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."

smiles as she

she is important to me.I know she has no reason to lie to me and what she is saying aligns with

get as much information out

is a ton of questions, it's just the first I’m hearing about all of it,"I apologize,

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

her hand on

myself.I close my eyes

in a dress that looks straight out of the eighteen hundreds.I look to my left to see we are hidden in

sound of rats scurrying around us

stale urine is

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

an

one I

centuries of setbacks to obtain it, but I know it’s safe with

whisper quietly 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 be coming for me

eyes, "I love you,

and give her a kiss on the cheek, then push her away, urging her to hurry and not get caught.I turn and quickly

I bump into a large

are you

asks and a large hand reaches down to help me stand.I look up to see Bronx, dressed in an old time suit with a long jacket and top

look

them.I gasp as I open my eyes, pulling

the instructions...it

her use the saying I thought was only between Bronx

a vision.What was it?" she puts her hand under her chin and looks at me

was giving you a-a silver knife," I stammer, thinking about

and takes another sip of her wine, "That was

swallow hard, "What did I want you to do with the knife? I mean, what exactly did I ask you

I don’t know how that balances power, but you were

you killed

out on his own to get cash, so I could finally follow him.Oh,

the Guardians