Page 54

CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE

FRANKIE

The second drop from the tunnel wasn’t as far or as fast, yet when my feet touched solid ground, my knees buckled and my legs gave out. I crashed into sand on all fours, but it wasn’t soaked in blood. It was just normal golden sand. I sank back onto my heels and pushed my hair out of my face with the backs of my hands. The tears I’d been crying were still sliding down my face, but crying wasn’t going to get me home to him faster, so I needed to at least function while I cried.

But as I looked around at my new surroundings I was filled with confusion. I was nowhere. As in, there was nothing here. I’d landed in some kind of cove, like a pocket dug out of the towering cliff walls. Behind me, the ocean blended into the horizon. The waves rolled onto the shore like a lullaby. The salty air tried to calm my anxiety, but it just wasn’t going to have the same effect it usually did. Because I was stuck. There was no land in sight behind me, not that I thought I could swim far in the open ocean. In front of me were stone cliff walls that had to be a hundred feet tall. This little piece of land was a small U- shape cut into the cliffside and only ran maybe thirty feet deep. The sand turned to river rocks up ahead. That was it. Nothing else.

I’m stuck.

Panic bubbled in my chest, threatening to shut my whole body down. My heart pounded too fast. My vision began to tunnel. I groaned and bent over, pressing my forehead to the cold sand. I tried to breathe in sync with the waves. I had to calm down. There had to be an answer here, something I just didn’t see yet. Everest sent me here. He wouldn’t have sent me somewhere I couldn’t get out of. He wanted me home as much as I did.

Breathe, Frankie. Breathe.

There had to be a way out. My bracelet buzzed along my skin. Of course! Stupid girl. Ask Lassie. I sat up straight and held my wrist out, holding my fingers over the stones. Okay, Lassie. Show me where to go.

That pink arrow appeared instantly. I almost cried with relief. I brushed my hands off on my dress then jumped to my feet. The arrow led me all the way to the back of the cove. I stopped and frowned. It looked like a dead end, except the runes had never led me astray so there had to be an explanation.

The air pulsed with little electric shocks. A wave of heat rolled out of the cliff wall. I held my hands up, ready to throw my magic at whatever was coming. My mind imagined all kinds of fantasy creatures that could’ve been about to attack. I pictured a demon made entirely of stone like the cliff — except then a piece of the cliff slid over and a figure wearing a dark hooded cloak the same exact color as the stone. My pulse quickened. It was the cliff monster. I shouldn’t have manifested it. I raised my hands, letting my magic coil in my palms.

The figure stopped short. Pale human hands poked out of long sleeves then reached up and pushed the hood back.

We gasped at the same time.

“ Everest. ”

His eyes were wide and glassy. “ Celina. ”

A strangled whimper left my lips then I charged for him. I ran faster than I’d ever run before, my little legs carrying me to him like a leaf in the wind. He hadn’t moved, he just stared at me like I was a lake in the desert. But when I tackled him, his arms wrapped around me tight immediately. His breath left him in a rush, sweeping over my face and through my hair. I buried my hands in his hair, pinning him to me as hard as I could.

We held each other for a long, long, long time.

Then he sat me on my feet and pulled back just enough to take my face in his hands. His gaze roamed my face like he’d never seen it before. “I must admit there were many a night I feared I had dreamt of you. That you were not real.”

“I am real.” I reached up and pressed my hand to his cheek and my gaze landed on the ring I’d slid onto my thumb prior to leaving my room. One of the rings Tegan had given me, saying they may come in handy. The one on my thumb was a hammered silver band with a small oval moonstone in the middle. I liked that one, it reminded me of the ocean. I pulled my hand back and slid the ring off. He watched silently as I took his hand and carefully slid my ring onto his pinky. “For the nights when the fear is too much to bear, hold on to this and know I am real, and I am waiting for you in the future.”

He looked down at the ring on his pink and let out a rough sigh.

“I am sorry I did not think of it before, but you have it now.” I kissed his hand. “When you need me, I’ll be right here.”

He groaned and dragged me against his chest. “ You are not supposed to be here ,” he whispered against my hair.

“I do not care. I need to hold you. My heart cannot handle this.” I looked up, resting my chin on his chest. “Just for a little while, let me stay with you.”

His eyes widened.

“Let me give you a memory to hold on to while you wait.”

His face fell—-and then his lips were on mine. He smelled like dirt and smoke. His lips tasted like a bonfire. He kissed me with desperate passion, with a hunger he could not satisfy. His hands fisted my hair. The world was spinning around us, but I just held on tight and gave myself over to it.

He broke off with a gasp. His lips were red and puffy, his cheeks pink. “You cannot stay long?—”

“Just a little while.”

He nodded then took my hand in his and led me into the cliff wall where he’d emerged from. Once we stepped around the piece of cliff he’d slid to the side, I realized it was a cave. There was a small little fire flickering on the far end, though the space wasn’t big at all. The ceiling of the cave was barely tall enough for Everest to stand at full height. The cave rumbled. dirt rained from the cracks above me. I glanced over my shoulder just as the last sliver of light vanished. Everest had closed us inside the cave. Not that I was afraid, I had never been afraid of him.

Guess I know why now.

Eight hundred years but my soul remembered him.

The cave was nearly pitch black, if not for the glow from the fire casting light on his face I would have not known he was there. “Why are you hiding in a cave? It’s so dark in here.”

“Darkness is my oldest friend,” he said softly.

It might have been my imagination, or perhaps it was me, but I could have sworn his hand was shaking. He led me through the dark. The cave rumbled again, sending more dirt and rocks down on top of us—-and then bright daylight blasted me in the eyes. I cursed and buried my face against his back.

He let out a little chuckle. “You walk headstrong into the dark then hide from the light."

“Is that not like me?” Butterflies filled my stomach at the thought that maybe I wasn’t like the me he knew.

“If I were still doubting you were really you—-which I am not—-but if I were . . .” He stopped walking then pulled me around to the front of him. He smiled down at me. “That doubt would be gone now.”

I wrinkled my nose then stuck my tongue out at him playfully. “Well, I’m glad I put your hypothetical doubt to rest. Now where are we?”

He spun me around and my breath caught in my throat. It was Rapunzel’s tower from the movie Tangled. Not literally, of course, but I wondered if the people who animated that film had been here because it was damn near identical. Those towering cliff walls surrounded us in a circle, standing so tall it was impossible to see anything else beyond it aside from the cloudless blue sky. It was a perfect, glorious oasis. At the opposite side from where we stood, a narrow waterfall dropped from the top of the cliff into a pretty little river that snaked around the oasis and hopefully led to a lake or small pool. There was lush green grass that covered flat land and some hills. Massive oak trees with low hanging branches and moss dangling toward the ground were mixed in among the lavender wisteria trees and pale pink cherry blossoms.

All I could do was stare.

It was the most beautiful, magical oasis I had ever seen.

I had the sudden urge to protect it from the rest of the world with violence.

“There is violence in your aura, my love.”

“Yeah, I will hurt anyone who dares to even think of harming this place.”

He chuckled.

I looked up at that smile on his face and wanted to cry. His eyes were broken and haunted yet when he laughed it was like the pain was totally chased away. I took his hand in mine. “What is this place?”

He took a deep breath then let it out. His eyes locked on the oasis in front of us. “Home.”

I frowned and glanced around. “This is your home?”

“ This is . . . our home ,” he whispered.

I gasped. “What? What do you mean? Everest?”

“Do you see the tower? At the base of the tower is a cottage.” He pointed to where a narrow tower stood up above the pink and purple of the trees. “This oasis was a wedding gift from your mother and her sisters. A secret garden tucked away from the world where we could be safe to be together without mother finding us.”

Tears filled my eyes. My throat got tight and warm. “This . . . this was our home? Together?”

He was staring at it the same way he stared at me when I first arrived at this cove. “You gave birth to Auryn here. We raised her here—” his voice broke— “For three centuries, this was our home.”

The tears slid down my face. There were so many words to say yet none came. I was at a loss. This beautiful, wonderful man and our Heaven on Earth. Part of me, a part I did not want to let ruin the magic of this moment, was devastated that I was robbed of my memories of this life with him. It was not fair. But I knew I was the luckiest girl in the world that I got to come back to him, so I would not let myself focus on the pain of what I’d lost.

“I . . .” he cleared his throat. “I have not been back since . . . since I lost you.”

“How long has it been?” I squeezed his hand. “For me it was minutes ago.”

He closed his eyes and cringed. “For me it has been the longest century of my life.”

My heart sank into the deepest pits of the ocean inside me. “Why are you here then? Why now?”

“Our daughter . . . she . . . begged me. She . . . needs somewhere safe to live for a while where she’s not looking over her shoulder. I came ahead of her because . . . because I feared the collapse of my emotional state would hurt her too much.”

“Oh, Everest.” I wrapped my arms around his waist. “How long have you been here?”

“I have spent two days trying to force myself to step through that cave, I thought I would die with grief . . .” he looked down at me with tears in his eyes. “And then there you were.”

I pushed up on my tiptoes and pressed my lips to his. When I pulled back, I smiled and tugged on his arm. “Show me our home?”

With a small smile on his face, he tugged me along with him across the grass. “You refused to let me put a pathway, you said since it was only ours, we did not need to disrupt the beauty.”

“I am so smart.” My eyes were wide as my gaze snapped left and right and back again. The long wisteria flowers swayed in the breeze while cherry blossom petals sprinkled onto the grass. Birds chirped from within the trees, when I looked for them, I saw only squirrels with bushy tails running along the branches. On the ground little fluffy bunnies hopped between bushes. I grinned. “We’re not here alone, are we?”

“No, our oasis is home to many animal friends.” His face fell. “I have not been as good to them as of late, I will need to change that.”

I opened my mouth to ask about the animals when we emerged at the front of a cottage. It was one story made of stone, with a slanted roof and little triangular peaks above the windows. On the left side, at the top point of the roof was a small chimney while on the right a stone tower raised into the trees. The door sat a handful of steps up, surrounded by lush green bushes and colorful wildflowers.

“ It’s beautiful, ” I whispered.

“Yes, it is.” He exhaled. “I forgot how beautiful it was.”

“I’m glad Auryn is making you come home.” I laced my fingers with his. “Show me inside?”

As he opened the door, I wondered what kind of magic was placed on this oasis to keep it safe, but now wasn’t the time to question it. Besides, Everest knew better than anyone else how important safety was. Despite no one being here for a century, the inside was not musty or dusty. Fresh air swept through open windows. Cherry blossom and wisteria flower petals drifted through the cottage, landing on the wooden floors and on the furniture.

Everest and I took a few steps inside then stopped.

The wooden ceilings were vaulted. The walls made of stone. I had no idea what I expected the inside of a fourteenth century cottage to look like however it was surprisingly cozy. Especially as Everest strolled over to the giant hearth and started a fire. I definitely didn’t realize they had couches. I’d never paid much attention in history class and now I wanted to smack myself. I soaked in every detail around me. Beautiful paintings hung on the walls, each of them depicting a different landscape. Several of them were beaches, some with mountains and some with palm trees.

“Is that . . .” I stopped in front of a painting by the stairs of the tower. “Is that Notre Dame?”

His eyebrows rose. “You know of Notre Dame?”

“I haven’t been there but yes, it is rather famous.”

“It is not finished yet but before the war . . . we went to Paris.” He cleared his throat. “We liked to collect paintings from places we traveled, and paintings we’ve acquired from history.”

“That’s incredible. What others do we have here?”

“Many, many cathedrals. Some temples from ancient Greece and Rome?—”

“My God, it’s a time capsule.” I grinned up at him. “Please keep collecting? When I get home, to the future, I’m going to have you bring me here. I expect an extensive collection when I get there.”

He chuckled. “As you wish. Anything in particular?”

“Anything beautiful or special. Anything that makes you think of me.”

“Everything makes me think of you. But come, I ought to show you the paintings in our room.” He held his hand out to me. When I took it, I definitely wasn’t imagining the clamminess of his palm, but I didn’t mention it. This had to be hard for him to be here. With me yet not quite me. He paused outside a closed door. “I . . . I cannot imagine returning here without you.”

I wrapped my arms around his. “That must be why I was brought here. I’m glad. Now, let’s go in together.”

He pushed the door open and stepped aside, gesturing for me to enter first. I pressed my hand to his chest as I moved around him and stepped inside our room. The two side walls were lined with windows, letting in natural light in the best of ways. A four-poster bed sat in the middle of the far wall, and it looked surprisingly comfortable. I strolled in with a smile. It wasn’t fancy and it was perfect. I turned to face him and spotted a hearth on the fourth wall. Above it, hanging on the wall, was a collection of paintings. One of me and Everest only, but the others had Auryn in them at various ages. My eyes watered. She really was the perfect combination of him and me.

“We don’t trust many painters, but we managed to find a few,” he said softly from behind me. “I had said they were a risk to our safety. You insisted they were worth the risk. I have never been happier to have listened to you.”

I sniffled and wiped my eyes. I wanted to memorize these paintings just in case this oasis was somehow not here when I got home. If I had a camera, I would take a million pictures—- wait a second. I have my cellphone. It won’t work to make calls or texts or anything, but the camera should work. The camera works at home when I have no service. I reached for my bag and shoved my hand inside. My iPhone slammed into my palm instantly.

“What is this bag you wear?”

“OH. It is a magic bag. it was loaned to me from—” I slammed my mouth shut before I said something I wasn’t supposed to. I grimaced. “Sorry. Future talk is strictly forbidden.”

“That it is.” He chuckled. “Tell me how this magic bag works?”

I bit my bottom lip. “It never fills. There’s so much stuff in here. All I have to do is think about what I want when I put my hand in and if it’s in the bag it flies into my hand. My . . . my friends at home filled it with stuff.”

He smirked and nodded. “And by friends you mean me?”

I chuckled and nodded. “And others, but yes. You.”

“Well, what is it you’re looking for now? Clean clothes?”

“No, my phone?—”

“ Phone? ” He scowled. “What is a . . . phone?”

I opened my mouth then shut it. “Shit. Um . . . a modern invention that allows people to communicate with other people who are not near them. So, like if you were in Paris and I was in Greece, I would use my phone to talk to you.”

His eyes widened. “That is . . . wow. Do . . . do I have one of these in the future?”

“Come here, let me show you something.” It was probably not allowed, but I couldn’t help myself. I pulled up my text thread with him, the one with his name written at the top. “This is how you and I have communicated in the past. See your name?”

His eyes went even wider and got a little glassy. “Those are . . . those my words to you? My communications?”

“It’s like a . . . uh . . . like a fire message?” I started to scroll up to show him. “This device holds all the words.”

He nodded then grabbed my hand and lifted the phone higher to his face. His nostrils flared. “What is this attire called?”

“Attire?” I frowned then it hit me. I’d sent him a selfie of me in that sexy lavender dress for the spring ball. My face flushed. “Um . . . that’s a dress.”

“Society allows women to dress so . . . bare?”

My face was on fire now. “Um, yes. Even more bare than that?—”

His gaze swung to me then slid up and down my body. “I am not sure how I feel about seeing you in this dress in public.”

That made me snort-laugh. “Yeah. That’s basically the reaction I got out of you when I wore it, too. In fact, you’ll see your message here informs me that that is not a dress.”

He nodded. “Good.”

“You hate it?”

“I do not.” He grinned and handed my phone back to me. “I do not think I should be seeing things from the future?—”

“That’s my bad. I just wanted to take a picture of these.” I held my phone up and snapped pictures of the paintings. Then I spun slowly, taking a video of our room until I landed on him. The confused expression on his face was one I had never seen on him before. He looked genuinely alarmed. I giggled. “Do not be afraid of this. You have many centuries before photography is invented. I just want to make sure I have our home on video just in case it no longer looks like this when I get here again.”

He scratched the back of his head. “I admit, I have not felt this level of confusion in quite some time.”

“I’m sorry—wait a second. Did you say clean clothes?” I scowled down at myself. Sure, my white peasant dress was splattered in blood and charred in places, but it wasn’t that bad. “Am I that dirty?”

His face fell. “You smell of the night you died, the scent it haunts me–”

“I will change then.” I dove for my notebook in my bag. “I have a spell for changing?—”

“You have clothes here,” he said softly.

I looked up with a start. His cheeks flushed as he gestured to the far-left corner where a narrow door sat. I walked over and pushed it open and gasped. It was a closet the size of our bedroom. My jaw dropped.

“Everest? How old am I?”

“The same age as me, more or less.”

I blinked and shook my head. “So, you’re telling me there’s centuries worth of clothing in here?”

“We only keep our favorite pieces. the rest we give to those who need them.”

I walked over to where a pale pink gown was hanging. It was similar to the peasant gown I wore now but made of a thicker cotton and the sleeves draped even longer. “May I wear this one?”

“ That was your favorite, ” he whispered.

My chest tightened. “Then I cannot take it?—”

“Please, take it. When I come in here and find your favorite gown missing, I will know it is because you are wearing it, and you will feel less . . . less gone.”

“Everest—”

“Auryn is here.” He frowned and turned toward the door. “Change. Then come out. I want to warn her you’re here. her emotions have been . . . fragile of late.”

“I will be right out.”

He nodded then slipped out the door. Tears threatened to spill over but I blinked them away. My time here was limited, I knew that. Any minute Everest was going to remember that I could not stay, and he would throw me back into the tunnel. I wanted to see Auryn before I left. So, I made quick work of changing out of my peasant dress and into the soft pink cotton gown that was evidently my favorite. I needed to ensure this dress survived back to the future. But there was a mirror leaning against the wall, so I snapped a couple pictures of me in the gown just in case, I wanted my Everest to see me in it again.

God, I hope I’m not breaking all the rules here.

Please don’t let me screw up the future. Just zap me when I need to keep my mouth shut.

I was just walking out the bedroom door when I heard Auryn scream, “ she’s here? Where? ”

“I’m here.”

She spun around so fast she actually wobbled. The woman standing in front of Everest was foreign to me, her face did not match Auryn’s or Saber’s, but I knew it was her with every fiber of my being. For the first time in my life, my new life , I understood all those sayings about how a mother always knew their children. This body had not given birth to her but the soul inside of it had. This Auryn had long pin-straight black hair that fell down to her hips. Her skin was a deep tan that reminded me of Tennessee’s. Her eyes were jet-black. Actually, she looked like an ideal casting for Pocahontas.

“ Mother? ” She squeaked, her hands shaking.

I smiled and nodded and threw my arms open. She let out a whimper then charged for me. I met her halfway. We tackled each other, falling to our knees on the ground as we cried and held onto each other. She sobbed harder than the night she saw my dead body, though I understood. I would’ve given anything to see my parents again. So, I held her as her body shook and her breaths hitched. Over her shoulder, I watched Everest try to hold in his emotions and then lose. He pressed the heels of his palms into his eyes and turned away. I squeezed my eyes shut and held onto her tighter.

Finally, a few minutes later, she pulled back to look into my face. “Mother. It is you.”

“It is me.” I cupped her face. “I’m here.”

“He told me, he told me, but my heart was afraid to believe it.” She sniffled and used her sleeve to wipe her nose. “I don’t even look like me right now, let me change?—”

“To me, you will always look like you.” I pressed my hand to her cheek. “I feel you, and I do not need my eyes for that.”

She crashed into my chest again. “He told me the night after you died that you had come to him. That you promised we would get you back?—”

“I see you in March of 2019. And my, what a woman you become.” I tucked her hair behind her ears. “Wait until you see you in the future.”

She giggled and wiped her eyes. “I am counting the days.”

Everest twirled the ring I’d given him around his finger absently.

I smiled and held my hands out between us. “Pick a ring. Any ring. Or two. Or all of them. I want you to have something of me in the future so that when the days are hard, and the time seems not to move, you can remind yourself that I am coming back to you.”

“How do I pick?” She ran her fingers over them. “Did father get one?”

“Yes, a silver ring with a moonstone because it reminds me of the ocean.” I eyed the rings on all my fingers. “Would you like me to pick for you?”

“Please? You were always better at understanding crystals.”

That made me smile. I slid a gold band off my middle finger of my left hand. “This is black tourmaline. It’s one of the best protection stones. It’s also great for grounding and cleansing. It will keep evil and negative things away. Keep it on you.”

She grinned and slid it onto her left middle finger, it made me so happy to find our hands the same size. “Thank you.”

“Maybe one more?” I pulled the big one off my right pointer finger. “This is a raw amethyst, it’s also good for protection but also clarity. The band has smoky quartz on it which will also provide calm.”

She slid that one onto her pointer finger and fresh tears poured down her cheeks. “You do not know how much this means to me, to have these. I have caught myself doubting but these will be my proof.”

The front door flew open. We all jumped and spun to face it just as a tall man stepped inside. The man had long, straight jet-black hair and deeply tanned skin much like Auryn’s was now. He was shirtless, wearing only some kind of brown leather pants with a large thick brown cloak over his shoulders. Big black eyes landed on me and widened. the color flashed through the rainbow before resettling on black. Those black lines spread across his face but were gone in the blink of an eye.

I recognized him instantly. I grinned. “Akecheta?—”

“ You know him? ” Auryn whispered. She gripped my shoulders. “Mother, you know Akecheta? How?”

I smiled down at her. “I just met him yesterday, in my time. I cannot tell you more than that of course, but I know he is your soulmate.”

Her eyes filled with tears. She looked over her shoulder to him. “You’re there.”

He gave her a soft smile. “I know.”

I started to get up off the floor when Akecheta threw his cloak off then reached into a brown cloth wrapped around his bare chest. Auryn covered her mouth with her hands and started to cry. Everest’s eyes teared up. He turned to our daughter’s soulmate and held his hands out.

Akecheta pulled a baby out of that cloth.

A baby.

A tan-skinned, black-haired, teeny tiny little baby. Akecheta was grinning as he placed the baby in Everest’s open hands then nodded toward me. Everest cradled the baby in his arms and walked over to me.

“Mother . . .” Auryn pushed her hair back and licked her lips. “Mother, I’d like you to meet my son Raeven. We call him Rae.”

My jaw dropped. Everest crouched down beside me.

“ I’m a grandmother ?”

Auryn cried. “I cannot believe you’re here to meet him. My whole pregnancy I wished and cried that my mother would never see him as a baby and here you are.”

And here you are. Everest had said that same thing to me. Fate had chosen quite a day to send me back in time. To a day when my family needed me. Eighteen-year-old me had never even held a baby before, I’d never even considered whether I wanted to have any, but as Everest sat my grandson in my arms, I felt a click in my soul. It was like my soul had been waiting for this, for me to find little Rae.

Everest brushed his fingers over Rae’s chunky cheeks. “He is perfect.”

I nodded. I’d never cried more in my life yet there I was crying again. “He is perfect.”

Akecheta cleared his throat. He sat on the wooden chair closest to us. “Have you seen him . . . as an adult?”

“No, but you three are very secretive.”

They chuckled.

Auryn let out a deep breath. “I am surprised you are not asking a million questions. You were always super curious.”

I found myself smiling sadly at her. “I’ve spent the last few months, since you and your father came into my life, asking questions nonstop. Demanding answers, bargaining for them in some cases. I got no answers and now I know why. I heard the lectures from everyone about the rules of time travel and the like. You could not tell me who I was to you until I got here to see it myself. I have so many questions, but I have so little time to be here with you and I do not want to waste these moments. Any moment now your father is going to demand I leave.”

Everest groaned. “You cannot stay.”

“I know?—”

“Not even for a little while?” Auryn pleaded.

Everest pulled our daughter in for a hug. “I do not want her to leave but she is not ours to keep. Yet. She is a gift here, a blessing of hope for our future. If we want her to still be there seven centuries from now, then she cannot stay.”

“Why are you here?” Akecheta frowned and those black lines spread across his face. “I cannot make sense of what I see, when that happens, I know not to try. But you are searching for something, yes?”

“Yes.” I looked up to Everest. “Am I allowed to tell you?”

He frowned and nodded. “Carefully, with little details at first.”

“Okay, right.” I leaned back to sit with my legs crossed so I had a more stable position while I held baby Rae. “Are you familiar with a certain tome that your father had possession of?”

His eyes widened. “My father?”

“Atzaran, yes.”

He swallowed roughly. “Are you in contact with my father?”

“No.” Because he’s dead. But I managed to not say that. “Without explaining things, I cannot . . . your father once, a long time ago, used this tome to . . . eradicate the Seelie Realm of some unwanted residents.”

He smirked. “The Unseelie. Yes. I am well-aware of their history and where they came from. And yes, I am aware of the tome he used to do so though I have never seen it myself.”

“I have.”

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “I do not like this.”

“None of us do.” Then something occurred to me. “The war, the one I . . . died in . . . was that?—”

“Vampire and Unseelie war against The Coven?” He arched one eyebrow. “Yes. Sweyn was defeated. The entire Nephilim species was killed. The Unseelies were kicked out?—”

“Right. Kicked out?—”

He groaned and hung his head. Then he pushed to his feet and scrubbed his face with his hands. “The tome is not on Earth. My father has it?—”

“I don’t need the tome.” When baby Rae made a little whimper in his sleep, I looked down and smiled then began to gently rock him. “Without details . . . there is a page missing. I’m looking for that page.”

Akecheta pinched the bridge of his nose.

“I know where it’s supposed to be. But we discovered that it has been destroyed—-by Sweyn. We’re not sure when she destroys it, sometime between the last war and our present day. Valathame?—”

“ You know her name? ” Everest whispered. “You speak of it casually? The Coven here does not know it?—”

“The Coven knows it in my time.” Because we’d met her. We knew her. I’d spoken to her myself. “Anyways, Valathame sent me on a quest to find it in my time, with the sole purpose of showing me where to find it. And that’s why I’ve traveled back in time. That’s why I’m here. I have to find the missing page. If you reach into my magic bag here, I’ve made a decoy to replace it with.”

“You have a decoy? How do you know what it looks like?”

I grimaced. “You made it.”

His face fell. He stared at the ceiling. He cursed then crouched down and reached into my bag. He flinched then his eyes widened, and I knew he’d just been surprised by the magic of the bag. He lifted the decoy out and stared at it. Then he shuddered and shoved it back into my bag. “I have never seen this.”

“There will be a place where Sweyn and all the vampires are forced to live, per The Coven’s law. That is where the page will be.” I looked down at baby Rae and my heart sank because I knew it was time to go. “I just have to find the right time period.”

He sighed. “This is not that time.”

“I know.”

“You have to go.” He reached up and tucked my hair behind my ear. “You are losing too much time in the future that you will not be able to catch up on. The rules of time travel are specific, and when you return you will be sent to the most current point time has reached.”

“He’s right, Mother.” Auryn held her hands out. “I do not want you to go, but we need you back home in the future.”

I kissed Rae’s forehead then placed him gently in Auryn’s arms. “I am grateful I was able to meet him, even if only for a moment.”

“This moment means more to me than you could possibly know.” She sniffled and cradled her son against her chest.

I wanted to memorize this moment forever. Wait. With a cheeky grin, I reached into my bag and pulled my phone out. Auryn and Akecheta scowled at it. I grimaced. “This is a modern painting maker, so to speak. Just . . . just go with me here. It won’t make sense to you now, but it will before we are reunited. I promise.”

They nodded.

“Right, so everyone stand together as if you are posing for a portrait.” Thankfully, they understood what that meant so it only took me a few seconds to prop my phone up on the chair and set the timer, then I scooted over to them. “Just look at the device and smile until I move.”

I watched the timer count down then it flashed. With a grin, I slid back over and checked. A perfect family photo was now in my phone. It felt like illegal contraband, but I didn’t care. With a little skip in my step, I put my phone back into my bag but when I did something else flew into my palm. I frowned and pulled it out—-then gasped. It was that hand-held photo printer Mei-Ling had gotten me for my last birthday. A sticky note on top said Tegan said it was okay. I grinned. That girl. If she said the rule was okay to break, I wasn’t going to hesitate. I quickly plugged my phone into the little printer. Just to be sure, I pushed a tiny bit of magic into it then pressed print.

A small rectangular picture slid out the bottom of the printer.

With all five of our faces on it.

I grinned and spun around to find them all staring at me with wide eyes. “Remember, don’t ask. Don’t try to figure it out. And definitely do not show anyone else. This is a secret for our family, okay?”

They nodded but eyed my phone and printed like it was a demon ready to attack.

“Think of this as a miniature painting.” I held it out to them. “So you can always remember this day.”

Auryn’s hand trembled as she took the picture. “Thank you,” she cried.

Everest rubbed his eyes. His cheeks were flushed. “It’s time for you to go before we break all the rules of time.”