Temporal Shift (Entangled Select Otherworld)
Page 28
Yup. It was official. The love of his life was seriously scary.
The dragons must have sensed something, seen the wormhole, and they upped their attack. Sweat broke out on his forehead, trickled down his face.
The wormhole was close now, the gaping mouth taking up one full screen, sparking with white lights and shooting flashes of the violet interior. A roar filled the bridge.
Saffira’s eyes were scrunched shut, her teeth clamped on her lower lip. Devlin held her tight against him as her knees buckled.
“Right, we’re going in,” Rico yelled above the roar. “Maybe you should have strapped yourselves in—no time now—just hold on to something.”
Devlin held onto Saffira as they whirled into the darkness.
Epilogue
Saffira stood in the center of the bridge and studied the screens that circled the room. Through the rear scanners, she saw the black hole, a whirling mass of iridescent lights. Behind them.
Fucking hell—she’d done it.
The Blood Hunter was through, a little battered perhaps, but still functioning.
They were in the other universe, and eternity stretched out before her. Eternity with Devlin and a whole new world to explore. But first, they had some religious types to kill. Or maybe, as founder of the Church, she could just disband it or something.
Devlin had been checking the systems, now he came up behind her and rested his hands on her shoulders, pulled her back against him as he, too, stared at the screens. “Welcome to my world,” he murmured.
Rico was in the pilot’s seat, Skylar beside him. “You know, I’ve been thinking,” he said. Leaning back in his chair, he rested his booted feet on the console in front of him and eyed Saffira lazily.
“Shit,” Tannis muttered. “That’s never a good thing.”
Rico ignored the interruption. “I’ve been wondering, what exactly was it that destroyed the Earth? They never did tell us at the time. Of course, speculation was rife, everything from plagues to being slammed by an enormous comet, but no one knew for sure. So what was it?”
Saffira shifted and fiddled with her hair. “I don’t know,” she admitted.
Rico sat forward in his seat, his eyes narrowing. “What do you mean—you don’t know? How can you not know?”
“I never saw it—the destruction of Earth, I mean.”
Devlin released her and came around so he could see her face. Everyone was watching her now.
“I never actually saw that. I only saw me warning the President and so I knew it must be going to happen.”
Rico rose to his feet and came toward her. “You never saw it happen? Not even a little peek?”
She shook her head.
“You just saw yourself warning this guy that the Earth was going to end and ergo the Earth was going to end.”
“Why the hell else would I have warned him?”
Devlin answered. “Because you saw yourself warning him…” He ran a hand through his hair. “Shit, this time travel thing does my head in.”
“Get used to it,” she muttered. She chewed on her lip. “It must have happened.” She sounded defensive now. She couldn’t believe this had never occurred to her. But it couldn’t be true. Earth had been destroyed. Hadn’t it?
Rico threw back his head and laughed. “This is just so good,” he said. “You dragged those poor Chosen Ones halfway across the universe…for nothing.”
“You don’t know that. Not for sure.”
“So maybe mankind didn’t need saving?” Tannis asked. “It was all for nothing.”
Rico chuckled again. “Well not for ‘nothing’.” He waved a hand around their surroundings. “None of this would have happened. You wouldn’t have happened.”
Tannis ran a hand through her short spiky hair. “Shit, I think my head just exploded. So somewhere, a long way off, the Earth is still going happily on its way.”
“Perhaps,” Rico said. “Maybe one day we’ll get to find out.”
Saffira plonked herself down in a chair. “Well, I don’t believe it.”
“Don’t worry,” Devlin said. “We won’t tell.”
“Piss off.”
He laughed. “So what’s next? You know, I was sort of expecting a welcoming committee.”
“They probably think we all died in the black hole,” Tannis said.
“Maybe.” Devlin didn’t sound convinced.
Tannis crossed to a console and tapped something in. “Fuck. It looks like we’ve lost a few years.”
“What?”
“It’s twenty-one freaking years after we dived into that black hole.”
Saffira glared as everyone turned around to look at her. Again. “Hey, it wasn’t me.” At least she didn’t think it was her. “You just weren’t concentrating hard enough.”
“Well, we’d better try and find out what we’ve missed.”
“And let’s hope nobody’s killed Hatcher while we’ve been gone,” Devlin added.
Saffira sat back in her seat and let the conversation wash over her. She was part of this now. Part of the crew of the Blood Hunter…a space pirate!
Devlin came and sat beside her, took her hand, toyed with her fingers. “So it seems we’re not finished yet. Are you ready for another go at eternity?”
She gazed into his inhuman violet eyes. She missed the blue-green of the ocean but it was a small price to pay. “With you?”
“Why not? I’m beginning to believe there might be something in this destiny crap. Let’s go out there and see what else it has in store for us.”
A whole new life, and best of all, Devlin finally believed in destiny.
All the same, perhaps she’d leave it a little while before she mentioned her latest vision. A consciousness flickered at the edges of her mind, ancient and powerful. They weren’t finished with her yet. Perhaps she wouldn’t mention that either.
Just for a little while. They deserved a honeymoon period.
After all, time was on her side.
They had eternity.
The End
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Acknowledgments
To everyone at Entangled Publishing for persevering with my favorite series.
To all the great women at Passionate Critters for reading my stories and letting me know what they really think.
And also a huge thank you to my long-suffering husband, Rob, who has to put up with me regularly zoning out of the real world and playing around in worlds of my own making. He even manages to listen to my plots and refrain from telling me: it’s not real, you know (at least after the first time!)
About the Author
Nina Croft grew up in the north of England. After training as an accountant, she spent four years working as a volunteer in Zambia, which left her with a love of the sun and a dislike of nine-to-five work. She then spent a number of years mixing travel (whenever possible) with work (whenever necessary) but has now settled down to a life of writing and picking almonds on a remote farm in the mountains of southern Spain.
Nina writes all types of romance, often mixed with elements of the paranormal and science fiction.
www.ninacroft.com
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Discover the Blood Hunter series…
Break Out
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Death Defying
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Losing Control
Out of Control
The Order
Bittersweet Blood
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Betting on Julia
The Descartes Legacy
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