Forever in the Past and Forever in the Future

Chapter 69

There's a glint in Leticia's eye as she watches the words absorb into my soul, "Feels good, doesn't it?"

I put my fork down and clear my throat, trying to play it cool, "It kinda does, yeah."

"That's because there's power in those words.They are yours, Kas.You own them," she puts her chin in her hands and watches me more closely.

"What do you mean, I own them? A person can't own words, Leticia," I try to rationalize with her, but it seems fruitless.

"It's your faction, Kas.Mavri Magea is Greek for Dark Magic.Nowadays, I think our sisters call us ‘The Dark’.Rude isn’t it? We didn’t pick the name.Mother gave it to us.We are the youngest of the Manae.And you are the youngest of all of us.Mother saved the best for last, I guess.Can you believe she had to ask permission to change the calendar just for you?" she chuckles as she shakes her head at a memory.

I push the vegetables around on my plate, "So we have dark magic to counteract how ‘light’ our other forty sisters are?"

Leticia tilts her head side to side, "Sort of.We keep balance so our sisters don’t get any smart ideas and try to overtake the Olympians.And we can’t help that it’s dark magic.It’s just who we are."

Leticia looks a little annoyed as she explains, clearly unhappy with ‘ The Dark’ moniker.

"when you say dark magic, you’re talking about what Amari calls ‘ mysticism'?" I ask, making sure I understand.

Leticia rolls her eyes again, "Yeah.I suppose it is."

"So, in the past couple of weeks, I've started to understand my abilities better.Are yours the same as mine?"

"I wish, but no.иσνєℓєвσσк.¢σмEach of the Mavri Magea has a specialty.Mine is traditional magic, but since I don’t have a coven, I kinda work on the fringe by myself.The rest of our faction can harness their energy to do things like create heat or freeze time.Desiree even has the power of persuasion,"

She leans forward and raises her eyebrows, looking impressed.I return the look, even though I have no idea who Desiree is.

The longer I speak with Leticia, the more I feel like she is on the verge of some sort of maniacal episode, but if I could give her guidance, I could rein her in.

"Out of the ten of us, you have a smorgasbord of everything the rest of the Mavri Magea has, plus the ability to have visions.Shit, what I wouldn't give to be able to look into the future," she muses, looking off into the distance.

"Leticia, I assure you, it isn't as great as it seems," I shake my head, thinking of all the terrible things I've seen.

"Whatever, it still seems pretty cool.PLUS all the abilities Katherine, Amari, Contessa, and Persephone have, you lucky bitch," she takes another bite of her food before she points her fork at me with a sly smirk on her face.

"Yeah, Amari mentioned something about that, but it didn't make sense at the time.You're filling in a lot of blanks for me.I appreciate it more than you'll ever know."

as she chews her food

likes the recognition from me and feeling that she is important to me.I know she has no reason to lie to me and what she is saying

as much information out

questions, it's just the first I’m hearing about all of

all the time in the world or until you decide it’s time to wake up," Leticia says with an air

her hand on my

can’t help myself.I close my eyes and

that looks straight out of the eighteen hundreds.I look to my left to

around us makes

urine

us just enough light to see what we're doing.I press a rolled piece of leather

is an ancient silver

only one I

to obtain it, but I know it’s safe

as I give her instructions, "Don’t worry, Leticia, you'll know when it’s time.The balance of power has tipped too far.It’s up to us to fix it, but my lifetime has almost run its course.They'll

in her large violet eyes, "I love you, Iokaste.Forever

on the cheek, then push her away, urging

alley, I bump into a large man so hard that it knocks me on

What are

large hand reaches down to help me stand.I look up to see Bronx, dressed in

eyes look at me with

of them.I gasp as I open my eyes, pulling my arm away from Leticia’s

instructions...it

her use the saying I thought was only between

puts her

giving you a-a silver knife," I

of 1812," she nods and takes another sip of her wine, "That

do with the knife? I mean, what exactly did I ask you to do

focus on clearing out the Guardians. I don’t know how that balances power, but you were insistent," she looks me in the eye as

killed Cordell

finally went out on his own to get cash, so I could finally

two of the Guardians