Chapter Twelve
Penny
Penny wasn’t sure what she was feeling. There was relief at being back in her own world, along with the joys of disposable diapers—especially since she now had four babies to take care of. Wildref was older than Alex but younger than the twins. The weight of responsibility made her want to sit down and cry. Then there was Warmund. She was so, so very glad that he had woken up. When she arrived in this world, his wounds were literally smoking. Even though she wanted to take him to the hospital, she had no idea what strange things his body would do there. She couldn’t reveal the knowledge of dragons this early.
Now as she stared at him, sitting up with a groan while his gaze remained locked on the cradle, a wash of anger came over her. It was that same sort of anger that had taken her when she had first realized that she was in the wrong time and place, back when Warmund first accidentally brought her to Byrelmore.
“Are the children okay?” he asked, his expression and voice both worried.
“Yeah.” Penny let out a deep breath, calming herself. “They’re good. And I guess that you are, too. What happened, anyway?”
Warmund shrugged and winced as he flexed both his hands. “Got hit by magic. Couldn’t move.”
Penny nodded. Even though her anger was still there, waiting to be unleashed on him, she knew she wasn’t really angry with him. More tears rolled down her cheeks as she looked away. “So, I guess it’s about time you came to see my hometown, anyway. In all its extreme conservative glory.”
“You came back to your hometown?” Warmund frowned as he experimentally stood. He swayed a little but shook his head when Penny moved to help him. “I’m alright. It’s strange that you brought us back to your childhood, though… I haven’t been able to learn enough about the emotional components of portals yet… maybe it’s because this was a time when you still believed in magic. At the very least, you have strong emotions about it.”
“You could say that.” Penny wrapped her arms around herself. She shivered. “This was where everything I wanted to be was torn away from me, one cruel word at a time until I had to build myself out of walls and scales just to stop the pain.” Warmund’s gaze softened. He opened his mouth, but she didn’t let him continue. “There are some clothes for you in the corner. I hope you appreciate what I did for you today; I broke into my old house and stole all this from my own family.”
She gestured to the canned foods and blankets she’d brought. She had had to leave the babies alone with an unconscious man in order to do that; her stomach churned just thinking of all the horrible things that could have happened while she was gone.
“Thanks.” Warmund crossed to the cradle and gazed in. His shoulders slumped, and a soft, tremulous laugh escaped him as he gazed inward. “But I was successful. I stopped them. They didn’t kidnap her.”
“No,” Penny agreed. “They didn’t. We did.”
Warmund’s head jerked up. He stared at her, startled, and her hands curled into fists. For a moment, the anger overwhelmed her again. She held her breath to stop it from coming tumbling out. Yeah, they had stopped the assassins from taking her. But they hadn’t changed anything the way he’d wanted to. While she wasn’t convinced that was a bad thing, the whole futility of the exercise made her want to scream. She had friends in her own time, she had family that she did get along with—aunts, uncles, and cousins whom she loved dearly. It was going to be even more painful to live now when they were still out there but while she was unable to contact them because she wasn’t the Penny they knew.
Warmund turned to her fully. He wore only the boxers that she’d managed to get on him, but this time she wasn’t going to let herself be distracted by his physique. Her hands curled into fists, as she struggled to keep herself from screaming out. The babies had all barely gotten to sleep and she was exhausted, both physically and emotionally.
“I don’t want to say anything I will regret later,” she told him slowly. “And that is why I am going to ask you not to say anything until I have some sleep. Which I have not had in three days.”
“They would have killed her.”
Penny flinched.
“Maybe I am the kidnapper now, but those assassins… they were there to kill her. A baby.” Warmund’s eyes captured her as he reached into the cradle. Penny let out a protest, but he ignored her as he picked up Wildref. The baby jerked, clearly not as asleep as Penny had thought, and let out a thin wail. Warmund held her close to his chest. “They would have killed her, and do you think that they would have spared your children?”
Penny sank to the floor. Tears and sobs came fast and hard. She pressed her hands over her face, trying desperately to stop her sobs. The noise only startled Wildref more and her cries started to get louder. Any more and the others were going to wake up! She looked up desperately, the exhaustion and anger so strong that she didn’t have the strength to fight them.
“They could have died. They could have died because of you. You are the one who brought us there. You robbed the palace and brought the guards right to us! Everything that happened is your fault. If they had gotten hurt… if they’d gotten killed… and now I’m stuck here! Completely alone again!”
She collapsed back into sobs. Warmund was silent and Penny was glad for it. She was too tired to think and certainly too tired to listen. Penny threw herself into the pile of blankets on the floor and continued to sob, letting all her emotions out in a rush of tears and sobs.
***
When she woke, Penny felt a little better for having cried and slept. Her eyes felt all crusty from her tears and her body still ached with tiredness. Her head was a little clearer, though. When she sat up, she saw Warmund was still there. He silently passed her a water bottle. The twins were both up, sitting on another blanket and happily munching some crackers.
“Thanks.” Penny emptied the water bottle and wiped her face on her sleeve. “Sorry.”
Warmund shrugged. “I thought about what you said.”
“What I…? Oh.” She blushed. “It’s not your fault, you didn’t do it on purpose.”
“Maybe not, but you are right. It was my doing. Accidently or not. But you have to realize… I saved her. I saved my sister.” A flash of pain came over his face. “But I wasn’t able to save her mother. It all happened the same way. Maybe not exactly how I remembered it, but I didn’t really change anything. Wildref was kidnapped, my stepmother was killed. It was all for nothing.”
Penny shook her head. “Not for nothing. If you knew Katrina, you’d know it wasn’t for nothing. You said that the assassins there were after her to kill her? So, you saved her. Maybe not the way you thought you would, but you still saved her. Kat loves her life. She loves her parents and the way she grew up. She’s said many times that she wouldn’t change her life for anything. Now we have the chance to—"
“You want me to give up.”
Penny stared, uncertain.
Warmund’s gaze darkened, as he stood and strode to the window. His muscles bunched beneath the shirt she’d stolen from her father’s dresser. His hands clenched at his sides, as he stared to the world outside. A low growl emitted from his throat, and she thought she saw smoke curling around him. She reached inside of herself, searching for some small spark of magic. There was nothing, at least nothing she could feel.
“After everything, you still want me to give up. Wildref doesn’t belong in this world. Neither of us does. None of us,” he corrected as he turned toward her. “Do you even understand what gifts have been denied you, living in this magicless world, rather than in Byrelmore? You are a powerful mage and you don’t even know the basics of magic.”
“I don’t need magic.”
“Without it, you live a short life. You work all the time and for what? To be miserable and exhausted with a job you hate?”
Penny shook her head. “I don’t hate my job. I love being a nurse. I can help people.”
Warmund let out a stifled sigh, as though she was completely missing the point and not the other way around. “Maybe you can be satisfied not reaching your potential, but I can’t allow that for Wildref.”
Penny gave Lisa another cracker. “Warmund, she loves her life. You’re going to take that away from her just because you think she should grow up in a palace instead?”
“It’s not just the palace. Her dragon was denied her, Penny. Her heritage. Her people. Her family!”
“She has a family! A family that loves her. You can be part of her life but—” What was she saying? She threw her hands into the air and let out a bitter laugh. “I guess we don’t have a choice. It’s not like we can open another portal. Congratulations, Warmund. You’ve changed time. I guess, instead of being Katrina’s brother, you’re going to be her father. And I guess I’ve got four babies to look after now.”
Warmund shook his head slowly. “I just have to figure out a way for you to access your magic again, so you can open a new portal. Then we can go back, and my father can send you and your children back to your own future.”
And what about you? She wanted to ask. At the same time, she wanted to say, Alex is your son. How will this affect him?
But the words that pressed against her lips were nothing more than an accusation. So she turned her face away and said nothing. Tears started to press against her eyes again and she screwed them shut tight, fighting them. To her surprise, Warmund wrapped his arms around her. She stiffened at first but soon found herself leaning into his warmth. It felt so good to be held…
“I’m sorry that this is so frightening,” he murmured into her hair. “I promise, we’ll figure it out.”
Penny nodded, even though she knew it was a lie. They couldn’t figure out anything while he was refusing to see things from her perspective. But at the moment, she didn’t want to think about that. She just wanted him to hold her.