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CHAPTER FORTY-NINE

FRANKIE

It’s me.

Wait, but that’s me.

That’s . . . ME.

I just stared, my body locked in shock. My chest tightened so hard I couldn’t breathe. I gasped for air yet none came. I pressed my hands to my chest. The world started to spin.

That’s me. That is me. This is me. How is this ME? But it’s me. That’s my face. I dove forward and pushed her eyelids up to reveal pretty pink eyes. Those are my eyes. I pressed my hands to her chest and pushed my magic into her, pink flames danced along her skin revealing black lines of a soulmate mark that was identical to the one on my body. But to check, I pushed my magic into my own chest until my soulmate mark revealed itself. Then I held my hand out to hers and a strangled cry left my lips. No, no, no. This is me. It’s me.

Something gripped my arms and lifted me off my knees.

“ NO! It’s me! It’s ME! It’s ? —”

“ Who are you? ” Everest growled from behind me. My body was spun around to face him. “ WHO ? —”

“—Me, ” I whispered.

He choked on a gasp and leapt backwards, dropping me instantly. His blue and white eyes were so wide I saw the entire circle of his irises. His face turned ashy pale. His jaw hit the ground. He pressed his hand to his chest like he was struggling to breathe.

“ It’s me ,” I whispered. “It’s me , Everest.”

“No. No, you’re dead,” he screamed, his cheeks flushed pink. Tears brimming on his dark eyelashes as he pointed to his wife’s dead body behind me. To me. His upper lip snarled, revealing an extending fang. “Celina is dead. Who are you and how dare you?—”

“Celina?” I frowned. “Her name—- my name—-was Celina?”

“ You are not Celina,” he shouted and grabbed my arm, shaking me a little. “Show thy face. NOW.”

Celina. Her name was Celina. MY name was Celina. Oh my God. I swayed on my feet, but his grip kept me in place. There was an inferno of heartbroken rage slamming into me from my soulmate, but I wasn’t registering it.

Because suddenly, instantly . . . everything made sense.

It all just clicked.

Every interaction I’d ever had with Everest from the moment he swooped in to save me from the frat house to a few minutes ago when he shoved me into the Seelie tunnel. A slideshow of memories replayed in rapid fire in my mind. Every touch. Every expression. Every spoken word. Every longing stare. Every heavy beat of silence.

I was his wife.

I was the mother of his daughter.

He knew I was his soulmate because I already had been. We’d already shared a life together. We’d had a child together. Oh my God. Auryn is my daughter. SABER is MY daughter. This explained everything. I’d wondered how he knew where to find me on Halloween but now I knew he had to have been keeping tabs on me. I would’ve watched him from a distance. That was why he panicked when he found me in Avolire because I had a history with Sweyn.

I had a history.

I had a past-life.

Those dreams . . . they weren’t dreams at all. They were memories. I peeled my gaze from his and glanced around. This had looked familiar when I arrived, it looked like that terrifying dream, but it wasn’t a dream at all. It was a memory. That was why it rattled my soul the way it did, because it was too strong a memory. That was the first time I’d seen Everest with long hair. I looked back to him and realized he was wearing that same outfit made of strange armor.

‘ That’s over, ’ he’d said to me in that dream.

I’d been apologizing to him. Forgive me. I’m sorry. I had to. I’m sorry. That was all I’d been able to say. I glanced down at the body of my past-self surrounded by flames and my heart sank. I had a sinking suspicion I knew how I died because there was only one reason for that guilt to carry over into my next life.

“ You are not Celina. I demand you show me thy face this moment or I shall ? —”

“Celina. That’s why you refuse to call me Frankie,” I heard myself whisper as I stared into his eyes. “ Because Francelina is closer to Celina, it felt more like me.”

He flinched. “What?”

“Because I was always Celina to you.”

“Who are you?—”

“You know who I am?—”

“You’re an imposter?—”

“I am your soulmate?—”

“ My soulmate is dead! ” he screamed and his voice broke.

I gasped. My heart was screaming back at him. I wanted to reach out for him, but I was afraid to spook him, so I pressed my palm to my chest right above the soulmate glyph in the middle of my chest. “If your soulmate is dead then why is your glyph pulsing with color?”

He scowled but his gaze dropped to my chest, and I knew the moment he saw the black lines on my skin and the dark wine-red shade of the crystal because his face paled and his eyes widened. He yanked open his armor to look at his own skin. At first it was clear but that black magic of his swept over his chest and the glyph appeared. It was identical to mine. “No. No this is a trick?—”

“It’s not a trick?—”

“ It has to be!” He pounded on his chest. “I saw this when she died. It went gray?—”

“And it probably will again when I leave?—”

“ Where did you come from?”

“The Seelie tunnel.”

He growled and tightened his grip on my arm. “You lie, only a royal Seelie?—”

“Can open the Seelie tunnels. I know. You told me that.” I stepped closer and whispered. “And that’s how you were able to open the tunnel for me a few minutes ago?—”

“I did no such thing?—”

Hot, blistering heat speared into my leg. I hissed and looked down to find the flame of my pyre crawling up the skirt of my dress. “ Shit, fuck, dammit—ow.” In a panic, I threw my magic into the flames. Neon-blue waves crashed into the fire and swallowed it whole.

Smoke billowed around me.

“ How did you . . . how is . . . who are . . . you can’t be— ” He shook his head, then grabbed my hands. “That was Celina’s magic. How did you?—”

“I am Celina, Everest.” I grimaced. “Except I go by Francelina now.”

Heat wrapped around my wrist. We both cursed and dove for the flames burning the ends of my bell sleeve. His fingers brushed over my rune stone bracelet, and he froze. With his other hand he pushed my sleeve up to reveal the bracelet Tegan had made out of the rune stones.

He blinked in confusion. “These . . . these were given away?—”

“To the Irit family, I know.” I ran my fingertips over the stones and the runes flashed gold beneath my touch which made his eyes widen again. “An Irit gave them to me.”

Flames leapt onto the long bell sleeve of my other arm. I cursed but Everest lifted me off my feet and then we were suddenly on the ground, our feet sinking in the blood-soaked sand. He dropped my arm and stumbled backwards until he crashed into the stone wall. His legs buckled beneath him, sending him down to the sand. He pulled his knees up and braced his elbows on them as he held his head in his hands.

“ What have I done to deserve this torture?” he whispered to himself, his voice trembling. “ Hallucination be gone ? —”

“I am not a hallucination.” I rushed over and sank to my knees between his legs then wrapped my fingers around his wrists.

“Then you are deceiving me.”

“I would never.” I tugged his hands from his face and found tears streaking down his cheeks. “Who could I be if not who I say I am? Auryn would never do this to you, and you just sent her away. I watched?—”

“ You watched ? —”

“Yes, I watched from behind that chunk of stone over there,” I half-turned to point to it, “as you walked up carrying . . . her. Then I watched Auryn come up and you changed her appearance then forced her to leave. Then I watched as Sweyn made you set your own wife’s body on fire?—”

He cringed, his bottom lip trembling.

I took his face in my hands. “Who knows of your secret, Everest? Your soulmate mark was hidden. Sweyn would not still consider you her ally if she knew you were married to her enemy. I know her enough to know that was not the face of deceit I saw in her. That wasn’t her playing a trick on you. She does not know who Celina was to you?—”

“ No, she does not, ” he whispered.

“So then who could I be if not who I say?”

“What you say is not possible.” His voice broke. “Celina is dead, her body is right there. You cannot be her.”

“I am not her, but I am her.”

He shook his head as fresh tears spilled.

I forced him to look back at me as I still held his face. “I am from the future, Everest.”

He gasped. His eyes widened. “What did you say?”

“You heard me.” I licked my lips and nodded. “I am from the future. My name is Francelina Proctor, and I am eighteen years old. I am sorry this has gone down this way, but I am just as surprised to find myself looking at my own dead body. I did not know I lived a life before the one I have now, but I do know that reincarnation was not only granted to me?—”

“Reincarnation? ” His eyes searched my face. “That does not?—”

“It does. I know of a few who have been reincarnated though I also did not know it applied to me. So, I’m sorry, I know this has to be impossible to believe and it feels wrong to have to be here in this moment when you’ve just lost me. I can’t imagine the pain you’re feeling right now.” I pressed my hands to his chest, right over the heavy thumping of his heart. “But I promise I tell you the truth.”

He just stared at me, tears rolling down his cheeks.

“Gosh, how do I prove this to you.” I pressed my fingers to my eyes when an electric shock zapped my wrist. I held my hand out and found the pink arrow floating above my bracelet pointing behind me. With a frown, I glanced back to find a figure emerging from the shore. I half turned and gripped my bag, ready to pull a weapon out to protect us if I needed to. “Who is that?”

Everest hissed through clenched teeth but said nothing.

The figure moved swiftly towards us. The glow of the funeral pyre shined light on a curved, feminine figure. Long red hair fell in waves down her back and seemed to nearly touch the ground. She wore a crown made of seashells—-actually, her clothes seemed to be made of seashells as well. Her skin shimmered like a pearl or an abalone shell.

Everest let out a little whimper then spoke to this woman in a language I did not know but I’d heard modern day Everest speak.

The woman stopped beside me. She reached down and used her fingers to tip my face up to look at her. There were tears in her purple eyes. “ Celina ? —”

“Keltie? ” Everest shrieked.

“Wait, Keltie?” I scowled. “As in Leyka’s soulmate?”

“ Leyka? ” Everest growled. “Her soulmate is Ananiel?—”

“No, it’s Leyka. The Angel of Storms. I have spoken to him. He lives on a beach and turns into a pig?—”

“ Leyka. ” Keltie chuckled and it was a musical tone. She rolled her shoulders and big white angel wings popped out. “I see I have arrived just in time.”

“This imposter is trying to break me?—”

“My sweet Everest.” Keltie knelt down and cupped his cheek with one hand. “She is no imposter. Your soulmate Celina is going to be reborn in the future and be named Francelina?—”

“That’s me!”

Keltie smiled and cupped my face with her other hand. “I know, my dear. I am from this time, but my father is the Angel of Time, I have a way of knowing things. I know what becomes of Celina, just as I know my Ananiel will be commonly known as Leyka in the future. You know some of the whys behind this, Francelina but not all. More importantly, you know you cannot tell Everest of the future.”

“Just as he couldn’t tell me about the past.” My eyes burned with the need to cry. I looked to him. “You’ve been waiting for this. For me to come here and find the truth with my own eyes.”

Keltie nodded. Then she spoke to Everest in that language again. When she was done, he stared at me like he’d never seen me before. Like it was the first time we’d ever met. Like I was the oxygen he breathed, like I was the safety rope tethering him to the cliff he’d fallen from.

For reasons I was not sure of, I pulled my left sleeve up to reveal my Coven Mark and the words from Valathame that were still on my arm. “I am a witch, arcana, and I was Marked as the Tower Card in The Coven. Valathame?—”

Everest gasped. “ You know her name? ”

I frowned. “Is that a secret?”

Keltie sniffled and wiped tears from her eyes. I did not understand how I upset her. “Continue, Francelina.”

“Well, Valathame finally showed us the prophecy about the war with Lilith?—”

“Do not speak of that yet.”

I nodded up at her. “Right. Sorry. So um, we’re in the middle of a war with Sweyn and I’m on a quest. She gave me this whole long prophecy but it’s whole purpose was to send me back in time. A few minutes ago, Everest, my Everest, opened the Seelie tunnel and sent me here. The lines ‘ But first a soul to seek in dire need, Relieve the hole then take his lead— oh, I get it now. Relieve the hole. She sent me here to tell you that I wasn’t gone forever. She wanted me to patch the hole in your heart thinking you’d lost me.”

Keltie spoke to Everest in that language again. When he nodded, she turned to me. Without warning, she leaned forward and kissed my forehead and whispered in that language. Then she pulled back. “Be careful on your quest. Until we meet again in the future.”

“Thank you?—”

And then she was gone, nothing but a fading cloud of sparkly sand. I glanced over my shoulder to the water and could have sworn I saw the color shine brighter.

“ Celina? ”

I turned back to Everest and found him watching me. “It’s me. I’m here. I’m yours.”

He sat forward and brushed his fingertips over my face. And then he collapsed against my chest, his whole body shaking violently as he sobbed. That did it. I broke apart with him. I wrapped my arms around him as tight as I could, gripping his shoulders so hard my fingers were probably digging into his skin. Tears burst from my eyes.

Together, we just sat there and cried.

We sobbed.

Together.

It felt like forever we sat there holding on to each other and crying yet it would never be long enough to heal this pain in his heart. “I’m so sorry, Everest. I’m sorry. Forgive me for leaving you.”

He pulled back finally and looked up at me with the most shattered expression I’d ever seen, a far cry from the cold exterior of the Everest I knew. He was beautiful like this. I hated myself for dying, for breaking his heart. It was probably wrong, but I took his face in my hands and pressed my lips to his. He tasted like salt and blood and him . That cinnamon scent of his was buried beneath the stench of blood and ash in the air but it was there in the crevices. I kissed him for all the tears he cried for me. I kissed him for all the pain he would suffer for years without me. I kissed him so that on the darkest, coldest nights when he felt he couldn’t go on he would have this kiss to remember.

When we finally broke apart, he rested his forehead against mine. We sat there breathing each other in, letting our lungs and hearts catch up. I held him tight, my fingers in his hair. His arms coiled around me tight.

“ What year—” His voice broke. He cleared his throat. “What year do I get you back?”

I grimaced, fearing the number was going to be too far from the one here. “Our lives reconnect in the autumn of 2018?—”

“ 2018?” he shouted and pulled back. His eyes were wide. “Tell me you did not say two thousand ? —”

“ I did, ” I whispered. I was afraid to ask what year it was now, the look on his face told me it was a long, long way from the future. But I had to know. “What year is it now?”

He squeezed his eyes shut and a few tears slid over his cheeks. “1219.”

“ Twelve. ” My stomach rolled. I wrapped my arms around myself. “Eight hundred years . . . We’re eight hundred years apart?”

He tipped his head back and stared at the sky, his tears a constant trail through the dirt and blood on his face. “How am I supposed to survive eight hundred years without you?”

My chest tightened. I then remembered my conversation with Saber about her own soulmate, one I now knew she would meet shortly after this very night. One she’d been with for eight centuries. She’d told me the two of them made a pact, a promise to do whatever they had to to survive . . . a promise that led them into other people’s beds. But they survived. I was trying not to think about that conversation too much, knowing what I knew now.

“What are you thinking about?” He whispered.

I squeezed my eyes shut and shook my head. “Auryn.”

“Do you remember her? Me? Anything?”

“No. Not from this life here. And trust me, I have questions about that fact too. Questions I will be asking you when I get home.” I wiped the tears from my face and stared at the sand hill I’d seen Auryn run over. “But I know Auryn . . . from my time?—”

“You do? She’s . . . she’s . . . alive?”

“Yes.” I took his hands in mine, tangling our fingers together. “Though I admit, I did not know her real name until moments before I arrived here. And now I know why you told me her real name, so I would know who she was when I saw her. The new appearance you gave her tonight?”

“A necessary evil, I have to keep her safe. She has to hide from Sweyn?—”

“I know.” I held his hands against my chest. “I know. But that face you gave her . . . that’s the one I met her with.”

His eyes watered. “That can’t have been a coincidence.”

“Knowing you? I would agree.” I smiled and wanted to cry when he smiled back at me. “Oh, Everest, she has your eyes?—”

“And your hair.” He frowned and ran a finger through the pink strands. “Though this shade is much more vibrant?—”

“This shade is not real. It is dyed this color. I’ve been dying my hair pink for years now.”

He smiled. “Yours is a lovely shade of sunset in the summer, I am not surprised you sought to replicate it.”

“I was thinking about Auryn. In my time, I’d only just learned recently that she was your daughter. You hid her so well, my love. No one expects a thing. You have kept her safe.” When he sighed and leaned back against the rock I pressed a kiss to his knuckles. “Two days ago, I found her sitting by herself and she looked so upset, like something was really bothering me. I couldn’t handle it. I went over and talked to her, asked her to tell me what was wrong — it was nothing serious, fear not — but it just hit me a moment ago that . . . that she’s mine. ”

“She is your daughter. You two are so close, I cannot fathom how I will replace you?—”

“She loves you so much, Everest.” I slid in closer to him, until I was practically in his lap. His legs on either side of me. “You two are a team unlike anything else. I am so proud of you both. You help each other get through the centuries. Don’t shut her out, talk to her. Give her all of the emotions you might not want to share. Okay?”

“Eight hundred years.” Fresh tears pooled in his eyes. “What am I to do?—”

“Whatever you must.” I took his face in my hands again. “Look at me, Everest. See it in my eyes when I say it. Hear it in my voice. I don’t care what you have to do to survive as long as you survive?—”

“ Celina—”

“ I’m serious, Everest. I don’t care how you make it happen. I don’t care what you do between now and then. I just care that when I step out of that tunnel in the future, in my time, that you’re there to catch me. Do you understand?”

He just stared at me like I was crazy.

“I just need you alive, Everest.” I pressed my lips to his again then pulled back. “Eight hundred years is a long time, so I’m begging you . . . find happiness wherever you can. I don’t care if you marry a dozen other women and have fifty more children. I don’t care if you lay in a different woman’s bed every single night for eight hundred years?—”

“ Celina, ” he croaked.

“I just need you to be there when I get home. I need you alive. That is all I care about.” I lowered my hands to his chest, right over his pounding heart. “When I finish this quest and I get home I just want my husband and my daughter there waiting. Nothing else matters. The three of us deserve to make another life together. So do whatever you have to do just live. Write it on your skin so you see my note every day. Survive. Okay? Do you hear me?”

“I hear you.” He leaned forward then dragged me into his chest. His arms wrapped around me tight. He buried his face in the crook of my neck. “Trust me, there is nothing that is going to stop me from seeing you again.”

I wrapped my arms around his neck. Tears rained down my face. It wasn’t fair. Reincarnation was a blessing, a gift I was not sure why I deserved but I was grateful. Not for me but for him. For Auryn. My heart hurt for them. Eight centuries was such a long time. I could not fathom waiting that long for Everest to return to me. I was the lucky one, I got to die. It was them who had to suffer and I would forever feel the guilt of that punishment.

He pulled back, his tear-filled blue and white eyes staring at my face like he was memorizing it. Like he was soaking the sight of me in to last him eight centuries. He pushed my hair back with his hands. His bottom lip trembled. “ You have to go now ? —”

I cried and dove for him. Our lips crashed together. This kiss was panicked. It was grasping and desperate. It was fear and pain. “You have to tell Auryn. Tell her I’m coming back. Tell her.” I kissed him again.

“I will.” He pulled away with a gasp. “It is not safe here. You have to go. I cannot bear the thought of them finding you?—”

“Everest—”

“You have to go.” He cringed and flicked his wrist. The Seelie tunnel opened just beside us. “Go. Now. Before it is too late.”

“Everest—”

“I will be eternally grateful for this night, for you returning here to me. The only reason I will be able to survive a future without you is knowing there is one with you on the horizon.”

“Oh, Everest?—”

“I thought you were gone forever?—”

“I am not?—”

“Then finish your task and get home to me.” He pressed his lips to mine quickly. “I assure you, future me is crumbling as we speak in fear he will never see you again.”

“No. We’re going to survive.” I kissed him roughly. “I would raze the world to stay with you.”

He whimpered then darkness wrapped around me. My body slid across the sand. Green light flashed around me. I gasped and scrambled back to my feet just as the tunnel wall was closing. I caught one last glimpse of his shattered expression before the wall shut between us.

It was nearly identical to the look on his face when I left Eden.

Everest! I cried and dove for the wall. Light flashed. Cold air swept over my body. And then I was back. Coven Headquarters stood to my left. The edge of the Old Lands to my right. But right in front of me, standing a mere ten feet away looking exactly the way I’d left him . . . was Everest.

I looked up at him, my whole body trembling like a leaf in a hurricane as I sobbed.

His eyes teared up.

I was running, sprinting for him as fast as I could get my legs to move. I tackled him, he staggered back a few steps, but his arms coiled around me tight instantly. I wrapped my arms around his neck and sobbed. He smelled like cinnamon, the faint scent of the Coven’s lavender washing detergent, and the tiniest hint of fresh rain from Tenn. His fingers dug into my body like he couldn’t hold me tight enough.

“I love you. I love you. I love you,” I cried over and over.

His body shook beneath me. “ Francelina ? —”

“No. ” I pulled back and took his face in my hands. “ Celina. For you, I am Celina.”

His face scrunched up before he leaned forward to rest his face against my cheek. His arms had not loosened up even a smidge.

“I’m sorry, Everest. I’m sorry.” I showered him with kisses on his skin. “It’s not fair?—”

“You have to go?—”

“What? No. No, I can’t.” I wrapped my arms around him again. “I can’t go. Not yet?—”

“You have to, Gali.” He dropped me to my feet then peeled my arms from around his neck. His hands were gentle but firm. Tears pooled in his eyes. “You don’t have the page yet?—”

“No, I don’t, but I can’t go?—”

“You have to. Or we all die?—”

I whimpered and fisted his black shirt in my hands. Tears rained down my face. “You waited eight hundred years for me, I can’t leave you now.”

“And I shall have to wait a little longer.” He threw me backwards. As my body flew through the opening of the Seelie tunnel, he whispered, “I love you. Come home to me.”

“EVEREST! NO!”

But it was too late, the tunnel was closing faster than I could get to the opening. I met his stare as a tear slid down his cheek. Then he was gone. I was back in the tunnel. I screamed and crashed to the tunnel floor on my knees, sobbing so hard my bones rattled. I slammed my palms on the floor—and it vanished beneath me.

I was free falling again.