Canes of Divergence (Dusk Gate Chronicles)

by Puttroff, Breeana

  Rosewood Castle, Eirentheos

  QUINN WASN’T ENTIRELY sure where William had gone, but Thomas had said he was going to put the medicine in the refrigerator, so she headed first to the clinic, relieved when she could see the lights on inside the little building once she was halfway up the path.

  The fact that Owen and Zander – Zander! – were here was both astounding and overwhelming, but right now, her only thoughts were of William and the medicine.

  “Will?” she called as she opened the door of the clinic.

  “I’m back here,” he answered, and she followed the sound of his voice to the lab where they kept the refrigerator. He was in the very back, behind everything. She could just see the back of his head as he stood at one of the long counters.

  “Is it true? Did they really bring the rabies medicine?” She hadn’t allowed herself to believe it yet.

  “Yeah.” He didn’t even turn around as he spoke. “All of it – a whole huge shipment that Nathaniel ordered a while ago. Both kinds even, the vaccine and the immune globulin.”

  “Oh, wow.”

  “I know.”

  When she finally reached him, she grabbed his shoulder and turned him to the side, pulling him into her arms. He shuddered and then reciprocated, holding her tight, running his fingers through her hair, the relief pouring off both of them.

  “This is in time, isn’t it? It’s only been three days.”

  “This is in time.” He nodded. “I know I was overreacting – I do know that. But it just…”

  “I know. I’m sorry, too. I know I need to be patient with you sometimes, Will. I know that’s what you do when you get scared, and I know you didn’t mean it the way I took it … but …”

  “But we both freaked out at the same time.”

  “Yeah.”

  “There’s a reason we have a rule against that, you know.” He ran his fingers down the side of her cheek.

  “Yeah, well, rules kind of fly out the window when you try to contract a deadly disease on me two weeks after I have a baby.”

  “I’ll try to time it better the next time.”

  “There better never be a next time … what are you doing?” she asked, looking for the first time at the counter where he’d been working. He had several syringes and vials laid out on a metal tray, along with a stack of cotton squares and a little brown bottle with its lid off; the smell of the antiseptic inside it made her nose twitch.

  “Nathaniel’s in Cloud Valley. Even if we send him a message tonight, he wouldn’t be able to get here until at least tomorrow afternoon. A message tonight would get there late enough to disturb him anyway. I don’t want to do that, and I can’t wait for him to get back. I need to do this as soon as possible.”

  “Were you planning on doing this to yourself?” she asked, aghast.

  He shrugged, his eyes not meeting hers all the way.

  “William! We could get Jacob, you know.”

  “Not until tomorrow, either. It’s late. They have a baby, too. I’m not going to haul him on an almost four-hour round trip to do this at night, but every second I wait scares me to death, Quinn. Doesn’t it scare you?”

  It scared her more than she could bring herself to talk about, but still … “Someone closer, then? There are healers right here in the city.”

  “Every last one of whom knows we’re out of the medicine and we’re waiting on that batch in Mistle Village. They don’t even know where we were getting it in the first place. They think we’ve already been making it somehow. Whenever they get a case of water disease, they call me or Nathaniel or Jacob for the treatment. How in the world would I explain where this came from?”

  “I didn’t even think about that.”

  “Yeah. So … it’s me. I want to do Ben tonight, too, and Emma. And give the immune globulin to Alice – she’s still in the window where I can do that, and then I’ll know she’s safe.”

  “You really think you’re going to be able to give this stuff to yourself?”

  He glanced over at the needles and grimaced. “Yeah, I can. I’ve done it before.”

  “You’ve done it before?”

  He nodded. “How do you think I got good at it?”

  “Um, I didn’t think you practiced on yourself.”

  “Well, I did. Just with saline, though, not with medicine. Saline doesn’t hurt – and once I knew what I was doing, the needle didn’t hurt, either.”

  She knew she was staring at him like he’d grown another head. He shrugged and smiled at her sheepishly.

  “Well, those don’t have just saline in them, Will. I’ve had that immune stuff…”

  “No, they have something that’s going to save my life. I can get over it.”

  “Can you even reach everywhere you need to in order to do it right?”

  He shrugged again.

  “Good grief.” She glanced at the counter again. “I’ll do it.”

  “You’re just as scared of needles as I am,” he said skeptically.

  She shook her head. “I was. That was before the tattoo and the whole natural childbirth thing. Besides, you being scared of needles never stopped you from sticking them in me. It has to be my turn sometime, doesn’t it?”

  “No. It doesn’t actually.”

  “Just tell me what to do, William.”

  “Okay, you see this one?” He tapped one of the larger syringes.

  “Yeah.”

  “You have to get as much of that stuff into the bite as possible.”

  She stared at him. “That’s not how Nathaniel did it when I had them.”

  “You didn’t actually have a bite he could identify. When you get bitten, it’s different.”

  “You’re serious.”

  “Be grateful you’ll never have to have this part again. If I’d have thought there was a real chance I’d be bitten by a rabid animal, I’d have let Nathaniel give me rabies shots while we were in Bristlecone.”

  “I thought you said they don’t last long enough to make it worth it.”

  “They don’t last long enough to keep you protected from rabies – but they do protect you from needing the immune globulin shots. If you were exposed to rabies now – or ten cycles from now, you’d still need to be treated, but you’d only need two shots of vaccine – not this stuff.” His voice was steady, but a little bit of green seeped around the edges of his face.

  “Stupid fox,” she said.

  “It wasn’t his fault.”

  “I don’t care. I’m still pissed at him.”

  “Such language, my queen.”

  “Oh, you haven’t heard what’s been going through my head for the last three days.” Although she’d nearly said some of it, a couple of the times he’d been in the room with her. Maybe it would have been better if she had.

  He was chuckling. “Mine, too.” he admitted. “And I think there’s going to be a lot more of it in the next few minutes.”

  She laughed, too, although it was only partly funny. “Yeah. All right, show me what I’m doing. Let’s get it over with.”

  “So … Zander Cunningham…” William said, as they carried the trays out to one of the cots in the main room. “How did that happen?”

  “I wish I knew.” Although at the moment she was still more freaked out by it than she was curious. She had a feeling that it wasn’t going to go well – she’d seen the way Zander had looked at her when William took her hand. What was he going to think when he found out they were married – and had a baby?

  “Do you care what he thinks?” William asked, with the uncanny ability he sometimes had of knowing what she was thinking.

  Looking up, she considered that for a moment, but then she stepped over to him and tapped him on the shoulder until he turned to face her. “Are you jealous of him?”

  He took half a step back – until he was all the way up against the cot. “What?”

  “Are you jealous of Zander?”

  He rubbed the back of his neck with his hand. “I don’t
know. I never even – I didn’t think I was ever going to see him again.”

  “Well, I’m married to you, William,” she said, reaching up for that hand and pulling it down to her. “You don’t have to be jealous of him. I chose you. But yes, I do kind of care what he thinks. We used to be friends. I don’t like the idea of hurting him more than I already did.”

  He sat down on the cot, holding her hand in his and playing with her fingers, twisting her wedding band around in a circle. “I was jealous of him before, you know. When we were still in Bristlecone, even before everything happened.”

  “You never told me that.”

  “I didn’t realize it at the time – that jealousy felt that way. It wasn’t until you were here, and we were courting, that I looked back at it and understood.”

  “I feel bad. I should have broken up with him sooner – as soon as I started lying to him … for sure after I kissed you.”

  “I thought I kissed you.”

  She giggled and leaned down closer to him, bringing her lips to his … but he held up his hand. “Not yet. Once I’ve had the medicine in me for twenty-four hours.”

  Deflated, she took a step back. “You are being ridiculous. Nathaniel told me the only documented cases of rabies transmission from human to human were from organ transplants.”

  “There were a couple of questionable ones where there might have been kissing or biting.”

  “In third world countries.”

  “In case you haven’t noticed, love, we live in a third world country.”

  “I talked to Nathaniel, William. I really did. He said those exposures were never confirmed, and that, in any case, you would have to be contagious first. After only three days, there is no way you’re contagious.”

  “If it was the other way around, Quinn, and you had that animal’s saliva all over you – inside you – and I asked you to touch me or Samuel…”

  She took a deep breath through her nose and let it out through her teeth. “Give me the needle.”

  ~ 17 ~

  Stuck

  Rosewood Castle, Eirentheos

  ZANDER RAISED AN eyebrow, but accepted Thomas’ handshake. “I’m Zander,” he said. “Though it seems like you already knew that.”

  “Yeah, well, when you randomly pop into our kingdom from another world – word gets around.”

  “Another world – that’s really what this is?”

  “Yes,” Owen said.

  Thomas only shrugged. “As far as we can tell, anyway. Is this all you have – this bag here?” he asked, reaching for the strap of the duffel bag.

  “That’s all we have, and Owen brought that. I don’t even know what’s in there. He didn’t tell me I needed to pack for a long trip. I suppose I’m going to be wearing these clothes for ten days.”

  “Oh, we can take care of that. I have three older brothers. I’m sure between them we can keep you in clean clothes until we can get some new things made for you.”

  Zander didn’t really want to wear someone else’s clothes – especially … “William’s your brother, right? Or was that a lie too?”

  “Will’s my brother.”

  “And he and Quinn … how long have they…?”

  “I am not getting involved in that one, Zander.” Thomas started walking, leading them out into the hallway.

  “So that’s what the issue was? She was cheating on me with a prince from another world? You and William are princes, right, if your father is the king?”

  “I’m a prince. William is no longer a prince, at least that’s not his official title. And, really – I enjoy gossip as much as anyone, but as far as I’m getting into this with you is to tell you that, no – Quinn was not cheating on you with William. She was here for a while before the two of them started courting, and it was after she broke up with you.”

  “She told you she broke up with me?”

  “Quinn and I are friends. We were friends while you were still courting her.”

  Courting was such a weird word for it. “Well, she never told me about you.”

  “Yes, she did. I know she did. She just didn’t tell you that she’d met me here. I’ll bet you can guess why.”

  “She’s been here before this time?”

  “Yes. A couple of times.”

  Zander didn’t understand how that was possible – he didn’t remember Quinn ever going anywhere for ten days – but at the moment, he was still preoccupied with the interaction he’d seen between Quinn and William Rose in that office. “She only broke up with me a month and a half ago. What I just saw of the two of them in there looked like it had been going on for a lot longer than that, Thomas.”

  They were at the bottom of a staircase now, and Thomas stopped and turned to look at him.

  “That’s the other part you don’t know, Zander. Although I’m a bit surprised you’re not freaking out more about being stuck here for ten days than you are – the first time Quinn came here and realized she was stuck for ten days, she was definitely not as calm about it as you are.”

  “Maybe I’m just not ready to think about the fact that when I get home, I’m probably going to be arrested for kidnapping Owen.”

  “No you won’t,” Owen said. “I left a note for my mom.”

  “As nice as that is, I don’t think a note is going to cover you disappearing for ten days, buddy.”

  “We’re only going to be gone from home for one day.”

  “What do you mean? I thought everyone just said the gate can’t open for ten days.”

  “Ten days in this world,” Owen said. “One day in ours.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “Time doesn’t work the same in our two worlds. In ten days, when the gate opens again, and you and Owen are able to go home, only one day will have passed in your world. It will be the evening after you left.”

  “That’s not possible.”

  “Possible or not, it’s true.”

  He quickly did the math in his head. Ten times… “So, if Quinn has been here this whole time, then – in your time she’s been here for…?”

  “Over eleven moons, now. Roughly equivalent to your months.”

  “A year?” Zander was startled when Owen’s took his hand in one of his little ones, rubbing the back of it with his other hand – possibly to try and calm him.

  “If our time were measured the same as yours, it would be about that long, I think, yes.” Thomas’ explanation of this was absentminded – a topic he’d grown bored with.

  Zander didn’t get to go any further in his questioning of that insane revelation, though, because at that moment, they heard footsteps, and he looked up in time to see a girl coming down the stairs.

  “Thomas! What is going on? I heard … Owen!” As soon as she saw the little boy she ran the rest of the way down and grabbed him, scooping him into her arms. Owen hugged her back. “Hi Linnea!”

  She was very pretty, with long, dark curls that reached to the middle of her back, and the same gray eyes as Thomas. Her features were fine and delicate, her eyelashes so long and dark that she’d never need mascara – did they have makeup in this world? Realizing he was staring, he looked back at Owen.

  “Ben just told me I would want to get down here to see this, but I didn’t expect you!” she said to Owen. “What are you doing here?”

  “It’s a long story,” Owen said.

  Thomas patted Owen on the back. “He’s told it a lot tonight, Nay. I’ll fill you in on the details later.”

  “And who are you?” the girl asked, looking at Zander.

  “This is Zander,” Thomas said, patting him on the back. Zander stepped to the side, just out of his reach. These people were awfully touchy-feely.

  “Zander? That Zander?” Linnea asked, eyes wide.

  “That would be the one.” Thomas chuckled. “Zander, this is my twin sister, Linnea. Also, Ben’s wife,” he added pointedly. Touchy-feely and telepathic. Great. It wasn’t like he’d been thinking about asking her out.


  She didn’t look old enough to be married. Every time he thought this day couldn’t get any stranger, it turned out he was wrong.

  “It’s, er, nice to meet you,” he said to her.

  “It’s interesting, anyway,” Linnea said, holding out her hand. “Does Quinn know about this?”

  “Yes. She went to go find William. Zander and Owen brought back the rabies medicine.”

  Linnea’s reaction to that statement was a lot like Quinn’s had been. She went slightly gray, and her eyes got very wide. “For real?” she demanded of Zander.

  He shrugged. “Apparently. I didn’t know what Owen was putting in that cooler until just a few minutes ago. Why? Is somebody dying of rabies or something?”

  “Not yet,” Thomas said quietly, “but we were cutting it close there for a few days. A rabid fox got into the castle yard and bit both William and my little sister, Alice.”

  “Oh. I’m sorry.” He wasn’t quite sure what else to say. “But don’t you have the vaccine here? Isn’t Doctor Rose here?”

  “You mean Nathaniel?” Thomas asked.

  “Yeah.”

  “Yes, he is – well, he’s not in the castle tonight, but yes, he’s here in our world. But no, we didn’t have any more of the vaccine here. Our world is a little … less developed than yours is, Zander. We don’t have everything here that you have, and enough vaccine to deal with this issue right now was more than we had.”

  Zander looked at Owen. “Is this what you meant when you said Quinn needed help?”

  He nodded.

  “But Quinn’s okay?” Zander asked suddenly, looking back at Thomas and Linnea. “I mean – she’s had rabies vaccine before.”

  “Quinn is healthy. It’s been a very upsetting few days for her, but physically, she’s well.”

  Zander nodded, staring down at the marble floor. This was all too much information for him. He needed to sit down, to have a few minutes to process all of this.

  “Let’s get Zander upstairs,” Linnea said. “I’m guessing he could maybe use a few minutes, and he could stand to get some food into him.”

  He looked over at her gratefully, but despite her considerate words, her expression was still wary and suspicious. He wondered exactly what these people had heard about him.