There had been no more deaths in camp as everyone was watching, and no one traveled alone, even for water. On the third day, a small group appeared at the barn to see the baby and inquire about Alexia. Kiren kept the visit short.
After they left, he placed his head in his hands, praying silently for his wife.
***
Alexia woke to Kiren kneeling over her in the darkness, staring earnestly into her eyes—like he had so many times upon waking in their shared bed.
“How long have I been…?”
“Four days. You should eat.” He lifted a bowl of porridge, something she recalled being spoon fed between slumbering.
She sat and took the earthenware from him with thanks. While she ate, Mae arrived. Kiren spoke with the woman quietly, then handed their slumbering child over. Alexia rose to protest until he turned to her. His eyes brimmed with oscillating emotions: fear, relief, joy, such longing…
***
Kiren fastened the door behind Mae, who was taking the babe to meet the Lost Ones. He left everything but his wife outside.
The child was alive. Alexia had survived. His wife and his child lived, and now he had promises to fulfill.
Alexia watched him, her chest rising and falling in the light through the rafters. There would be no moon tonight. The perfect time for bonding. Light glistened over her wild curls, turning them half golden. All else faded to darkness around her. She was his angel. His redeeming soulmate. His forever.
They rushed to one another in the same instant. Bodies collided. Mouths locked. Teeth clicked and teased in play so elegant it could only be called art: the art of two souls as they merged to one.
How? he asked. How was she whole?
Time traveler’s secrets, she teased.
Kiren slipped Alexia’s clothing free, marveling at the feel of her skin, shivering with anticipation, his own and hers. At last he would claim her entirely. She would be his.
She laughed and leaned back. “Yes, and you are mine.”
“But you chose me. How did that come about?”
“Shall I show you?” She pressed up against him, lighting his skin on fire.
The whole world existed within her embrace. He was lost in the darkened forest of her eyes, and yet all this paled to what she offered him now. The truth. The future. A priceless chalice filled with her secrets.
But something irked him. She had been seen, known by another man. Another him. The idea made him want to burst into flame. She should be his entirely, not shared by some shadow from a time to come. He ground his teeth together. “What kind of husband am I in the future to abandon you to this fate?”
Her gaze lifted to his mouth. “The kind who listens to his wife. Now fulfill your promise, or I will be forced to fulfill it for you.”
Desire trampled through him—hers, the suppressed longing from the last many weeks—its potency dragging him beneath the swells of a consuming ocean. He was drowning in it and she was his only lifeline. He gave into the hunger, battling with his rage. Each touch drew him deeper, each brush with her mind lulling him closer until he’d lost himself completely, not knowing where he ended and she began. Her mind, her soul opened to him and he saw all: a young Alexia terrified and fascinated by the blue-eyed man who haunted her dreams. How she sought him out to discover the truth about the Passionate and sacrificed her sister in order to preserve his life. She had loved him so deeply—the patient man who was willing to risk everything for her and his people—that she gave up her entire life to become part of his.
Was it possible to cheat on himself?
The final image of her leaving him for the purpose of saving so many lives, it broke him completely. She’d given up the thing she wanted most for the good of all the Lost Ones. Worse, he knew she must be correct after all he’d seen. She would die in this time.
His throat tightened, and he held her tighter as they lay together. “How is it possible for me to continue on if you…?”
She gave him a sad smile. “It must be because I am out of proper time. I will not be born for many centuries yet to come.”
Centuries. The magnitude of what she’d told him sank in. She would be gone shortly, and he would not see her, touch her, speak with her again for centuries. His heart squeezed. She didn’t deserve to have her fate decided before she’d even been conceived. This noble, independent woman should have the freedom to choose what she would become. He wanted that. He wanted so much, but most of all, her happiness. What had a life with him given her—a baby? A death sentence far from her home and loved ones?
Condemned. He had condemned her the instant they first touched. She deserved to live. He wanted her to live.
Perhaps if he could stay away from her, she would have a chance for true happiness. Perhaps it might be what kept her alive. He needed it to be what kept her alive because…
He loved her.
Loved her with all his heart.
He held perfectly still, lips nearly grazing hers. “How could you not have told me?”
Alexia traced his collarbone, leaving a trail of fire. “You were not my Kiren, and you were not ready for me. How would you have reacted if I had claimed I carried your child?”
He frowned. “I would like to think I would have taken you to wife a great deal sooner, but I am afraid I would have behaved badly.”
“As if you did not behave badly enough.”
He laughed and brushed his lips across her cheek. “You wanted every kiss.”
“I did.” A raspy breath escaped her.
“But?”
“Not for the reasons you kissed me.” She nipped at his ear, fingers tracing the sensitive skin of his neck and stoking the inferno to a new blaze. It wasn’t fair that she knew all his weaknesses and he knew none of hers. “You would have felt obligated to care for me based solely on the baby, and I did not want you bound by your future.”
“Perhaps you should have asked my opinion on the matter.”
Over the next hour she told him about her family and home, about her childhood and the appearances he made throughout it, how her memories were taken at Father’s insistence. She outlined her mission to stop the Soulless. He could hardly fathom a fate more terrifying than becoming one of these undying creatures, but as she detailed each aspect of their existence, he concluded along with her that these monsters must never exist, and that he must do all in his power to aid her. Even if it meant losing her.
She slid her fingers through his. “In the future, it is you who will shield me from what is in your heart and mind…and I am afraid you must.”
“And why is that?”
She rubbed his arm, tracing the muscles. “Just as you were not ready to know your fate, neither shall I be. I must discover for myself the truths of this life. Knowing will destroy me. You cannot tell me any of what is to come when we meet.”
“It would not have been easier for you—”
Her head was already shaking. “Kiren, promise me you will keep our secret.”
The weight of her words rang through their bond. She believed them entirely.
It pained him to utter the oath she needed to hear. “You have my word.”
“I did not want this for you.” She toyed with her ring. “Secrets bring about mischief, but there is a time for keeping them. You will become a master keeper.”
“That sounds like a happy time.”
A single laugh escaped her. “There will definitely be joy.” Her eyes raked up him longingly. “And other things.”
He met her yearning with a deep, fire-inducing kiss.
She pushed him back. “One more thing.”
“Anything.” Just stop talking so I can have my way with you.
“Do I detect impatience?”
He growled.
“Kiren.” He met her serious eyes. Her mouth puckered with emotion. “The Passionate need you.”
“The what?”
“The Passionate. Our kindred.”
The description fit better th
an anything he’d yet heard—a people so driven by emotions, needs, and powers that the world bent around them. It far outstripped the depressing title of Lost Ones he’d adopted.
“You have seen what becomes of them under your rule from my memories. They need you.” She cupped his face. “I need you.”
His breath caught. It was true. In the age she was born, he’d been leading the Passionate. And though there was conflict, the infrastructure of their secret government had concealed and protected her until she was ready to become his. Could he do it? Could he overcome past failure and doubts? Could he govern a people who even now may be poisoned against him?
“I know you,” she whispered. “You are capable. Most will follow you, and you will be honored and revered.”
Like his father. He had new purpose, a reason to be in this world and a long-standing promise to seek her out one distant day and pave the way for her survival.
“So be it,” he said. “I will strive to become the man you love.” His sister would have to hold her own in the other world until these vows were fulfilled.
Her grin brightened, and with it, his soul.
Alexia wrapped her arms around him. “No matter the time or age, I have always loved you. Always.”
“Alexia,” he drew her close, tucking his lips next to her ear.
She stopped him. “There is something I need to tell you about our daughter—”
Pounding on the door ripped them out of each other’s arms.
“Arik, Alexia! God forgive me.” It was Mae.
Kiren pulled on his tunic and hurried to the door. Alexia slipped on her robe as he cracked the door open.
Mae wrung her hands, face a wild mess of panic. “The baby is gone. I do not know what has happened to her. She is just gone!”
Sixty
Taken
The blackness cleared as Leofrik entered camp, wondering how he’d arrived there. A brick of ice hung in his chest, a chill he couldn’t escape. The last thing he recalled was facing Ulric.
The immortal ones rejoiced around a fire, the scent of roast venison and crispy greens making his mouth water while toasts rang through the air. This new camp backed against a cliff of boulders. He overheard conversations of a new world and this being a final meal.
Regin wrapped an arm around his neck. “To our hero, slayin’ collectors and provin’ himself an ally and brother!” He lifted his waterskin, which smelled suspiciously of berry wine.
Cheers echoed his.
Regin sobered and spoke softly. “Now Velia is true and goodly avenged.”
At mention of the woman, Leofrik’s eyes snapped to her child, wrapped in a blanket on the far side of camp, sitting and studying the ground. He escaped the man’s grasp and walked straight for the girl. She shifted up straighter, her frown fading.
“Child, it pleases me much to see you safe.” He crouched down to her level.
She threw her arms around his neck. Leofrik blinked away the shock and slipped an arm around her back. Even the warmth of her embrace could not dissipate the frost around his heart.
“Mama said she would send someone. She told me he would be a knight.”
Velia had never stopped believing he would fulfill his word. He squeezed the girl tighter. “I do not even know your name little one.”
“Nor I yours, brave knight.” She let him go, bowing her head. “I have no name.”
“None? How then are you addressed?”
“Papa called me ‘Poppet.’”
Leofrik scowled. “That is no kind of proper name for a child. Hm. I think from now on you shall be known as Ilaria. It was my sister’s name.”
Her face lit, her whole body lifting an inch from its depressed slump. “Was she beautiful?”
“Aye, but not nearly as beautiful as you shall one day be.” He pulled a hand through her white gold hair, recalling her mother. “And I will be here to see it done.”
Her face lit. “What does it mean, sir knight? What does my name mean?”
“Joyful or happy—for you, little Ilaria, will be a joy to me, and you shall be happy, I am determined.” He slid the wooden wolf from his pocket and placed it into her grasp.
Her face lit. It dimmed just as quickly. “Everyone is leaving soon, going somewhere strange or away on their own. You will stay with me? Mama could never stay.”
“I will. Always.”
Sixty-One
Complete
Deamus accepted the babe from the knight and pulled back her swaddling to reveal the necklace. It hummed with energy. Now he had all he needed.
“Thank you, Leofrik.”
The knight lifted his head, and crimson eyes speared Deamus through. Deamus shivered. Those eyes resurrected a memory, something more than the recent attacks and the entity in the darkness. A force. It had taken possession of his mother when she threw herself at Father, scraping at his arms and face with her bare nails as he fought through the final incantation to seal the gateway. Neither Deamus nor his brother had been able to restrain her.
Deamus shifted backward. “Are you my ally or enemy?”
The thing in the knight’s skin tilted its head. “I am whatever you make me.” Its voice weighed like stone, with a cadence of rushing water. “You uttered the words that broke my seal. You have a choice.”
Deamus clenched a fist, holding himself perfectly still. “Then be my ally.”
It stared at him longer. “Open the gate.”
He turned to obey, leaving the thing in the field and fleeing to the clearing where thirteen Passionate waited for “entry” to the other world.
Sixty-Two
Wrong
Leofrik shuddered awake. He stood in a field, his arms cold where a weight had recently left them. He twisted, confused and strangely empty. One moment he’d been speaking with Ilaria, and now here he was. The ice in his lungs was gone. He felt entirely himself, albeit he couldn’t staunch this sense that something was wrong. Terribly wrong.
Sixty-Three
Saturate
No matter how they sprinted, leaving Zeph to retrieve Mae, it wasn’t fast enough. Alexia held in a shattered cry as she skidded to a halt in camp.
“Corona…”
The space was empty. Wisps of smoke curled from an extinguished fire. The Passionate were all gone. All of them—the remaining twenty-three.
Alexia fell to her knees. “My baby…” She could be anywhere—spread to the far winds with any of the departed. Mae had confessed handing off the child to Oriel, who passed the babe to Silivia, who shared her with Lucian until she’d lost track of the little one. Everyone had wanted to see the child. It was an innocent mistake.
A costly one.
Something hard pressed against her knee. Alexia unearthed a sword that looked like Leofrik’s. Why would he leave his sword behind?
Kiren landed at her side, his soul equally pained. “She has to be…she cannot be far. Come on.” He tugged at her arm, getting to his feet. “We will find her. She is out there.”
Alexia nodded and got up, taking the sword with her. She strapped it at her side and turned in a circle. “Which way?”
Kiren turned to the horizon. “I have a feeling…”
“The gateway,” they said in unison.
Kiren grabbed her hand and yanked her forward.
***
Every second was killing her. Alexia took Kiren’s hand and pulled him into slowed time, running faster than she’d ever run. She’d done this once before, to save his life. They could share their gifts through the bond, but he was so caught up in his determined gait, his cool rage seeping through their connection, that he didn’t say anything.
Kiren squeezed her fingers and she glanced at him. His jaw clenched with determination, his eyes lances of fiery ice. This was the side of him she’d ached to see, the purpose and focus, his direction sure. He was going to save their child.
Voices carried through the trees—a low bass hum. Alexia’s heart leapt. Perhaps they weren’t too late. Pe
rhaps her child was on the other side of those trees!
She let go of time, and they burst through the shrubbery. Kiren yanked her to a stop. Seven men on horseback turned their direction. Soldiers.
They must have followed Leofrik or the others.
Kiren’s grip on her hand tightened. He backed away. Alexia followed, watching the men warily. Hands rested on weapons, heads tilted. Two horses left the group, circling around them.
“We have no time for this,” Kiren muttered.
“Ho there, and where be ye runnin’ so fast?” one man asked.
Alexia readied to stop time, to slow it, something, when Kiren tugged her arms around him. He clasped a fist around his medallion and brought the other hand down at a sharp angle. The sky boomed. Electricity cut through the clouds and pummeled into the ground. Men flew every direction. The earth heaved. Alexia clung to Kiren, his knees steady as the world shook about them. Horses screamed and hooves pounded away.
Quiet filled the grove. She looked up. Men lay sprawled across the forest floor, one or two on their knees, trembling and cowering.
Kiren groaned. “I was saving that for whoever took Corona.”
She turned to him. “Have you always been able to do that?”
He leaned back. “And you profess to know me.”
She took his hand and they hurried forward.
“It struck me last time,” he said. “I didn’t know if it would work the way I asked.”
Alexia smiled.
“I have just wasted our only weapon.”
Timeless (Maiden Of Time Book 3) Page 25
