I leaned forward, ignoring the stab of pain in my stomach at the motion. “So, Markus isn’t going to…be in trouble?”
Loretta sighed heavily and took a minute to glance away, monitoring our progress at the controls for a moment. I tightened my grip on Markus’ arm. He’d done so well, refusing to give into the darkness and choosing not to go through with his plan for his family in the ruined timeline. If he was going to be punished for his intentions, I worried it would only foster his darkness.
Finally, Loretta spoke again.
“The Time Agents are not particularly concerned with prosecuting dark tourists, except for those who have committed criminal activity repeatedly and are already wanted for breaking separate laws,” she explained. “Prince Markus has done nothing wrong, technically. Other than aiding and abetting a known criminal by providing him with monetary support, of course, but we’ll waive that in the intergalactic courts given that His Highness also helped put an end to him.”
“So you were the only Agent onboard?” I asked.
Loretta smiled in approval at my prodding, glad that I was keen on asking about the finer details. She had trained me well. “Rosa Ricardo. She never reboarded the ship when we landed in that timeline, though it appeared she did. Lee was suspicious of her, so I convinced him to leave her behind. She is, of course, back at the Time Agency headquarters, playing her role in this mission very well.”
“So, the baby…” Markus murmured.
Loretta shrugged. “The baby was a time-lost infant that had been orphaned. She has since been brought to a timeline that isn’t ruined or set for destruction and adopted by a loving family.”
Markus nodded once in acknowledgement and then, perhaps in response to Loretta’s earlier words about the intergalactic justice system, turned to me, a question in his eyes. I could tell that he was searching for my approval, too. He needed to know that he’d done the right thing. He needed to see that another person had witnessed the light in him in order for him to be able to see it inside himself.
I reached out to tangle my fingers in the curls at the base of his neck, pulling him closer to me so that I could press a kiss to his mouth. He hesitated in answering the kiss, clearly surprised by my actions. I was surprised, too. I’d been ready to curse him out and swear off men forever when I’d seen he’d managed to slither out of my bed before I’d woken up.
But, something between us had changed since that moment.
Loretta cleared her throat again. “I should also mention…we’ve been preparing for this day for years. The outcomes of this timeline, the one we’re in right now, with the three of us and the Rogues and Lee and whatnot, have changed slightly over the past few years, but the Time Agency has been watching this timeline for years. It wasn’t until recently when it was deemed the most viable option for taking Lee down.”
I frowned in confusion. I had, after all, only had a handful of days of training on this kind of information.
Loretta nodded at the look of misunderstanding on my face, prepared to lecture me the way she would have in that tiny conference room, with Lee watching on nearby, an amused smirk fixed on his face.
But, Markus spoke up before she did. “You knew,” he replied, staring at Loretta with a look of absolute shock. “You knew about her. About Ellen. About me. You knew all of this would happen.”
Loretta shrugged. “We knew, generally, that a time-lost human would be kidnapped by one of Lee’s dark tourists and we knew that, yes, you, Prince Markus Alin III, the ninth heir to the dragon throne, would be on that ship. We also knew that the two of you would fall in love. In fact, after extensive research with the Quantum Drive, it appeared that the two of you falling in love was imperative to this timeline being a successful option for the mission.”
“How?” I asked. “What do the two of us have to do with anything?”
Loretta merely shrugged. “Timelines are complex and delicate things. Sometimes even the smallest, most seemingly inconsequential moment can be the only thing keeping the balance. In this case, you and Markus just appeared to be the key.”
In other words, Markus and I were meant to be. Fated, even.
The pull I’d felt toward him from the moment he knocked on my door the first day instantly began to make sense. Of course we’d been drawn to each other. The entire universe could sense that us being together would do something good for the world.
I was about to say something far too cheesy to Markus when Loretta clapped her hands together. Markus and I watched as our small dot on the radar approached the larger dot that was the Rogue ship. Outside the windows of the airship, we could see it in the distance. It had slowed slightly, allowing us to catch up, but Loretta quickly pulled us to a stop, leaving us suspended in space.
“What are you-?” I began.
The corner of Loretta’s mouth quirked upward. I realized it was the first time I’d seen her smile.
“I rigged the ship,” she said by way of explanation.
“Rigged it?” I asked, jaw dropping as I began to understand.
“Yes,” she replied simply. “With explosives. We cannot allow the Rogues’ version of the Quantum Drive to continue existing. It needs to be destroyed, so ensuring the destruction of the entire ship was the most effective method.”
“Why did we have to follow them, then?” I asked, confused as to why we had to stalk the Rogues instead of escaping to somewhere safe and far away if they were all destined to die a fiery death without question.
“The Time Agency has its methodology and laws,” was Loretta’s answer. “There need to be witnesses to the destruction of the Rogues so that we can testify in the intergalactic courts later on.”
Finally, Markus found his voice, eyes locking on the Rogue ship hovering in the distance.
“You-” Markus began, standing up immediately.
But, he was cut off by a brilliant, fiery explosion in the distance.
I watched, eyes wide, as the Rogue ship burst into a rage of flame and crumbled into an ashy inferno.
Chapter 22
Reunited
Markus
I could tell that Ellen was slightly disturbed by the sight of yet another thing bursting into flames, and even more people dying. I knew that she was thinking about the nine people who had come with her onto the ship from her timeline, and that their bodies would be lost forever to ash in the solar system.
But I could also tell that she understood it was necessary. The Rogues had to be destroyed. Though it had only been yesterday when we watched Paul and Patty burn millions of innocent people alive, this was different. Nobody on that ship was innocent.
I was grateful that Rosa hadn’t been on it. I’d sensed something in her that wasn’t completely dark or evil, and I was glad that I’d been proven right.
But, I was still confused about the situation and the explosion. Why would the Time Agents want to destroy everything, rather than bring the perpetrators into court for justice to be properly served? The answer came to me a second later after I’d finished thinking the question.
They didn’t want any copycats. They wanted to completely erase the Rogues from existence. The Time Agents didn’t want any stragglers running around thinking they could be the next Lee and make millions off the exploitation of time, space and individuals’ dark desires.
“Wait,” Ellen said, wincing as she stood up. I quickly tried to settle her back down in the seat, worried about the state of her injuries, though they weren’t as serious as all the blood on her clothes made them seem. But, as always, Ellen was stronger than she looked.
Loretta raised an eyebrow at Ellen.
“My parents,” she said. “In training, you said that those who interacted with time lost individuals on an intimate level for extended periods of time could be pulled from timelines in the same way, without any consequences.”
I watched Loretta purse her lips in thought, and I knew that I would gladly morph back into my dragon form to scare her into doing this on
e last thing for Ellen if I had to.
I’d killed for her. I’d do it again. I’d do it anytime, anywhere.
After all, I was, apparently, meant to find her all along. We were fated for each other.
“I can do my best,” Loretta replied finally, immediately turning to the controls and directing my ship in the opposite direction. I didn’t mind letting her drive; it allowed me to give all of my attention to the girl I was pretty sure I loved.
It didn’t take long to reach Ellen’s ruined timeline. Apparently, all versions of her timeline and all versions of mine were never very far from each other. It was, according to Loretta, a side effect of the invisible threads stringing Ellen and I together, the universe trying to manipulate the very fabric of reality in order to make us one.
It was, admittedly, incredibly romantic.
I’d never been all that concerned about romance, but something about Ellen made me want to be. Something about Ellen made me want to be a good person.
So I would be.
Loretta landed the small airship expertly on a vast, open field. Or rather, I imagined it would have been a field, had there been an inch of greenery around us. Whatever life had once flourished here, on Ellen’s version of the planet Earth, had been crushed to a pulp and stunted from regrowth by a devastatingly poisonous war.
“I’ll wait at the ship,” Loretta said as both Ellen and I hurried off. I couldn’t remember when she’d said that this timeline was set for destruction, but I knew that it was soon, and I had a feeling that, while Loretta was clearly a high-ranking Time Agent, she probably didn’t have the power to delay something as important as the destruction of an entire timeline.
Ellen stepped down onto the hard, brown dust carefully, staring around her with her mouth slightly open.
“I never thought I’d be back here,” she said quietly. Around us, the skeletons of buildings that I was sure had once been glorious and towering stood crooked and barren against the gray sky. I’d only caught glimpses of this world outside the windows when the Rogues had first landed here for Zik to kidnap his victims. I could hardly believe that Ellen had called a place like this home. It was no wonder that she was as tough as she was, and as attuned to survival as she was.
“We can’t stay long,” I told her, taking her hand and leading her toward the end of the park that looked like it was inhabited by a series of makeshift tents and huts. She followed, her steps timid at first, and then more confident.
As we drew closer, but still remained far enough away for us to remain undetected, Ellen paused, kicking up a cloud of dust with her boots.
She looked over at me, sadness weighing heavy in her sparkling green eyes.
“We can’t save them all,” she said. It wasn’t a question, but instead, a statement. A true statement. We could take her parents away from this world, and bring them somewhere that they wouldn’t be erased from existence, but nobody else had been close enough with Ellen for their genetic makeup to be affected well enough to survive that kind of transportation. At least, that was how Loretta had explained it as we landed.
Silently, we agreed with a silent look that we would have to sneak her parents away without being detected. If anyone other than just them caught word that their world was about to be destroyed and the only escape was a small space vehicle currently parked about a mile away, there would be riots. These people were driven by hope for survival.
Ellen waved me over to the edge of the park, and together we dipped in and out of the shadows of the broken buildings, sneaking toward a small makeshift house constructed with large sheets of metal and scraps of wood.
“It used to be called Central Park,” Ellen whispered to me, nodding her head to the massive expanse of crumbling Earth under our feet.
When we reached her post-war home, Ellen snuck us around the back and through a thin opening in the haphazardly placed materials. Inside the small shelter, two people who looked like older, split versions of Ellen stared in surprise at the sight of their daughter. A woman with blond hair and green eyes, alongside a man with dark curls and dark eyes, ran toward her and engulfed her in their arms.
My chest stung with a sharp pain at the image of such obvious familial love. It was clear how much they cared for each other. I wished I felt that way about my own family, wished that I had something special like that.
But, I did have something special in Ellen.
And it wasn’t too late to build something real and meaningful with my family. I was still young.
When the heartfelt reunion faded into quiet sniffles, Mr. and Mrs. Moore seemed to finally notice my presence in the room.
“Who’s this?” asked her father, eyes stern and calculating.
“Dad, this is Prince Markus,” Ellen said, coming to stand by my side. She took my hand and I saw the knowledge dawn in both of her parents’ eyes. Her mother looked delighted, though her father remained wary at the sight of his daughter in love. “He saved my life.”
Those words warmed him slightly.
“It’s nice to meet you,” I said, offering my hand to shake like I knew that humans from Earth tended to do. They both shook my hand.
“That’s a lovely accent,” said her mother, offering me a gentle smile. I answered it in kind, wondering if she could see the darkness that still danced on the edges of my aura. I knew that it would never truly dissipate, but I’d come to accept that all people were careful balances of both light and dark. Choosing the lighter side more often than the darker side was what was important.
“Where on Earth have you been?” asked Ellen’s mother. “And please tell me that isn’t your blood.”
Ellen shot me a wink and then shrugged. “Well, the thing is… I haven’t been on Earth. And I can’t be here for very much longer. None of us can.”
“What are you talking about, sweetie?” asked her father.
Ellen stepped forward and took both of them by the hand, urging them out of the house. In their confusion, they followed easily, walking back into the shadows outside with us back toward the ship where Loretta was waiting. I wished I’d thought to get the guest room ready for Mr. and Mrs. Moore. I hadn’t been expecting to entertain a lover’s parents this week, that was for sure.
Of course, Ellen was more than just a lover at this point, but I still didn’t quite know what to call her, so that label would have to do for now.
“I promise I’ll explain,” Ellen told her parents, leading them further and further from the small settlement. “But, if you want to survive, you need to follow me.”
Those words alone seemed to do the trick. The word survive flipped a switch in her parents’ heads and they immediately released their tension, quickening their steps as we hurried through what had once been a green park to the compact black ship that hummed to life at the sight of us.
We reached the ship and the four of us stepped on.
Loretta, after quick introductions, immediately closed the vessel and prepared for takeoff again. Ellen’s parents’ faces were practically glued to the glass as the ship rose off the ground and gained speed, bursting back into the open stratosphere within minutes. Ellen was sandwiched between them and they each had an arm around her waist, as if they wouldn’t even willingly let go of her ever again. I watched from afar, standing beside Loretta as she continued piloting my ship with expert hands.
“Where to, Your Royal Highness?” asked Loretta, fingers hovering over the series of switches and knobs.
I sighed quietly. “Home, I suppose.”
“Are you sure?” she asked.
I was. It was time to begin a new chapter of my life. I was ready.
“I’m sure,” I told her.
And, just like that, we set course for my planet.
Chapter 23
Control
Ellen
It had taken hours to explain everything to my parents. Mostly because I had to repeat pretty much everything that came out of my mouth because they didn’t believe it the first time aro
und.
Eventually, they’d come to accept the reality of our timeline’s situation. Though it was difficult, the truth was that we couldn’t save all the survivors on our planet. Only time lost people and those who had been changed deeply by their proximity to a time-lost person could be pulled from timelines like that.
It was a small comfort that those people struggling for the next day down on the Earth would no longer have to suffer. They wouldn’t feel pain in the end, not the pain of hunger or thirst or exposure, nor the pain of losing loved ones in a horrifying war. They’d simply…stop existing.
After a while of explaining all the details to my parents, with the help of Loretta behind the wheel of Markus’ ship, I’d managed to get them into Markus’ guest bedroom. They fell asleep quickly, clearly affected by the sudden changes all around them. I remembered what it had been like to be yanked from my own timeline and faced with something so intense as the reality of an intergalactic Time Agency and millions of timelines, not to mention a demonic ex-convict who wanted to torture me and a dragon Prince who had a strange fascination for me.
With my parents comfortably unconscious and Loretta occupied at the control panel, I went looking for Markus. I found in the far back corner of the ship in a private suite designed for what I assumed were longer journeys. He was sprawled on the massive bed, staring up at the ceiling, but glanced up and immediately sat up straight at the sight of me.
I’d since changed out of my bloodied clothes and washed the grime from my skin, and also changed into an old shirt of Markus’ that fell halfway to my knees and served as more of a dress than anything.
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