King for a Day (The King Trilogy #2)(53)
Author: Mimi Jean Pamfiloff

Not even the valiant Spiros dared to get in my way. Perhaps they were smarter than they looked.

I marched into the hallway and spotted those f**king stupid Minoan artifacts. “Do you love these, King?” I yelled. “Well, you can’t have them!”

I swung hard, determined to knock a beige vase to its death, but a hand reached out and caught my arm. I glanced up at the stupid a-hole with a death wish and froze.

“Ju-Ju-Justin?” I whispered, unable to believe what I saw.

His big green eyes were filled with conflict, but he didn’t speak. Instead, he stared at me, his face filled with agony.

“Oh my God. Is it really you?”

He stared with an ominous expression, his eyes scanning the surroundings as if he was just as confused as I.

He dropped my hand and gazed blankly into my eyes.

“Can you hear me?” I snapped my fingers. “Justin?”

His eyes sharpened, and he suddenly appeared to be acutely lucid. “Mia?”

“Yes. It’s me.” I nodded, the tears trickling from my eyes.

“How did I get here?”

I shook my head slowly. “I don’t know.”

“I think…I think…I’m dead.” His voice was filled with regret and pain.

I nodded, but couldn’t speak.

“I lost her, Mia. I tried, but I couldn’t bring her back. King was right. It only works for him.”

The Artifact only worked for King? King had told him that?

“She’s dead, Mia. That tracker shot her in Edinburgh. She’s dead.”

“I know, Justin,” I sobbed. “I know. But what happen—”

“Why am I here?”

“I don’t know,” I whispered, but half of me was overjoyed to see him one more time. The other half wondered why his soul wasn’t at peace. Was it because he’d swallowed that damned rock?

“Can you bring me back?” His voiced quivered. “I have to keep trying. The baby—the baby…” His words trailed off, and I winced. I suddenly wondered if this was real. Or was my mind trying to reconcile the truth with what I wanted to believe?

No headaches. You don’t have a headache.

It had to be real, then, didn’t it? Maybe I was seeing him because of my gift. Maybe our connection, our blood, allowed it. I didn’t know. I didn’t care about the “how.”

I ran my hands through my hair. “Justin, where were you?”

Panic filled his eyes, and then he glanced over his shoulder. “They’re coming, Mia.” He turned back to me. “They’re coming for me. And they are coming for you.”

“Who, Justin?”

“The 10 Club.”

Justin continued looking over his shoulder into King’s bedroom, but there was nothing there except for the mess I’d left behind. Was he reliving some horrible memory?

“Justin!” I barked. “You have to tell me where you were when Vaughn found you.”

He looked at me again. “You can’t be here. They are coming. It’s not safe. Run, Mia. Run!”

And just like that, Justin faded to nothing. “No! Justin, no!”

“Mia!” I felt a sharp slap across my face.

My consciousness sparked back to life, and I found myself pressed against the wall, just outside of King’s bedroom. Mack held me firmly with two hands by my shoulders.

“Mack?” I whispered. Was he a ghost, too? Was I?

Oh Lord, I’m losing my mind.

“Are you real?” I asked.

Mack nodded with a slightly horrified frown. “Yeah. I’m real,” he replied with a forced calm. “Who were you talking to? Was it King?”

“No, my brother.” I moved my head vigorously from side to side. “At least, I think it was him.”

“What did he say?”

“He asked me to bring him back.”

Mack sighed, but I didn’t know what his sigh meant.

“Justin said that King is the only one who can get the Artifact to work. Do you know anything about it?”

“No, Mia, I don’t.”

“We have to get him back. We have to.”

“But—”

“No!” I dug my nails into Mack’s arm. “You will call Vaughn and tell him I know where the Artifact is. You will tell him that I want to make a trade.”

“Mia, no—”

“No. You listen to me,” I seethed. “I’m tired of everyone telling me what to do when it’s my ass, my life, and my family on the line. You will call him, Mack. And you will make the trade.”

Mack’s tired eyes narrowed. “And if he asks how I know?”

“Know what?”

“Where the Artifact is?”

“Who the hell cares?—tell him that!”

“King will care. He doesn’t want to leave Vaughn’s yet; it’s not part of the plan,” Mack argued.

Mack’s words stuck inside my ears as if my own brain resisted letting them in. “Wha-wha-what did you say?”

Mack’s blue eyes lit up. “I—I—”

“Did you say that King wants to be there?”

Mack stilled and turned a ghostly shade of white. “Fuck. You weren’t supposed to know.”

“Know what?” Mack didn’t have to answer. No, not really. Because the ugly, deformed, and evil pieces slid into place, penetrating my heart like a poison of the soul.

No. No, please, Lord. Tell me it isn’t what I think.

I could scarcely breathe. My insides twisted with rage and horror. “K-K-King isn’t really a prisoner there, is he?” I whispered. “That’s why he told the Spiros not to intervene.”

Mack’s jaw flapped a bit and then, “He-he-he’ll kill me if I knows I told you.”

Oh my God. King had been able to come and go the entire time. Had he been faking those blackouts, too?

“But why?” I asked. “Why would King want to be there? Why would King allow himself to be held captive? Why would he allow me to be held captive?”

Mack didn’t reply, but the look of shame on his face told me that the reason would be painful.

The word “why” repeated over and over in my head. Only one answer kept coming up for air, and it was the one thing I knew King would do almost anything for. I just never realized he might want it so badly that he would hurt even me and my family to get it.

“Does it have something to do with that goddamned Artifact?” I asked.

Mack looked away.