Time Eternal (16 page)

As soon as I reached for her hand for a polite kiss, I was electrified. And I saw her big chocolate-brown eyes became bigger and shinier. She must have felt the same pulsing currents between us because she blushed. It was the prettiest shade of pink I’d ever seen. She was shy yet curious at the same time. Just like me, she must have been suspecting something more was about to happen. I didn’t want to frighten her or alarm her uncle, who was still talking to a few gentlemen lingering after from the lecture. So I told her I’d be paying her uncle a visit the next day. As I was walking away from her, I knew right then and there nothing could’ve kept me away from her.

Journal entry: December 25, 1586

First day of Christmas. I wish I could show Elizabeth my ancestral land, which must be blanketed by soft white snow already. Florence has been cold, but not cold enough to have snow. I bet she has never seen snow in her life. I went to church with her and her father. Her uncle and cousin were also there. As usual, her cousin Antonio looked at me with suspicious eyes. He has been rising steadily within the ranks of the House of Medici. Rumor has it he’ll be the next captain of the guards soon. On more than one occasion, he has asked about my father’s business in Greece under the pretense that the Medici family want to expand their shipping route beyond the Mediterranean Sea, which I always politely decline with the excuse that my father’s shipping business is too small to be worthy as part of Medici’s big shipping empire. I can tell Antonio is not satisfied with the brush off, and soon he’ll press again. I have no doubt about it.

Skyla was impressed by how meticulously Rei recorded the months he’d spent with Elizabeth, the laugher and the dreams they shared. They were inseparable and could not imagine life without each other. She hadn’t remembered much of their past yet, but her mind’s eye could see those days described in his journal. It was almost as if she were watching an old movie of two lovers, of herself and Rei, fuzzy yet familiar.

It was a while before she looked up from reading the journal. Pale light was already spreading over the horizon; dawn was coming. Yet she could not stop reading their love story. She forged on and flipped to the next page. The date on it knocked all the air from her. She knew the date. She had no idea why she knew the date, but it was an important one.

Journal entry: June 28, 1587

Today is the happiest of my life. Elizabeth just agreed to marry me. I gave her my mother’s ruby ring, and she loved it. It looked regal on her long, delicate finger. And it fit her like a queen, like it fit my mother’s. I didn’t tell her the ring was part of my father’s royal crown treasures. I cannot tell her yet who I really am, not until I get the time travel machine blueprint from her uncle.

We have agreed to wait for a few weeks before I formally ask her father’s permission to take her hand. I also need time to let my father know of this happy news and my decision to abdicate my right of succession to the throne. I will be settling down in Florence with Elizabeth so that she can be close to her father and uncle, and even that wretched cousin of hers. I have already dispatched a messenger with my letter to my father. I still cannot believe Elizabeth will be mine soon.

Skyla felt a warm tug at her heart. Her memories started showing her more of the past—imagines of being in a sunflower field, of her in Rei’s embrace looking up at a gigantic blood-red ruby ring on her hands. She was so happy, she was so in love. She was Elizabeth. At that moment, she had no more doubt of who she was and her relationship with Rei. And she also knew what would come next. Doom to both of them, to her family.

Journal entry: July 10, 1587

Father’s messenger just left. The Ottoman Turks have declared war against my father’s kingdom, my ancestral land. My father and my countrymen will be at war again. My message to my father about Elizabeth and my decision to abdicate my right of succession to the throne must have crossed paths with his recall message to me. I have no choice but to return home immediately. My father needs me. My people need me. I will not let my people die at the hands of the power-hungry war moguls. But what am I to tell Elizabeth? She will not understand and will likely think I am the enemy because of the House of Medici’s close ties with the Ottoman sultan. I cannot live, and I will not live, without her. If I have to take her by force, so be it. Arrangements have already been made. Elizabeth and I will sail out of Florence at dusk. Forgive me, my Elizabeth.

Skyla’s hands trembled as she read on. Memories of the past were coming more into focus now. She had already seen through Rei’s dream back at the Agency of what happened the day her cousin and the Medici guards came to arrest Rei, and she traded her life for his. Rei did not record that heartrending day in his journal, but she remembered as clearly as the bleak winter sky. The next entry he made was two months afterward.

Journal entry: September 26, 1587

I disobeyed father’s direct order and came back to Florence for Elizabeth. I immediately went to her home, but I could not get closer because there were guards at the gate, and mourning shrouds were put up on all windows. I went back to the inn and discreetly asked around the local establishments for any news related to the Magini’s family. To my shock and despair, whispers on the streets said the Magini girl perished. It was a suicide to escape marrying her groom-to-be, Fernando Medici. I refuse to believe Elizabeth had taken her own life. The gossipers probably have it all wrong. Medici probably has her locked away, but they would not harm her. Her family would not stand for it, not even her despicable cousin Antonio. I must go to her father tomorrow.

Journal entry: September 27, 1587

Elizabeth is truly gone. Her uncle saw her disappear with the time machine. There’s no way to know which era she traveled to or whether she’s safe. Her uncle wept and said he couldn’t recreate the machine without Elizabeth’s help. I wish I could gut the old man for siring Antonio. He traded Elizabeth for riches and glories. And now she’s gone. My Elizabeth, I promise you I will not give up on us, and I will find you no matter the cost, even if it be my immortal soul. Tomorrow I have to sail back to my father’s kingdom. Word of the Ottoman soldiers setting sail toward Serbia have reached Florence. My father and brothers need me now. But make no mistake, Elizabeth, I’ll find you no matter when and where you are.

Cool droplets fell on Skyla’s fingertips. They were her tears, silently rolling down her cheeks. Now she remembered how frightened she had been when Fernando Medici tried to force himself on her. She remembered how he’d almost broken her into submission with his sick, perverted games. She remembered her desperate, silent cries for Rei, worrying for his safety yet wishing he were there to save her. And she remembered herself inside her uncle’s untested time machine, activating the device. And the rest was history. She looked down at the journal. It was the last entry.

Journal entry: October 31, 1587

Our army was completely overpowered by the Ottoman soldiers. We stood our ground behind the castle wall for five days, but the Turks finally overran us. I tried to get my father away to the secret underground tunnel, but he refused to leave while his men fought on. Then all of a sudden, the sky darkened. At first I thought it was storm clouds closing in but then realized that it was thousands of arrows shooting toward us, obscuring the sky. I rushed toward my father, hoping to shield him from the coming onslaught, but I was too late. Everything was too late.

Sheer pain from multiple arrow wounds must have knocked me out for a moment. When I opened my eyes, the silence around me was deafening. Then I saw my father’s and brothers’ lifeless bodies next to me. I tried to howl, but I found no voice. I desperately wanted to go to them, but I couldn’t move. I was pinned down by arrows, which, I now realized, had been dipped in poison. It was spreading rapidly through my limbs. I knew I was dying, and I actually welcomed it. Maybe this way I’d see Elizabeth again.

As my vision turned gray and coldness began to creep through my body, I saw Elizabeth and felt her warm, delicate hands pressing on my forehead and heart. I could see her lips moving, saying something to me, but I couldn’t hear anything. Then suddenly my vision became clearer, and I could hear the oncoming battle cries from the Turks; they were not far now. They would scour our city for survivors to torture and to enslave. I prayed to the gods to spare my people, those who did not make it out of the city in time. Then I looked up at the slight figure crouching next to me, hoping it was truly Elizabeth—but it was not her. I had never seen the woman kneeling before me. She couldn’t be from my homeland because she had the palest skin I’d ever seen and long, wavy blonde hair. Her thin sleeveless silk gown was almost translucent under the bright autumn sun. Before I could ask her who she was, she told me that I had a choice to make: to die alongside of my father and brothers or to have vengeance.

Then she waved her hand in front of me, and a vision appeared of Elizabeth trapped in a chair by Fernando’s imposing arms. His expression was licentious and menacing, and he was speaking to her. There was no sound from the vision. But I didn’t need to hear what he was saying because Elizabeth’s big brown eyes rounded with increasing alarm. Her lips were trembling. She tried to push Fernando off her, but that only excited him more. The bastard laughed and lifted his filthy hand to Elizabeth’s head while she struggled to push herself back against the chair, desperately trying to turn her head away from his disgusting mouth. It was obvious that her rebellion turned the monster on more. He grabbed her breast as if he possessed them, and with such force that Elizabeth screamed. And Fernando seized the opportunity, his mouth blanketing hers, gagging her. She resisted with all her might, and somehow her foot struck hard at his groin. With a howl, he slapped Elizabeth on the face with so much force that a red handprint was left behind.

I had seen enough of the abuse my Elizabeth had suffered. I bolted up, and my arm went for the blonde woman’s neck. There was so much rage and pain inside of me that I just wanted to kill. She didn’t cower from my vicious hold. Instead she calmly asked me again if I wanted to die along the side of my father and brothers or if I wanted vengeance. My rage refused to subside, and I squeezed her slim, cool neck harder. Maybe because her expression remained unconcerned in the face of my irrational brutality and indifferent to the killing haze shining through my eyes, my hand loosened after several heart beats. I knew I had lost everything that mattered to me, my Elizabeth, my family, my people. There was nothing left besides death. But before I surrendered to death, I would have my vengeance upon those who had stolen the only pure, good thing that had happened to me, my Elizabeth, and those who relentlessly attacked my ancestral land in the name of their gods. So I told the blonde woman that I wanted vengeance.

Skyla closed the journal. A myriad of emotions coursed through her. Her heart ached for Rei and Elizabeth, for herself. A quiet voice brought her back from the bleak abyss. “Miss Skyla, Master Knox has finished with the surgery and asked for you.”

Reluctantly, she got up and carefully placed the journal back into the secret compartment inside the desk drawer.

Skyla took in Knox’s backside standing in front of the bathroom sink, cleaning up after the surgery. Next to Rei’s bed, Sloan stood stoically. If fury had a taste, Skyla definitely could taste it. It was dry, bitter, and cold. Part of her understood where his anger came from after reading Rei’s journal. And if she were him, she would feel the same way too. As a gesture of peace, she walked up to him, to apologize again for being the cause of Rei’s injury. As soon as she stood next to him, Sloan turned on his heels and walked out of the room. She winced inwardly. Skyla had been thinking if Rei hadn’t gone back to Florence to look for her, maybe, just maybe, he and his brothers would have been more prepared for the battle, saving their father and their people.

Turning her attention to Rei, who was lying very still on the bed, she was relieved to see his color was looking much better than it did an hour ago.

“He’ll be fine. His body is healing extraordinarily fast, almost impossibly fast.” She was so focused on Rei’s condition that she didn’t realize Knox had come up next to her. “When I first started going through the wound for the bullet, I swear I could see the bullet moving itself minutely, almost as if it was digging itself out from the mangled tissues.”

After a pause, Skyla looked up at Knox, and his grim expression surprised her.

“And there was a woman here.”

“What?” She was not entirely sure she’d heard him right. “What do you mean there was a woman here?
Here
? When you were working on Rei’s leg?”

He didn’t say more. He watched his patient’s still-pale face. Even wounded and unconscious, Rei’s body hummed with power, precise and cold power. Any man would have been hesitant coming this close to another primal male but not Knox. After a long silence, he continued, “I only caught a glimpse of her. I saw her out of the corner of my eyes. I didn’t look because I couldn’t afford any distraction. When I got the bullet out and looked up, only a few minutes later, she was gone.”

“Maybe one of the maids?” Her mind was already playing out various plausible explanations. Or else, they were screwed.

“I don’t think so. She was dressed in some kind of Grecian dress with wavy blonde hair and very pale skin. I don’t think she’s from this time.”

“You’ve got to be joking. Another time traveler?” Yep, they were screwed.

“It’d appear so.” Knox’s voice remained calm, though the stress lines surrounding his lips were more prominent now.

Her fingers reached up and gently glided over the lines. “What is it? Why does it bother you so much? It’s not like we’ve never encountered some unknown time travelers in our past missions.”