Page 87 of Entangled With You

“You won’t need to worry about it, you’ve got no reason to ever see me again anyway.” He clamped one of the cables to his battery and then fed the cable across to my car’s battery.

I squinted my eyes. “We run in the same circles. Of course I’ll see you. I’m asking again, what are you even talking about? What do you mean you’re married, you had one job? Who’s ‘he’?”

Tyler leaned wearily on his truck. “Can you start your car?”

“Who’s he, Tyler?”

He took a deep breath. And another.

“Tell me.”

“Magnus. Magnus is ‘he.’ Now start your car. Please.”

“What?” I was so confused that instead of standing there until I got answers I sort of short-circuited and just went in and started the Mustang and revved it a few times and then he started his truck and then he got out of the truck and started removing the cables from his battery all the while I sat in the driver’s seat staring at the steering wheel. Wondering what the hell he was talking about. He was talking about Magnus? Like, what was with Magnus? Like he had something going on with Magnus that I didn’t know about? He was married?

Tyler dropped my hood and I turned off my car.

I stepped out, confused, shaking my head. “What is happening, Tyler? You can’t leave me like this, I don’t understand. Please tell me what’s happening. I might never see him again and this is — I need to know everything.”

His truck was running, recharging itself.

“I’ve got to sit down.”

“Of course.” I sank down into the driver’s seat of the Mustang and Tyler walked around and dropped down into the passenger seat.

I couldn’t wait for him to get comfortable. “So what, you’re married?”

“Yeah, my wife, her name is Samantha. We’re newlyweds.”

I squinted at him, because now I was wondering if he was joking, bullshitting me. “Why haven’t I met your wife?”

He sighed. “Because she lives in the future, Katie.”

“Okay, what the hell are you talking about? You’re from the future? You’ve been bullshitting me this whole time? Who are you? Oh my god, are you one of Magnus’s brothers? Were you planning to kill him?” I clapped my hand over my mouth horrified. “Oh my god, you left him to die⁠—”

“Katie, I swear to god, stop saying that shit. I am in no mood.” He drew out another long breath. “I don’t know if I’m supposed to tell you this. I don’t know the rules and I can’t even imagine what might happen — Magnus is my father.”

“What — your... what? Magnus is your...” I leaned my forehead on the steering wheel. “Tyler, can you say this very plainly so that I can understand?”

“Magnus is my father. Bella is my mother. I am next in line for the throne. I was born in the year 2382.”

I shook my head on the steering wheel. “Why in the world? What?”

“I came back in time to 2019, to help him with you.”

“With me?” I turned my head to see his face.

“Yes, because those men killed you, here, on the night you guys tried to go back in time for Quentin. You died right there on that dock.”

“Really? I died?”

“Yep. Apparently Magnus tried to loop back and fix it, again and again, but the fight kept getting worse and still you died. He looped back and fought the men a third time but you died again and⁠—”

“Oh no, that’s horrible.”

“He had to stop trying to fix it. He was still distraught telling me about it after twenty-five years.”

“Oh.”