Chrysoprase (The Chalcedony Chronicles)

by B. Kristin McMichael

  “Hurry up,” I told him as Ty zipped his coat and grabbed his bag. I looked down and saw the same navy book he pulled out in the library on the coffee table. “And don’t forget your math book. You have homework due tomorrow.”

  Ty took his bag and grinned at me. “I knew we could do this.”

  Ty was out the door, and I hung back as I watched myself walk by. It was strange to see myself, to say the least, but I did worry about all that science fiction stuff about being in the same place at the same time would cause some sort of damage. I watched as they walked to the road and knew exactly what was being said. I went back to the living room. It was as good a time as any to go back.

  I thought of the study room and Ty’s face as he saw me fade. Closing my eyes, I pictured everything clearly and waited for the fuzzies. Nothing. I pictured it in more vivid details, the bags strewn on the table, the book in his hand, the faded white walls pressed to my back. I waited. Nothing again. I wasn’t going anywhere. Now, this was a problem.

  I flopped onto the couch. What was I to do? I was stuck in the past and had no clue how to get back. This wasn’t a good idea after all. Sure I could go someplace, but it did no good if I couldn’t return. I laid my head back and sighed. This wasn’t as easy as we pictured it to be. I needed help, and only the person I could think of to help was the goddess. I wasn’t exactly happy with her after she took away the people I love, therefore I was more willing to just sit and wait. I had traveled into the future, now I just needed to find a way to go back.

  “If you’re here and I saw you walk away with Ty, is it safe to assume that you’re not the current Mari that just yelled at me moments ago?” Logan asked from behind me. Again, I was startled since I hadn’t heard him enter the room.

  I sat up and looked at him. I was still mad at him, and he didn’t deserve a reply. I shrugged and lay back against the couch. I closed my eyes and tried again to picture the study room. The sooner I left, the better. I really didn’t want to be in an empty house with Logan; especially a Logan who wasn’t accepting that I was in love with Seth.

  “Looks like you could use some help,” Logan suggested. His voice was getting closer. He was walking over to the couch. I still didn’t open my eyes or reply. “How much of the stone did you use up to travel?” he asked.

  I finally opened my eyes. I had to. I had no clue what he was even talking about. He knew more about how to time travel than I did, but I didn’t want his help. Even the little bits he was now giving me were, annoyingly, making me want to ask more. Logan laughed at my lack of response.

  “Did the goddess tell you nothing? All the other ones she gave lessons to, and here she lets her last one be all alone. I have no idea what she’s playing at. Where did she place the stone in you? Can you see it?” Logan asked, sitting beside me. The things he was saying were a little confusing to me, but I had to answer his question. I wanted to go home, and it seemed like maybe if I talked to him, I could get away from him.

  I pulled back my sleeve. I needed some help, and since he was offering I would have to take what I could get. Help from Logan always came at a price, though.

  Logan’s eyes got big as he looked at my arm. “That’s the stone?” he asked.

  “Yes,” I replied, unsure why he was surprised. He was the one that knew the stone was within me. “And?” I prompted, looking for an answer.

  Logan picked up my hand and turned it gently over to look at the lines that crisscrossed around my wrist. Except for the few lines that radiated from my wrist, it looked like a red bracelet.

  “That sneaky devil.” Logan chuckled as he examined the lines closely.

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “Nothing.” Logan shook his head and continued to hold my arm. Since he was no longer inspecting it, I pulled it back out of his grasp. “Where do the lines normally go to?” he asked, smiling at my response of pulling away from him.

  “Almost to my elbow and down to my fingers,” I replied, pointing to where one each ended. Logan nodded.

  “Well, I’d have to guess that until they show up again, you won’t be going anywhere,” Logan replied.

  “Have to guess?” I replied, somewhat in shock, and somewhat mocking him. He acted like he knew what was going on, and now he was guessing.

  “Well, she’s never exactly put a stone in someone like that before,” Logan replied. “Most of the time she puts the whole stone just under the skin. It fades when used up, and grows darker when it’s ready to be used again. I’m guessing your lines are like that.”

  “She’s never done this before?” I repeated what he already stated. I knew there were others like me, but I never considered who or where they were. “How many people like me have you run across?”

  “A few dozen over the years,” Logan replied with a shrug.

  Logan was my age, nineteen. How could he have seen a few dozen when they were born very rarely? Had he traveled that much? Yes, Logan wasn’t the person I knew two years ago.

  “I can teach you how to use that stone,” Logan added again.

  “For what price?” I asked. It had to be asked. Logan was turning out to have a much larger past that I ever imagined, and he wasn’t the person I remembered.

  “I don’t have a price. How about we say, I teach you for a future favor?” he asked, mystery and seduction laced his voice. I didn’t like the sound of that.

  I involuntarily shivered. My gut told me I had something he wanted, something he couldn’t name now, because he knew I would say no. He had gone to so much trouble to make himself central in my life again. I wasn’t sure if I could trust him now. Ty’s voice rang in my head. Ty, the warrior from the past, was wary of Logan. He wasn’t the same boy I dated two years ago. Then again, I don’t know if he ever was. My old and new memories were at odds.

  I shook my head no. I couldn’t agree to that. There was no guarantee what his price would be. I had a feeling there were secrets in Logan Jones I didn’t want to know.

  “Come on, Mari,” Logan pleaded, some of his old boyishness shining through his intense stare. “If I don’t teach you, who will? It will take forever to learn on your own. I can teach you, you can save your boy, and then all you will owe me is a small favor in the future.”

  “I don’t trust you,” I replied honestly. Well, maybe that wasn’t the best thing to say to him now. If he did send me into the past, there was no way I could go anywhere.

  Logan laughed. “What is there not to trust? I’m the same Logan you dated two years ago. You trusted me then, why not now?”

  “I didn’t really know you then, did I?” I asked in reply.

  “Didn’t know me? I knew you, and I have a feeling you still know me,” he replied seductively. I shook my head and shuffled over on the couch a few inches. I did remember our time together, but how could I not? He was the first boy I ever kissed. I would remember that forever.

  “If you knew me that well, you would have known that I wouldn’t have appreciated you coming into my life and pretending to be my boyfriend. I don’t like my memories messed with, and I’m not going to pretend to be in love with you like I was with Seth.” I stood and made my way toward the doorway. I wasn’t going to sit around with Logan while I waited for the stone to come back. I was sure now I never knew him. As I got to the doorway, Logan finally replied.

  “I knew that if I let your memories be altered as they would have without Seth around, you wouldn’t have been happy with the results. You would have never been friends with Ty. You would have never done CRUSH, and your friendship with Sim would have been completely different,” Logan said quietly. I had to stop to listen to him. “I put myself into your memories, in Seth’s place, to keep everything almost the same for you. I knew you would hate the results of the past changing, and I did my best to keep as much the same as I could. I still know you, Mari. I still love you. I will never stop, no matter who you love instead of me. I knew how much you’d be hurt, and I did the only thing I could to keep it from b
eing worse.”

  That wasn’t what I expected to hear from him. I figured his only reason was to get back into my life, but it wasn’t according to him. Still, it didn’t change anything. As nice as his words were, they were still just words. Every moment I spent with him I now had to question. What was real and what was not? I still didn’t trust Logan. He wasn’t who I thought he was. He never had been.

  I continued through the doorway and up the staircase. I planned on hiding out in Ty’s room, it wasn’t like he was coming back any time soon, but my feet led me down the hallway a bit. I opened the door, knowing that it wouldn’t be the same. I had already been in the room with Seth gone. The sea theme with the blue and white was gone, and the room was decorated in just plain white now. It seemed clean and sterile, but it was still his room. I still had memories of lying in his bed the night after he saved me. He was there with me. His arms had made me feel safe. I missed him so much more now. I sat down on the bed. It was still Seth’s bed, no matter where he was.

  I lay down and looked at the ceiling. I wanted to feel his arms around me again, I wanted him to be with me. I needed help, but I wasn’t sure who to ask. Mr. Sangre said he couldn’t help me, Logan said he could for a favor, and Ty was as clueless as I was, even though he had time traveled just as many times as I had. There was only one person left to ask.

  “Goddess,” I whispered as I stared at the ceiling more.

  A warm breeze flitted into the room even though the door and windows were closed. It was her. I could feel her even if I couldn’t see her.

  “I need help,” I added, waiting for her to appear. She did not. I sighed. Yep, not even the goddess could help me. I was truly alone on this.

  “You need no help,” a voice said from around me. Again, she wasn’t in a shape that I could see, like she had been in my first conversations, but she was in the room. I began to wonder if there was a reason now that I could not see her. I’d have to wonder later as she was with me now and I needed answers.

  “I jumped into the past for just minutes, and now can’t get back,” I told her. I did need help, and she was my last resort.

  “As with any travels, you just need to wait. Then you can go back,” the goddess replied.

  “But I don’t know how,” I replied. I truly didn’t know how to travel in time.

  “Then how did you get here?” she asked, floating around the room as her voice moved with her.

  I had just thought about it, and then I was there. That wasn’t knowing how. It just happened. I couldn’t explain that to her. There was nothing that I did or thought. There was nothing I could repeat or do again.

  “You’re making too much of this. It is simple. You don’t need someone to teach you; you need to believe in yourself,” the goddess answered, reading my thoughts.

  I looked to my arm. The lines had grown but weren’t full yet. I’d have no choice but to wait as she said. Maybe it was that simple. Her presence left the room and the warm wind was fading with her.

  “Wait,” I called to her. “Why?” I asked, doing my best to hold back the tears. The goddess made you feel warm and happy in her presence, and I thought she was on the side of the good guys. The fact that she would take my mother away seemed wrong to me.

  “Why?” she repeated, as if she didn’t know what I was questioning.

  “Why take them away? Why leave me without the people I love?” I asked in barely a whisper.

  “Oh, child,” the goddess replied, coming back into the room in full force. I could make out the outline of her as she stood near the bed. “If I could have left your mother here, I would have, but that isn’t the way it works. She was born in the past. She had to return.”

  “Why? She spent fifteen years in the past, and twenty here. She belonged more to the future than the past. You sent her back to relive what she ran away from,” I protested. I had many times in the past week imagined what my mother’s life was now like. She ran away from that life to protect me, and now she was back living it. It wasn’t fair.

  “She went back to almost twenty years from when she left. She will not relive her past,” the goddess replied, trying to calm my worst fears. “And I’m sorry, but that’s the way time works. You can’t take one from one time and let them live their lives out in another time. It isn’t right. I gave my power into the stones so that mankind could get help, not so that they could run away from their problems.”

  “And what am I to do now? My mother is gone, my boyfriend is gone, and I’m left stuck in the future by a power I don’t know how to use.” I couldn’t help but complain about the situation, since this was partially the goddess’ fault. Logan said she had trained everyone else before me, but not me. If she had trained me, then maybe I wouldn’t be in the predicament I was in now.

  “My agreement with your mother was that once you could travel she would go home. She always knew that. She just asked to have you here, and give you away, but I told her she could have time with you. I made the agreement because you could always go to her. She may not be in this time, but you can always go to see her,” the goddess explained.

  “Then teach me how to travel,” I replied. I was getting bold, but I was desperate. I was sorely missing them by now.

  “There were others before you,” the goddess told me, not responding to my demand. “I have allowed many to be born that could travel and help others. I taught each one how to travel, and how to help bring people between times. Each person was good at heart and dedicated to helping mankind, or so I thought. One by one they turned. Each person became greedy. They would travel to make money. They would take the highest bidders. They never looked beyond their own pocketbooks. In turn, I had to destroy each stone I gave them. You are the last one I will allow to exist. You are the last chance. There are no stones left in this time beyond the ones left by the people who traveled here. Learning how to travel on your own will teach you to value what you were given, and hopefully make you different than the others.”

  The shimmery ghost-like figure of the goddess walked around to the side of the bed I was lying near. She was more translucent than the last time I saw her.

  “I know you want your mother back, but she has a role to play in the past. It is where she is truly meant to be.” The goddess’s ghostly hand reached for mine.

  “And you have a role to play, too. You will have to be strong, and follow your heart. I have no rules for you to follow as I had set for the ones before you. I know you will follow the path of right. I’ve already seen it. You are the one to save us from the darkness coming.” The goddess let go of my hand and faded.

  “Trust your heart, trust your friends, and remember to love,” the goddess said before she was gone.

  I sighed and blew my hair out of my face. Now that was really not making sense. If I thought she would give me more questions than answers, I wouldn’t have called to her. No matter what she said about my mother, unless she was her happy in her own time, there was no way I could leave her there.

  I looked back to my hand. The lines looked normal to me, or at least I thought they did. I tried again to go back to the library room. I had thought of Ty’s shocked face and then I was instantly standing in the library and staring at it. I had a little vertigo and grabbed the table to keep from falling. I had just gone from lying on Seth’s bed to standing before Ty. I sat down quickly, and Ty just watched me. I had done it. I traveled to the future and back, and I was still in one piece. Maybe the travel thing wasn’t as hard as I imagined, or at least I hoped it wasn’t.

  “Okay that’s just as creepy as appearing out of nowhere,” Ty replied as I finally looked up from the table. “So?” Ty asked as I didn’t speak.

  Going from lying down to standing was a bit disorientating. I looked back to Ty’s expectant face.

  The door to the room burst open, and Sim spilled into the room, saving me from answering.

  “There you two are,” Sim said excitedly as her cheeks reddened. “Mari thought I imagined you co
ming back yesterday. I woke up this morning and you were gone. I had to think if you really were there or not. Then I heard your phone go off and knew you were back. It’s been ringing non-stop since you left this morning”

  I gave Sim a “really, you want me to believe that” look, and she smiled sweetly. She was the picture of a caring roomie.

  “Okay, it’s been going off since I woke and realized it was going off an hour ago,” Sim replied. There was no way she was up all morning listening to it going off. “I figured someone calling that much must really need to talk to you.”

  She handed me my phone and turned to Ty.

  “Did you have a good break?” Sim asked, her voice going a little higher. I had to smile as I opened my phone. I knew that voice was belonged to the Sim who had a crush on someone.

  “Yeah, it was nice to be able to do nothing,” Ty replied. Even he had a bit of a blush in his chocolate-colored cheeks. The new past was a bit more complicated than I remembered. I stood and took my phone outside the room. Sim and Ty were both great and deserved to be happy. If they made each other happy, then I would be happy, too.

  Scrolling down to all my missed calls, I didn’t even bother to listen to any of the messages. I turned my phone back off and peeked at Sim and Ty talking. There was no way I was responding to Logan. I was going to figure out the time travel stuff on my own.

  Chapter 4

  Deal with the Devil

  The following weeks flew by. We returned from a week long break to only a week of classes, and then finals. I spent most of my time studying, and for once, everyone else did the same on campus. Well, except for Logan. He was more persistent than Seth was, and unfortunately, he knew me better than Seth did. When I was hiding in the library, Logan found me. When I took odd meal times, Logan was there. When I left class early, he was passing by. He never once spoke to me, but made sure that I knew he was still around, and his offer was still on the table. Even Sim noticed his silent advances.