Read Cronin's Key III for Free Online Page A

have not changed,
my friend. So do what you do best. Put the pieces together so you
can see the bigger picture. Do your detective thing.”
    Willem gave Johan an adoring squeeze.
It should have pleased Alec to see him being affectionate with his
fated one, but it didn’t. He was jealous and petty, and he didn’t
care.
    “ The Göbekli Tepe
circle of stones dates back to prehistory,” Willem went on to say.
He seemed impervious to Alec’s mood. “So these creatures are old , Alec. Every so often, the Zoan is believed to have
appeared but only from portals in newer standing
stones.”
    Alec was tired of the riddles. “What
does that even mean?”
    Willem wasn’t smiling now. “To come from the oldest portal on the planet, I would
assume these are the oldest Zoan. The most powerful.”
    Alec put his hands through his hair
and sighed. “How do they stop time?”
    “ I do not know.”
    “ Why do I have no powers
over them?”
    Willem
answered quietly. “I do not know. I would assume it is the time
differential that inhibits your abilities. That your talents, in
multitudes as they are, simply do not exist on that
plane.”
    “ How do we fight them?”
Cronin asked.
    When Willem didn’t answer, Alec
rephrased the question. “Do I win? Or do I die?”
    Willem frowned. “That I cannot tell
you.”
    “ Or you won’t,” Alec
quipped back.
    “ I cannot,” he replied simply. “ For I do not know.”
    “ But you can see them?”
Alec kept on. “When they show themselves to me? You can see that,
wherever it is you are?”
    Willem gave a nod.
“Yes. We see most everything.” Then he smiled sadly. “I see pits of
fire, Alec. That is all. The Zoan breathe it.”
    “ They breathe fire?” Eiji
asked, his voice almost an octave higher.
    Willem gave a nod. “I would assume it
is from where the myth of the dragon stems. A hybrid creature of
bird and lizard, if you will.”
    Alec snorted
out a laugh, quickly becoming overwhelmed with this incredible
information. “Dragons? Like Puff, The Magic Fucking
Dragon?”
    Willem
didn’t smile. “Have you not yet learned that human histories are
not what they seem, Alec? Can you not see that, in the great
expanse that is your mind? You need to let go of the human
delusion, Alec.”
    Alec didn’t reply to that. Instead, he just said, “Jorge has grown tired. Let the boy
rest.”
    “ Wait!” Cronin said, stopping them before they
disappeared. He looked right
at Willem. “Where are you?”
    Willem just smiled beautifully, waved
his hand, and they were gone.
    Jorge’s eyes went back to normal and
he fell forward. Everyone moved to catch him, but Alec was the
quickest and caught him easily. “Whoa there, little guy,” he said,
sitting him on a chair. “You okay, Jorge? You scared
me.”
    Jorge nodded weakly. “Jorge
tired.”
    “ I’m sorry it took longer
than I expected,” Alec said, putting his palm to Jorge’s chest.
“You are weak. Can you feel me making you better?”
    Jorge nodded
and gave him a full smile; his little fangs peeked out of his lips,
and Alec couldn’t believe he once found that alarming. Now he
thought it was cute. Jorge laughed. “Alec fix Jorge.”
    Alec ruffled Jorge’s hair . “Any time, kiddo.” When he was sure Jorge was okay, Alec
stood up to full height. “Well, that meeting was interesting.” He
glared at Cronin. “And not exactly unwelcome by some.”
    Cronin was taken
aback. He shook his head. “What?”
    Your ex-boyfriend was
happy to see you too.
    Cronin blanched. “No,
no. Alec, you misread my curiosity.”
    Alec took a deep breath and his nostrils flared. The
irrational—stupidly irrational—anger wouldn’t dissipate. “I need to leave,” Alec said as
quietly as he could. He needed to leave because he really wanted to
expel a fuckton of rage and he figured Adelmo and Jorge didn’t want
their little pocket of the Amazon wiped off the map.
    Cronin put up his hand, palm forward.
“Be calm, m’cridhe. I will take