Page 113 of Deadly Reckoning
“Well, I’ll be fucking damned,” I mutter when I see that it really has been four hours. “How?”
“Did anything weird happen?” Raiden asks.
“Obviously,” I reply, like he’s asked a silly question.
River smirks, but there’s still worry in his gaze. It must have really scared him when they couldn’t find me.
“Care to explain?” he asks me.
I sigh, “Okay, so first I told Mael that we were going to Ireland, and he moved the entire lake and all of the kelpies. Well, it disappeared, so I’m assuming that he’s moved the lake to Ireland, and then my necklace heated, and Wallace appeared, he told me to go home. We had a brief conversation where he told me that there wasn’t anything to worry about, and I said there most likely was, but I didn’t want to be involved, and then I ran back here.” I frown, “Okay, so maybe that was twenty minutes, but it definitely wasn’t anywhere close to four hours.”
“Coen and I flew over the lake several times, and it was just as it always has been. We didn’t see you there or any sign of the kelpies, but the lake was definitely still there. That was the first place that we checked,” Griff tells me with a worried dip between his eyebrows.
“Really?” I ask, thoroughly confused.
What the fuck is going on?
Griff and Coen both just nod in confirmation.
“First, I had no idea that Mael could move his lake, but honestly, that makes sense,” Reed starts.
“Second,” Doc continues for Reed, “that’s really fucking strange. I don’t have any suggestion for what could have caused you to lose that much time and not remember.” He looks at me worriedly, “Do you feel okay?”
I nod, “Yeah, I feel fine.” I undo the zipper on my jacket, and I pull out my necklace, “The necklace still looks the same as it always has, as well.”
“I’ve checked the wards, and nothing has come in,” Ransom adds with a frown. “There aren’t any breaks or cracks, and there aren’t even any weak spots.”
“Winston!” I yell, making the guys jump.
“A little warning next time, Nene,” Evander says as he winces and sticks his finger in his ear.
“Sorry,” I apologize. “To be fair, I probably didn’t need to shout at all.”
“You most certainly did not,” Winston’s familiar snark answers me. “What’s wrong?”
I quickly explain the situation.
“So any ideas?” Griff asks.
Winston’s frown has slowly gotten darker as I’ve continued my explanation, and he nods.
“Can I see the necklace?” he asks.
I nod and crouch so that I can show it to him without taking it off. “The imps gave it to me before we went to the Choosing.”
Winston’s eyes widen, “They shouldn’t have had this. I have no idea why they gave it to you.”
He looks at me, “You said that Wallace sent you home?”
I nod. “Yeah, he said he had it handled.”
“You were stuck in a time trap, where minutes pass for you, but hours pass for everyone else. I have no idea how or why. It might have just been a vacuum created by the kelpies when they moved their lake, but if Wallace said that he had it handled, then I have to assume that he sensed a threat there that you didn’t.”
“He definitely sensed something that I couldn’t,” I reply. Frowning, I say, “Is he going to be okay?”
“I don’t know, and that’s concerning. I’m going to find out,” he says. “You need to get to Sully’s.”
I nod as he disappears. I hope Wallace is going to be okay.
