He sat up and waited for me to continue talking. I had never asked Seth much about his past. I figured he’d share what he wanted to share. Asking him now seemed wrong. Well not wrong, but it just felt odd like I had waited too long.
“How did you find your carnelian stone?” I finally asked as he peered at me with questioning eyes.
“This one?” Seth asked, tracing the line on my arm. I couldn’t help the goosebumps that formed. He grinned at my response. He wasn’t offended at all with my questioning.
“Yes, that one,” I replied, trying to sound strict to keep him on task, but failing miserably.
It had been too long since we actually were real around each other. His touch was gentle yet familiar. I was more than happy to have him trace the lines.
“And this one?” Seth traced the light green line also starting at my shoulder and then down my arm to my hand.
“Any luck?” Kye called from across the pond.
I looked up and glared at him. Wasn’t he the one that kept saying I needed to be with Seth?
“We thought that if someone who used the stones can tell me how they found them, maybe I could tap into my powers and find the last stone,” I told him, hoping that he wouldn’t drop his hand from my arm.
“I didn’t find the stones,” Seth answered, his hand still on my arm. His fingers had traced the lines and were starting back up my arm. “They were given to me.”
“By whom?” I asked. It was beginning to feel like a wild goose chase.
Seth’s hands made it back up, and now he was looking closer at my new lines. I knew they were on me and all, but I hadn’t thought much about them. He lightly touched the first line as we talked.
“I don’t know. An old priest approached me one day when I was in one of the villages. He gave me the stones and told me where the shrine was in the mountains for the goddess. I never had to find the stones.”
I pouted. This wasn’t working, and it wasn’t fair. Why couldn’t the goddess at least have taught me a little bit?
Seth’s fingers tickled as they crossed my backbone, leaving me unable to stay sour about my situation. It wasn’t really unfair that someone had brought him to me. In fact, I was thankful to whoever that was. No, I was just frustrated by it all. I wanted the goddess to come down and teach me, to rescue me from all my failed attempts.
“Why not ask your mother?” Seth added, feeling my disappointment alongside me. His hand now rested on my back.
“I would, but she is kind of on her honeymoon right now,” I replied.
I was allowed to see my parents whenever I wanted, but I just felt like I couldn’t interrupt them. They had spent nineteen years apart and had just now found each other again. I didn’t need to be running to them to ask questions that might or might not make a difference.
“You always told me as a child that your mother lost her stone when she made it to the future,” Kye said as he and Ty came around the pond to join us. “Logan searched and searched for her stone, but never found it.”
Things disappearing sounded familiar to me. It seemed to be just like my necklace that Logan brought to the future for me. I lost it in the past, but in reality, I had it in the future. It was never out of my possession. I had to guess from everything that we were on the right path.
“Logan never found the last stone?” I asked. That surprised me. I thought Logan won by finding the last stone.
“Nope. That’s why his future never stuck. That’s why we can still change everything,” Kye added.
“So in other words, my mother’s stone is probably the last one that Logan is looking for,” I deduced.
Kye looked at me in shock. Guess he didn’t think of that.
“No way,” Seth complained for at least the fifth time.
I thought my plan was great. I go to the future when my mother arrived. Find her, convince her that I’m her grown up daughter, and ask her for her stone. She could give it me and then Logan would never get it. She didn’t need it to get back into the past. Kye had brought her using a different stone. It would all be fine. Seth didn’t agree.
“And what happens when Logan finds you?” Seth wasn’t backing down.
“Then I take the stone by force from my mother and hightail it back to here,” I answered. Really. There didn’t seem to be any problem with the plan. It was a quick in and quick out idea. No Logan to deal with.
I wasn’t sure Logan was looking for my mother’s stone, though. I had a feeling that he didn’t even know it was the missing one. I might have told Kye about it, but it seemed that I didn’t tell Logan in any past we had together. I had a feeling no matter what Logan ever did; I wasn’t about to tell him anything vital.
“Nope. Not safe,” Seth added, like the conversation would be done from there.
I crossed my arms and pouted. Seth didn’t like my plan, but he wasn’t offering any other options. And it stung that he didn’t think I could do it on my own. I wasn’t running a great track record and all with being caught in Logan’s schemes more than once already, but I had my head on straight now. There was nothing Logan could do to persuade me to join his side. I wasn’t going to let Logan win.
“I’ll go with her,” Kye replied. “If anything, I’ll bring her right back here. You have my word.”
Seth now crossed his arms. “It isn’t safe whether she goes alone or if anyone goes with her. Didn’t you say Logan could sense her?”
“Yes and no,” Kye replied, thinking it over. “Yes he can follow her, but only if he knows in general where she’s going. If he doesn’t follow her, it takes time for him to notice her and then time to figure out where she is and what time period she’s in. There are thousands of years in history, and even more in the future for him to listen to. If he isn’t looking for an exact time, then it’s close to impossible for him to know where to find her. But even so, that’s why I’ll go with her. I can sense him just as much as he can sense her. If I get any hint that he’s coming, I can take her back here.”
“And what if I say I don’t trust you to bring her back?” Seth stood and moved to come face-to-face with Kye. Ty jumped up between them.
“He will bring her back,” Ty replied, playing buffer between them. Kye didn’t seem intimidated by Seth but let Ty stand there to stop him anyway.
“How can you be certain?” Seth asked, looking around Ty. “Maybe this is how Logan ends up with Mari.” That accusation was bound to come out sometime.
“I’m certain Kye wants the future to change,” Ty replied. He held his position between the two of them as I could just watch. I couldn’t take sides. One was my fiancé and the other was my son. “Even if I can’t tell you why, I know why he wants it to change. Trust me, man, even if you don’t trust him. I know his reasons. I trust him.”
There were more reasons? I looked up at Kye next to me. What more was there to the story? What was he holding out on? He told me about his bad childhood and Logan being a terrible father, but there was more. He had told Ty. Now I was curious and wanted to know.
“If you know, why don’t we know?” Seth said, picking up on my complete lack of knowledge on that one.
“He didn’t mean to tell me, but I needed more proof to believe he would help us get Mari back. I saw the past the way it was supposed to happen. I promise you, Kye is on our side,” Ty responded but didn’t elaborate enough to give us any idea what it meant.
They were both being coy about it. Seth shook his head in defeat. While Seth had no reason to trust Kye, beyond him getting us all back to the past in one piece and me away from Logan, Seth did trust Ty and trusted him completely. I trusted Ty absolutely, and I actually trusted Kye. I just was curious about what more Kye was hiding.
“So then it is decided. I go to my mother. Find the stone, and leave.” I looked at the three guys. Seth wanted to argue more, I could tell, but he couldn’t find a way to deny Ty’s trust.
“And I go with you. I would never let you go alone and unprotected,” Kye added, lo
oking straight at Seth. “Trust me in that she means more to me than you can even realize. I won’t let Logan take her.”
“You did once,” Seth reminded him of my last jump into the past.
“And I was under Logan’s command. When Mari broke from him, I got to choose sides. I’m choosing her. I’ll do what she asks of me, and I will protect her,” Kye replied.
That was as much of an explanation as Seth was going to get.
I looked at Kye and thought of us heading back to my mother together. I wasn’t sure that was a good idea. It was going to be hard enough to just show up where my mother was, but to bring Kye might scare her into not cooperating at all.
“Do you think I can do this alone?” I was still scared of Logan, but I wanted to get the stone.
“You take him or one of us, but you’re not safe alone,” Seth answered before Kye could. All three guys nodded. I had always wanted an older brother, but at that moment, I was sure glad I never had one. Three overprotective guys was a bit too much testosterone in one spot for me.
Seth stared at me. I could feel the worry pour off him across the bond. He was keeping his complete composure in front of the guys, but I knew better. This was making him very anxious. I couldn’t blame him. I didn’t want to end up with Logan either, but this was one of the steps to stay free. If Logan figured out that my mother had the last stone, he wouldn’t hesitate to come after me.
“Fine,” I replied. I had seen it was hard for Seth to let me go somewhere where he couldn’t protect me. I had to give him the security of bringing Kye.
“When do you want to do this?’ Kye asked.
“How about now?” I replied, holding out a hand for him. I would have to be his transport now that all the stones were embedded in me, and he no longer had one to use.
“Now?” Seth asked, his eyes going wide at my answer.
“Now is as good of time as any.” It really was. Thinking and waiting wasn’t going to change anything. We were going to the future. It had yet to happen.
“We will come right back to this time,” Kye replied. I wasn’t sure of that. I wasn’t that good at time traveling. Kye caught my look and smiled. “Logan might not have known that you can actually go back and forth fairly accurately, and I don’t ever plan to show him how.”
I guessed that was true. When he took my mother and the guys to the past, he returned to me in minutes. Kye probably was better at time traveling than Logan was. I hoped that counted for something
Seth stepped closer to me and pulled me to him before I could offer my hand to Kye again.
“Come back to me this time without any problems with Logan, please,” Seth said quietly before pressing his lips to mine.
Tingles shot straight down to my toes. He didn’t need words to describe how he was feeling. His kiss said enough. He was desperate and dreading me leaving. I couldn’t blame him there. I didn’t have the best history with facing off with Logan, but I would show him now. It was my chance to prove to them all. I could do this. I would do this. I wrapped my arms around his neck and held him to me. It had been too long since I had kissed Seth. I didn’t want to pull back.
Seth stepped back, breaking our lips apart. He was sure I got his message, and I did. I wasn’t ever going to choose someone else. Seth was all I ever needed. Seth was my soulmate.
Kye let me direct the travel through time. I had a better sense of finding my mother than he did, even though I had a feeling he could sense her just as strongly as I could, being family and all. I searched through time, looking for the months before my birth. My mother had told me her whole tale of how she arrived four months before giving birth to me. I found my birthday and then searched for her. I felt the pull of her and let us go to the moment she first showed up in our time. Letting go, we appeared before her, causing her to jump, but not scream at least.
“Who are you?” she asked right away.
I was finding it hard to respond. She was my mother; I could tell that much, but she was young. It was hard to put her together with the mother in my own memories. Part of me wanted to hug her and the other part didn’t want to scare her. I was a stranger to her. I now knew exactly what Kye must have gone through.
“Did the goddess send you? Did she make a mistake? Do I have to go back?” my mother kept asking questions before I could answer.
“No mistake,” Kye responded, as it was obvious I was still too much in shock. “We came to find you and borrow your stone.”
My mother looked suspiciously between Kye and me, taking us both in as she assessed us. I would have reacted the same way. She had just left her own time, and now we were asking to take the only thing that linked her to that past. As she stared at me, she stopped when she reached my eyes.
“Do I know you?” she asked, staring at only me now.
“Um, yeah, I guess so, kind of,” I stammered out a reply. I didn’t know what to say. Would she believe us?
“Why do you need the stone? The goddess said I had to hang onto it. It was the only way to go back home,” she answered, still looking at me.
“Someone is looking for that exact stone,” Kye answered. “A very bad man. If he gets it, he will force your unborn daughter to marry someone she doesn’t want to marry. Isn’t that why you came here? To get away from all of that?” My mother nodded, but continued to stare at me. “If we take the stone with us, then we can prevent that man from harming your daughter and trapping her in a life she doesn’t want.”
“And how do you know all of this?” she finally looked at Kye.
“Because this is your daughter,” Kye motioned to me. Great, we weren’t being subtle. Guess he wasn’t going to hide anything this time around.
She looked at me again and nodded.
“You have his eyes,” she said quietly.
My breath caught in my chest. She didn’t find it odd, or deny what Kye told her. She readily accepted it. She had been looking at me closely; I had to wonder if she suspected it before Kye even told her. My mother was always very perceptive.
“Yes, I have Meryamun’s eyes,” I replied, trying to show her that it was true, even though she didn’t need any convincing.
My mother reached into the folds of her dress and pulled out a bright blue stone. She looked at it carefully and then opened up her palm, holding it out for me to take. She was trusting us easily, and was just as easily was giving up her chance to be with my father ever again. How could my mother give up like that?
“Don’t you want to go home?” I asked, ignoring the stone.
“More than anything I want to be with him, but fate has made that impossible. I’m a princess, and he is only a soldier. Princesses don’t marry soldiers.” My mother sounded sad at the thought, but it didn’t stop her from giving me the stone.
“Well, I’m going to marry a soldier. I’m going to marry General Paramessu’s son,” I answered. I wanted to give her hope, even though I knew better than to tell her the future. There was no telling when, if ever, Logan would be visiting.
My mother smiled. “Then I did the right thing. You get to have a life you choose, and you get to be happy.”
“So do…” I began, but Kye answered before I could finish.
“We are sorry we have to take the stone, but it’s really important.” Kye pointed for me to take the stone. His look alone told me to shut up about the future for my mother.
I wanted to tell her everything. I wanted to tell her she would be all right, she would be happy, she would get back together with my father, that it was possible for a princess to marry a soldier, but Kye was right. She needed to not know. She needed to stay safe.
I reached for the stone but stopped as soon as I saw it.
“What?” Kye asked.
“I already have it,” I replied. “Back in the past. I was wearing it when we went back. My mother gave that to me before my first date. Logan went back and got it and gave it to me again.
“You’re sure?” Kye asked, still not touching the stone
but looking closer.
“I’m positive.” I reached to take the stone, but this time Kye stopped me.
“You can’t take it,” Kye told me.
“What?” I turned to him. “Wasn’t this exactly why we came back here?”
“Yes, but if we already have the stone, then we don’t need to take this one now,” Kye answered. “If you take it now, Logan will know that we got the last stone. If we take it, we lose any chance of prolonging him on his search.”
“What if Logan figures this all out and comes for the stone? What if he takes it like we meant to now? We can’t just leave the stone here,” I replied.
Kye began to pace the small cargo room my mother had ended up in when she come into the future. I remembered that she said she sat for less than a day before grandfather found her. That meant he was on the boat. I really didn’t want to run into him. Taking in my pregnant mother was one thing, but if he found three of us huddled in his ship talking, he might not do that. I couldn’t alter my history. I needed things to stay the same.
Kye paused in the walk around the room.
“Um, Mari…?”
“What?” I asked, going to stand beside him.
“When did you say your mother arrived in the future?”
I thought back. She had only recently told me the truth about everything, but I did remember the date. July 8th. She told me she arrived exactly four months before my birthday.
Kye was pointing to the calendar at the messy desk. The calendar was on June.
“That can’t be right. Maybe someone forgot to turn their calendar over,” I answered.
“And they left the same date of the newspaper out too, just because they forgot?”
The paper on the desk was open to June also, June fifteenth. I looked back at my mother. She was visibly pregnant, but there was no way I could tell how far along she was. My mother was always on the thin side. I was sure any baby growing in her would make her look pregnant.
Kye smiled as he looked back at my mother.
“How long have you been here?” he asked.
Her eyes opened wide, like Kye had hit the right question to ask and she hadn’t been expecting that.