Chrysocolla (16 page)

Seth smiled and nodded. He got it.

“Would you like me to join you?” he asked quietly enough that the other men wouldn’t hear him.

I smiled and kissed his cheek. He didn’t really want to join me. Those men were important; I could tell that much. He really wanted to stay and talk with them, and I wasn’t about to take that away from him.

“No, have your fun,” I replied.

Seth nodded and kissed my forehead. “Ty will go with you.”

I smiled and nodded, figuring that much. Ty was my own little shadow these days. I don’t think I so much as slept without him watching over me most of the time if he even slept now.

I weaved between the people all sitting or standing around talking. Not a single person paid attention to me. Possibly they were too afraid to, or just didn’t notice me. Either way, I didn’t care. It really didn’t matter. I didn’t know anyone there anyway.

It didn’t take much to make it to the three-story-tall pillars leading outside. I paused to look into the darkening courtyard. Servants were making rounds to light torches, and the place was starting to glow. Against the beautiful sunset that was now turning into purple and blues, it kind of just ended my long day magically.

I made my way to a bench, not too far from the party. Ty stood in the shadows and didn’t approach me. There were a couple people around, and I knew already from the week before that he would be my silent statue. I liked the old Ty better, but even just servants were not trusted. He didn’t want to get into trouble, and I didn’t want to be the one making him get into trouble either.

“Is there enough light for you, my lady?” one of the servants bowed to me, holding his torch in front of him and pointing to the spot right near me. I hadn’t even noticed that I sat down next to an unlit torch. There was enough light to still see by.

“I’m fine,” I replied, and I was. The torches all around me gave the courtyard a nice yellow glow. While inside everything was much brighter, I liked the dim light to sit by.

As the sun set on the horizon, it was peaceful sitting in the cool night breeze. The sounds of the party drifted to where I sat, but for the most part, it was quiet. I didn’t know how long I would be able to sit outside. It was my party inside after all, but that didn’t make me want to go back in there any more than I already did. Crowds of people weren’t my favorite, but these were crowds of strangers. It came even harder when everyone seemed to know me because of my father, but I didn’t know a single soul. Seth would know where to find me when I was needed to return inside. There was no rush.

Life was whirling by me. So much had changed in the past six months. Sitting in the torchlight, I watched the stars appear one by one. At least they hadn’t changed. While I could see more stars and wondered if some of them didn’t exist in the time I was really born, I felt at ease with all the change around me. Life always changes. Nothing is forever. I understood that, even if it was hard to watch everything hurry past me while I tried to just understand the time period.

A thunk behind me made me turn, but it was too dark in the shadows. It sounded like it was where Ty was, but I still couldn’t see him.

“Is everything okay, Ty?” I asked the darkness.

A bug bit my neck, and I swatted at it. I pulled back as I felt something there. Carefully I pulled it out and held it up to the light. It appeared to be a small dart, and my head began to feel lighter. Before I could get another word out, everything in front of me began to twirl.

“You all right?” the servant who had been lighting the torches asked.

He moved closer and put an arm out to catch me. I couldn’t help it as I fell forward to him. I turned a little bit in my fall, as much as I could muster and looked up at the man holding me. He couldn’t be a servant. They were forbidden from touching the royal family. His purple eyes looked down on me.

“Sorry it had to be this way, Mari,” Logan said quietly before scooping me into his arms and my view of the world dimmed.

A repugnant odor
woke me from my slumber. I shook my head to try to get the smell out of my nose before opening my eyes. I cracked them open expecting to see bright light before I remembered it wasn’t morning, and I wasn’t just waking from a restful night. Everything rushed back at me. I was at my wedding. Something bit my neck. I think I saw Logan. No. I did see Logan before I passed out. I was with Logan. That wasn’t good.

I squinted into the darkness, expecting to see Logan looking back at me. Instead, by the firelight beside the bed, I found the clear blue eyes I had met several times before.

“Miller?” I croaked out. My throat was scratchy. I was certain Logan was the one who had taken me.

“Shh,” Miller put a hand on my mouth. I would have pushed it off, but found my hands were restrained. “I wasn’t supposed to wake you yet.”

I nodded to try to get him to understand I wouldn’t talk loudly.

“I need you to listen to me. Logan is getting desperate. He is looking for a way to remove your stones,” Miller warned me. “Kye is in danger.”

“Kye?” I whispered back.

“Yes. Logan is furious with him. No matter what you guys do, neither of you should ever go near the pool house back in your old time. Logan is setting up a trap to get you there and keep you. He plans to trap Kye first and then you,” Miller added urgently.

“Trap us?”

“You can’t time travel from there, and if he can lock you in, then you’re trapped. We already nailed all the windows shut from the outside,” Miller replied. “I don’t know how, but he will get you to put that bracelet back on to keep you from traveling. He hasn’t shared that part of his plan, but I know he plans to use the pool house.”

I remembered that you couldn’t time travel, but it wasn’t like you needed to get out of someplace when you had an Internet connection and phone service. The twenty-first century was a bit more advanced than where we were sitting now.

“Please promise me you won’t let Kye go into that pool house.” Miller looked desperate.

“What would Logan do to him? Kye is his son,” I replied. Miller looked scared for Kye.

“Son or not, he betrayed Logan. You can’t betray Logan and expect to not be punished,” Miller added, almost as if he was talking from personal experience.

“And what are you doing now?” I asked. I still wasn’t getting an answer or any clues as to what was going on.

“I already am being punished. There isn’t much more he can do to me,” Miller replied. “We all are being punished. Each one of us.”

I heard movement outside the doorway.

“Pretend to be asleep,” Miller told me, pushing my head back into the pillow.

I laid back and closed my eyes, trying to lie as still as possible.

“Wake her,” Logan demanded as he entered the room.

I got a big whiff of whatever Miller had used to wake me the first time. Nope. It didn’t smell any better a second time. I coughed as I gasped for clean air. I didn’t need to fake anything there. That stuff stunk.

“Where is it?” Logan was leaning over me so that I could see his perfect purple eyes. They held anger mostly, but I could see he was sad and disappointed too. I hated that I knew him that well.

“Where is what?” I croaked out. Whatever Miller used smelled worse when you were actually awake.

“The stone. I felt you leave Egypt and figured out you went back to your mother. She had the last stone, but it was gone when I got there. Where did you put it?”

“What makes you think I took it?” I replied, glaring back at him with as much anger as I could muster being tied down in the bed.

“Bring the light closer,” Logan told Miller. He did exactly as he was told to do without so much as glancing my direction. “Hold it near her arm. I need to see if there are extra lines. Maybe the goddess put the stone in her.”

Logan loosened the ties on my arm and gently took it in his hand. He held firmly yet delicately to my wrist as he turned it over. He traced the lines up my arm to my shoulder.

“Five stones,” Logan said quietly.

“Maybe she doesn’t have it,” Miller suggested.

“Oh, she has it. I can tell her mother was lying when she told me that she didn’t know what I was talking about. The only reason Kiya would claim that was because she did know, and had already given Mari the stone. I’ll ask again: Where is the stone?” Logan’s eyes turned steely as he looked at me. All gentleness was gone, and he tied my arms back to the bed.

“I don’t have the stone,” I replied with as much determination as I could muster from my position on the bed.

Logan shrugged.

“Well, I have all day, and I think you do too,” Logan answered. “I may not have been able to take you far, but it’s far enough. They’ll have to spend hours looking for you in a city this size. Maybe even a few days. I’m sure after being here for a few hours without water, you’ll want to tell me. It’s pretty dry this close to the desert.”

Was he serious? He was threatening me? Would he really do that? My eyes flickered to Miller. His own eyes were downcast. That told me enough. Logan was serious. This was the monster Seth and Ty told me about. I stared back at Logan in shock. I didn’t think I would ever see that side of him. A little part of me still wanted to think it was all a lie. How could I had never seen it before? I wanted to think the old Logan was still in there. His threat proved it wasn’t the case.

Logan must have seen my disappointment. His anger turned to pity.

“Mari, no one has trained you. It isn’t safe for you to have all those stones. You could end up in a time without knowing a thing and not knowing how to protect yourself. Being a woman isn’t safe in many places and times. Let me train you. Let me help you.” Logan turned his purple eyes to pleading, but I knew better.

“Oh, that sounds nice,” I said sarcastically. Logan gave me a smile that I used to genuinely believe. “Do you want me to just call the goddess here to take the stones back out and give them to you?”

Logan’s eyes grew a little bigger at the suggestion. He didn’t know that the goddess was essentially gone. I kept my features from giving that much away. Any news he didn’t know was something to keep to ourselves.

“I think I have a way to transfer those to me if you’d just come back with me,” Logan told me, but made no move to remove the ropes that bound me.

“And then you get to play god and do anything you want with no care for any consequences?” I asked. He wasn’t getting the hint of sarcasm in my voice. “Will you have fun when you lock me away and throw away the key? Will you even let me see my friends again, or my family—like Kye?”

Logan stared at me in shock. He looked like he was finally caught.

“He told you?” He told me more than that. Logan didn’t even know the start of it.

“Yes, he told me, and he also told me how horrible the future is. So thanks, but no thanks. I’ll take my chances in the past where I’m pretty sure Seth doesn’t die in war.” I glared at him. He had been lying to me all along.

Logan’s face mirrored his internal woes as his features changed from shock to rage and anger. I had never seen him truly angry, and it was scary. I knew why Kye and Miller feared him, and I was more certain than ever that I couldn’t let him get all the stones. Gone was the kind, sweet guy I fell for. I had to keep reminding myself of that. All the good I ever saw was gone in that instant.

Logan glared at me. I obviously didn’t give him the answer he was looking for.
Not my problem.
I was going to do everything I could to keep everyone safe and stay with Seth. I knew where I belonged, and it wasn’t with Logan.

“It was easier the last time, but if this is the game you want to play, so be it. It isn’t like I haven’t broken you before.” I shivered involuntarily. The goddess and Kye didn’t want me to know more about my pasts, but I didn’t guess the reason was because of Logan.

Logan leaned down and pressed his face to mine in a surprise kiss. I didn’t wait for him to finish and bit down on his tongue as he tried to push it into my mouth. Kiss or not, I was never going to be Logan’s. I wasn’t ever meant to be with him, and he needed to get that through his head. Logan jumped back and raised a hand to slap me. I disappeared right before he could and reappeared across the room by Miller.

“You can’t do that,” Logan said as he looked at me. “We are in Kemut.”

“Actually I can, since this is my father’s country and all,” I replied. I reached to grab Miller’s arm, but he backed away from me. He discreetly shook his head to keep me from moving closer to him.

Logan continued to stare at me like I had two heads before he finally understood what I said.

“Wait a second. Who is your father?” After all these lifetimes, it seemed he didn’t even know.

“You came in and took me from my wedding and didn’t realize where I was even getting married?” I asked in reply. Logan was always so careful in his planning. It was odd to see him acting rash.

“You are marrying at the pharaoh’s palace, but there’s nothing odd about that. General Paramessu is fated to be pharaoh one day. It would only make sense that the gods would want his son married before the pharaoh to cement their family’s rise to the throne,” Logan replied, explaining his misinformation.

It didn’t sound as certain as Logan normally was.

“We’re leaving,” Logan said to Miller, and he didn’t even glance my way. It looked like my father being pharaoh changed everything.

Logan paused at the doorway and turned back to me.

“Don’t get too comfortable with Seth. I’ll be back for you once I get the last stone and make sure we get the ending we always deserved.” Logan began to walk away but stopped again. “And tell
our
son to stop meddling, or he knows the consequences.”

Chapter 8

New Plans

I lay
on
my bed and closed my eyes. I had already repeated the story over a dozen times, half of those to Kye alone, yet he wanted to hear it again. Ty was leaning against the window in my room intently listening. He wasn’t sick of the same story yet at least.