by Misty Evans
Unfortunately, the heady, erotic feel of time travel, like sex, couldn’t last.
As if a giant hand plucked her from Midheaven, Keva’s soul joined her body with a jerk. Freefalling for endless moments, she let go of the Moon Water dagger and clawed at her throat, trying to breathe as the wind gusted around her and finally tossed her, headfirst, into the dark waves of the Pacific Ocean.
The freezing cold water wrapped her in its embrace and Keva fought the downward pull. She had to get air. Kicking hard, she ignored her body’s weakness and broke the surface just as her lungs were microseconds from bursting. Flailing to keep her head above the curling waves, she sucked in oxygen and coughed out salt water.
It was night here, just like in the time she came from, and like the night of Kai’s death, the lunar eclipse peeked through the clouds to spotlight the rocky shore to the east. There, a huge shadow stretched over the rocks and sand. Starved Rock loomed like a giant finger pointing at her.
I only missed my mark by a few hundred yards, she thought, relieved to see the outcropping. Better than a few hundred years.
But had she hit the right time mark? Fighting the tow of the waves and the wet backpack weighing her down, she swam hard for shore. Normally she would have crossed the hundred yards of water in a matter of minutes. Tonight, however, her fatigued body barely seemed able to stay afloat, much less make progress.
Stopping to rest her weary arms and check her position from the shore, Keva floated for a minute. The shoreline and Starved Rock seemed just as far away as ever.
Frustrated and exhausted, she treaded water and wished she could simply close her eyes and wish herself ashore. Rain pelted the water around her and she shivered so hard her teeth chattered.
Her drive to find Rife needled her stomach, though, egging her on. She couldn’t stop, couldn’t slow down. His life depended on it.
Thunder boomed overhead and a large wave rose under her, carrying her forward. A moment later, it sucked her under, but Keva released control to it and let her body ride the next swell. Just as in life, magic was often times more about getting out of your own way than forcing something to happen.
Alternately swimming and using the waves to propel her, Keva found ground under her feet a few minutes later. She dragged herself out of the water and dropped into the sand, coughing water while enjoying the gritty feel of it against her face. All the times death had come for her, she’d welcomed it, even though it wouldn’t last. Tonight, she fought against it, gulping oxygen and almost crying with relief to have made it to shore.
The Moon Water dagger stood at attention a few feet away, its blade buried in the sand as if waiting for her.
How long she’d been lying there, she wasn’t sure, when a crack of lightning made her jump. Forcing herself to stand, she searched the barely lit beach, the rocky coastline and Starved Rock for any signs of life. There were none. Crossing the sand as quickly as her trembling legs allowed, she picked up the dagger and headed toward Starved Rock.
At the base of the cliff, she hitched the backpack higher onto her shoulders and looked up at the sky. The moon’s light was slowly being choked off. If this was the night she believed it was, she didn’t have much time to find Enann and stop his magic.
But first, she had to find Rife and send him back to the future.
Sliding the dagger into a side pocket on her backpack, Keva started up the rocky trail.
Chapter Twenty-two
Starved Rock was bare. No trees, no bushes, no life of any kind.
No Rife.
Keva swore under her breath. High Chieftess Keva had not yet brought her dying husband here in a last ditch effort to save him from the poison coursing through his blood, but she would. Soon. Keva remembered the past all too well now that she was here in it again.
Including the fact that Enann would be waiting to ambush her with a small army of Red Fire warriors, painted for war and primed for blood.
All her senses on high alert, Keva searched the area for any sign of Enann’s presence. She’d been sure he would bring Rife here, believing he was Kai, and if she knew anything about Enann and his personality, she knew he’d want to show High Chieftess Keva his power.
So where was he? Where would he take Rife, if not here?
Swollen drops of rain ricocheted off Keva’s windbreaker. Within the hour, it would pour from the heavens as the lunar eclipse threw Starved Rock into total darkness.
By morning, Kai would be dead and so would her sister, her friends and the dozens of children she’d helped birth as High Chieftess. Keva felt the old pain claw at her like the waves under Starved Rock clawed at the shoreline.
If only I could change history.
How many times had she wished that very same thought? She’d dreamed about it day and night for years after the mudslide, planning every step in detail, knowing it would amount to nothing in the end.
Hoo-hooo…an owl’s lonely call rang out from the forest. Keva heard the flap of its wings cracking tree limbs as it rose from its perch, but her eyes could not track it. For a second, she thought of Chee’s backyard and the call of the barn owl she’d heard only a few hours earlier.
If I change this history, I could change it all.
Her eyes lingered on the forest, the dark tops of the trees like the tips of daggers against the shadowed sky. Without warning, her throat pulsed, a hot, thick sensation.
Rife?
She swept the area with all her senses again. The darkness stealing its way over trees and stones alike. The rain pattering down in a light but steady blanket. The forest looming before her.
Would Enann take Rife into the forest?
Keva shut her eyes and pictured Rife in her mind, silently calling to him. He had the gift of telepathy. If she concentrated, she should be able to reach him.
But she had to be careful. Enann’s use of mind control in the church had been staggeringly strong to have incapacitated her and the others. While some scientists and practitioners believed psychic abilities, including telepathy, were genetic, like curly hair or poor eyesight, Keva had lived long enough to know some people, like herself, were more attuned to the supernatural, but anyone could tap into it. With practice, one could improve. If Enann had perfected time travel and mind control, there was little stopping him from listening to her thoughts.
“Rife?”
She waited long seconds, hearing only her pulse in her ears. “Rife?”
His voice whispered in her head, a faint tremor.
“Ttt..rrr..ap.”
Warmth touched her deep inside. He was alive. A modicum of relief curved her lips. “Tell me where you are.”
“No.”
The smile left her lips. She frowned into the dark.
“Trap,” his voice repeated in her mind, stronger than before. The single word sounded forced, as if he were in pain.
“Are you hurt?”
There was a moment’s hesitation, then he repeated, trap.
“Trap,” she whispered aloud to the wind and naked rocks.
Enann’s waiting for me?
But this time it wasn’t Rife’s voice that answered. It was Enann’s.
“Come to the binding tree, Chieftess, and witness your husband’s death at my hands.”
Keva’s blood ran cold. The binding tree? How did Enann know its whereabouts? Out of the thousands of trees in the forest, how did he know which one she’d used at the soul binding ceremony?
“I watched you.”
Anger warred with fear in Keva’s heart. You son of a bitch.
Before she closed her mind to Enann, she pictured Rife again and sent a wave of healing light to him. “Don’t give up. I’m coming.”
In her mind, she heard Enann laugh.
Chapter Twenty-three
Descending Starved Rock was much more difficult than climbing up.
Whether it was her wet sneakers or the wet limestone trail, Keva couldn’t keep her footing. Twice she slid down on the loose rocks, landing
on her butt and scraping the palms of her hands.
Nearing the bottom of the outcropping, she skidded again, losing her footing. She pitched forward, trying to stop her fall, but was too off-balance. She tumbled into a rock, hitting her shoulder and scraping her back before rolling to an ungraceful stop at the bottom of the trail.
As she righted herself, brushing debris from her face and hair, and rubbing the shoulder that had made contact with the rock, she came face to face with herself.
Her past self.
High Chieftess Keva stared at her, eyes wide and body frozen. Even in the shadows, Keva could see the strain on the younger woman’s face, the confusion in her eyes. Her long, dark hair was braided with beads and feathers and a spiral was painted on her forehead.
Keva didn’t have time or the right words to explain time travel. Putting her open hands up, she slid sideways from the trail to allow her other self passage. “I mean you no harm,” she told her in their language. “I only seek Enann.”
An owl hooted deep in the forest and Keva recognized it for what it was—a warrior’s signal. She could just make out a party of four men with a litter between them coming up the beach. She knew without seeing him that Kai lay dying on the litter.
The High Chieftess ignored the warrior’s hoot and stepped closer, studying Keva’s features. “You are me, only older.”
While Keva’s chronological age was stuck at twenty, a thousand years had still given her a few wrinkles around her eyes and mouth. She had aged, only much, much slower than normal. Most people thought she was around thirty. “Yes.”
Chieftess Keva raised a hesitant hand and touched her wet windbreaker. “Have you come from one of my Pathwalks?”
That was as close to the truth as anything. “Yes.”
“Can you help me this night?”
Keva wanted to explain it all and stop Chieftess Keva from making the mistake that would seal all their fates in an ugly future. More than that, she wanted to hug her and tell her everything would be all right.
But it wouldn’t.
“Beware of Enann,” she told her younger self, unable to avoid giving her advice. Still, she had made up her mind that she would not purposefully change the future with her visit. She extracted the dagger from the backpack, ensuring Chieftess Keva had it to use on Kai when the time came. “You will need this. You must use it tonight to follow your destiny, no matter the cost.”
Chieftess Keva’s eyes widened at the sight of the Moon Water dagger. “How did you get this?”
The warriors were drawing closer. She couldn’t face seeing Kai on the litter and having to leave him there without helping him somehow. “Enann.”
The one-word explanation was enough. Keva saw understanding dawn on her younger self. Giving her a squeeze on the arm, Keva slid into the shadows. She did not look back, but mentally sent the Chieftess a hug as she broke into a run toward the distant tree line.
The forest was darker than she expected and she tripped several times over tree roots on the forest’s floor.
The moon was three-quarters covered from the eclipse and shadowed by clouds as well. Removing the small flashlight from the backpack’s waterproof pocket, she wiped her bloody hands on her jeans and clicked it on. The tiny beam did little to illuminate the woods, but it still gave her a small sense of security. With any luck, she could wow Enann with her ability to control light. If that didn’t work, she could always hit him upside the head with it.
Nerves getting the best of her, she laughed at the idea, but the sound was without humor. Clutching the flashlight tightly, she wound around enormous pines and their tangled roots, her feet sinking in the mud. The binding tree stood deep in this already ancient forest and was difficult to find even in the light of day. It would take centuries before logging companies cut it down, depriving the spotted owl of its home and her of her last symbol of love.
Tonight, in the dark woods, she would need more than her puny flashlight to find the ancient oak.
Tonight she would need her heart.
Chapter Twenty-four
Time seemed to warp as Keva struggled through the dense vegetation of the woods. The scrapes on her palms stung and her shoulder ached from the rock’s bruising.
The rain she knew would come drenched the trees and rolled down the back of her neck. Under the windbreaker, Rife’s shirt began to dampen, chilling her skin. Her legs protested at the continued strain of treading through tangled underbrush and gnarled tree roots. She was tired, hungry and emotionally exhausted.
Now that she was in this time, the sights, sounds and smells revived past memories which flowed in a constant stream through her mind. Kai’s ravaged body on the litter. The ground under her feet shaking from the force of the mudslide. Friends and family’s cries filling the air.
As if it were happening all over again, waves of horror washed over her heart at the destruction she had wrought.
Even as she fought back the ugly memories, she considered turning around and heading back to Starved Rock in an attempt to stop her past mistakes. What was right? What was wrong?
It was so much harder now that she was here to stick to her morals, to believe she’d chosen the right thing to do by not helping Chieftess Keva or Kai.
But in the end, she tuned it all out and focused on Rife. He was the innocent this round and she was the only one who could protect him.
A familiar vibration caught in her throat. The binding tree was near.
Rife’s energy rolled through her. He was hurt and angry and…
Scared.
Scared for her.
Keva stopped, breathless, and listened to the sounds of the night. Her ears and sixth sense strained to hear any sound, feel any evil energy that might tell her where Enann was hiding. What she heard was silence—no cricket song, no shuffling of nocturnal creatures moving in the shadows. Rain drummed softly around her and she reached out a single mental finger to feel for Enann’s soul.
A wave of cool air blew across her face, prickling her skin. The flames on her breast burned. To her right, a high-pitched wolf’s howl split the night.
Keva jerked her flashlight beam in the direction of the howl, fear gripping her stomach into a fist. Just outside its beam she saw the bulk of the wolf, a white shadow in the dark forest, loping behind a giant gnarled tree trunk. Cold fingers laced up her spine.
There was a time when she considered the wild creatures her friends. She had followed their trails and observed their interactions with each other to learn how a strong leader held a pack together.
Tonight, she was a different person and this night was full of evil. She could not trust any creature she met in the woods.
A branch cracked behind her and she whirled in the dark. This time, the light caught a pair of eyes—eyes of the large white wolf that glowed golden yellow in her flashlight’s beam.
The flames carved in her skin burned hotter.
Two more sets of eyes joined the first. Heads hung low, the wolves growled, baring their teeth.
The first one took a step closer, his nostrils flaring as he breathed in her scent, and Keva instinctively inched back, goose bumps racing over her arms, up the back of her neck.
“Great Mother, help me,” she whispered into the night.
As if in response, her flashlight went dead.
Chapter Twenty-five
Enann’s voice whispered through the trees. “Keva…”
His dark energy swelled in her body, chilling her to the bone and shocking her heart.
She stumbled backward, catching a tree root with her foot, and fell to the wet ground. In total darkness, she couldn’t see the lead wolf closing in but she could smell his feral coat and muddy paws. His tainted breath hit her full in the face as he barked and snapped at her head. Jerking back, she lashed out, striking him in the muzzle with the end of the flashlight. He yipped and jumped back. A moment later, Keva sensed all three wolves backing off.
She sat frozen for a long minute, hearing n
othing but the pounding of blood in her ears. The virgin forest was dark and quiet again except for the sound of the rain. Keva held one hand in front of her eyes, but she couldn’t see it. Using the fingers of her other hand, she felt the rough skin of her palm. She wasn’t healing.
I’m no longer immortal.
Fear, and a certain amount of relief, coursed through her, making her lightheaded. Until her past self charmed the dagger and drove it into Kai’s heart, she was normal again. Mortal. Their souls were already bound forever, but it was the spell to bring him back to her on Earth that had resulted in her immortality, forcing her to wait for him to be reincarnated before it would be broken.
I could die tonight.
Drawing her knees up, she hugged herself, weak at the thought. But I can’t die before I send Rife back.
The only way to find Rife was to open her mind to him. He was her beacon in the woods. His energy should even at that moment be tugging her toward him like steel to a magnet. Her only fear was letting Enann in again.
There was no way to open herself to one and still keep out the other. It was a risk she had to take.
Drawing in a couple of deep, cleansing breaths to slow her heart rate, she willed her psyche open a crack. “Rife?”
His energy poured over her again, warm and solid, but weaker than before. Alarm shot through her. Was he hurt?
“Rife,” she demanded. “Talk to me. I can only find you if you stay connected.”
“Keee…va…”
He was dying. She knew it with such certainty, her heart jumped in her chest. She had to find him, had to save him. Panic set in.
Patting the ground around her for the flashlight, she found it, picked it up and shook it hard, hoping the batteries would find another spurt of power.
They didn’t.