Silence greets me.
Panic tries to grip me, but I take a deep breath. I run through the halls to my room. I’m winded, and my thin underdress sticks to the sweat on my back.
I try to open the door at the top of the staircase, but it doesn’t move. I kick it, and it opens an inch. I bang into it with my shoulder, and something clatters on the other side.
I push on the door again, and it finally opens. Scanning the hall, I don’t see anyone.
The painting of the woman is on the floor. I step into the hall and something jabs into my foot. I bite my lip to hold back a curse.
Lifting my foot, I find a piece of wood several inches in length lying on the floor. I pick it up and realize it’s from the frame.
The frame that was already broken when I arrived. I’d noticed the chipped frame when studying the Royal por- traits a few days ago.
I don’t hold back the string of curses I learned from the miners.
Alexa Mackintosh
Something can’t happen twice, but I know what I saw. I know the frame was broken last week, and the piece of wood was not on the floor. Besides, who hung the picture so close to this door?
There is no logical explanation for what is happening. I must find someone. Anyone.
Stepping over the picture, I make my way past the princes’ rooms. I plan to walk past the door leading to my room, but curiosity grips me. There’s no scanner on the door, and someone left the door ajar.
Slowly, I enter my chambers.
The room is painted a deep blue, and the bed linens are white. Paintings of trees and villages adorn the walls. A breeze blows through the room from the open balcony doors. When did the room have a balcony?
A picture of a girl about my age sits on the dresser. I study it, but I don’t recognize her. She’s beautiful, dark locks framing her tanned cheeks.
I turn towards the mirror and freeze. Someone vaguely familiar stands behind me.
“Another vision?” the woman questions. I gulp as I turn to face her.
Her eyes are red from tears, and she clutches a hand- kerchief. Her gown is an outdated style, something I know from Angelica’s many hours of telling me about fashion when we played together as children. It’s a deep purple, the color of mourning.
City of Deception
But most interestingly, a crown rests on her head. The same crown Empress Marcella wears.
“Who…Who are you?” What if she can see me but can’t hear me?
“I wish to know the same about you. I am Empress Xera.”
Empress Xera died eighteen years ago. A mysterious sickness killed her, her daughter, and her husband. Her son, Ivan, survived.
Ivan. This is his mother. My stomach churns.
“I asked you a question, creature. Who or what are you?” she asks.
“I…I don’t know how but…I’m Natalia. In eighteen years, this room becomes mine.”
I expect she will claim I’m insane, but instead, she pulls out a knife. “Are you with their kind?”
“What kind?” “The invaders.”
“No, I don’t think so. In some years, I come live in the palace with the Royals after they choose me.”
I gasp. I shouldn’t have said the Royals. She doesn’t know when she will die, but I do.
She puts the knife back in a hidden pocket in her gown. “You’re from the future?”
“I guess so. This has never happened before.” I feel silly. My knees are shaking, and I stand in front of one of the most renowned Empresses in nothing but a shift.
Alexa Mackintosh
“Do you mean me harm?” she asks. “No.”
“If you lie, I can summon the guards, and they will be here within seconds. Take a seat. You look as if you’ve seen a ghost.”
She has no idea how true that is. What is going on?
Gingerly, I sit down on the edge of the sofa in the cor- ner. I’m ready to run if I need to.
“If you are from the future, what becomes of my chil- dren? Do the invaders kill them or…or what happens? If you show yourself here, there must be a reason. You must be here to give me information to save my children.” Her eyes plead for me to speak, but I know I can’t. I assume I’m in some time travel conundrum, and though this has never happened before, I do know telling her the future will cause a new string of events that could destroy every- thing.
“I wish I could tell you, but I can’t change the past or it will alter the future.” What does she mean by the in- vaders? No one has invaded in over two hundred years, and the last incident involved Zadie’s planet trying to con- quer ours. They are our allies now and have been for dec- ades.
She grips my hand. “Do you understand an entire planet’s security rests on the safety of my children?”
“Yes, because I’ve lived through it. You don’t want to hear what I will tell.”
City of Deception
“It’s bad things?” “Some of it.”
She starts to sob. “I lose them both, don’t I?”
I bite my lip. I can’t tell her, but she’s heartbroken. She isn’t a powerful Empress right now. She’s a mother wor- ried for her children.
“One will live, and one will die,” I say in a rush. She looks over at me.
“I can’t tell you how or when, so please don’t ask,” I add.
Her sobs worsen. “I’ll still lose one of them. It’s as I feared would happen.”
A guard runs into the room. “They are here, my lady.” Her face pales as she grips the knife in her pocket. She stands and turns to me. “If I survive this, I suppose I should thank you, though the information has hardly
lightened my heart.”
She follows the guard outside. She is barely over the threshold when gunshots ring out, striking her in the stomach and head.
I scream as her body falls to the floor alongside the guards. Blood begins to pool on the floor.
The room begins to fade away as uniformed soldiers step into view. Their uniforms are nothing like I’ve seen. They’re black and green, with a small, unidentifiable in- signia on their shoulders. The insignia looks like a circle with a few, different color lines running through it.
Alexa Mackintosh
Zadie’s room reappears before the soldiers can fire an- other shot.
I’m lying on the floor staring at the ceiling, and my head is pounding.
Zadie will think I’ve lost my mind, and honestly, I’m not sure I haven’t. Empress Xera didn’t die like that.
Zadie shakes my shoulders. “What the hell was that?” I wince as I place a hand against my throbbing fore-
head. “What happened?”
“You disappeared! How…What did you do?”
I’m glad she witnessed the incident. For all her silly talk, she’s rational.
I grab her arm for support. “Help me into a chair.”
She pulls me onto my feet and guides me to a nearby chair. My stomach complains along with my head as I set- tle on it.
“I think I time traveled,” I say.
She raises her eyebrows. For the first time, Zadie is speechless.
“I realize the absurdity of it, but I don’t know what else it could have been. I saw Empress Xera and then came back here.”
She sits down across from me. “A time anomaly per- haps? Vera loved science and spoke of the possibility that there were, for lack of a better word, holes in time. Occa- sionally a person could fall into them.”
I nod. “Maybe, but it was terrifying.”
City of Deception
“How do you think I felt? You up and disappeared in a second!”
“We should keep this to ourselves.”
She giggles. “I plan on it. We’d sound mad otherwise. Now, why don’t we get something for your head? The way you’re clutching it, it must be killing you.”
{ 15 }
Chapter 15
’M AWAKENED IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT by my
lamp turning on. Temporarily blinded by the golden
light, I cover my eyes and attempt to see the culprit.
“Petrov?”
“Nikki actually.”
I swallow my fear. “Who are you?”
“Many things. I’m neither your friend or enemy.”
My hand discreetly slides towards the end of the bed to the emergency button. I must keep her talking.
“I’m a time traveler, Natalia Alkaev.” “From the future?”
“The past.”
I didn’t know we had agents in the past. “Why are you here?”
“I suspect you traveled through time. There was a small ripple this afternoon, something that happens any- time someone travels. There are other travelers, so I
Alexa Mackintosh
wasn’t surprised. What caught my attention was that the ripple came from now. You aren’t supposed to be travel- ing yet. How did you get a time traveling device?”
Yet? What does she mean by yet? I’ll be time traveling one day?
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” “Move your hand back, Miss Alkaev.”
I’m an inch away from the button. I jump for it, but she shoves my back, and I slide to the other side of the bed and onto my back.
“Did you not see the Empress Xera today?” she de- mands.
I blanch as I sit up. “I did.” She freezes. “How?”
I shake my head. “I don’t know. The room disappeared, and I reappeared there.”
She taps her chin. “So, you don’t have a device?” “No.”
“Interesting. It must have been an anomaly, or as I call it, a time pocket. There’s a theory that at times other years will overlap into this one.” She sighs. “That’s an aw- ful explanation. Anyway, you must have found one. Please call me immediately if anymore find you.”
She holds out a flimsy business card with the imagine of a clock covered by her name and a number in tiny black print. I don’t take it, so she places it on my nightstand. Her eyes narrow. “What time would you like to go to? I know you doubt I’m a time traveler.”
City of Deception
“A time?”
“What about something simple? I’ll take you to the day you arrived at the palace.” She holds out her hand. “Take my hand. You might feel a little woozy after the ride, but I promise you will be fine.”
Before I can speak, she grabs my wrist, and the room disappears.
We reappear on a balcony on the eighth floor of the palace. We’re perilously close to the edge, looking over the front doors of the palace. The wind is bitterly cold this high up, causing my nose to run since I’m wearing noth- ing but my silk nightdress. It’s daylight, perhaps after- noon guessing from the pinkening skies.
“Get on your knees and whisper if you need to speak,” Nikki says placing a hand on my shoulder.
We bend down, and she points through the marble railing to the main gates. “Watch the baby blue carriage.” There is a line of carriages entering through the main gate. Three silver military carriages lead the line, fol- lowed by the blue carriage, a red carriage, and three more silver. They stop in front of the stairs, and servants flood
out to attend the arrivals.
“Is…Is this? It can’t be,” I mutter.
“It is. You’ll step out of the blue carriage in a moment.” Servants open the doors as Seconds scan the perimeter for threats. We remain achingly still to avoid their scru- tinizing eyes. Thankfully, we both wear white, making us
blend in with the white stone surrounding us.
Alexa Mackintosh
The Emperor exits the blue carriage followed by Ivan. A brunette steps out a few seconds later and pauses as she stares up at the palace in awe, gawking at it long enough to look silly.
“There you are.” Nikki points to the brunette.
I see the events unfurling far below but barely believe. This moment happened, but how can I be watching it? And if I’m watching it now, it means if I looked up from the ground where the me from a few weeks ago is, I’d see myself.
It makes my head ache. It is after all the wee hours of the morning where we came from.
She takes my hand without warning, and we reappear in my bedroom in the present day, me kneeling on the bed and her on the floor. As she rises to her feet, she asks, “Satisfied?”
I nod. “I can’t argue with what I saw. How do you travel like that?”
She holds up her wrist. “My bracelet. It looks like a wristwatch, but it is a time traveling device.”
“And you’re with the rebellion?”
“Of course.” She backs away from the bed. “Call me if anything peculiar happens concerning time travel. Don’t worry about your trip to Empress Xera. You did little damage; I’ll make sure it has no effect on the time contin- uum. Also, you may wish to read up on time travel theo- ries. I suspect you’ll need to know. However, do not, and I
City of Deception
repeat, do not read up on time travel machines. If you do, I will speak directly to your commanders.”
I nod. Why time travel but not devices and machines?
“Glad we understand each other.” She touches her bracelet and disappears.
Leaning across the bed, I grab her card. It gives her first name, no surname or address. It’s not shocking there’s no address. Who knows what time and place she’s from? But if that’s true, how will the phone calls go through?
I shake my head, dispelling the many questions this late at night. Grabbing my robe off the floor, I pull it on and make my way to the door, Nikki’s card in my hand. I find a new guard.
“Is there a problem, miss?” he asks, sleepily blinking as his head snaps up.
I shake my head. I forgot Petrov went off duty at mid- night. “Sorry to bother you. I…I can’t sleep and consid- ered getting a glass of something from the kitchens. I…uh…changed my mind.” I shut the door before I sound any more foolish. I’ll have to tell Petrov about Nikki in the morning. He should confirm whether her story is true.
s
He smacks the card across the top of his hand a few times in thought. “Sorry, Natalia, but I’m not familiar with a time traveler named Nikki. I’ll ask a superior. He
Alexa Mackintosh
can send word to the leaders. Someone will likely know of her. For the time being, may I keep the card?”
“Yes, I wrote the number down on another piece of pa- per. Thank you, Petrov. I wasn’t sure what to do about this.”
“If she comes by again, call for me. I don’t care if I’m off duty. Until the leaders clear her, she’s unauthorized in the palace. As for the Royals, I’ll alert them to a possible intruder. I’ll tell them I saw a shadowy figure in the hall last night and advice upping security.”
Footsteps bounding down the hall catch my attention. Zadie races towards us, her skirts flying about her an-
kles. “You’ll never guess!”
Before I can ask, she takes my hands and jumps up and down. “The Royals are throwing a ball for all of the plan- ets! It’s the first they’ve thrown since…” She stops and swallows, her excitement ebbing away.
“Since before Vera’s death?” I guess. She nods.
To cheer her up again, I say “So, you’ve come to tote me off to seamstresses again to be ready for the event?”
She beams again. “The ball will be in one month. Every class is invited, but one must be dressed appropriately to get in.”
That already limits all Thirds.
How clever of the Royals. Keep the poor out without banning them from coming. How…charitable of them, my inner sarcasm bites.
{ 16 }
Chapter 16
he Morning of the Ball:
THE CITY IS ALIVE. The seamstresses labor over expensive gowns. The cooks slave away in the kitchen. Georgianna comes at seven and wakes me, forcing me to rise, bathe, and patiently wait as she takes an hour to make my short hair appear as if it is a foot longer. I’m not sure how she does it. She weaves beads and flowers in my hair chatting nonstop about the activity go
ing on in the palace.
“I hear that there will be over 200,000 people in the capital tonight. Can you believe it?” she says giddily.
“That’s a lot,” I answer, watching her hands bob around my head as I stare into the mirror.
“I hope an officer asks me to dance.”
Alexa Mackintosh
I laugh. I have no doubts that she will get her wish. With her thin waist and porcelain skin, she is certainly capable of catching a man’s eye.
There’s a knock at the door. “That must be the Em- press,” Georgianna says, moving to the door.
“You knew she was coming?” I exclaim, grasping her wrist to make her stop. I remember well my previous run- ins with the Empress.
Georgianna smiles, pulling her arm away. “I heard a rumor. I didn’t tell you because I can see you don’t care for her.”
She opens the door. The Empress enters a bundle of silk, diamonds, and perfection. A small swarm of servants follows her. Unlike her, I sit on my stool in my nightgown, tired circles under my eyes.
“Good morning, Lady Alkaev. I thought I’d prepare you for the ball,” she says all glamor.
“Of course, my lady.” I rise and cover my bare arms with a shawl. I want her to leave but cannot demand it.
“My maids will see to your makeup and the rest of your appearance,” the Empress says.
The Empress and her maids make me sit still for over half an hour as they apply makeup to my face. I grow im- patient for them to leave but powerless.
As soon as they finish, the Empress says, “You look stunning! Now to the rest of you.”
The maids strip me of my nightgown, and I madly blush as I stand in nothing but my underwear before the
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