Page 144 of After 5
“Good luck, mate.” Brodie gave Darryl a fist bump.
Darryl thanked us for the dinner and excitement, then followed Ragina’s trail.
“I don’t suppose ya have any pent-up hostility you’d like to set free?” Brodie asked Gertie.
“There might be a strong agitation I need to get off my chest after you help me clean up the kitchen.”
Gertie stood and gathered our empty plates.
Brodie flashed his million-dollar smile and followed Gertie into the kitchen, leaving me alone with Victory.”
“I like him,” Victory said, waving a hand at Brodie as he disappeared into the kitchen. “I can see why Caiyan is friends with him.”
“Yeah, Brodie’s a sweetheart.”
“I can also see why Caiyan has a thing for you, too.”
My eyebrows shot upwards.
“Angel told me.” Victory adjusted herself in the chair, so she sat facing me. “She also told me her brother has it bad for you, but you’ve always been with Caiyan.”
“We broke up before he joined the Mafusos. He never told me about you.”
“I was the WTF’s shameful secret. Elma tried to help, but in the end, she sided with the politics instead of the cause, and dumped me in the past.”
“It’s hard for me to believe my aint Elma would do that.”
“I messed up in Salem. Almost got myself hung. Kishin saved me, but Elma saw the whole thing.”
“Elma was there, I saw her.” I bolted upright. “I didn’t realize it was her until now.”
“You were there, too?” Victory looked surprised. “I guess you saw. I was only trying to scare the idiots so they wouldn’t hang all those innocent people, but I went too far. Got myself arrested.”
“You would have changed history.”
“Yeah, for the better.”
“Sometimes changing the past causes more problems than you’d think.” I pictured the boy I saved, and Caiyan hovering near death.
“When the WTF found out I was traveling without their permission and saving people in the past, they banished me.”
“How did they get your key?”
“The boss man at the time held a gun to Caiyan’s head and threatened to kill him. It’s the reason a non-traveler is in charge. I didn’t think they would kill him, but it wasn’t a chance I was going to take. Actually,” she thought for a minute, “when Caiyan had that gun to his head was the first time I saw the vision. The one where you find the King’s key. I told Elma about the vision and she dumped me in the past.”
“Aint Elma hid you to save you,” I said. She was talking smack about my family. “If the Mafusos or the WTF gets their hands on the King’s key, it could be a game changer.”
“She told me it was for my own safety. She didn’t realize I’d run away from the family she had left me with and get captured by a bastard of a man. He made me a slave on his cotton plantation. Now there’s some back breaking work. Dawn to dusk with overseers eyeing me like I was some kind of mule.”
“How did Caiyan find you?”
“He found Boon.” She smiled and rubbed her belly. “Boon was a freed slave. See, your aint Elma left me with a family in Texas, thought she’d fix things back home then come get me before the war broke out. Boon worked for them. They didn’t believe in owning slaves.”
She took a drink of her water. “I was stupid. I thought, since I’m here, why not go help the Underground Railroad? Be a part of something that has meaning. That would show the WTF I could still fight for my cause even without my key.” She sighed. “That’s how I got captured.”
“Caiyan spent every moon cycle meeting up with Boon and they’d search the plantations from Texas to Georgia looking for me. They became close friends.”
“I’m sorry he was killed.”
