“Ross did not harm Carly and Jenny. Carly is happily married to Drago, the King of the Dragons, Jenny is with Orion, the Sea King, and Ross is with Princess Gem. He helped her save the Isle of the Elementals from an alien creature. They are doing well, and do not want to return here,” he told her.
She looked at him. “I knew about Carly and Jenny. Oh, and Mike because I met him briefly when he and Marina came to the village I landed in. I was still feeling pretty lousy, so I didn’t get to talk to him much. Ruth was a surprise. I didn’t know about Ross either. I’m still not sure what happened to Asahi Tanaka,” she said.
“I have not heard of this Asahi Tanaka,” he replied with a frown.
“He’s a CIA agent—that’s someone who works for the government. I thought it was strange that he would be interested in a missing person’s case. Usually the FBI takes care of those. I did a little more digging and discovered that the CIA also investigates UFO phenomena and aliens. He was with Ruth on the beach when we all disappeared,” she explained.
“Perhaps when we return we can search for him,” he suggested.
She turned and faced him. “Whoa, there is no ‘we’ in the return—only a ‘you’. I’ll admit that when I first returned I thought it would be neat to go back, but I’ve had time to think about it more. I mean, it was pretty cool seeing all the things that the people in the village could do once I felt better, but it would be totally ludicrous for me to think I could ever live there!” she said with a shake of her head.
He frowned. “You have only seen one small part of the Seven Kingdoms. Imagine if you were aboard the Sea Wasp. We could sail to each Isle and you would see wonders that you never imagined. Nali’s Thunderbirds are a sight to behold, and the underwater realm of the Sea King is as magnificent as the one above. The Dragons are a bit brutish, but the food there is amazing. The marketplace on the Isle of the Giants has everything you could imagine, and now that Koorgan has opened the Isle for trade again, I hope to do more business with them,” he said with a flourishing sweep of his arms.
“Are you listening to yourself? I’m human. I don’t belong in a magical world. How would I make a living? I don’t think the local newspaper is going to be that interested in sending me on a scoop when I don’t know what in the hell I’m talking about!” she retorted.
“You will not have to make a living. I will take care of you as my consort,” he declared.
Tonya stared at him for a few seconds, replaying what he had just said to make sure that it wasn’t a miscommunication due to a difference in languages. After repeating his last sentence for the fifth time, she decided that she heard him correctly and hadn’t misunderstood what he meant.
“Your consort,” she repeated. “You think that I’m supposed to just give up my life here to go to some fairy tale world and become your consort, your kept woman? That is what you are saying, correct?” she summarized.
He thought for a moment before he nodded and smiled. “Yes,” he said with a pleased expression.
She shook her head in disbelief. “You are unbelievable. Come on,” she abruptly ordered, turning back in the direction of the house.
“Where are we going?” he asked.
She shot him a glare over her shoulder. “To find Magna so I can send you home—alone,” she stated with an emphasis on the last word.
“I don’t want to see the Sea Witch,” he muttered, folding his arms across his chest.
“Seat belt, please. If you don’t put it on, the bell will keep ringing and drive us crazy,” Tonya replied, ignoring his statement.
“I am not ready to return. I want to see your world. It is new and interesting,” he added.
“You’re just going to have to trust me when I say that you don’t want to see most of it. It is loud, obnoxious, dangerous, and dirty,” she replied.
“It looks very nice to me,” he stubbornly said.
She glared at him. “We haven’t even made it out of the driveway. Besides, you can’t tell from Yachats how screwed up the rest of the world is,” she informed him.
“I have seen the unsavory side of life,” he retorted before pressing his lips together.
She was being extremely stubborn. He had tried to reason with her. He had tried giving her his smoldering sexy look. He had even tried bribery. Nothing had worked!
She refused to believe that having more humans in his world was a good thing. She thought his sexy look was indigestion, and it turned out offering her jewels and clothing only made things worse. The freezing tone of her reply ‘I am not for sale!’ still rang in his ears.
He drummed his fingers on the armrest of the vehicle. He had to figure out a way to convince her that he and his world would be perfect for her. Obviously, this was going to be a little more complicated than he had expected.
He stared out the window, absently watching several houses and buildings pass by before they entered a town. In many ways, it looked similar to a village back home—except for the clothing, transportation, buildings, and that everyone looked the same as everyone else. Okay, so there were a lot of differences, but nothing that he couldn’t help Tonya overcome.
“I don’t understand why you insist that we need Magna’s assistance. I did not need a witch’s help to get here, I am sure I won’t need one to return,” he said, twisting in his seat so he could face her.
Her insistence that they see Magna also did not sit well with him. It wasn’t that he was nervous about facing the Sea Witch alone. It was the memories of the atrocities that Magna had perpetrated—whether under her own free will or not—that still weighed on his mind. He didn’t like that Tonya would be defenseless against such powerful magic.
“I’d rather not take the chance. The sooner you go home, the less likely something will go wrong. Besides, I have plans for the weekend that don’t include you. There is no way I would leave you alone here and there is absolutely no way in hell that I’m going to drag you along with me. I can’t even imagine trying to explain you to Max!” she said.
“I would like to meet Max. It is obvious that you care a great deal, and I would like to meet the man who took you into his home,” he replied.
He grunted in surprise when he was suddenly thrust forward. He would have hit the dashboard if not for the restraining belt that Tonya had insisted he wear. Sitting back, he shot her a confused look.
She glared at him. “You do not want to meet Max. I do not want you to meet Max. He will ask a gazillion questions and want to know the answer to every single one of them. He has this—this weird way of pulling things out of you that you don’t want him to know. He can look at you, and it makes you squirm, and don’t even think about lying to him. There is no way I’m taking you to meet Max. You have to go home. That is all there is to it,” she stated with a shudder.
“You almost throw me into the front window to tell me that you are afraid to let me—Ashure Waves, King of the Pirates—meet Max, because he may ask questions?” he replied with an amused expression.
She scowled and shook her head. “No, I slammed on the brakes because I almost ran a red light,” she said, pointing up at a strange rectangular box which hung from a wire across the road with a red light on it.