Aventurine

  I bit down on the tan-colored food in my hand and quickly spit it out. This time what he offered was different than the last. It tasted exactly how it looked, disgusting.

  “Why?” I asked, pointing to the food and rubbing my tongue as the rotten taste was still left on it.

  Kye handed me a glass of water he already had ready for me. Logan walked into the room and gazed at us seated on the floor. Logan kept across the room for the moment as he surveyed us. Kye nodded his head to his brother.

  “Just to remind you that some things are exactly what you expect them to be.”

  I didn’t know how he did it, but Kye knew exactly what I was thinking. I didn’t know if I could trust the brothers, but Kye again helped me understand. They might share blood, but they were completely different.

  “Have you decided what you plan to do?” Logan finally approached us and sat beside me.

  My heart was beating hard in my chest. It begged me to run and find a new solution. It begged me to reconsider. But my brain won. I had to save everyone. I couldn’t let Seth die young. I couldn’t let Ty return to being a slave. I couldn’t let my mother be miserable if my father didn’t want her. There really wasn’t much of a choice. I had to save them all.

  “Yes. I’ll break up with Seth, but I’m not going to be your girlfriend. If you want that, you’ll have to prove to me that you’ve changed. I could never go back to the guy I remember that broke my heart so many times,” I added quickly. From just outside Logan’s view, Kye nodded to me.

  “I can live with that,” Logan replied. He grinned like he just won first place.

  There was something behind those purple eyes that I could agree with. I wasn’t sure who I should trust, but my gut told me it was Kye. Something in him called to me and said he was truthful. I wasn’t attracted to him like Seth, it was more like family. I could trust him. He was there to help me on my journey. Maybe the goddess sent him to help me, and I had to hope so. No matter what, Kye was meant to play a role in all of this, and I hoped he would help me when I needed it the most, whoever Kye turned out to be.

  Chapter 5

  Breaking up

  I stared at the ceiling of the bathing room in Logan’s palace. It had been three days since I said yes to Logan, but we were still in the past. I felt like life was on repeat in the same cycle. There were still fifty-six tiles on the ceiling, the servants still woke me each morning to get me ready, and I hadn’t seen Logan the entire time. I thought that by saying yes, we would head back immediately, but that didn’t seem to be the case. I wasn’t sure what he was up to, but giving me more time to regret my choice wasn’t very nice.

  I could have thanked Logan for the extra time he was giving me to prepare to do the worst thing I had to do in my life, but I wasn’t thankful. Once I had my mind set on what I had to do, I wanted it done right away. My heart was already breaking, and the pain was growing even more unbearable. I had no clue how Logan thought I could do this easily. He truly didn’t understand what I had with Seth.

  As I entered the open front room, I finally saw Logan for the first time in three days. He was standing with Kye, and arguing as normal. Logan had been around. I hadn’t actually seen him in the past few days, but I had heard him. Any time they thought I couldn’t hear them, they were fighting. They might have been brothers, but I felt very little brotherly love between them. They both stopped as soon as I entered the room. Logan sat down at the table lined with food, and Kye stomped over to the balcony area to look outside.

  “Are we ready to go yet?” I asked as I sat. It was the same first line I had given Kye each morning when we dined alone. Kye didn’t turn from his spot, and instead Logan replied this morning.

  “As soon as we settle all the terms of our agreement, we can go straight back to your family in Chicago.”

  “Terms of our agreement?” I asked. He made it sound formal and legal.

  “Yes. I need to be sure we’re on the same page.” Logan picked up a piece of bread and took a bite.

  “I break up with Seth; you show me how to keep my family safe,” I outlined the agreement as I knew it. There didn’t seem to be anything missing. What more did Logan want from me?

  Logan smiled. “Simple, but I think we need to add more to it.”

  “What more is there to add?” I couldn’t stop the anger from rising inside me. He was already asking me to do the impossible. My heart was torn in half as it was. What more could he want?

  “If we leave it just at that, then what stops you from going right back to Seth after I tell you how?” Logan asked. I actually hadn’t thought of that, and realized the surprise was evident on my face when Kye laughed.

  “I told you that she was innocent in her request.” Kye spoke before turning back to the city.

  Logan looked as surprised as I felt. I really hadn’t thought of that, but it did seem like a good plan now that I had the idea.

  “I’ll take you back to your family as promised, but I will not teach you how to save everyone until I’m certain that you’re over Seth. Breaking up with someone can take time to heal. I’m willing to wait. Once I am sure you’re willing to give me a chance, I’ll teach you.”

  Logan paused for me to agree. If we were making demands, I’d have to think carefully and make sure I was playing his game. Logan’s goal was to get back together with me. I had no intention of doing that with or without Seth in my life. That wasn’t the major problem, though. I had to be sure that I’d be able to convince Logan I would be over Seth, which would never happen.

  “First off, how will everyone be safe in the meantime, if you don’t teach me right away?” I asked in order to keep the conversation going. I had to think fast.

  “I promise to keep your friends and family in the future,” Logan replied, as if it were no big deal.

  I looked at Logan and caught Kye behind him. He was mouthing the word specifics. The nice thing about spending the last two days with just Kye was that it gave us a chance to get to know each other a little bit more. Kye was much quieter than Logan, and a lot less showy, but he knew just as much. He was limited by what he could tell me, but I could get general information out of him. Most of it was a game of me saying stuff and him just nodding or not. You never knew how much you can learn from a nod until you need to. Gatekeepers, which included Logan and Kye, who didn’t have a gate yet of his own, couldn’t break a promise. When I heard that I found it unbelievable, but then Kye explained it more. Logan, in retrospect, had never broken a promise to me. He had always found a way to secure those promises in the vaguest terms, and I had never noticed. By using words such as later, he never had to specify when later would be. Even the term tomorrow could be vague, because he could be saying tomorrow as I always thought I heard or to-morrow, as he liked to say it. From what I could tell, Logan’s promises were always the first step in his game to win what he wanted.

  “You need to promise to keep Seth, Ty, Dee, and my mother in the same time period where I want them to be,” I changed his promise. I needed to be exact to keep them right where they were in the future waiting for me.

  Logan smiled. “That’s exactly what I promised.”

  “Then say it.” I prompt him. It wouldn’t work unless he said the words.

  Logan stood as if to confront Kye now that he figured out what was going on. I jumped between them. From the yelling earlier, I wouldn’t have been surprised if their argument turned to blows.

  “This is why you have to stay here,” Logan growled at him. “You can’t seem to keep your mouth shut.”

  “He had to tell me,” I quickly said to Logan, as I knew exactly why he was upset. “I was complaining that you always break your promises, and he was defending you. He said you could never break a promise, and I needed to know more.” Logan’s anger died down a bit at my words. “How am I ever supposed to give you a chance if all I remember is a past filled with broken promises?” After that sentence, Logan looked a bit hurt and sat back down at the table. I was pretty
sure Kye didn’t need to tell me anything, but since we were friends now, he did anyway. I didn’t want to see him get in trouble for befriending me.

  “I promise to keep Seth, Ty, Dee, and your mother in the same time period we find them in when we return,” Logan replied, though it sounded like he was having a little trouble saying it. I got the hint, from his vagueness that his promise was going to take my friends to another time in the future.

  “I’m also not doing this without Kye there. We have to bring him with us,” I remarked, since I was now sure that Logan planned to leave Kye in the past.

  Kye was right. I had no clue about anything, and I needed someone to teach me. Logan was filled with knowledge, but there was no way I was asking him for anything now. His prices were too high for me. Kye didn’t attach a price to anything. In fact, if Logan hadn’t forbidden him from telling me things, I was pretty sure Kye would let me know exactly how to beat Logan and get home without breaking up with Seth.

  Kye grinned at Logan, which only made him more upset.

  “No,” Logan said.

  “Yes,” I replied back and stared at him, challenging him to disagree with me.

  I was just as stubborn as he was. I stared at him, willing him to test me. I was already planning to go to the future and break up with Seth. I had accepted that I would live a life without him to allow him to simply live. Was Logan willing to keep me in the past where I’d never be his?

  “If you keep me here, I’ll never forgive you. Kye is my friend. He deserves to go to the future with us after having lived here for so long. He isn’t even from this time. He’s your own flesh and blood, and you treat him as a servant. He deserves to live in the present as your brother, not in the past as your slave.”

  I held my breath and waited. I was calling his bluff that he would keep us in the past. It was a risk, but a calculated one. Kye stood behind Logan, holding his breath, too. What I had learned from our talks was that Kye hadn’t been out of the past since Logan first brought him as a thirteen-year-old. For the past eight years Kye had lived in his brother’s shadow. That wasn’t fair. They were of the same blood, yet lived worlds apart—Logan in luxury, and Kye with the soldiers.

  Logan stared at me, trying to make me back down, but I was too stubborn for that. He was already taking away the most important thing to me, what else did I have to lose? Kye could never be a substitute for Seth, but he was the last friend I had in this weird, time travel world I was now part of.

  “Fine.” Logan turned behind him. “Kye comes with us, too.”

  “And is given a place as your brother, not your servant, or the guy who mows the lawn,” I added, trying to be specific.

  “Yes, he’ll be my brother in the future,” Logan replied through gritted teeth. It actually sounded like it was harder for Logan to admit that than to allow Kye to go at all. Kye grinned at me from behind Logan as he stomped away. Maybe I was up for the challenge of dealing with Logan after all.

  As I readied to go into the future, I realized I had forgotten one detail. I didn’t ask about the bracelet. I had assumed that going to the future would mean cutting the bracelet, but when Logan took my hand instead, and transported me, I realized the bracelet was still on my arm. I was ready to play Logan’s games, but he was still one ahead of me. Unfortunately, I was back home in my quiet, empty room and had to get ready to do the most horrible thing I could ever think of doing and didn’t have time to debate our agreement and the bracelet.

  “Break up with him tonight, or I will take you back to the past immediately,” Logan threatened me. He tried to use a light, joking tone, but it was serious and threatening to me. I hated being caught in his game, but I could never let everyone else have to suffer for me.

  “Threats aren’t the best way to get a girl to fall for you, you know,” I replied. Kye smiled at my remark, but I wasn’t going for laughs. It was true.

  “Kye may think you’re innocent in all of this, but I believe otherwise. If you truly loved Seth as much as you say, you wouldn’t have agreed that easily,” Logan replied before grabbing Kye and disappearing.

  “It’s because I love him so much, idiot,” I said to the space Logan and Kye had just been standing. The door to my room burst open. I had felt the tingles the moment I was solid again and knew Seth was near. Seth was in my house, and he would feel me return too. I dreaded seeing him. What I had to do wasn’t just break his heart, but break my own in the process.

  “What took you so long?” Seth asked, scooping me into his arms. My mother stood in the doorway, smiling at how Seth greeted me. She was confirming what she had guessed in the past.

  “Where’s everyone else?” I asked, looking behind my mother for additional people to help distract me and finding the hallway empty. I needed to stop touching him. It was making me regret my deal.

  “Dee and Ty are staying at the Sangre house until winter break is done,” Seth told me, finally setting me down so that my mother could get a hug in also.

  “How much have I missed?” I asked, hugging my mother. I hated that it wasn’t easier to get time travel exact.

  My mother smelled like flowers as she always did. The scent reminded me of what it felt like when she was taken away from me back to the past. I could still feel the pain of realizing she was gone and thinking I’d never see her again. I needed to hold onto that pain and get through what I needed to do now. I took a deep breath and let her scent keep me on track.

  “Three days,” my mother replied, noticing my extra sniff of her. “Good to have you home, honey. How long did it take for you?”

  I scratched my head as I thought, trying to keep in the conversation and not the dread I had of what I needed to do. Was it five days, or six? “Five days, I think.”

  My mother’s mouth dropped open. She understood what it meant to survive five days there, especially since she didn’t prepare me for anything in that world.

  “But don’t worry, I was with Kye, Logan’s brother, the whole time. He kept me safe.” It was better telling them Kye and not Logan, because I didn’t want to explain that one. It was hard enough to have to break up with Seth. I really couldn’t do it if he thought it was because of Logan. I had no interest in getting together with Logan, and never would. I couldn’t let Seth think that was it.

  “Well, I hope we can meet this brother sometime to thank him,” my mother added. She was suspicious, but was giving me the benefit of the doubt.

  “Yes, I’d like to thank him,” Seth added, his tone saying he didn’t mean what he was saying. Something was off, but he wasn’t about to tell me in front of my mother. Seth held out his hand to me, and I returned to his hug. It felt right in so many ways. His arms fit perfectly around me.

  “I’m happy you’re back, honey,” my mother said before slipping back out the doorway. She pulled the door mostly shut behind her. I couldn’t help but smile at the slight crack she left. I was never allowed to be in my room with a boy with a closed door. That was Grandfather’s rule, and my mother was respecting it while giving us privacy.

  Stepping back I dropped Seth’s hand. I had to do this now and get it over with. I couldn’t let it go any longer. I was going to break his heart, and no prolonging our reunion would change that. My heart felt pained to do it, and Seth could see the warring in my face. This was going to be harder than I thought. I was set on saving them all, and it had to be done, no matter how wrong it felt.

  “Logan doesn’t have any siblings,” Seth said, eyeing me over.

  “Oh, he does, and I met him,” I replied. There was no denying the relationship between Kye and Logan.

  “Not possible. Mr. Sangre only has one son,” Seth added, reaching for my hand again.

  I stepped back and crossed my arms. I had to tell him.

  “We have to break up.” I bluntly put it out there.

  There was no sugarcoating it. I had no nice words to say. I couldn’t even use the age-old line, it’s not you, but me because it was neither of us. We were meant t
o be together. There was no real reason that I could tell him as to why we had to break up. If I told him the truth, he’d never accept it.

  “What?” Seth asked in shock. I’m sure that wasn’t what he was expecting to hear.

  “We can’t be together,” I replied, trying not to let the tears that were on the edge of my eyelids take over.

  “Do you not love me anymore?” Seth asked. The pain in his voice was loud and clear. I hated to hurt him as much as it was hurting me. I had to keep reminding myself that it was to save him, no matter how painful it was.

  “No. I’ll always love you.”

  “Is there someone else?” Instantly his expression was a mixture of pain and relief.

  “No one else will ever be you. No one else will ever compare.” I didn’t want him to think otherwise.

  “Logan is doing this, isn’t he?” I felt the anger radiating off of Seth. He already knew, in just a few seconds, who to blame, but even that wasn’t completely true. It was a choice that Logan gave me. It could never be considered all Logan’s fault. I was doing what Logan asked. I made the choice.

  “I made a deal, and us being together was the cost. We have to break up. We can’t be together anymore. I’m sorry, but we just can’t.”

  I couldn’t lie to him. He would have known anyway. I wanted Seth to stop asking and just accept the reality. It would be much easier. I wanted to plead with him, but I couldn’t even look at him. I was breaking his heart. It didn’t matter that my heart was already broken. I could still feel it. The pain was too great, and I had to keep my eyes off of him. I had to do it. I had to save my family and my friends.

  “No,” Seth replied. “You can’t just tell me to stay away. We’re connected, and you don’t get to just say it’s not there.”

  “Please,” I added, finally looking up at him. His eyes were filled with tears, but there was anger behind them. Deep down he understood and trusted me, but I was still causing him great pain.