Entangled With You

by Knightley, Diana

  I needed to be able to smell Magnus on the sheets.

  To see his toothbrush in his cup.

  God, where was he? How would I get to him?

  My grandmother always told me to stay in one place if I was lost. Was I lost? Or Magnus?

  I took a big swig of coffee.

  So much had happened since we left. Days and days of drama and intrigue, from Lizbeth's birth to Magnus’s capture, enough awful for a lifetime.

  I wondered where Quentin was — he wouldn’t know how to find our new house. And if Zach and Emma were still on their honeymoon....

  I pulled the car onto the highway and called Zach.

  * * *

  “I’m back.”

  “Awesome,” He spoke off phone, “Hey Em, Katie is back.” He returned to me. “Quentin just called, we’re in the car taking me to rent a truck. He’s apparently got a bunch of ATVs to load up? Then I’m headed to pick him up on the beach near Peter’s Point. You with Magnus?”

  “No, he didn’t make it back, he’s in the future and there’s so much to tell you about, but mostly I need to sleep and I don’t know where to go.”

  “Let me see...” I heard his hand tapping on the dash, a sure sign he was thinking.

  “We’ve been at the hotel, I could book you an extra room?”

  “Could you call Hayley? Tell her we all need a spot to rest? I need it to be near the beach though, just in case…”

  “I’m on it. I’ll call you in a minute.”

  * * *

  A few minutes later my phone rang — Zach.

  “Hayley said to meet us at the light house.”

  “The actual light house?”

  “No, that one on the beach, the rental. The octagonal shaped house, the one that’s been there since forever.”

  “Okay, remind me the address, I can get there but don’t want to think. And when did Hayley become a property manager, just whipping rentals out of her ass every time we call her?”

  “Probably when her best friend started running from evil men and needed safe houses.”

  “What I really need more than anything is clean clothes. I don’t know if it’s safe to go to the house, and I can’t think straight.”

  Emma’s voice came over the phone. “Sweatpants, t-shirt, that kind of thing?”

  “Yes, god yes. Clean underwear?”

  “Plus toothbrush, when will you get there?”

  “Two hours.”

  “Coolio, it will just be me and Ben at first, maybe Hayley, you want clean clothes and — you really don't have Magnus?”

  “No, but... now that we’re so good at our timing and locations, maybe he’ll be here by the end of the day.”

  “That would be great.”

  “Yeah. That really would.”

  Chapter 58

  Though I had been using this beach house as a landmark since I was really young, because it was a round house, the only one of its kind on the beach, I had never actually been inside it before.

  The house was dark, cozy, parts of it felt almost like a cave, wood paneling, old-school-style. Instead of Beach House Modern, this was Beach House Grandma. There weren’t big sweeping windows, but there was a nice deck with plenty of chairs. The perfect place to have a coffee and watch the waves.

  Inside it was a little like a fabric store explosion: stripes, checkers, dots, sometimes a golf pattern, sometimes wicker. It wasn’t my style at all, but it was not on the north end or the south end of the island. It was in the middle. And it looked out over the beautiful dunes, had a view up and down the beach, and today was a clear crisp day. Its television carried the weather channel and it had a bed and nobody could find me here, yet. It would be a haven, comfortable and completely necessary.

  Except there was nothing here that was part of Magnus. Except me.

  * * *

  Emma and I hugged with Ben between us. Hayley hugged me too. They knew I had been through a lot, but they couldn’t really grasp how much. The wedding had been just a couple of days ago. Whereas I had experienced hundreds of years of danger since.

  Emma handed me a Target bag full of clean clothes and some basic toiletries and they made me go take a shower before there was any kind of discussion. In the bathroom I gave myself a pep talk: tell them just enough. I couldn’t bear to tell them about Magnus having a child with another woman. I loved him too much. I understood too much to let his reputation be harmed like that. I couldn’t bear to have him judged in that way. I understood all that he went through, and what it had cost him.

  It would be our family secret.

  Chapter 59

  I showered, wiping the grime of a birth, a few time travels, and a couple of kidnappings off my body. I begged the universe, God, and anyone else listening that Lizbeth remained clean enough and free from the effects of ravaging bacteria.

  I scrubbed my hands for a fourth time. My bare hand. What if I didn’t have my wedding ring ever? Ever ever? And I kept thinking about Magnus’s face when I was behind Tyler, his sounds when they were beating him, the look of despair in his eyes — the last thing I saw as he was pulled away from me.

  “Please, please, please be okay. I love you. Come home. Please.”

  I toweled myself off and realized it had been too long without checking the weather. While I dressed I called to Hayley, “Turn on the weather channel!”

  She called back, “Are we doing that again?”

  “Still! Maybe forever!”

  * * *

  Zach pulled up outside with Quentin in the passenger seat. He was still wearing his kilt and a sporran, looking like he lived in the Scottish Highlands. Quentin slammed his door open and climbed out with a groan. “I’ve got a truck full of future-weapons hidden in the parking lot of the storage units on 8th street. We’ll have fun figuring out what to do with them.”

  “I’m just so happy you’re home!”

  “Aye, but tis nae our home, tis a rental again, ye keep gettin’ intae trouble lassie.” We both laughed and hugged for a really long time. That rocking back and forth, thank-god-we’re-alive kind of hugging.

  He added, “I’ll be gettin’ all the girls with m’new Scottish accent. Though in Scotland I was gettin’ all the girls with my New World accent.”

  “Did ye now?”

  “When did you get back?”

  “Just now.”

  “And Magnus isn’t with you?”

  “Nope, but hey, maybe any moment?”

  “Let’s go upstairs, get me out of my Scottish garb and we can discuss what comes next.”

  “Good because you smell like an eighteenth century pigsty.”

  He joked, “They had, as you know, stupid ideas about baths, plus the soap smelled worse than the body odor. And I’ll have you know I just traveled three hundred years.”

  “Oh yeah, I just traveled 350 years, I totally win.”

  * * *

  We all convened in the living room. Quentin said, “First, I have to ask, how worried are we that someone is coming?”

  “Worried-worried. We need to hide the vessels we have and all the weapons.”

  “I need some weapons, I’m not a very capable guard right now.”

  “I have weapons in the trunk of the Mustang.”

  Zach said, “Is Emma safe here, Ben?”

  “I think so, but, Quentin, will you step up security, like a lot, just to be sure?”

  “Definitely.”

  Zach asked, “Okay tell us, where’s Magnus?”

  “We were captured, in the eighteenth century—”

  Quentin asked, “With Tyler right?”

  Zach said, “Whoa, how did Tyler — what?”

  I said quickly. “Tyler, come to find out, came from the future to help us. So he showed up when Magnus and I were jumping to the past. He helped us rescue Quentin and then when we got Quentin out of there he traveled with us, me and Magnus, to the future. Then we were captured there and Tyler rescued me but he couldn’t get to Magnus.” Zach passed me a gla
ss of ice water. I took a big drink and added, “He got me to the land in Gainesville and then left to go back to the future. He’s gone now.”

  Zach said, “Tyler? My brother’s friend?”

  “Yeah, he was at your wedding, remember?”

  “Yeah, and my bachelor party. I just can’t believe he’d be from the future. He didn’t seem weird at all. Just kind of a know-it-all.”

  Hayley said, “I always thought he reminded me of Magnus, I mean, smaller, not as handsome, the same kind of facial expressions, like they could be distant cousins or something.”

  I said vaguely, “I guess, we didn’t really talk about that. We need to go to Gainesville sometime and get his truck.” I jokingly waved my hand. “Add that to a list.” I lay back on the couch and acted overwhelmed, although I actually was pretty overwhelmed. I just knew that I had people around me now to help. “My really long list of things that are left undone. Right under the list of people who are probably trying to kill me.”

  “Speaking of, where’s Lady Mairead?”

  “She’s in the future. I think she was captured at the same time as me and Magnus. She’s probably negotiated her way out of it by now. Which is fine by me, as long as she also negotiates Magnus’s freedom too.”

  Zach leaned forward. “So what do you think is happening?”

  “Magnus was going to fight for his throne. There are a lot of rules apparently about how that works, but then it all went kablooie and he was captured and — I don’t know. I hope he survives.”

  Hayley asked, “Are you going to spiral again?”

  “Not really. At least not yet. The thing is he can come back, now, to Florida. If he lives through what he’s doing, then I should see him by tonight. So ask me tomorrow if he’s not here.” I looked around at all their faces. “He’ll be here if they let him fight. I know it. Because I told him to. And to get home he has to win and that’s his goal.”

  Zach said, “So that’s Katie’s story, how about you Quentin, how was your time in the 18th century?”

  “Every day was just a bit of warm mush to eat, a bunch of disgusting men, so disgusting, the smell, ugh, we just played with our weapons. And I’m not kidding about that. I learned to ride a horse. That was cool. The food, when it happened, was awful. It was kind of like being a part of an army, but without any kind of logical leader or purpose beyond maybe we should go fight those people. Or like being in a gang without any danger of being thrown in jail. But literally anyone could kill you at any time and barely anyone would blink about it and I was at the bottom of the pack. No one would have noticed if I just disappeared.”

  Zach said, “How the hell did you survive?”

  Quentin joked, “I slept like this,” He leaned back in the chair and mimed sleeping with one eye open looking around terrified. “And when I was awake. I was like this...” He stood and with his hand on a pretend sword he startled and did a 360, “What are you doin’? What do you want? Why are you sneaking up on me?” He laughed. “I’ll probably be a better security guard now because I’m jumpy and I can’t sleep longer than 15-minute intervals.” He grinned. “That being said, it was also awesome. I’d go back in a second if there were showers. And better food. Magnus’s family was mostly pretty great. They treated me well. Plus I’ve got a girl there, Beaty. I’d like to see her again.”

  I joked, “Oh, that’s really great. Two of us with someone we love stuck in another time.”

  There was a long pause. My eyes flitted to the screen, I watched the radar, Florida. The entire state looked clear.

  “I’ve got one thing. Can we look up the website for Lizbeth’s history?”

  Zach said, “Sure. Wait, crap, my laptop is dead. I’ll charge it and since it’s past lunch, I’ll run for food since I haven’t shopped. Then we can look it up after and finish the day with naps and waiting for Magnus. Everyone hungry?”

  Chapter 60

  Zach had bookmarked the website. He turned the laptop around on the dining room table and I sat beside him, Hayley sat beside me. Emma stood rocking Ben in her arms watching over our shoulders. Quentin, freshly showered, stood right behind me.

  Zach cracked his knuckles. “Here goes — something.” He clicked the link and we all watched the slowest page in the world load on the screen. Using his cursor he scrolled down and to the side on a very long family tree. Down some more, down even more. Back up. “There it is, oh my god!”

  Elizabeth Campbell

  1676 - 1723

  Tears welled up. “Oh my god, she lived for twenty more years. Oh my god.” My friends were patting me on the shoulders and hugging each other and squealing and congratulating me and us and...

  I just stared at the screen with tears streaming down my cheeks.

  It had said 1703 and now it was different. As sure as I was sitting here. I had freaking changed time.

  I had saved her life and oh my god — Lizbeth lived. Her son, too, Ainsley Campbell, he lived to be — I counted on my fingers — thirty-two years old. He had children, grandchildren, there was a whole branch of a family tree that I saved.

  I cried so many tears, streaming down my face, occasionally laughing because this kind of happiness was fraught with emotion.

  Zach said, “You did good.” He put an arm around me. “Wish Magnus was here to share it, but he will be, soon.”

  I nodded into his shoulder.

  “Yeah, any minute now.”

  * * *

  The day was almost done.

  And Magnus wasn’t here.

  He knew the date.

  At any moment in his future he could come home, he’d come to that date.

  If he was alive.

  But he didn’t come home.

  Maybe he wanted to give himself a day, for ease of transition.

  Maybe he wanted me to get some rest before he showed up.

  Maybe he was already here, in Florida, it would just take him a moment to get out of the swamp he accidentally landed in.

  It was really cold outside so I tried not to think about all the little awful things that could happen.

  That might have happened.

  * * *

  He didn’t come the next day.

  * * *

  Or the next.

  Chapter 61

  On the night of the third day I lay in bed with a notebook on my knees and drew a spiraling time line. If Magnus had gone in a circle from the past to the future and then had come back to the past again and had looped around my death on the banks of the spring two or three times — I wrote in caps, with an underline, ‘we can change time!’ — and if Tyler had existed to help us change time, was the fact that Tyler still existed proof that Magnus was still alive?

  I couldn’t come to a conclusion on it.

  I needed Magnus to come home. Now.

  Because I couldn’t go get him. I wouldn’t know how. I didn’t even know what the date was.

  I was a dumbass that I didn’t know the date.

  From now on my time-traveling ass was always going to know the date.

  Not that it mattered anymore.

  Unless Magnus came home where would I even —

  And that’s when it hit me. With an intake of air that threatened to make me hyperventilate. In and in and in and in. Oh my god—

  Old Magnus.

  I stared at the low geometric wood paneled ceiling that made the room seem like a cave. There was an old Magnus in the past. What timeline was that even? Mine? The new one, the fresh one?

  What if...?

  I threw my covers off my legs and jumped from bed. I ran down the steps to the living room yelling, “Zach! Emma! Oh my god, Quentin!”

  Quentin slid open the deck door. He whispered, “What is it, a storm?”

  Zach came out of their room. “Everything cool?”

  “I just figured something out!” I slammed the notebook on the counter. “Look!”

  They stared at the timeline, spirals, circles, the words ‘We can change time!’ And the s
crawled dates of a possible lunatic.

  Quentin said, “What are we looking at?”

  “Oh, nothing there, actually.” I placed my palm on it. “It just reminded me of Old Magnus.” I spiraled my hand around. “Old Magnus, remember, Zach? Have you heard about him, Quentin?”

  Quentin shook his head but Zach said, “I remember you asking me to look him up that day we looked up the history of Magnus.”

  “Exactly!” I was exuberant. “And he wasn’t in the listings of family members, but Lizbeth told me he existed, when she was young — Magnus.”

  Zach went to the refrigerator and started making us drinks. “So what are you saying? Pretend like I was just sleeping and you woke me up and so far you aren’t making sense.”

  “Magnus is in the past. He’s old and he’s in the past. That means he lived.”

  “He’s old? Weird.”

  “I literally don’t care. He can be seventy for all I care. It’s Magnus.”

  They made me sit down at the dining room table.

  Zach said, “What if you’ve changed the timeline so much he isn’t there?”

  I shrugged. “What if? I’ll time travel back to the castle and I’ll look for him. He might not be there. That’s true. But what if he is?”

  Quentin said, “But why? Why not come here?”

  I shook my head, thinking, shaking my head more and thinking more. “I don’t know. But I know he looped around. He was old and he went to the past before he was born. I don’t know why. But he did it. And since I’ve been with him he’s never been old and he’s never looped to before he was born, so if he did it, it was in the future and phew! I sound high—”