Page 156 of Long Live the King

She nodded. “Yeah, time travel, but note I said, ‘try to’, he would have had to leave you to do it, and a lot could go wrong. Time could shift. Things might change. There would be a chance he might lose you again.”

“Ugh, then I’m glad I didn’t understand the question — I’m glad he didn’t try.” I took a deep breath. “So I’m not going to wake up and this will all be over?”

“It’s been years, no, there’s no waking up — this is your reality now, unless of course you want to go back to your regular life and never see Lochie again.”

“No, that’s not what I want.” I blew out air. “Jimminy Jehosophat, this is a mind mucker.”

“Exactly.And I don’t want to freak you out, but this is dangerous. Sometimes it’s insane how dangerous it is — you have soldier skills? You’ll need them.”

“I don’t know how to ride a horse.”

“You’ll learn. Katie didn’t know how and she figured it out. She didn’t have any soldier skills, she was kidnapped once, here in the past, it took Magnus a couple of days to find her, and somehow she survived.”

“Damn, what did he do?”

She leveled her eyes. “He killed all of them in front of her.”

I gulped. “Oh... and Lochie has killed people before?”

“Yes. It’s safe to assume he’s killed alot. There’s an arena in Magnus’s kingdom where men fight to the death?—”

“In front of an audience? Did Lochie kill someone in front of an audience?”

“Yeah... but it’s like war, you know? Kill or be killed.”

“Yeah I know. So how many people are Magnus and his brothers at war with?”

Hayley pretended to count on her fingers then said, “We’ve had peace for a while, no enemies. It was blissful, but here we are, Asgall is new.”

“I want to kick his ass.”

“Then welcome to the family.”

I took a deep breath, my shoulder was beginning to hurt. “How is everyone related to Lochie?”

“Fraoch, Magnus and Lochie have the same father. They’re half-brothers. James, Quentin, and Zach are as good as brothers. They would all fight for each other. They all do. Fraoch and Lochie argue like crazy, but don’t let it bother you, Fraoch really cares about what happens to him. When Lochie said he needed to go find you, Fraoch and Magnus just packed their bags to go. That’s how they feel about each other, and you’re part of that now too. I guess what I’m saying is, he’s a good boy.”

I chuckled.

There was a knock on the door, Lochie stepped in.

I asked Hayley, “Do you know where there’re more pain killers? My shoulder is aching.”

Hayley found the bottle on the side table and gave me two with some water in a mug. Lochie helped me sit up to drink it. Then she left us alone.

I said, “You relieved yourself? Where does that happen?”

“There is a garderobe down the hall or a chamberpot in the corner.”

I joked, “Och nae, another pisspot.”

He smiled.

“I also went tae see m’nephew. He is not well, I am concerned for him.”

I put my good hand out and he held it, looking down on it. His thumb moving back and forth across my fingers.

“What do you mean by not well? He’s sick?”

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