Chasing Time

by Mia Downing

  His gaze flicked to me. No doubt he was thinking how I’d been right about the drugs. And ha, Leah found her just as annoying as I did.

  “Why would you go to such lengths?” he asked.

  “It’s easier to break a bond when the connection isn’t as strong. I needed you to doubt yourself, your marriage. I’d tested your bond the night at the party, and it had been weaker. Breaking it is slower going now since you two have a good bond.”

  Though she made slower progress than I had in unlacing the bond, she’d reached the halfway point. I had no clue what to do to stop her without getting killed. I scrambled for an idea and thought about learning to knit and how the yarn had tangled around the needles. I tried stabbing a mental block below the threads to see if that would keep them from unraveling.

  It took a moment, but she hit that block, and her frustration flooded over me as her energy joined ours.

  Quickly, I removed that block and placed it lower, so I still had a thread of bond left. That was all I needed to keep him safe. Relief flowed from her side, and she continued her slow progress as I waited for an opening to do something.

  “The timeline has changed,” Leah said quietly as if she were offering us tea and cakes. “So imagine my surprise when I went to find the source and found a pair of originals and fractions. In the same place! Imagine that.”

  Yeah, imagine that. I had to clamp down on the urge to roll my eyes. My fingers next to the ground twitched, and they brushed the handle of my knife through fabric, the gape of the pocket opening right there at my fingertips. Leah shifted, and I stabbed my hand forward into the pocket, gaining ground.

  “Have you heard of that happening?” Marek asked. “Fractions and originals in one place?”

  “No, but you know they don’t tell us everything in training. Lofton and I discovered a lot of little tricks that made it easier to control time.”

  “Is that what you did to install Burke’s vault on the point? Because there was no way to do that without changing time somehow.”

  “Yes. My Lofton could stop time.” Leah’s head must have shook, the motion vibrating through her hands to my neck. “I’m not sharing secrets, though.” She adjusted her hands slightly, pushing into my neck.

  Frantically, I cleaned the bond again, controlling my heart rate and breathing to keep conscious.

  Satisfied, she let up. “But since the timeline has changed and you fractions have appeared, I figured whatever I had done before didn’t work. So, here we are. And I’m almost done.”

  Marek glanced at me again, and he swallowed as the energy swirled frantically on his side. “But how did you know we were travelers? How did you find out our plan to begin with?”

  “Well, I was having dinner at the Pembrokes’ home across the street from the cemetery a few years ago. And imagine my surprise when I stepped on the porch for a breath of air and saw the light of the gifted at the back of the cemetery. Intrigued, I crept over and listened. You thought speaking in Uptari would be safe, but it made it easy for me to hear some of your plans. So I found out where you lived, and I started listening at the windows for more news.

  “Imagine my surprise when I discovered you wanted my necklace. And from there, I easily became your acquaintance, inviting you both into my world. When I revealed without being too obvious that I was a relative of the famed pirate and had his journals…” She shrugged. “Who would expect another time traveler to be this far back, especially one with no bond mate?”

  Marek gave a small nod. “We found your jump stone at the other graveyard in our future time. There was an infant’s grave, too, so we weren’t sure if you were truly a traveler.”

  “Well, that was another surprise they don’t tell you about.” She unraveled a little more of the seam, getting closer and closer to my block.

  “After Lofton died, I took a lover. And as you know, the elite don’t usually get pregnant. Well, with the bond gone and the watch destroyed, I immediately found myself with child. And when I discovered my son was a gifted boy…oh, the joy. I could finally go home.”

  “You’d bond with your own son?” Marek asked, the disgust ripe in his voice.

  “I’d do anything to go home,” she said coldly, the blade biting into my neck with her anger. “But he died. I didn’t have antibiotics to save him, and what I could create on my own didn’t work. So that brings us to you. And her. And to the last shred of your bond.” The blade let up, and the progress on unraveling my bond stopped right above the block I had placed. “You have anything you want to say? She’s not conscious, but it will make you feel better.”

  “What are you going to do?” His form tensed, his shoulder rolling slightly as his hands flexed from behind his head.

  “I’m going to press her neck here and on the other side”—she pushed down to show him but let up immediately—“and she’ll eventually die. I’ll pull that last shred of bond right before she does, so you aren’t impacted by her death. Then, you and I will bond.”

  “I don’t have to accept your bond.”

  She laughed merrily. “You have no control or consent in this. This is my gift—repairing bonds and energy. Healing. And to be good at that, I also have to know how to destroy them. You’ll bond with me, like it or not, and you’ll take me home. I don’t need you to be conscious to bond or jump. I have other drugs I can use.”

  Shit, she’d reached the block I’d placed. I hid my horror as that last thread unraveled, and then she hit the block. Mentally, she tugged, but the block held. I used her distraction to fully grasp the handle of the knife, praying I could slide it free quick enough to save my life.

  “It seems your girlfriend is stronger than I thought.”

  “Meaning?”

  “She has installed something on the bond to hold it together. Her original must have warned her about me. No matter. When she’s taking her last breath, she’ll let go of that.”

  Marek shifted his right arm, the single thread of his energy going nearly black with despair.

  “I see you fiddling with your watch.” She removed the knife from my neck to point it at him. “You jump, you both die.”

  I yanked my knife from my pocket and blindly stabbed in her general direction—

  Marek

  As I pushed the buttons on my watch, time ground to a halt around me.

  I blinked in the darkness, my shock turning to terror as I realized what I had done.

  The two women were still on the grass before me in the dark, frozen in motion. Skye hung in the air in mid stab, her knife poised toward Leah. Leah’s knife still pointed at me, but her face had turned toward Skye with a grimace of anger. The air hung dead and silent, with not a cricket chirping or bug buzzing.

  I’d done it by accident. I’d stopped time.

  Leah had said it was possible, and that’s how the treasure vault had been constructed. From the elaborate drawings and descriptions, I had no clue how someone could accomplish all that work on the vault in the fifteen-minute span where the tide would be at its lowest. It had only happened four nights in history that I knew of, which wouldn’t be enough.

  When I reached my full energy levels in February, I’d experimented a little, trying to see if stopping time were possible. I hadn’t hit on the right combination until…now. I’d actually been trying to set the watch to another time so I could just leap forward and cover Skye enough with my body to take her with me. But this had happened instead.

  I rose and went to Skye. She must have been conscious this whole time, and I wondered at that. Her bond had been lifeless. I studied the trajectory of her knife and shook my head. All of this would have been for nothing. No way that her knife would hit Leah anywhere it would make damaging impact. I could pull her away, but I wasn’t sure what impact that would have when I restarted time, if the timeline could change again.

  Instead of doing something drastic, I shifted the blade in her hand, cocking my head as I pictured the motion it would follow. Dissatisfied, I flicked the b
lade over another fraction so it aimed at Leah’s throat. When time started again, Skye would be safe.

  Just to be sure, I gently nudged Leah’s knife from her hand and tossed it a little distance from her skirts. She’d have to work for it. I walked around the two, satisfied as I picked up my own blade. I crouched where I had knelt and tried to figure out what I had done to stop time so I could use it again.

  I’d pushed these two buttons, and—

  Skye

  The timeline changed again, the clap of thunder louder this time.

  My knife sliced through the air and sank into flesh. Leah gave a gurgling howl. I rolled away from her, and Marek’s shadow flew over me, a knife in his hand.

  I slammed down my mental shield, protecting us both just in case she survived what I’d done to her and if she tried to break the bond again. Panting, I curled onto my side in the cool grass, adrenaline hitting me all at once. And unlike some lucky souls who could lift cars and do magical things, I merely shook in a ball on the ground as my heart raced and sweat poured off me. I fought the urge to vomit. Fuck, if he couldn’t take care of her, I’d be dead for sure.

  Someone bent next to me, and I flinched and rolled, trying to get my feet.

  “Skye.” Marek’s strong hand grabbed my arm. “You’re safe.”

  I took a ragged breath as I processed that. Safe. “Leah?”

  “You hit her in the throat. She’s dead.”

  I cast a terrified glance past him to the form on the ground. “She can heal herself.”

  “I don’t think she’s coming back from the dead.” He crouched and drew me into his lap. “Fates, Skye. I thought—” He sucked in a breath and cradled me close, burying his nose in my hair, his hands trembling as he clutched me.

  I swallowed the hard lump in my throat. “I was conscious the whole time. I… She’s right. I have learned things, like how to hide what I feel on the bond. I amplified that and hid everything I felt. I made myself look unconscious. I even controlled my heart rate.” I gave a shaky laugh. I’d lain awake next to him so many nights, unshielding to peek at our bond in wonder. I knew well what his energy looked like when he was sleeping. “And because I’d broken the bond before, I just had to figure out how to stop her from severing it entirely.”

  He clutched me closer. “I never thought that week of hell would come in handy but thank you for knowing what to do.”

  I nodded. For once, my bad decisions had resulted in a good outcome.

  “We need to get going,” he whispered. “I didn’t kill that guard at the tomb, so they’re going to start looking for her.”

  “You didn’t?”

  “No, your big, blue eyes haunted me in my mind, begging me not to be a ruthless killer.”

  “Idiot. Now, we’re in danger,” I teased, trying not to think about what I had done that put me in the same category. I’d killed another human. An evil one, but still.

  “Not if we leave now.” He helped me rise, and I glanced at Leah’s body. He’d taken my knife and cleaned it, and now, he handed it back to me. “Pocket this again.”

  “Okay.”

  “Can you run? We need to get to the point or a safe place to jump.”

  I glanced one more time at Leah, my limbs stronger, my heart rate still erratic but steadier. “Yes, I can do this.”

  He tugged my hand. “Then let’s go.”

  Marek

  Skye and I ran as quietly as possible along the wooded path that led down to the manor house and the point, and I tried to control my racing mind and heart. I’d almost lost her. Again. I never thought I’d be grateful for someone ruining my life, but breaking the bond last week had been the best thing she could have done for us. My mind reeled as I thought back to what I had heard and what I’d pieced together. When we were safe, Skye and I needed to talk.

  But from what I gleaned about that past event, jumping despite original Skye being shot had saved us all on some level. My Skye and I wouldn’t have been created without that event. The harbored guilt started to fade, and I breathed more easily as we gained distance from the scene of our crimes.

  “Stop.” Skye tugged my hand, panting as we broke into a small clearing not far from the point.

  We were safe enough, so I stopped. She bent at the waist as she tried to take slow, even breaths, her hands braced on her thighs.

  “Sweetness.” Helpless, I rubbed her back as I wiped sweat from my brow. “What can I do for you?”

  “I just need a moment. I almost died for the second time tonight.”

  My brows raised. Once was bad enough. “Second?”

  “Yeah, that cold bitch pulled a knife on me, too.” She straightened and took a deep breath. “God. I can’t believe you married her. She’s pretty, but ugh.”

  I blinked as her words settled in, and I burst out laughing. Leah had almost killed her, and yet she still focused on the other Skye.

  Skye crossed her arms over her chest and glared. To think I’d almost lost the chance to experience her prickly attitude again.

  “What?” she demanded.

  I chuckled again. “Sweetness, she’s your original. You’re every bit as beautiful and cold and whatever else you saw in her. You’re her mirror image.”

  Her eyes grew round, her mouth gaping. “No.”

  “Yes. You’re gorgeous. You can also be prickly and bitchy. But I think you just saw yourself at your worst.” I gave her an encouraging smile. “You saw her…what do you call it? Game face?”

  Her glare lessening, she shrugged. “I guess.”

  But as she kicked a rock, my smile faded. This wasn’t jealousy, but I had no clue what she needed me to say.

  “I killed a woman,” she finally said.

  “Oh.” Should I tell her I had stopped time and made that happen? Or did she need to hear she was brave? “And how do you feel about that?”

  “I don’t know.” She shrugged again. “I’d like to think I was brave, but I almost barfed after.”

  Ah. She needed praise for her bravery. I’d tell her that I stopped time later. “You were every bit as brave and cold with Leah as you needed to be. I’m so proud and happy you lived.”

  She gave me a small smile. “But now you’re stuck with me.”

  Through the tiniest fraction of our bond, her unease crept over, clouding her energy with inky blackness. I could almost label it as insecurity, which surprised me. But as she bit her lip and glanced at the ground again, clarity dawned. She needed to know I wanted her despite looking like her original and despite killing Leah.

  I framed her gorgeous face in my hands and bent to meet her gaze in the dim light. “You’re not her. Okay? Yes, you both can send a man to his knees with your withering glances or sexy, come-hither stares, but you’re different than she is.”

  “Really? Sexy, come-hither stares?” She gave a muffled snort, but the insecurity on her side started to fade. The guilt remained.

  “Yep.” Ah, so I was on the right track. And I decided to tell her the truth. “You didn’t kill Leah. I did.”

  “Marek, I’m not stupid, I—”

  “I stopped time. Your knife wouldn’t have hit her if I hadn’t somehow managed to freeze things. You were gorgeous and brave, and I couldn’t let her kill you. So I moved your knife and took hers.”

  “You stopped time?” She pursed her lips in that skeptical way of hers. “So…I didn’t kill her. Not by myself.”

  “You didn’t kill her. I helped. We can discuss that later.” I pushed on since we didn’t have a lot of time. “And you’re not like your original in a lot of ways. You love broccoli, you’re better with people on a daily basis, and you’re a good friend to Grace.”

  She didn’t respond, but a blip of teal began to form in her energy, and she tried to sweep it away.

  I added, “You’re good for me. You encourage me to write, to finish my stories, and to be more than a time traveler. You often consider my needs first when you don’t have to, which is refreshing. She never did that.”
I caressed her cheek with my thumb.

  That doubt faded entirely, and more teal popped up, squeezing its way in. “She didn’t like broccoli?”

  “To give her credit, it tastes better now than it does at home.” I kissed the tip of her nose. “Think of her as your twin. You’ve had different lives, and that has made you different people. I’m not going to lie. I can’t get rid of those memories of loving her. But I love you so, so much more.”

  “Really?”

  “Really.” I gave her a quick kiss, my hands lowering to her elbows. “Sweetness, when I heard her voice, I was terrified, because I didn’t know what that meant. But then I saw my original, and the first thing I felt was joy. I didn’t have to make a choice, and you could just be mine.”

  “You’re sure?” Her broad smile made my knees weak.

  “I’m sure.”

  “There’s something we need to fix.” Her arms wrapped around my neck, drawing me down so she could claim my lips.

  Inside, where our energy mixed along that bare thread, she removed whatever barrier she’d used to stop Leah and began to lace our bond back together. I sighed against her mouth as my yellow energy surged forward, greeting her dark blue swirled with that gorgeous teal.

  I broke the kiss before it went too far, my heart racing a little as my dick hardened. “We’re still not safe.”

  She nodded and glanced around. “Where do we jump from?”

  “A little farther up. There’s that large slab of rock that is present in all times. That’s where they jumped before.”

  “We won’t run into them?”

  “We shouldn’t.” And it didn’t matter if we did, since we could be in the same place as our originals. It would make timing the necklace’s return that much easier.