Chapter Thirteen

Dressed in jeans, a purple tee, and my running shoes, I entered the kitchen. Draco sat at the table, flipping through a black binder.

"Sit," he said, not bothering to look up.

I hesitantly took the chair furthest from him, clasping my hands together in my lap to stop them from shaking. "What do you want to discuss?"

"I have news."

"About?" I asked.

"This house, the prior owners, and what it has to do with the two of us."

"Okay." I inhaled slowly, trying to keep my mind steady while my heart galloped. I was sitting at the table with the man who would kill us all, according to King.

Not that I believed him. Not fully.

Yes, something bad was happening—I could feel it in my bones. And yes, Draco was probably dangerous, too. But were those two things connected? My mind couldn't work out how one man could make the entire world sick.

Draco stopped turning the pages and looked up. "What was that?"

"I didn't say anything."

"When did you meet King?" he asked.

Wait. How did he know I'd seen King?

"Will you focus, please, and answer my question?" he said. "It's important."

Can he read my thoughts?If yes, I was fucked.

"Yes. I can, but you already knew that. Deep inside you know more than you're admitting."

Oh crap. Oh crap.If he could read my thoughts, then he'd heard everything since we met. It was one more nightmare to add to this situation.

"I don't want anything to do with this, okay?" I said. "I'm just going to pack up my car and leave. You can keep the house. I don't care. Just let me go."

He stood and came over, leaning against the table next to me. "Focus. When did you see King?"

I looked away and muttered, "Today." Can I please go now?

"What did he tell you?"

I looked up at him, pleading with my eyes to let me leave in peace.

"You're afraid of me. Truly afraid. Good." He reached out and grabbed my wrist. "Show me what he said."

Suddenly, I was standing on my porch, and King was telling me how Draco had to be stopped. The entire memory played out like a video clip.

How was he doing this? How the fuck was this happening?

Draco released me. "He disappeared?"

That was the part he was most interested in?

I nodded.

"Then it's true. He is back from the dead, and you and I need to go. Pack your things," he ordered.

I didn't budge.

"Piper, King is a very, very bad man."

And you aren't?

"I am nothing like him," Draco replied.

"Then why am I more afraid of you?"

"I can explain on the way to the airport, but we need to go before King returns."

"I'm not going anywhere with you, and I am not going to help you kill everyone I love with your madness." Not that I totally believed he would, but maybe I didn't disbelieve it either. Honestly, the crazy stuff I'd seen today was enough to convince me I was out of my depth.

Draco growled something unintelligible under his breath and combed his hand through his hair. "So you believe that I might be the anti-Christ because King told you."

"At this point, anything's possible." I'd seen a man vanish in front of my face. And there was no denying the facts King had laid out. The world was going mad.

"Piper, you do not even know him. Why would you believe anything he said?"

"I don't know you either, but you expect me to trust what you're saying." In short, I only had my intuition, and it was screaming at me. King had seemed generally desperate to stop whatever terrifying thing was about to happen.

"Yes, you are right. Something is coming. But what if King isn't here to help? What if he's here to stop the only person who can?"

I'd still be shitting myself and asking what the fuck I'm supposed to do.

"A very good question," Draco replied to my thoughts, which I was still trying to accept. How was any of this real? How could he see inside my head? How could a man disappear into thin air? What the fuck!

Draco drew a breath. "I spent the afternoon learning who my father really was. King is Draco Minos—Senior—also known as King Knossos of Minoa."

Huh?

Draco added, "He was an evil man, so brutally vicious and powerful that even death wanted nothing to do with him, which is how he stayed alive—if it could be called that—for thousands of years. And during that time, he formed Ten Club. I do not have time to explain the full scope of what they are, so try to imagine the wealthiest, most depraved people on the planet paying ten billion a year for the freedom to do anything they like. And what they like is living out their sick fantasies: sex slaves, murder, torture, and anything else they feel like doing. These are the sickest of the sick, Piper, and King founded them. King ruled them. And when the members began developing a taste for the occult, he was the only one keeping them in check. Until he died about thirty years ago and left the world to fend for itself. And now these monsters have grown to a point where they've taken over everything—governments, companies, banks, and universities. They have control of over half the world, and trust me when I say that I had nothing to do with any of it." Draco pointed to his chest. "I've been locked in a basement for thirty fucking years. So you tell me who is the real threat, Piper? What does your gut say now? Because King is back, and he's the one who started it all. And now Ten Club is preparing to make their final move. They want absolute authority over everything, and they are very close to getting it."

"You're telling me that the man who stood on my porch a few hours ago was the king of Minoa. Who, according to every book I've ever read, died thousands of years ago." Bullshit.

"You saw him. Did he look normal to you?"

I blinked. "Well, no." He'd looked surreal, like a dream.

"Exactly. And then he disappeared," Draco added.

Jesus.If I'd been confused before, now I was lost. And none of this explained why Draco was involving me, other than I was a person who lived on this planet and didn't particularly wish to see it destroyed. "Draco, I don't get what's happening. I only want to go. I need to see my family."

He rubbed his chin and let out a deep breath. "There isn't time, Piper."

"So you are sick. The illness is real," I said.

"No. I mean yes. The illness is Ten Club. They're behind everything—what you can see with your own eyes happening all around and what you can't see. That feeling in your gut is real. It is them."

"But how…" I shook my head. "Never mind. Are you saying the world is really ending?"

"Possibly."

My eyes filled with tears. "Don't say that."

"You asked, and it is the truth."

I-I couldn't believe it. "How do you know all this?" I snapped.

"I met the Ten Club's current leader. She wasn't shy about their plans, especially because they have been waiting for me to show up and take over. They believe I can unite them with the Seers, who are looking for a comeback. After King killed them off. Mostly."

I stared blankly. King had mentioned "Seer" when he was here but hadn't explained what it was.

"Draco! Stop talking like I'm supposed to understand what this stuff means. I don't. I just want—"

"Seers are born in this world, some with extraordinary gifts of sight and healing; however, they consider this life to be a sort of training ground to hone their skills so that when they die, they bring as much power as possible to their people in their afterlife. It is more complex than that, but they have evolved over time and are now very dangerous. They believe it's their time to reign over this world with my help. And Ten Club believes, as the son of King, that I am here to help them carry out their plans. Both want absolute power. Both think I am the one who can deliver it under a united front. Ten Club and the Seers together."

This was…a lot. "The Ten Club lady told you all this?"

"Yes."

"And what do you think about ruling them?"

A look of outrage exploded on his face. "I have had my entire life stolen from me, Piper. My father decided I was too evil to live, but my mother loved me too much to let anyone hurt me. So they put me to sleep to wither and die eventually." He exhaled. "No one is going to decide my fate for me, Piper. Not King, not Ten Club, and not the Seers."

This was good to hear, but I had no clue who all these people really were or if any of this was the full story, let alone why Draco thought he needed me.

"I do not know yet, Piper. That is the honest truth. But you are connected to this house and to the family who helped imprison me. You have a role in this somehow."

"I'm not an actual Spiros."

"What?"

"My parents died when I was young, and I ended up being adopted by Ruth and George Spiros—third-generation Americans." I hoped telling him that would free me.

"It makes no difference. And you are not going anywhere until I understand why I saw you in my dreams."

I thought it was the house he'd seen.

"It was both," he replied to my thoughts. "I saw you first. Then the house."

I swallowed hard. No, no, no. I wasn't going to let him drag me into this.

"You feel our connection, too," he said. "You don't like it, but you feel it."

I felt terror.

"We're leaving. Now," he barked.

"I'm not going with you," I protested.

His eyes softened. "Piper, I am just as lost as you are. But I can tell you two things: I am not evil. And I want to stop whatever is happening as much as you do."

"I don't trust you," I explained.

His pale gray eyes narrowed. "Give me a chance to change that."

"How?"

"I give you my word I will not hide anything from you going forward. In fact, I will make you remember what I took from you."

I frowned. He hadn't taken anything from me except for my last sliver of sanity.

"I can make people forget things," he said.

"People like me?"

"Yes. And now I want you to remember." His deep voice vibrated through my ears, into my head, and out through my entire body.

"Remember what?" What the fuck was he talking about? What had he "taken"? Panic washed through me. I felt like an animal locked in a cage, trying to fight its way out.

"Draco!" a voice roared from the front of the house. "Show yourself!"

I looked at Draco, my heart skipping a beat. It was King. He was back.