“Well this was grand fun,” he said, not at all worried about fading away.
I reached for him, but there was nothing to hold onto. Kye was leaving me. Tears began to fall down my face. I didn’t want that. Us winning meant him leaving. I understood that, but I didn’t want it to be that way. I hadn’t thought about the consequences when I was aiming to beat Logan.
“Please don’t cry mom,” Kye said. He was now transparent. “I’m just one person. Me leaving means you saved the whole world.”
“But I didn’t save you.”
Seth ran into the room we had appeared in.
“Hey, Dad,” Kye said, looking at Seth now. “Meet you in a little less than a year, but too bad I won’t remember any of this.” Kye shrugged. He turned back to me. “I knew you could do it, Mom. You just had to believe you could.” What was he talking about?
“We will meet again one day, and you will get to have all those memories you missed,” Kye reassured me.
Kye reached forward to hug me, and I stood frozen in shock. I looked to see that his deep purple eyes were now brown. He wasn’t Logan’s son anymore; he was Seth’s. The Kye I knew was gone, but part of him was still around. His hands passed through me, but he leaned his head near me. I could feel the same warm hum when I had gone through time looking for him. It brushed against my skin.
“Please save Miller. He doesn’t deserve the fate grandfather has planned for him. He’s innocent,” Kye’s words faded as he did so.
“I will,” I replied to the empty air around me.
Kye was gone. Just like that. The tears kept coming, and I didn’t have the energy to make them stop.
Seth moved over and took me into his arms. He brushed away the tears that were falling. I would meet Kye again someday, but he was gone now. We had won, and he got exactly what he had wanted.
“Our son?” Seth asked. He was in awe of what he had seen.
“Our son,” I replied. It was strange to already know what kind of man my child would be when he grew up.
I let out a sigh of relief. We had come far since I went off to college. All I wanted was a little adventure, a little freedom, a little fun. Needless to say, I never expected what I had found at college. My life had changed, and all for the better. I was exactly where I was meant to be. Egypt, the past, my parents together, and Seth were all blessings I would have never even known to ask for. It was much more than I ever wanted. All I could do was thank fate and the goddess for letting me have all that I did. I didn’t expect life to be easy, and I didn’t know what my future was going to bring, but I was ready for it. At least after I talked to the goddess and gave her back her powers. I didn’t want to be a goddess. I didn’t want to time travel anymore. I just wanted to stay with Seth and have the future we were always meant to have.
“We did it,” I said into Seth’s chest as he hugged me tight. It was strange to know it was all over.
“We didn’t,” Seth replied. “You did.”
I pictured my grandfather’s home and appeared there instantly. Ty jumped up from the bed to crush me in a hug, and Seth continued to lean against the wall. He wasn’t glaring at me, but he was mad.
“Never do that again,” Ty told me, finally setting me down.
“I won’t,” I replied sheepishly. “He was going to hurt Sim.”
“And you thought we wouldn’t let you go,” Ty filled in what I didn’t want to say.
Thought? No. I knew they wouldn’t let me.
“But that’s all fine now. She’s with her father, and we better get out of here quickly before Logan comes looking for me,” I added. Seth still didn’t say anything.
“What bargain did you strike with Logan to get free?” Seth asked as he continued to hesitate.
“Logan didn’t free me.” I held out my hand and waited for Seth to take it. “Sim did. It seems she didn’t need rescuing, and her father is a god or something.” I wasn’t quite sure, but I’d have to figure it out later. “He brought you guys here, and then he came over to take Sim away.”
“Wait.” Ty pulled back as Seth took my hand. “You mean Seth is her father?”
I looked at Seth.
“Not Seti. Seth. The god Seth,” Ty answered.
“The god Seth brought us here after you sent us home,” Seth explained.
Kye popped into the room in front of us. I defensively moved in front of the guys, ready to be off before he could make a move on either. The vacant look in his eyes was gone.
“Get out of here now,” Kye whispered urgently. “I’ll keep him at bay as long as I can.”
Ty reached for Kye.
“I can’t leave with you. I have to stay with him; otherwise he might learn the truth. I can’t let that happen. Fix all of this, Mari, please,” Kye begged. Tears were welling in his eyes.
“What happened?” I asked. Something was up.
“Logan saw the message Miller left you. He killed him.” Kye wiped the lone tear that made it out of his eyes. “I don’t know what he told you, but you need to do it. Logan is worried that his future won’t hold up. Do what Miller said.”
“But he didn’t…” I heard someone walk through the door downstairs.
“Kye, check all the rooms,” Logan yelled up to him.
I looked at Kye one last time before disappearing. I wasn’t sure where I needed to go exactly, but I needed to get away from Logan. We appeared back in Egypt. I had been thinking of Miller and how he was dead now. Was Logan really that bad of a person? I needed to find a younger Miller and make sure he never ended up with Logan.
“Why’d we come back here?” Seth asked. “Isn’t our fight in the future?”
“I don’t know. I was looking for Miller.” I looked up. We were in Egypt, and in my father’s palace for that matter, but I had no clue where in the palace we were.
“And we’d find him in the cells?”
I looked at Seth and my eyes widened. At least that was why I never knew where I was.
“Hello, Princess,” a guard greeted me as I walked toward where I was being pulled. “We didn’t expect you.”
“I’m just giving her a full tour,” Seth commented from beside me. “If she’s expected to rule one day, she kind of needs to know where everything is at.”
The guard nodded and bowed to me.
I continued to walk down the hallway and finally stopped outside one of the doors.
“Who’s in here?” Seth called down the hallways to the guard.
“The girl lying about you, sir,” the guy replied.
“Melissa,” I said quietly. I knew where Miller was now. He was inside her. “And Miller.”
Seth stared at me, and I nodded. I knew where Miller was. Now I only needed to find out why he was born without time travel powers.
I stared at Melissa, and she stared back. I could see her as the mean girl who met and judged me before ever talking to me the first day of college, and I could see her as the girl who sat beside me in Chemistry and kept the semester fun. Both memories of Melissa felt real, yet I knew nothing about her. What I didn’t have was memories from this time. Who was she really and who was she supposed to be all along?
“He killed him,” I said quietly.
Melissa’s eyes darted to her lap where she was squeezing her hands together, and then she looked up from her place on the bed where she had been sitting. Seth stayed outside the room, and Ty stood guard next to me. It wasn’t like Melissa could hurt me, but Ty had a job to do.
“Who killed who?” Melissa asked in a shaky voice. She knew exactly what I was saying.
“Miller told me the answers I was looking for were in the past. Logan killed him for telling me that,” I replied.
“Not possible. Logan wouldn’t kill him. He wouldn’t kill his own son,” Melissa replied.
There was no snarkiness, just pain from what I was telling her. She knew it was the truth. I had no reason to lie.
“Logan treated Miller as a servant, not a son,” I answered.
r /> Melissa looked up at me, her eyes watering.
“Did you know him?”
It hit me harder then. I could see it in her eyes. She never met her son. It wasn’t hard for Logan to take Kye away from me in what he thought was forever. He had already done that to Melissa.
“Yes. I met him more than once, and he meant everything to Kye. Kye told me lots of stories about the two of them growing up. All they had were each other. Miller practically raised Kye, and it’s his doing that Kye turned out to be such a good person,” I explained.
Tears dripped down her face as I talked. I dropped to the bed beside her and put my arm around her as she cried. In one of my versions of the past, we were friends. It broke my heart to see her cry. I would feel the same pain one day if we let Logan win. It all had to stop, and this was the first place to look for answers.
“Do you have memories of everything with Miller and your guy’s future?” I asked when her tears slowed down. She seemed to be back in her time. I had to hope that she knew what I was looking for, but it was possible she didn’t have a clue either.
“I have memories, but I’m not sure if they’re my own or something placed in my mind,” Melissa explained.
I looked closer at her and looked for any indication she wasn’t in her time period. Nothing said she was off. In fact, I was pretty sure this was the right time for her, but then I had to wonder about the memories she had.
“What do you remember?” I asked.
“I remember Logan and falling in love with him,” she replied. “I took one of the stones years ago and ran away from home. I had been promised to Seti since I was a small girl, but I never loved him. I hated being promised to someone that I didn’t know, even if he was cute. I ran away from it all and found Logan.”
After a few sniffles and a long pause, she continued.
“I loved Logan more than anything. We even lived out our life together once in a different time, but he was never happy. He was always distant and even though he said he loved me, I saw it. He didn’t really love me, at least not how I loved him. We grew older together, and he grew bored. He left and put me back in my own time. It wasn’t until he wanted to use me again that he came back for me. I loved him so much. I’d do anything for him.”
It all made a bit more sense now. She was never really angry about me and Seth. She was mad about Logan.
“You do understand I have no interest in Logan,” I quietly added. She had to know that.
Melissa nodded. “I figured that out real quick, but no matter what I told him, it just enraged him more. He was certain he could make you love him, and he just threw me away. I get it now. He never loved me, but I never thought he’d harm Miller.” Melissa rubbed her stomach. “He told me that if I came back pregnant it would break up your wedding. Then he would come back for us both after Miller was born. He planned to keep you locked away, and I would get to be his real wife. He said he loved me and if I loved him that I would do this for him. He said we would be safe.”
“I honestly don’t think Logan is capable of love,” I replied, trying to ease her pain.
Melissa and I sat there, both lost in our own thoughts. I had no reason to lie to her, and she understood. Logan was spinning a tale he thought she wanted to hear. No matter how much she loved him, it wouldn’t change anything. Finally, Melissa spoke to me.
“Can you save him?” she asked. It wasn’t Logan she wanted to be saved. She had closed that book.
“I want to,” I replied. “But I need to figure out why Miller wasn’t born with gatekeeper powers like Kye was. If I can figure that out, I might be able to stop Logan.”
Melissa looked at me. It was like she was studying me for some clue.
“You really want to save him?” she asked.
“Yes. He was a good guy. He didn’t deserve Logan as a father. I just need to figure out how to stop Logan and reverse all he did.”
“Logan was never sure about it,” she paused and took a breath. “But I got the feeling it had to do with where Miller was born,” Melissa replied. I waited for her to elaborate. “I overheard someone talking once about where you are born making the difference. That made me think about Miller and what I would do different to make it that Logan would like him as much as he liked Kye. I think to be a gatekeeper, the child had to be born in a time that isn’t the mother’s or the father’s time. It makes sense doesn’t it? Gatekeepers traditionally take care of three different times. If they are made from two people of different times, and then born in a third, they would always been torn between three different time periods.”
I nodded. That actually made a lot of sense. I never thought of Melissa as being smart, but I was beginning to see her in a new light. She might not have had book smarts, but she sure seemed to have street smarts.
“Where was Miller born?” I asked, testing her theory.
“From what I’ve been told, since it hasn’t happened yet in this lifetime, Logan came and took me to his place for Miller’s birth. It must have been his original time and as such Miller didn’t get time travel powers.”
I thought about it. Everything seemed logical, but how could we be sure?
“How certain are you that this is how it works?” I asked.
Melissa shrugged. “I’ve asked around for years. Logan treated Miller differently, but there was nothing I could do. I wanted to see if there was a way to get Miller the powers that would make him liked by Logan.”
“I don’t think Logan would have ever liked Miller. Miller might have been his son, but he was nothing like him. He was a good man, even after being raised by a monster. Logan would have never been able to accept that.”
Melissa nodded. “I know that now.”
“Would you stake Miller’s life on this being how to make someone unable to time travel?”
Melissa’s eyes went wide. “You want to do that to Logan.” The realization set in for her. I expected her to be upset, but instead she was smiling. “If Logan can’t time travel, he’ll never be able to take Miller away. He’ll never be able to keep me from my son.”
I nodded. There was a chance she’d never even have Miller. She didn’t seem to focus on that. The reality was she was as trapped as everyone else in the games that Logan had played. Stopping Logan gave her freedom.
“I would stake Miller’s life on it. I’ve been around this world for many lifetimes. I’m certain that’s the way to stop Logan,” she replied.
That was enough for me. At one time, I would have worried, but I could see it now. Logan took everything away from her. She might have loved him, and maybe still did to some level, but he crossed a line when he killed Miller. Melissa was no longer his to use. She was on my side. We were going to stop Logan. I was going to set the world right. This had to be done.
“I’m not letting you go alone,” Seth told me finality after I explained that I had to go back near Logan to follow his string to the past.
While I didn’t want to go alone, I was afraid of taking anyone with that I cared about. Logan had already made it very clear to me that he wasn’t against hurting or using the people I loved against me.
“Mari, while we didn’t get to the last ceremony, we are technically married. Your life is mine and mine is yours. We do this together.” Seth held my hand to his face as he kissed my fingertips, distracting me.
“But what if Logan finds us? What if he does something to you?” I finally got my fears out.
“I could say the exact same for you. How am I supposed to live if he takes you?” Seth replied.
I shook my head. It wasn’t fair. How was I supposed to protect him if he came with me? Seth was too important for me to lose.
“We both go, or no one goes,” Ty said from his spot by the window. “We all go to make this all right.”
I hadn’t explained to them my plan, but Ty had a good idea from what he had heard with me and Melissa. I didn’t want to put either of them in danger, but I understood. They needed to be there and see it
done. This was for us, but it was also for everyone else.
“Fine, but we do what I plan. Once we are out there, if I make a choice, you can’t argue with me,” I told them, trying to keep at least a bit of control.
“As long as your plan involves kicking Logan’s butt for Miller, then I’ll do anything you say,” Ty replied.
I saw the hurt in his eyes. I forgot that Miller had taken care of the guys for two years while they were off at college. They knew him even better than I did, and I still felt the pang from his loss. But we were going to change that.
“So, boss, what’s the plan?” Seth asked with a flirty smile. He was getting his way; of course he was happy
I looked from Ty to Seth. They were ready to go to war with me. I wanted it to be easy. I wanted to be able to just flash in and take Logan’s mother to another time. But I had a very good feeling it wasn’t going to be as easy as that.
I filled them in on my plan in as simple terms as I could. In reality, it was just an outline. Get to Logan’s mom. Move her to her real time. Keep her there until Logan was born. After that, everything would have to change back. At least that was the hope.
I offered each guy a hand.
“Now is as good of time as any,” I told them. Waiting even a day or two wasn’t going to make a difference.
“Let’s do this,” Seth said with encouragement.
If I wasn’t so nervous, I would have laughed.
I closed my eyes and looked for the strings that connected me to everyone. Suddenly, I remembered that Logan still had my grandfather.
“My grandpa,” I said as we faded into nothingness.
I didn’t mean to direct us to him, but I did. Luckily I had enough control to stop us from appearing near him and had the time to look over the scene. My grandfather was in a room by himself with Logan and Kye in the outer room. They were waiting for me. If they didn’t want me to find him, they could have kept him hidden, but instead he was out in the open.
“It’s a trap,” Seth said as he looked over the scene.