“What’s he saying?” Jaden asked Han.
“I wish I knew.”
Jaden sighed. “Obviously, an interpreter is too much to ask for. Where’s Kayla when we need her?”
He missed her. He wished she was here. But if wishes were stars, and stars were within reach, anything would be possible. He would have to trust Han’s word that she was safe. Unbidden, memories flashed through Jaden’s mind. Kayla’s feisty attitude, her zest for life. Her lovely face and lively green eyes, sparkling with mischief. A yearning for Kayla such as he’d never known before filled him.
And shocked him into a realization. This was no mere teen fling. His feelings for Kayla were serious. Far deeper than he’d realized. She was The One. Regret pummeled him. If they ever got out of here, he would tell her how much she meant to him. He should’ve already. All his excuses for waiting now showed as what they were: the skins of reasons stuffed with lies. But it wasn’t the time for regrets. If Jaden had any hope of making good on his resolution, he had work to do.
Han smiled. “Yes, she may well have been able to help. But there’s no guarantee. And I’m sure if we needed to understand, that would’ve happened.”
“The arcachoa can do that too?”
“No, but Zareh could.”
Jaden grunted. “No surprise.”
“I think the important thing here is not that we understand what that abhorrent man is saying, but that we remember what he does.”
“If you say so.”
They lapsed into silence. The priest droned on. When he finally quieted, he reached behind him and plucked the black cloth off the nearby side table. Carefully, he wrapped the fragment of rock in the cloth, coating it several times. Then he secured the bundle in a leather pouch on the gold girdle around his waist. With measured steps, he made for the ladder. Then he began climbing. The man disappeared between the two levels for a moment, then appeared above the overhang.
Jaden noticed something he hadn’t before. “The ladder goes all the way to the top of the tower.”
“Yes, it does,” Han murmured, keeping his bright eyes on the priest.
For someone with skin crinkled enough to be ancient, the priest climbed fast. In minutes, he reached the top.
Figuring this was what they’d been waiting for, Jaden leaned forward on Han as they hovered over the scene.
The priest’s quick, furtive glances all around made it plain he intended whatever happened next to be covert. Jaden glanced down. The overhang hid the priest from the crowd in the courtyard. No one would know what he did up here. Except them.
Deciding it was safe, the priest hooked his feet around the rungs and behind the rails of the ladder, gripping the ladder with his feet so he could free his arms. Positioned on the west side of the tower as the ladder was, the man reached around the pyramid with his arms and simultaneously pressed the pyramid’s north and south sides in their very center, about six inches from the top. Then he pressed the east side, followed by the side he was resting against in the same general position. The man repeated the pattern in reverse, this time on the line of stones immediately above those he had just touched, followed by another circuit, another level higher.
Huh, he’s pressing the stones in a sequence, like the code on a keypad. Ingenious! Jaden memorized the pattern as the man worked his way to the highest level, another three circuits.
Pressing the final stone, the priest waited as the top part of the pyramid disappeared down on itself, each of the four sides sliding back into the lower section of the tower. A small, rimmed ledge was all that remained. The priest, uttering more unintelligible words, placed the cloth-wrapped stone on the ledge. As though the act had relieved him of a great burden, his shoulders drooped. Then he pressed a small indentation on the northern side of the tower, just below the ridge. The capstone rose back into position, covering the compartment. And the man descended.
“Han, we need to get that rock,” Jaden said.
“We must be in our own timeline to accomplish that.”
“How do we get back there?”
“Remove your medallion from the arcachoa.”
Jaden stretched out his hand. A commotion in the tower distracted him. Someone, a girl, had run into the tower room. She arrowed for the priest who had just stepped down from the ladder. Her long, blonde hair, dirty and disheveled, hung limply, disguising her face but not her distress.
Wailing, she latched onto the priest’s arm. With a brutality that shocked Jaden, the man lashed out, striking her face so hard she fell down. Whimpering, she curled up, running a hand along her bruised face, pushing her hair back. Kayla!
Jaden’s heart twisted. His mind told him this wasn’t his Kayla, as the prisoner down there wasn’t really him. But emotions overrode logic, every inch of him clamoring to save this girl. “Han, we have to help her!”
“That’s not our Kayla. Our Kayla is back in our own time.” When Jaden opened his mouth, Han cut him off. “No, I have no explanation for why these people look like you and Kayla. It’s quite unsettling.”
“How do you know it’s not really us?” Jaden pressed, his mind refuting Han’s words.
“Because we can’t physically enter or be a part of an alternate timeline. The arcachoa only allows a view of the events transpiring at that time. It does not allow for physical interaction.”
“So it’s impossible to mix the two worlds?”
“Mostly,” Han replied. “But we’ll discuss another time. We must get back.”
Jaden leaned forward again. With his hand floating over his medallion, he glanced back toward the triangular room, spotting the priest’s raised arm. He was about to strike the girl again. But he never got the chance. Ebony smoke curled into the room, thin and wispy at first but growing in density and volume until it filled the room. The priest went rigid and collapsed face down on the floor.
Across the space of time, Jaden watched, transfixed, when the smoke coalesced into the shape of a man, his features refining by the millisecond. Then he was whole. Devilishly handsome, his jet-black hair fell in waves to just below his neck. His sculpted physique—enviably so—stood over six feet. But when Jaden gazed into his cruel, coal-black eyes, he saw an evil so rampant it was paralyzing. Beyond doubt, this was the person who had appeared in his mother’s dreams. This was who the gliders called “Usurper.” Jaden understood why. Wickedness washed off the man in waves, chilling Jaden’s bones to their very core.
The new arrival acknowledged neither Han nor Jaden. All his attention was centered on Jaden’s twin, lying helpless like a trussed-up chicken on the altar. Grabbing a flaming torch, he strutted toward the Kayla and Jaden replicas. Reaching the altar, he drew a long, brutally twisted blade from his dark cloak.
“Jaden, we cannot tarry any longer!”
Han’s warning rang in Jaden’s ears, but his eyes remained glued on the embodiment of evil. His fingers touched the medallion just as his nemesis stepped forward, standing over Jaden’s replica, the torch in one raised hand and his blade in the other.
With an anguished cry, Kayla’s twin leaped between the other Jaden and the blade just as it plunged downward. Jaden watched, aghast, as the blade sank into her chest. All the way to the hilt. An agonized, involuntary scream erupted from his throat.
At that precise moment, his fingers, fumbling around the medallion’s edge, finally found the way to wrench it free. As the time tunnel pulled on them, Jaden’s adversary jerked his head toward him, pinning him with deep, impenetrable black eyes.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
“I thought you said we were invisible in that timeline,” Jaden shouted as the circle of light sucked them in.
“Typically, we are,” Han yelled back. “But then, the Usurper’s not just anyone.”
The absolute silence of the tunnel muted further conversation. This time, Jaden didn’t feel the tunnel’s discomfort as it blasted them back to their own time. Because, suffocating him, the evil soaking the apparition’s presence pursued h
im back through time, its oppressive weight squeezing air from his lungs, chasing even thoughts of what had happened to Kayla’s twin from his mind. By the time they crossed the threshold marking the end of the tube, Jaden gasped for air.
Han’s voice reached him from a distance. “Jaden! Are you alright?”
Incapable of speech, Jaden nodded, gulping air into his starved lungs. It felt like an elephant had taken up residence on his chest. The feeling eased as his lungs filled, and his breathing returned to normal. Shaking his head to clear his clouded mind, Jaden struggled to return to reality.
Did that really happen? Or is it just an omen of what’s coming? Did Kayla’s twin die? The torch the Usurper held over my twin—is that the “burn” in the riddle? Or is this just all some cruel coincidence? Maybe all this has happened before. How many times has Slurpy tried to conquer our world, and how many times have we already stopped him? Does all that even have anything to do with what I must do now—recover that cloth-wrapped stone at the top of the tower?
The questions buzzed like angry hornets trapped in his head. Everything was a fuzzy mess as Jaden clawed free of the past’s swampy haze. He vaguely registered Han was shouting at him. “Okay, I hear you. Settle down.”
“Jaden, you can’t dwell on that past. I need your full attention here, centered on the task at hand!”
“I know, I know,” Jaden muttered. “Give me a minute.”
His head felt like it would explode. Jaden snapped his water bottle off his belt and took a long draught. Water gushed down his throat, soothing and refreshing. Breathing, Jaden drank more. His hands were shaking. Was this because of what he’d seen happen to the “other” Kayla? He couldn’t clear his mind of that image—the knife plunging into her chest. Why had she placed herself in harm’s way? Was that destined to be her fate this time too? He felt sick. Jaden took another sip of water, trying to quench the dryness in his throat that wouldn’t leave. Blocking the disturbing image, his head finally cleared. Jaden focused on what was in front of him, surprised to find Han had positioned them alongside the needle.
“Are you ready yet?” Han pushed, tension weaving a steel timbre into his deep voice.
“I am.”
Han moved them closer, keeping his wings clear of the tower while placing Jaden within easy reach of the pyramid. Meticulously, Jaden counted the levels from the top. When he was sure he had the correct layer, he began the sequence.
Pressing the various stones in order, his fingers worked their way to the top. To Jaden’s surprise, the stones moved with ease, considering how much time must’ve passed since the priest hid the parcel there. Jaden had expected to find the tiny slits allowing for movement gritted up, but evidently, the wind up here swept debris away, as opposed to depositing it. Jaden’s fingers touched the last stone. Pushing it, he waited. A shrill grating abraded his ears. Then the sides of the pyramid slid down on themselves, as they had in the other timeline.
Jaden stared at the bundle. The fabric covering the stone had not survived the centuries intact. Its tattered remains flapped in the breeze. Jaden retrieved the bundle, separating the cloth from the stone. He dropped the rags onto the ledge, where the wind picked them up and tossed them away.
Inspecting the stone, Jaden found it didn’t look like anything special. Just a piece of rock. But it must be important, or there wouldn’t be such a fuss associated with it, right? Sighing, Jaden secured the rock in the zippered pocket of his smart suit alongside the map. Then he pressed the switch and closed the pyramid.
“You have the rock?” Han asked, squinting back at him.
“Yes, but I have no clue what we’re supposed to do with it.”
“The others might know. They’re in the tower room.”
“You mean Kayla?” Jaden asked, daring to hope.
Han rolled his eyes. “Yes. And Atu.”
“Naturally.” Jaden grinned, his soul singing. Not that he didn’t care about the others. Kayla was simply so much more important to him than anyone else. It was only then that Jaden noticed the hundreds of gliders forming a protective barrier around them, filling the sky on all sides. “Wow! You really found them,” he breathed, enthralled.
“We did. They’ve been here, keeping us safe while you recovered the stone.”
“They killed the other Gaptors?”
“I assume that was their goal. Whether they succeeded, I don’t know, but I’m sure Tazanna won’t pass up the opportunity to gloat.”
“She’s here?”
“She is, with Kayla and Atu. They’re waiting for us in the tower,” Han reiterated.
“What are we waiting for then?” Jaden hollered, his heart leaping at the thought of seeing Kayla again.
With a throaty chuckle, Han arced them away from the pinnacle. Only, he didn’t aim straight for the triangular room. Taking a detour, he winged them through the mob of gliders looping, curling and rolling around the tower. Jaden spotted Taz in their midst, carousing with newfound friends. He grinned. This was Taz as he had never expected to see her. She spotted him and assumed a more ladylike demeanor. He waved, delighted she was safe. Then she disappeared in the throng, and they were in the middle of a whole new group. Shouted greetings floated their way, and Jaden was astonished to hear his own name more than once. “Your friends know who I am?”
“Yes, Seeker. They’ve waited for you for a very long time.”
Jaden swallowed the lump in his throat. All these gliders. Here. For us. “How can we ever thank them for their help?”
“Thanks are unnecessary. In fact, if you understood our language, you would know they were thanking you.”
Jaden snorted. “What for? They’re the ones taking all the heat, confronting that horde of Gaptors.”
“Are they?” Han answered quietly.
His mild question had Jaden reconsidering. Looking at it from another angle, he could understand that the gliders were thankful their little band had taken up the gauntlet. But the gliders were taking out the Gaptors in one-on-one combat. They didn’t have DDs or relic stones. “I still don’t get why they’re grateful,” Jaden decided.
“You will, one day. Prepared for your reunion?”
Jaden was. But his somber mood had returned. There was still so much he didn’t know. Mainly whether the events he’d seen in the alternate timeline were things that had happened to him and Kayla or two people who just resembled them. The thought was disturbing.
At the tower, Han tipped him toward the balcony, then took off to join the other circling gliders as soon as he was free. Jaden tried to soften his landing, taking as much weight off his injured leg as he could. Nevertheless, the landing hurt, and he drew in a sharp breath as he came to a stop and stood.
Turning, Jaden faced the room. His breathing hitched when he saw Kayla running toward him, the most magnificent thing he had ever seen. Without a word, he moved toward her, going as fast as his injured leg would allow. All he could think about was having her in his arms again and never letting go.
“Jaden, what’s wrong?” Kayla slowed as she neared, her smile faltering when she noticed his grim expression and pronounced limp.
He went to her, wrapping her in his arms. The relief, oh the blessed relief that she was alright. Jaden never wanted to be separated from her again. She melted into his arms, showing no signs of reserve. Jaden hugged her closer, thrilled. He hadn’t been sure how she would react, but if the hug she was giving him was any sign, she was at least glad to have him back too. Jaden held the embrace longer than he knew he should’ve. But he couldn’t help himself. What if he’d really seen their fate? He squeezed her tighter.
“Jaden, ease up. You’re squashing me,” Kayla gasped.
“Sorry,” Jaden mumbled, dropping his arms, abashed.
Kayla studied him. “You still haven’t told me what’s wrong.”
“I’m just relieved you’re alright.”
“Why wouldn’t I be?” Kayla half-laughed, mystified by his behavior.
Jaden s
hrugged. “Life and death situations and all that.” He couldn’t stop staring at her. Kayla was here, and she was safe. And even if he couldn’t tell her how he felt right now because there were so many others around, he could at least be with her.
Kayla eyed him. “Aren’t we all in the same boat?”
“We are. And for that reason, we should appreciate our friends when we have the chance.” Breaking the almost hypnotic effect she had on him, Jaden turned to Atu and dragged his surprised friend into a heartfelt hug. “Thanks for being there for us.”
“Sure, bro. Like Kayla said, we’re all in this together.”
They stood there for a moment, grinning at each other.
Then Atu rubbed his fingers together, noticing the sticky blood. His eyes went to Jaden, picking out his injured leg. Gripping Jaden’s shoulders, Atu turned him around. “Jaden, your back!”
Jaden grimaced. “It’s not as bad as it looks. My leg hurts more. The Gaptor’s tail stung me.”
Atu plucked his pouch from his belt. Rummaging in it, he produced a vial of purplish liquid. “Drink this. It will counteract the venom.”
Jaden took the vial, swallowing the liquid in one gulp. At once, the fire in his leg died down. “Ah, that feels much better!”
“Doesn’t it?” Atu grinned, but his attention was on Jaden’s back. Extracting a different container from his pouch, he dipped his fingers into the gel. “This will hurt.”
“Can’t be worse than what I’m feeling now,” Jaden muttered, waving Atu’s concern away.
“Actually, it will be.”
“If making it worse will make it better, I’ll take it.”
“Take a seat, then, and unzip the top part of your suit.”
Jaden sat, and Atu used one hand to pull the smart suit away before smearing the gel onto the first of the serrated wounds running down Jaden’s back. Jaden jerked away, gasping.
Destiny Series Boxed Set Page 54