Juno sent me a proud grin and promptly stole my phone and hung up on my mom. “I feared she would go on for hours and we have to meet the rulers in thirty minutes.”
I laughed. “You can hang up on her anytime you want, baby.” He beamed back, taking my hand in his as we got ready to leave. I was a little nervous but it was mostly because we would get some answers, I wasn’t sure I wanted to hear. Like how I had magic. I just had a feeling something orsomeonehad done something I wouldn’t like hearing about.
“Nervous?” Juno asked when we were a few minutes away from the rulers’ property. I squeezed his hand, grateful to have him with me for this.
“Yes,” I admitted, knowing he likely knew that already. Since we’d mated last night, we’d had this sort of understanding of each other’s emotions. Like a knowing, sort of. It was handy. I felt Juno’s trepidation and excitement, he wanted answers but feared them too. His dad hadn’t told us anything else, just called and woke us up to inform us of the time we were expected.
“I fear it’s graver than we thought.” Juno eyed the entrance which held several cars. They looked like the cars from my world, just slightly different.
“What makes you say that?” I asked, feeling like this was the point of no return. I knew that I would walk out of there different, somehow. I just knew.
Juno didn’t answer. He held my hand tighter and walked us through the entrance, then led me down a hall to where several voices could be heard. A gathering of people was waiting in a huge room at the end of the hallway, and of course that was when I realized what Juno had meant.
Around thirty people filled the room, and you could just feel the nervous energy in the air. I had no idea who everyone was, just the rulers, Nix, and Charlotta. Yesterday, when we left, it was supposed to just be us. Whatever they’d found out in the meantime couldn’t be good.
Henriette clapped her hands and everyone quieted immediately. The other rulers stood beside her, looking serious, nothing like the teary eyed and happy rulers I’d met yesterday. I was the one to squeeze Juno’s hand this time. I could feel we both needed the comfort.
“We have some bad news to share with you all. As you can see several of you have already found your mates,” Henriette gestured to a few of us. I had no idea who were from my world, and thus didn’t know how many had found their mates. “Nolen’s mate, Derek,” she continued and I gaped and looked over at Juno, who didn’t seem surprised at all by it. I knew Nolen had helped us yesterday. Could it be my roommate Derek? Henriette continued, “He showed clear signs of distress, only Nolen can calm him. We found this highly worrisome and had him brought here immediately.” She looked at the other rulers with some kind of pity and regret.
Alec stepped forward, “Derek and Nolen are resting until Derek feels better, which is why Nolen isn’t here with us. His mate needs him. We, um, we searched Derek with our magic when he came, with his consent, of course. He’s the son of one of ours.”
There were gasps around the room, but I didn’t understand why that was a huge surprise. I tried to subtly look at Juno who frowned in confusion.
“I thought we were the first ones through?” A guy said. First ones through?
“We thought so too,” Trise answered solemnly. “However, Derek’s DNA showed us someone had already opened a portal to their world before us. Who, we’re yet to find out. But we will. Derek has no memory of it and told us his parents used a sperm donor to conceive him. We are actively searching for the donor by hacking their web, or whatever it’s called.”
“Um,” I said, suddenly gaining everyone’s attention. “I thought sperm donations were anonymous?” My donor had been.
“It is, but they keep information on everyone in their system. Only the company can access the information, which means we can find it too,” Henriette replied with a soft smile.
“So, everyone’s mates were conceived with donated sperm?” A girl asked from the back.
“We believe so,” Alec answered. “Is there a mate present who’s not?” No one raised their hand or said anything. “This reinforces our theory that whoever the donor was donated a lot of sperm. We still don’t know why. Or if he kept watch over any of you as you grew up. He did, with Derek, sadly.”
I felt sick. I’d judged Derek for his weird ways and hearing how they spoke of him, it was clear he’d gone through something horrible. I wanted to know what, but at the same time I wanted to stay in the dark. I felt grateful I hadn’t been through whateverhe had and then immediately felt horrible for having that thought.
Juno tugged me in front of him, which was so cute, but also slightly awkward with me being taller than him. I leaned back against him and found comfort in his arms wrapped around my waist, hoping this would end soon.
Henriette spoke up again, “we can’t teach you magic at the moment, trusting your mates to guide you while we figure the rest out. But we suggest you return to your world while we work. Keep learning and enjoy your mates. To those of you who haven’t found your mates, if you find the world alluring it could mean your mates are there too. We’ll allow you to travel around there freely. We will inform you when we have more information. Stay safe everyone.”
Alec rushed over to us as soon as Henriette stepped back. “I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you this myself.”
Juno shook his head. “We know you didn’t have the time. But, Dad, is it really wise to return?”
“We believe whoever did it is either dead or living here. Making a portal like that takes a lot of magic and we both know how much magic is transferred from parent to child. He likely doesn’t have any magic left.” Alec seemed confident we should return, and I needed to figure out with Juno if we were going to leave my world for good.
“When are we allowed to return here?” I asked.
“Give us a week, then we’ll have everyone back to discuss our findings,” he replied, grabbing both our shoulders and squeezing them. “In the meantime, you can show Juno around and have some fun. We don’t care if you attend school or not if you aren’t planning on staying in that world, but I’ll leave that decision to you.”
I liked the fact that he wasn’t pushing us to stay and live here, even though that was what I was leaning towards. I had apossibility for my literal dream education and job here. No way would I stay in a magicless world.
“Teach Remi what you can of magic, just don’t test it out around people,” Juno’s dad teased before hugging us both. “And please message me once in a while.”
“We will,” Juno promised for both of us.
Chapter Sixteen
