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."

she chews

clear that she 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 aligns with what Amari told me, but it seems really

as much information out of her

of questions, it's just the first I’m hearing about all of it,"I apologize, "Thank you for your

all the time in the world or until you decide it’s time to

hand on my

my eyes and feel

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

of rats scurrying around us makes

smell of stale urine is strong in

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

is an ancient silver

one I can

setbacks to obtain it, but I know it’s

power has tipped too far.It’s up to us to fix it, but my lifetime has

in her large violet eyes, "I love you, Iokaste.Forever in the past and forever in

cheek, then push her away, urging her to

I come out of the alley, I bump into a large man so hard that it knocks me on

are you

to help me stand.I look up to see Bronx, dressed in an old time suit

green eyes look at me

I open my

the instructions...it

between Bronx and I.I

it?" she puts her hand under her chin and looks at me

you a-a silver knife," I

takes another sip of her wine, "That was an exciting

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

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

you killed Cordell

his own to get cash, so I could finally follow

the Guardians so far?" I ask, dreading