Waterfall (43 page)

I opened my eyes and stared upward, through the hole in the roof of the tomb, up and up to a blue sky. I felt no pain, and for the first time, wondered if I was dead. If this was the afterlife.

This it, God?

I shifted and felt the grit of sand beneath my head, pebbles digging into my back. Nope, not heaven. At least, not as I had imagined it.

“Gabi!” Lia groaned, beside me.

I turned and looked at her. She rolled to her hands and knees, then crawled over to me and pulled me into her arms. “Gabi, Gabi. Are you okay?”

I pulled her closer, assessing my limbs and gut. “I-I think so,” I said in wonder. I lifted the side of my short, bloody gown and gazed at my skin-it was perfect, whole.

“Come on, we have to get you to a doctor,” she said.

But I held onto her, not moving. “No. I-I don’t think so.”

“What?”

I moved my hand down my ribs to my waist, to where the gash and sutures and wound had been…and felt nothing but skin and muscle, firm. I shook my head. “I’m fine, Lia. Healed. It’s as if it never happened.”

We heard voices, a shout. Someone was coming.

“Over to the edge,” Lia said in an urgent whisper.

We scuttled over to the side of the tomb, out from view of the passageway. Somebody paused at the entrance, shined his light in our direction and paused as if listening. “Chi c’e?” Who is there?

I covered my mouth, because I suddenly had the insane urge to giggle. Who was there? Oh, nobody but two girls who just traveled through time. Don’t mind us.

Lia seized my hand and squeezed it, hearing the man begin to crawl inward. We were going to be in so much trouble. But part of me didn’t care. How could I? We’d been through so much. Compared to all of that, what was ahead? A grounding? That was nothing. Nothing!

I scrambled to my feet, hands on hips, determined to meet the guard, not as a cowering victim. But as a…as a…she-warrior.

Lia groaned and then came to her feet beside me just as the guard caught sight of us, shouted in alarm, and stared into our faces.

“Chi sei? Cosa fai?” He barked the questions, one after the other. Who are you? What are you doing?

“We are Gabriella and Evangelia Betarrini,” I calmly returned in Italian. Still looking at my bloody gown. It hadn’t all been a dream-

“Sta male?”he asked, taking a step closer to me, seeing the blood. He wanted to know if I was hurt!

“I am fine, really. I know it looks bad. We…we just seemed to have become a little lost.”

Lia coughed beside me, covering a choking laugh. I laughed then. I couldn’t help it. A little lost was one vast understatement. Lia dissolved into giggles, then, laughing so hard she was shaking. And I was getting carried along with her. The more angry the guard became, shouting questions at us, the more we laughed, almostwetting-our-pants kind of laughing.

Another guard arrived, setting us off on another round of laughter as he stared at me in my bloody shirt and Lia in her medieval gown. They probably thought we were in the middle of some weird, ritualistic act.

But then Dr. Manero arrived, all stern and a bit triumphant in finding us there. No doubt he’d use it against Mom. Use us as Exhibit A as to why foreign scholars could not be trusted on Italian soil.

It was only as they were ushering us out that I glimpsed the handprints and instantly sobered. They were pushing me forward, ducking my head and forcing me outward, down the passageway, and I wanted to dig in, push back, refuse to go. They were forcing me away from the path.

The only path back.

Back to Marcello.

The only path back… to love.

… a little more …

When a delightful concert comes to an end, the orchestra might offer an encore. When a fine meal comes to an end, it’s always nice to savor a bit of dessert. When a great story comes to an end, we think you may want to linger. And so, we offer …

AfterWords-just a little something more after you have finished a David C Cook novel. We invite you to stay awhile in the story. Thanks for reading!

Turn the page for …

• Discussion Questions

• Interview with the Author

• Facebook Fan Site

• Acknowledgments

• Historical Notes

• Bibliography

Grab your girlfriends and have a discussion at your local coffeehouse about this book! Here are a few to get you started:

1. What was your favorite part of the novel, and why?

2. What part of the novel did you not like? Why?

3. What would be hardest about living in 1332? No showers? No hair products? No forks? No technology? No cars? Using a chamber pot? What would you miss most?

4. Did you relate to Gabi? Why? What is it about her that you see in yourself?

5. If you had been Gabi, would you have fallen for Marcello or Luca? Why?

6. Is it ever okay to steal another girl’s guy? Why or why not? Why was it okay for Gabi to do so? Or was it?

7. At first, Gabi thinks she can work things out on her own. Find her own way back to the tomb and through it. She’s kind of prideful and stubborn about it, even (sneaking out of the castle, climbing down the wall, taking off on the horse, etc.). How does pride sometimes keep us stuck in a tough situation?

8. Do you think all things, good or bad, happen for a reason? Why or why not?

9. Gabi wonders why God has allowed this to happen to her. If it happened to you, would you think it was God? Or something else?

10. What do you think of the concept of “seizing the day”? Meaning, making the most of what you have, right now, right here? What does living that out do for a person?

11. When Gabi is hovering between life and death, she thinks about what she is living for. What do you live for?

12. If one of your parents died, what is one thing they always say that you’d always remember-that would actually help you deal with life?

13. If you could go back to any time period, when would it be and why? (It may be medieval, like this book.) What would be the toughest part of living in those years for you? What would you miss most?

Q. You’ve written contemporary romances, historical women’s fiction, general fiction, and more. Why turn to YAfiction now?

A. I’m always drawn to a new challenge. And since I have teen and tween daughters in the house, it’s been natural for me to start reading some of their fiction alongside them. I was hooked with the Twilight series and Hunger Games books. I wanted to give them something they could hand to their friends as well as read themselves.

Q Have they read Waterfall?

A. My eldest has. Olivia and her friends were my very first readers. They set me straight on things that would make other kids roll their eyes. Then I handed it off to more readers in my focus group, and they helped me refine the book further.

Q Was it hard to write in the medieval time period?

A. To a certain extent. I wrote a medieval series for adults, called The Gifted (The Begotten, The Betrayed, The Blessed), that I totally loved writing, so in some ways, it was just going back to what I’d learned for that one. Thankfully, I’d spent a lot of time researching for that, so I didn’t have to start over!

Q. Why Italy?

A. Because I’m completely in love with Italy. This is the first year in four that we haven’t been back, and I’m in withdrawal.