“Not much. Liv has just been standing there staring at us for a while,” the little helper says, still examining the leaflets in his hand.
“You okay?” her husband asks me.
“Just fine,” I say as I saunter over to the sofa and take a seat next to a girl. A pretty young thing, just my type with her dark hair and blue eyes. She sees me staring at her and shifts uncomfortably under my scrutiny. Not one of hers then. This Other me is also clearly not partial to female company.
“How has your day been?” her husband, whose name I still don’t know, asks me. I can tell he is her charge, as is the other one, and I turn my attention back to him.
“Fine,” I say. “How was yours?”
He looks startled as does everyone else in the room. Clearly, she doesn’t ask that question a lot.
“Err, good, thanks. Busy,” he says as he stares at me.
“Oh, good,” I say. I am usually better on my feet than this, but I am completely thrown with this time shift. It is the strangest thing and I am still not sure if I should tell them I am not Liv, or Lizzie, or whatever her name is.
“So did your training go well?” he asks.
“It went great,” a man says from over in the corner. I look closer at him now and recognize him. Cade Sinclair. What is he doing here? He shouldn’t be here. This makes no sense.
“Can’t wait to do it all again tomorrow,” he says with a smile at me.
“Me either,” I say brightly, although I have no idea what he is talking about.
I shift my gaze to Lincoln now and he smiles at me. It is odd to me that he is so friendly. He is quite the stern, menacing presence where I come from. I don’t even think I have ever seen him smile before. And last, but certainly not least, the very handsome Xane Draconis. So, it seems, except for the two charges, we know some of the same people.
“Aefre, have you fed?” Constantine asks me.
“No. Nobody came up,” I say, and he narrows his eyes at me in query. Now that he mentions it, I do feel incredibly weak. This body is not as strong as my own, and she doesn’t have the Fae markings. I wonder if it is possible that she isn’t as powerful as me yet.
“I will get Ramon,” he says.
Ah, Ramon. Good that he is here. I still don’t know where “here” is though.
“Liv. You are starting to frea
k me out a bit. Are you sure you are okay? Did you have another dream? Has The Thirteen come back to bother you?” the husband asks, all concerned.
“The Thirteen?” I ask, surprised. What is he still doing around? He should have been dealt with a millennium ago. “Um, yes, The Thirteen,” I say, determined now to do a bit of digging. “It seems he has come back to destroy me after I have been Queen for…” I say and wave my hand about, hoping someone will fill me in. I am clearly not Empress here.
“Eight months,” the boy with the gorgeous eyes says. Actually, to be fair, they all have gorgeous eyes. She, indeed, has a type.
“Yes, eight months,” I say and inside I am quaking. Eight months? I had been Queen for nearly eight hundred years before I became Empress. She is weak and this is just too strange. How is this possible? However, I am not one to sit around; while I am here, I might as well try to help, without being too obvious.
“We should deal with him first,” I state. They all look at me. Sure, Other me must have said that before, so I add, “I think I may know a way.”
“What?” they almost all say in unison as they lean forward, and I quite like the stand to attention. Where I come from, I am feared and respected, but no one really supports me in the way that these seem to with her.
I stand and say, “I need to think about it some more. We shall meet again tomorrow at the same time,” remembering what Mr. Sinclair had said about taking me out training again. Must keep up pretenses while I am here.
They all look at me in wonder and I have to determine that my counterpart is probably not the best leader this group has ever seen. Well, that will change while I am here. I will get them to fall in line before I leave here. My concern then lies with what she will do with my Empire while she is over there. I have worked long and hard to implement the rules and regulations. I know my status, but she clearly does not. I hope that she doesn’t end up destroying everything I have worked for.
I stalk off to the bedroom, leaving them all staring after me and forgetting all about Ramon. The husband tells everyone to get out and they go, and it is just him and me, which is somewhat awkward. I change into a long navy-blue satin nightgown with a cream lace trim and his brows go up, but he doesn’t say anything as I pick up her phone and feign interest as I sit at the dresser. I really need to get into this thing to find out more about her.
“Do you know my passcode?” I ask him. “It’s not working.” I hold the phone out to him, but he shrugs.
“No. Does Jess know?”
Jess? I shrug myself. “Maybe.”