Drew took a minute to process everything I’d said. I couldn’t blame him, since it was all rather confusing.
“You’re getting ahead of yourself,” he finally decided. “There’s no point in worrying about things like that. Because this time line—what’s going to happen if we can’t go back and change everything—ends in Chelsea’s spell taking hold of you, and you know how that will end. If we can change anything, it has to be better than what’s going to happen if we don’t.”
“You’re right,” I said. “I just hope we don’t cause a major paradox.”
“Did you watch some crazy sci-fi movie on the plane?” Drew asked with a laugh.
“Not on the plane.” I laughed too, even though I was stressed out. “But I’ve watched them before, and seen TV shows about it and read books about it. The moment time travel gets involved in a story, everything gets confusing. The smallest change in the past can have huge effects on the future.”
Drew tucked a curl behind my ear. “You can’t think about it like that,” he said, serious now. “This is the only chance we have to fix things. Whatever happens once we’ve finished, it has to be better than what we’re facing now.”
He kissed me then, sweet and loving, the warmth of his lips making the cold disappear around me. In moments like this, it was only me and Drew, and nothing could touch us.
If only those moments could last forever.
CHAPTER 21
After breakfast the next morning, Drew, Chelsea, and I met in Drew’s room to start our search. Just like at Alistair’s, we set up a map of the area, and Chelsea held the pendulum as I pictured the ring. But as hard as we tried, we couldn’t get it to work. It was like the balance of power was off.
After multiple tries, we admitted defeat.
“Without the tracking spell, how are we supposed to find one ring in the entire county?” Chelsea had no problem pointing out the grim reality of our situation. “It’ll be like trying to find a needle in a haystack.”
When she said it like that, it did sound extremely grim.
“I’ve already thought about this,” Drew said confidently. “You know how Lizzie has Alistair in New Hampshire, and he’s her Memory Guide?”
“Yeah …” Chelsea nodded, looking doubtful about whatever he was about to say.
“Well, I have a Memory Guide here in Hampshire County. She’s the one who helped me remember my past life on that trip to England two years ago. Her name is Misty, and she has a shop in town.”
“So we can visit her and figure out where to go from here,” I concluded what Drew must have been thinking.
“You got it,” he said with a knowing smile.
It was decided, then. Drew told his grandparents that he was going to show us around town, they called in the driver for us, and we were off.
* * *
The town he was referring to was called Winchester, and it was the most charming place I had ever seen. We passed so many beautiful buildings on the drive—a huge cathedral, a castle, and other historic sites that I wanted to run inside of and explore. But we were on a mission, and that mission unfortunately did not include site-seeing like a tourist.
Marshall dropped us off, and Drew led Chelsea and me down a pedestrian-only street called Winchester High Street. No building was taller than three floors, and each one had an individual antique front. I felt like I was on a set for a historical movie. There were flower boxes in lots of the windows, and I imagined they would have been beautiful in the summer.
We walked down the stone walkway until we reached a wrought iron clock jutting out of one of the buildings. Across from the clock was a shop with a Tudor-front and thatched roof, the hanging sign reading “Misty’s Antiques.”
“Good, she’s still here,” Drew said.
“You didn’t know if she was still here?” Chelsea rolled her eyes. “What would you have done if she wasn’t?”
“Worried about it then?” Drew said nonchalantly.
“Good to know you’ve got this under control,” Chelsea shot back. “So glad to be trusting you with something so important.”
“It doesn’t matter, because she is here,” I said. If Chelsea and Drew kept picking on each other, I was going to get annoyed fast. “Let’s go in and say hi.”
We walked into the store, and the bell on the door jingled to announce our arrival.
The shop had a similar feeling to Alistair’s—small and dark, with antiques pushed together in every possible space. I could spend a long time searching through everything to discover something truly special. The store was a lot busier than Alistair’s, though, with what looked like tourists and locals alike browsing the items and chatting with each other.
Misty was in the back, ringing up items for a customer. Because of Alistair, I expected her to be old and mysterious—the stereotype antique owner. But she was nothing like that. She was young—maybe in her upper twenties or lower thirties—her brown hair styled in trendy curls and wearing a lacy green dress that looked like it came from a designer store. If I had seen her on the street, I would have thought she worked at a fashion magazine, not a musty antique shop.
“Is that her?” Chelsea sounded as surprised as I felt.
“Yep,” Drew said.
“I expected someone more like Alistair,” I said. “She looks cool.”
“She is cool,” Drew replied. “Did you think my Memory Guide would be anything but?”
I laughed, glad that Drew could joke around despite everything we were dealing with. Of course now that I thought about our situation, the weight of it came pouring over me, but it was nice to have those few seconds when my imminent death wasn’t consuming my every thought.
“Drew Carmichael.” Misty smiled as we approached, and had a younger employee she called Lauren take over at the register. “And I’m guessing you’re Elizabeth?”
“Yes.” I wasn’t surprised she knew who I was—Alistair had known who Drew was without me introducing them, too. It must be a Memory Guide thing.
“And you are?” Misty looked at Chelsea, confusion on her made-up face.
“Chelsea Givens,” Chelsea introduced herself. “I love your dress.”
“Thanks!” Misty smiled, and it was like the two of them were friends already.
“Sorry to come by when it’s so busy,” Drew said. “But we need to talk to you about something important.”
“No worries,” Misty said with a wave of her hand. “I have a bunch of holiday workers who would love to help out. I’ll let them know, then we can get tea nearby and chat.”
“This isn’t the sort of conversation we can have in public,” I whispered to Drew.
He repeated what I’d said to Misty.
She nodded, and after letting Lauren know what was going on, led us to a back room that I guessed was her office, although it was so messy it was hard to tell.
We sat down on the couches and chairs, and caught her up on everything until now.
“Do you think what Alistair wants us to do is possible?” I asked once we finished telling her the story.
“I’ve heard rumors of such things, but I’ve never witnessed it myself,” she said. “Everything in the Universe must line up perfectly, and it’s rare when that happens. But we’ll never know if we don’t try, right?”
She was so optimistic that it was hard to disagree.
“Do you have an idea how to help us find the ring?” Drew asked.
“I was wondering when you would ask,” Misty said, a smile on her glossed lips. “The tracking spell didn’t work earlier because there were only three of you in the room. It’s easiest with four, since it relates to the four directions of the compass—North, South, East, and West. Now that the three of you are here with me, we’ll be able to do the tracking spell with much more accuracy.”
“It’s also more accurate when the person doing the spell is closer to the object, right?” I asked.
“Correct,” she said. “When you were in America, you were able
to narrow the location of the ring down to Hampshire County. Now that you’re here, and your energy is closer to the ring, the connection will be enormously stronger. We should be able to get it to an exact location.”
“What are we waiting for, then?” Chelsea said. “Let’s get started.”
CHAPTER 22
It didn’t take long for us to pinpoint the location of the ring.
“Where is that?” I asked, looking at the spot on the map. The location felt familiar. Almost like I knew where it was, although I had never been there before.
“It appears to be a residential address,” Misty said. “If we want to find the ring, we’ll have to go inside.”
“Like breaking and entering?” I couldn’t believe she was proposing such a thing.
“Nothing so incriminating, no.” Misty looked deep in thought. “We’ll figure something out. But first, we have to go there and scout out what we’re dealing with. Once we get more information, we’ll come up with a plan.”
I didn’t like the sound of that, but I didn’t have any better ideas, so we squished into Misty’s small car and headed to our destination.
* * *
When we pulled up in front of the house, I knew why the location felt familiar.
“That’s the house from my past,” I said breathlessly. “The one I lived in when I was her—Elizabeth.”
I remembered it clearly from when I described it without meaning to in French class earlier in the school year. Two stories tall, white wood siding, and the wraparound porch covered with ivy. The swing attached to a huge tree in front—the same swing from the memories I had with Drew when we were our past selves. It was the swing my past self sketched him sitting in when our families had no idea we were together.
I couldn’t believe I was here, and that this place existed. I mean, I knew it existed, but it always felt like it existed in another life—because up until now, it had.
“You’re sure the ring is in there?” I asked Misty.
“That’s what the pendulum said when Chelsea did the tracking spell.” She pulled the car up to the end of the driveway and put it into park.
“What do we do now?” I asked. “We can’t just knock on the door and tell whoever lives there that we’re searching for a garnet ring she has, because it was mine in a past life and since my best friend accidentally cursed me to die, we need the ring now because it might be able to take us back in time, where we can stop the curse from happening in the first place.”
“Did you really get that out in one breath?” Misty laughed.
“And someone’s probably home,” I added, “Because there’s a car in the driveway.”
“Lizzie has a point.” Chelsea looked at Drew, like he might have the answer. “What are we supposed to do from here?”
“Don’t look at me,” he said. “I was hoping no one would be home so we could go inside and look around. We could wait for whoever lives there to leave, but we have no idea when that might be.”
“I’ll have to distract them, then,” Misty said, like this was no issue at all.
“And then what?” I looked at her with wide eyes. “Have us sneak in and find the ring?”
Her eyes glinted with mischief. “Precisely.”
I couldn’t believe she seriously suggested that. “How are we supposed to find the ring in the house?” I asked. “And what if the owner is wearing it? Then we have no chance.”
“If the owner is wearing it, then I’ll be able to see it, and I’ll handle it,” Misty said. “Now, calm down and think. Where do you think you would be most likely to find a ring?”
“A jewelry chest in the master bedroom,” I said the first idea that popped into my mind. “At least that’s where my mom keeps her nice pieces.”
“That wasn’t hard to figure out,” Misty said. “So, here’s the plan.”
She proceeded to tell us her crazy idea that just might work.
CHAPTER 23
I couldn’t believe we were going through with this. I’d only broken one rule in my life, when I’d sneaked out of my house to spend time with Drew before anyone knew we were together. Every time I did that, I felt awful knowing I wasn’t being honest with my mom.
Now I was breaking and entering? It was one thing sneaking out of my house, but sneaking into one? One that wasn’t mine? Maybe it was mine in a past life, so it wasn’t as bad as it could have been, but now a complete stranger owned it. According to the law, I had no connection with this house.
This would be my first—and hopefully last—criminal act.
Drew and I were waiting in the car with Misty, since Chelsea had gone ahead to check out the situation. Misty’s cell phone lit up with a text message.
“Chelsea says it’s all clear,” Misty whispered in her best Mission Impossible voice. “Go join her and I’ll do my thing. Once I leave with the owner, do exactly what I told you.”
Drew and I got out of the car and closed the door. We walked to the house, my hand staying in his the whole time.
“You’re shaking,” he said, giving my hand a squeeze. “Relax.”
“How am I supposed to relax knowing what we’re about to do?”
“If you want, you can take Chelsea’s position on look-out and she can go inside the house with me to find the ring,” he suggested.
“No way.” I didn’t have to think twice about my answer. I didn’t want to be the one outside—by myself—while Chelsea was in the house with Drew. “The house layout is in my past memory, so I’m the best one to go inside with you and find the ring.”
“Let’s get this over with, then,” he said. “It shouldn’t be too hard—we’ll be in and out of there in no time. Plus, this is nothing compared to what we have to do after we get the ring.”
He had a point, but it wasn’t making me feel any better.
Drew and I walked as quietly as possible around the house and joined Chelsea by the side.
“What did you see?” I asked her.
“It seems like there’s only one person home—a lady who looks like she’s our parents’ age,” Chelsea said. “I peeked through the windows on the first floor, and there were no bedrooms, so you were right that the master is on the second floor.”
“Great,” I said. Hopefully Misty was right and her self-proclaimed “gift of gab” would distract the lady who owned the house long enough for us to sneak inside and get the ring.
Now we just had to wait for her to do her thing.
I couldn’t see Misty from where the three of us stood to the side of the house, but I heard her walk up to the door and knock. A few seconds later, someone answered.
“How may I help you?” a woman asked in a polite British accent.
One thing I’d noticed since arriving in England was that British people always sounded polite. They could be talking about the most vulgar thing ever and still make it sound proper.
It was hard to imagine that in my past life, I had an accent like that, too.
“I’m so glad someone’s home!” Misty said, sounding flustered. “I was on my way to meet a client and my car broke down in the middle of the street! I have no idea what’s wrong with it, and my cell is getting such terrible reception that I can’t make an outgoing call.”
“Oh, dear,” the woman said, not sounding bothered at all. She introduced herself as Barbara, and from her voice, she sounded older, like the type of woman who sat inside knitting and reading all day with a bunch of cats nearby. “Would you like to come inside and borrow my phone?”
“Do you think you could take a look at the car with me?” Misty asked.
“As much as I would love to help, I’m hardly an expert with cars …” Barbara replied.
“At least come outside with me and let me borrow your cell,” Misty insisted. “You must have a different service provider than I do, and I’ll want to be near the car when talking with the professionals, don’t you agree? It would be much easier to tell them what’s wrong.”
“I suppose that
makes sense,” Barbara said. “Let me fetch my cell and I’ll go outside with you. Wait here—I’ll be back in a minute.”
After Barbara got her cell, the two of them headed toward the car. I peeked around the side of the house to get a glimpse of what Barbara looked like. I could only see the back of her head, but she didn’t look like I’d pictured. From this angle, I guessed she was in her forties or fifties. She was tall, with long brown hair, and she was wearing workout clothes. I supposed she wasn’t expecting company.
“You have to move,” Chelsea whispered to me, reminding me why we were here.
Drew led the way to the back of the house. I followed him, unable to believe I was going through with this.
Just like Chelsea had said after her initial investigation, the back door was unlocked. I supposed residents of the English countryside didn’t worry about people breaking and entering when they were home.
“Good luck,” Chelsea said before Drew and I went inside.
I was still upset at her about everything that had happened in the past few months, but I was glad we were sort of friends again. I hoped that given time, our relationship would return to normal.
Well, as normal as it could be given what we’d gone through.
Drew and I walked into the house, and I was struck with déjà-vu. The breakfast area looked familiar, with its wooden floors and windows looking out to the backyard. It wasn’t completely as I remembered, though. The electronic objects inside, like the coffee maker, microwave, and toaster, felt out of place. Still, I could perfectly visualize what the kitchen looked like before modern conveniences existed.
Timeless (Transcend Time, #2) Page 10