“And if he tells me now, I won’t make the wrong choice?” I hated having no idea what Kye was talking about, but he was sure what my future was going to be. I wanted to ask him if he had met before, but I settled on another pressing question. “What do I do that’s so bad?”
“You didn’t have a choice. I want things to happen differently. I want you to have a choice,” Kye replied. “But to choose, you need to have all the facts.”
I hated that his logic sounded correct. I didn’t know what he was talking about, but any choice was better made with all the facts. Kye stared at me, waiting for me to reply. It seemed like Kye knew me well enough to make a logical argument to win me over. I still wanted to know who he was to me. Did I know him from a time I didn’t remember? Had we met before?
“So any hint as to how long Logan will be pissed about last night?” I asked, changing the subject.
Kye smiled. “Oh, he was pissed, but he also found it funny. Don’t tell him I told you that. I think he didn’t expect any less from you. It’s part of what draws him to you. You don’t let him tell you what to do. You never have. He’s lived many lives where people just do what he wants, but not you. You’re different. You’re special.”
“I hate people telling me I’m special when I have no clue what they mean,” I replied, biting into whatever fruit was in front of me. It made no sense to me that no one would actually giving me an explanation as to what special meant.
“Then you’ll just have to trust me on that one,” Kye answered. Why did I trust him? He was of the same blood as Logan. Maybe he was just better at playing with me.
We both turned as the heavy doors to the room were opened. Logan entered the room with General Naron. The general smiled at me as he entered. Logan only glanced at Kye, avoiding me.
“Princess.” The general bowed to me.
“General,” I replied, standing and nodding to him.
“I’ll go over the final plans with you later,” Logan told Naron. The general nodded and left the way he came.
I sat back down and picked at the food in front of me. I wasn’t hungry now that Logan was in the room, but I didn’t want to look at him. I was unsure if he was still mad from the night before, or amused like Kye said. I had seen what Logan did to people that he kept prisoner. I didn’t want to end up like them. My rational mind was keeping me from making an even bigger mess of everything.
“So, does my fake wife have time to sit and talk?” Logan asked, plopping down beside me. I turned to him, and he was grinning. Yep, not mad at me. “I can’t believe you did that,” he added.
“You can’t?” I asked. Why was he chipper now? He wasn’t happy the night before.
“Well, I can believe you did it, but really. You didn’t even know if they’d believe you.” Logan reached across me and picked up a piece of fruit. “My gods wouldn’t approve. Do you even know what gods the Nahrin pray to?”
I smiled and shrugged. “Not in the least.” I was pretty lucky they believed me. That much was true. I was glad they didn’t ask me to name which god we would be upsetting.
“And I’m sorry about all of that. I thought they were going to do things a bit slower, but General Naron wanted to be sure our alliance was set. We needed that marriage to call on troops from Nahrin. The Egyptians aren’t happy with us and this marriage. I’m sure they’ll be marching soon. Naron claims spies are already in the city.” Logan gave me a rational explanation, but something about the quick marriage seemed all too convenient to him. I didn’t take the bait, and refused to ask about the Egyptians.
“So what did you need to explain before I can go home?” I asked, cutting to the chase. I needed answers, and I wanted to go home.
Logan smiled and nodded. “I’m sorry this is all a day late. I know how you want to get home.”
“Yes, I do,” I replied. “I went through the trouble to get everyone home, I’d like to be able to enjoy being around them awhile before they’re sucked back into this world.”
“Funny you’d say that.” Logan reached over me again to grab some brownish colored item that I wasn’t willing to touch. I had no idea what it was, and it didn’t look too edible to me. “What if I told you there was a way to keep everyone where you wanted them to be?” Logan put it into his mouth and chewed as he watched me understand what he had said.
“Not possible,” I answered. That was the one rule the goddess was sure about. You had to die in your own time. Eventually, everyone had to return to their time period.
“But what if I said I found a way. What if I said it was possible?”
I looked at Logan, really looked at him. His eyes sparkled with the idea, and he didn’t seem to be lying, or making a breakable promise. In fact, he seemed more certain of it than I had ever seen him before.
“As in Ty could stay in the future and not have to return to being a slave?” I asked. It broke my heart every time I thought of him returning to Seth’s family, knowing now that he would never be going home like he was raised to think. I didn’t want that life for Ty. He was happy in the future. He fit in. He belonged there, not in the past.
“Like that, or like Seth wouldn’t have to return to his military post where he will die on the battlefield in two years’ time,” Logan added.
My breath caught in my chest. Seth had two years of life left in the past. He wouldn’t even make it out of his teens. That seemed unreal, impossible. Tears welled up in my eyes. He was always so sure of himself and his role in the past. His father was a seasoned military veteran. I assumed it would be the same with Seth. I didn’t want to think of his death. How would I ever be able to watch him go back to the past, knowing how soon his life would end? How could I let him go? The love of my life hadn’t much time at all left in this world of the past. He wouldn’t live to be the twenty years old he was now. That didn’t seem real, and certainly didn’t seem right. He could live a full, happy life in the future, or die in his teens in the past. How could I let that happen? Why would the goddess let us meet if that was his future? It made no sense, but neither did her rule. Why did he have to go back? People disappear all the time. Yes, it’s sad, but it doesn’t change anything. Why would someone living in a different time upset the past?
Logan watched me, and he was happy with my conflicted emotions. I knew the rules, and was used to following them, but this was hard to accept. If I had the ability to change Seth’s life, I had to take it.
“How do I do that?” I asked in a whisper. How could I save Seth?
Logan grinned. “I’d tell you, but then I’d have to kill you.” He laughed at his joke. I didn’t. It wasn’t the time to be making jokes. I couldn’t laugh with him. Logan caught onto my mood.
“Sorry, bad timing,” Logan added. Correct. It was a bad joke. Glad he figured that out. Logan reached across me again, and grabbed some other equally disgusting food and filled his mouth.
I waited as patiently as I could, but my mind wandered. It swirled around the thoughts of what Logan had just told me. Seth wasn’t going to live long once he returned. I wanted to be with Seth. I wanted to spend my life with him in the future, or in the past. His father had given us permission to marry. We would have been able to have a life in Egypt, but that wouldn’t be possible if he was just going to die anyway. His time was limited, and thus our time together was limited. I couldn’t live with that. I needed him like I needed air. I needed to keep him in the future where he would be alive. It seemed like it wasn’t just Ty now that needed to remain in my time in the future.
“If Seth stayed where he is now, would he live longer?” I asked Logan. I really didn’t believe that it was possible, but I had to hope Logan wasn’t just telling me what I wanted to hear.
“I’d assume his chances of dying in the future would be the same as anyone else in that time, very slim compared to a person whose job it is to kill other people on a battlefield,” Logan replied. “And think about it. If you knew how to let people live in the time they wanted, your mother wo
uldn’t have to go back to the past, either.”
“She kind of wants to now. She wants to see my father again,” I replied. It would be hard to let her go to the past while I stayed in the future with Seth.
“And what if your father doesn’t want to see her? What if their reunion isn’t what she expected? What if she wants to stay in the future, too?” Logan continued. He did make a valid point. “Your mother, Seth, and Ty all have reasons to not be in the past. Would you want the power to keep them in the future?”
“Yes, but it’s not possible,” I replied again. “The goddess said you have to die where you’re born.”
“That’s the way she wants it,” Logan replied, finally stopping his meal. “She tells everyone that, but it isn’t true. She’s lying to everyone.”
“How can you be sure she is lying?”
“Because I’ve found a way to get people to the time they want to be, and stay there until their lives end naturally,” Logan replied.
“And I should just take your word on that?” I asked. If I was going to break the goddess’ rule for Seth, I had to be sure. Just Logan saying it was so wasn’t enough. He didn’t have the best track record when it came to truth telling.
Logan looked up across the room to Kye. He nodded to him, and Kye joined us at the low table.
“It’s true, Mari,” Kye replied. At least Logan understood how my trust in his word wasn’t that great. Even though I had just met Kye, I trusted him more. “Logan can show you how to protect anyone from being forced to go back to their time.”
I stared at Kye. They were both sure, but then again, I had just met Kye. Could he be trusted, or was he just like his brother? I looked from Logan to Kye. They both were watching and studying me. I wasn’t sure if I could believe them. I wanted it to be so, but I also wanted to trust the goddess. She was the one who gave me the power to travel. She was the one that trusted me to do what was right. And, according to her, keeping Seth in the future wouldn’t be right. But she never said it was impossible. Would she change her mind if she knew Seth was going to die? Did that even matter to her?
I knew what I should do, and that was to trust the goddess, but right now I couldn’t. I couldn’t let Seth die. My life would be longer than most, and I wouldn’t get the same time for Seth, but I wanted to spend at least one lifetime with him. No matter what anyone could tell me, I would never find another love like Seth. He was an once-in-a-lifetime find. I deserved to have a future with him, and he deserved to just have a future in general. I would be going against everything I should do, but I had to; for Seth, for Ty, and for my mom.
“So what’s your price?” I finally asked Logan. I hoped the price wasn’t too steep to gain the knowledge I needed to save my loved ones.
“Break up with Seth, and be my girl again,” Logan replied casually.
I had been sitting at the table in shock long enough that the servants had brought lunch. I really didn’t know what to think, or how to even respond to Logan when he told me the deal. I couldn’t do anything beyond nod when he said I could take my time to think about it. Logan was long gone with his councilmen and generals. That was a good thing. I still wasn’t sure how to reply to him. I never imagined he would stoop so low. He wanted me back, but that seemed extreme. Logan was holding Seth’s life over my head to get me to choose himself. Didn’t he understand that you can’t force someone to love you?
“Still not sure?” Kye asked, sitting beside me.
“Not sure about a lot,” I replied. I had been sitting there for at least a few hours, weighing everything in my mind. “How can I even trust that you guys are telling me the truth that it’s even possible?”
“Oh, it’s possible. I’ve seen it happen to many people.” Kye picked up a piece of something off one tray, and offered it to me. I had no clue what it was and if it was even edible but since it was on a tray surrounded by other foods such as bread, I knew it was also food. Kye didn’t set it back down, but waited with it outstretched to me. I took it from him.
“And I just go on your word?” I asked.
“Try it,” Kye urged me.
I tentatively took a bite. It was brown and tough, kind of looked like beef jerky, but I was surprised by the sweet, salty flavor it had. It wasn’t even tough to chew, either. The outside was crunchy, but it was soft on the inside. It looked nothing like it tasted.
“Sometimes you can be surprised when you try something,” Kye commented. “Not everything is what it seems to be on the outside.”
“Are you talking about the food here, or Logan’s offer?”
Kye grinned and waved to the hallway. The three girls that bathed me the day before came out of the shadows. They tentatively approached our table. Kye looked up to one and said something in the language they were speaking when they took care of me. The girl nodded and turned to me.
“Eighteen-forty three,” she said with a heavy French accent. My eyes shot open in surprise over the fact that she could speak English.
“Twenty-one fifty-two,” the second girl added.
“Twenty-one thirty-four,” the last said.
“They speak English?” I asked.
Kye cocked his head to the side, and raised his eyebrows.
“No, I taught them Sumerian,” Kye replied.
“Sumerian? I don’t speak Sumerian,” I quickly told Kye.
Kye laughed. “When Logan told me that you didn’t get trained on anything by the goddess, I don’t know why, but I assumed you were just faking it so that he didn’t know. The version of you I know in the future knows much more. I had to think you were faking it.”
He knew me? I wanted to ask more, but had to stay on topic if I ever wanted to get home.
“No. I was never trained in anything,” I answered. Was he offering to train me? I could use all of the help I could get.
“Well, in that case, let me teach you a little about time travel. When you go to a new place, you’ll always be able to speak the language from that time. Therefore, since you went back to ancient Egypt, you can speak Egyptian now. You ended up in Nahrin, so you can speak their language, and now you can speak ours. These three women are from different times. They told you their times in the future. They wanted to travel, but didn’t want their lives where they were. When the goddess sent them home, Logan brought them here. They can’t time travel, and thus don’t speak the language here, but they also can’t be forced to go home. Logan changed their fate. They’re here now, and will never have to go back to those times or those lives. He knows how to do that, and he can teach you.”
“By stopping them from traveling?” I asked, pointing to the bracelets that are identical to mine.
Kye looked at the women and shook his head. With a wave of his arms he dismissed them. He glanced around the room before talking again.
“They no longer have to go to their time period, but just because they aren’t forced to travel home doesn’t mean they can’t travel at all. In payment for their tickets out of the horrible lives they were living, they are now Logan’s servants. He uses the bracelet to keep them here, just like you, to keep them honest on their part of the deal,” Kye replied.
“Then I’m not the only one Logan’s trying to control?” I asked. That was new information I had suspected. I needed to know as much as I could to make plans, hopefully plans that would work. “Is he really a bad guy now? The Logan I knew wasn’t like that. He was good and kind. Has he changed that much in two years?”
“I think you see the world too literally. It comes in black and white in your world. There’s good and there’s bad. But it isn’t like that. I’ve seen too much in between. There are good people and bad people, but there are a lot of good men who do bad, and bad men who do good. When you judge something based on your standards of good and bad, sometimes you miss the in between,” Kye answered, not really telling me which Logan was.
“You want me to end up with Logan?” I asked. That was what it was beginning to sound like to me.
“That’s not what I’m saying,” Kye answered quickly. “I think your view of Logan is skewed by your past. You don’t know the man he is now, because you can’t see past the man he was with you. I think you spend too much time looking for the old Logan and don’t see the man he really is.”
That much was true. I didn’t know Logan now. There were pieces I recognized, but I didn’t see them often. He was different. I kind of wondered if he really was the Logan that Ty and Seth told me about. I couldn’t merge their version with mine, but now, as he asked me to give up the love of my life to learn how to save everyone, I was beginning to realize I didn’t know much about him.
“So you think I should break up with Seth to learn how to save everyone?” I already knew that was what I needed to do, but getting my heart to accept that fate was proving harder. I couldn’t fathom a life without Seth.
Kye smiled. “I can’t tell you what to do. There are pros and cons to every choice, but sometimes you have to make tough choices to save the ones you love.”
“And you know this because?” I asked. Kye talked like an old man with years of knowledge.
“I’ve had some experience in that department,” Kye replied. He picked up another piece of the strange food and handed it to me. I took it this time without hesitation.
“I think the goddess chose you for a reason. You watch the world and see what’s happening. You make choices when you need to. You can do what is needed of you. You’re strong enough to make the right decisions. She knew you’d do what’s right, but she also knew you’d have to follow your heart. I don’t think she’d be mad at you for not following her rules.” Kye explained, already hitting on the next subject that was bothering me. The goddess had told me there was one rule, and here I was, getting ready to break it. She gave me this great ability to travel, but I was just taking it for granted. Would she take back her stones when I broke her rule? Would it all be for naught?
“You think she’ll forgive me?” I asked. I hoped that would be the case.
Kye smiled and urged me to try the food in my hand. “I think she already knows what you plan to do, and if she had a problem, she would have stopped you by now, or returned you to the future herself.”