned white. He quickly added, “We have to have our buildings in the middle of nowhere because all the technology and metal buildings interfere with our magic. It drains it from us faster than we can replenish it.”

“I guess that makes sense.” I only relaxed slightly, still fearing the worst.

“Relax, Princess. We're not going to kill you,” Lennox snarked. “If we wanted to do that, there are easier ways and easier targets.” He rolled his eyes and turned to look out the window. Surprisingly, this actually relaxed me more than Baer's gentle tone. I pulled my hands back to my lap and tried to forget about the panic, embarrassed again at my natural reaction and instinct.

“We need you to participate in the trials, and to do that, you must be whole and in good condition. Plus, if you succeed, you’ll be our new queen. There's no way we would ever risk the health of our queen, even a possible one,” Arryn chimed in, all cool logic and looking partly offended that I had doubted his honor.

“Well, I've already told you that I have no intention of participating in these trials, and there's no way I want to be a queen. So, forgive me for thinking that you guys might not want to deal with me further and might think it easier to get rid of me. I don't know you from Adam, so I don't really know what y'all would do.” I was starting to get a little upset at them because any sane person would feel the same as I did. Check that; any sane person wouldn't be here with them. I must really be crazy, after all.

“Who's Adam?” Arryn asked, glancing at Lennox, who was still staring out the window, clearly listening, and Baer, who was making sure we didn't crash.

Baer laughed at his question. “It's just a human phrase they use to say they have no idea who you are,” he explained patiently.

“Well, why didn't you just say that?” he asked me.

“Um, I don't know. I mean I did, but I guess I just assumed you would know what I was talking about.”

“Humans have a lot of sayings that don't really make much sense,” Baer explained further.

“That seems ridiculous,” Arryn replied matter-of-factly.

Lennox smirked in response. Feeling the need to defend myself and all humans who used colloquialisms, I replied, “They make plenty of sense if you know our history or society. Adam was considered to be the first man on Earth by many humans thousands of years ago. By saying I don't know you from Adam is to imply that even if you were standing right next to him, I'd have no possible way of knowing who either of you are.”

“That kind of makes sense now,” Arryn replied with a nod at the new information. “It still would have been much easier to say you just didn't know me.”

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