by Amy Miles
I watch his adam’s apple bob several times before he looks up at me. “I failed you,” he whispers, hanging his head low.
My chest clenches as tears spill from my eyes. I reach out to him and pull him close. He is cautious as he sinks into my embrace, painfully careful not to bump my stomach as he wraps me in his arms. My silent tears turn into sobs as he holds me.
“I thought I lost you,” I whisper into the fabric of his shirt. I breathe in deep. Despite the fact that his clothes are foreign to me I can smell him beneath and know without any doubt that the real Bastien has found me.
“I never gave up hope that I would find you.” He presses his lips to the top of my head. I can feel him trembling with emotion and close my eyes, my fingers curling into his arms, pulling him closer.
He holds me long after my tears trail off but I don’t complain. I would stay like this forever if I were able to...but I can’t. Reality slams back into me with a bitter punch to my gut. I push against him and he instantly releases me, sinking back onto his heels but refusing to move any further away.
“Where am I? How did we get out of the swamp? How are you alive? Where have you been all this time? How are my babies?”
Bastien smiles and raises my hand to his lips. “You are so beautiful when you are upset.” I smile and curl my fingers around his, terrified that I may wake from this dream to find myself still trapped in the swamp, near to death and delirious. “I think I should let someone else explain it all to you.”
He shifts to sit down on the edge of the bed and then waits in silence. I begin to grow antsy but he winks at me and I settle back down. I place a hand over my belly as the door opens and a man steps through. The instant I spy the golden glow of his eyes I recognize Satal.
“You let him in here?” I hiss and pull back, glancing at Bastien with confusion.
Bastien’s grip on my hand increases. “Hear him out, Illyria. You need to know what he has to say.”
Satal lingers in the doorway, seeming unsure if he should enter or not. Bastien nods for him to approach but I notice that his grip on my hand does not lessen. Satal moves to the far wall and leans back against it.
“I thought you were dead.”
“Not dead,” he says.
“You were the imposter, weren’t you?” I growl, feeling my pulse thrumming rapidly in my neck.
He nods slowly. “My duty.”
“Duty? You poisoned me!”
Bastien’s gaze narrows as his head whips around to look at Satal. The shape shifter does not try to deny it. His face grows grim as he nods slowly. “It was my duty,” he repeats.
Bastien surges to his feet and grabs Satal by the front of his shirt, slamming him back against the wall. “You didn’t tell me you tried to hurt her,” he growls. I watch his jaw clamp down as his hand clenches into a fist at his side.
“Let...explain…” he gasps against Bastien’s grasp on his chest. His face has begun to darken and I wonder if it would be possible for Bastien to crush his chest. I know nothing of the shape shifting race but surely they can’t be as solid in bone structure as we are if they can meld into different shapes.
“Bastien,” I call softly and he slowly turns to look at me. His nostrils are flared with anger. “Let him talk. You can kill him later.”
A hint of a smirk gives me hope as he slowly releases Satal but shoves him back against the wall in disgust before moving back to my side. Satal presses his hand to his chest and makes a barking sound that I assume is his attempt to clear his throat.
He slides down the wall and sinks onto the bench that sits just below him. His legs splay out before him and he takes a moment to recover before speaking. “I show you truth.”
Satal’s face slowly begins to slide to the right, like hot wax being poured from a candle. His nose elongates, his brow dips inward. Bastien glances toward me and I realize this is a sight he has never seen before either. Satal’s hands narrow and his fingers lengthen. His legs draw inward, becoming that of a slender man of smaller stature. His shoulders seem to fold in upon themselves. I look away, sickened by the transformation. When I look back a man who could easily pass as his early thirties sits before us.
Bastien’s breath hitches as he lurches to his feet. “Coen?”
“You know him?” I ask, staring up into Bastien’s stricken face. He looks pallid and unsteady on his feet.
He nods slowly. “He was one of my men back on Earth. He fell during a battle not long before I came to get you.”
“I did not fall,” the new man says in a tone both deep and musical. Long white hair falls over his shoulders. His eyes are a beautiful burnt orange. His skin pale and flawless. “My time was done there.”
“How is this possible?” Bastien asks, sinking back down beside me. I reach out for him and grasp his arm, feeling him tremble, though I can’t tell which emotion is causing the quakes.
“He is a shape shifter,” I respond. “This is what they do. They trick people.”
“No.” Bastien’s former soldier shakes his head. “I do not trick. I guide. That is my task.”
“Your task?” My eyebrows rise. “I do not understand.
Coen steeples his hands before him. “I am a descendant of an ancient race. Protectors. Guardians. We seek only to keep the peace in the universe.”
“You’ve sure got a funny way of doing that,” Bastien growls.
The man nods and I watch as his shimmery white hair falls over his shoulders. I can’t shake the feeling that I have met him before. In a different time. In a different place.
“I do what I must for the sake of all.” His response is simple yet feels weighted with responsibility.
“So that is how you were able to trick me when you pretended to be Bastien. You had already spent time with him.”
Coen nods. “I studied Bastien for nearly a year. I watched his struggles, his yearnings. I knew of his love for you, so when the time came to assume his identity it was easy.”
“I discovered you though,” I whisper, turning my face away. “Bastien would never have left me.”
“Yes,” he agrees. “I knew you were a clever one. It was only a matter of time before you would see through me. I knew I didn’t have much time to act.”
“Act on what, exactly?” Bastien leans forward and my hand on his arm falls away.
Coen takes a deep breath and closes his eyes for a moment. I roll my head back to look at him and I spy a shimmer along his pale flesh, almost as if he is struggling to maintain this form. I glance down at the clasps upon his wrists and wonder if his ability to shift forms is hampered by the same chains that keep me restrained.
The weight of my neck clamp feels all the more confining as I watch him turn to look at me. “I have done many things in the centuries that I have lived. Some I am not proud of. One of those was making the decision to trust Hendrix over Hyde.”
I push up onto my elbows as realization fully dawns on me. “You betrayed us. You killed Hyde and everyone else. You led Hendrix to us.”
He slowly nods. “I was deceived, just as you were. I realized only too late that Hyde was who he really said he was and that I was helping the wrong man.”
“Hyde was my friend.”
“Wait a second,” Bastien turns his whole body to look at me. “Hyde was here? How did he--?”
“It doesn’t matter,” I cut him off. I hate the look of hurt that crosses his face but I reach out and squeeze his arms to reassure him, vowing that one day I will tell him all about it but there are far more important matters at the moment.
Coen watches us, his face somber. “Hendrix told me that you were in danger, Illyria. That your babies were killing you. I watched you suffer. Saw your pain. I tried to comfort you but you kept me at a distance. When I heard you called your nurse Thesa instead of Lurime I knew what Hyde had done so I went to find Natasha.”
My brow furrows with confusion. “That’s another thing I don’t understand. How did she survive? Hendrix killed her righ
t in front of me.”
Coen shakes his head. “No. I blocked your view, remember? Natasha once told you that she will do whatever it takes to survive. That includes switching sides when it suits her. She was never Donan’s soldier. She had already signed on to Hendrix’ team long before she ever boarded that slaving ship. The problem was she grew too fond of Hyde. His death shook her. She did a good job of hiding her pain but I could see through her mask. A shifter always can.”
I reach out for Bastien and he helps me slowly rise to a seated position. He shifts off the bed and helps me lower my one good leg to the floor then shoves a pillow behind my back so that I can lean against the wall. My stomach swells before me and I realize that I have grown even more.
“Why would Natasha help me? She hates me for what I did to her brother.”
Coen smiles. “She spent years hating you, sure that you were to blame for her brother’s death, but when you were willing to place your life in her hands she realized that there was a chance that she was wrong about you. Sometimes fate has plans that differ from our own. She just needed time to accept that.”
Boy, isn’t that the truth! I snort silently.
“So you’re telling me that you and Natasha planned the escape into the swamp?”
He slowly nods. “Hendrix was becoming unstable, moody. His growing agitation with your delayed labor became an obsession of his. I knew something had to be done to protect you. Once I realize who Thesa really was I knew you were safe with her. I recruited Natasha and Handal to execute your escape while I came here.”
I glance at the room around me, stunned by how brilliantly white it all is. It reminds me of the healer’s wing back on Calisted. “And where is here?”
Bastien speaks up this time. “This is Drach’s compound.”
My heads whips around to look at him beside me. “Drach’s compound burned to the ground. We were attacked by Hendrix’s men. Drach tried to save me. He shoved me into this passage in the wall and I followed it until I found Hyde chained to a door outside. We barely escaped with our lives.”
I shudder at the memory. Bastien scoots closer and wraps his arm around my shoulders. I lean in to him, eternally grateful for his support. “Drach came for me,” he whispers into my ear. “He saved my life, gave me a place to hide out until we could find you.” He draws back to look at Coen...Satal, whoever he is. “Without his help I would never have found you on my own.”
“And Natasha? Did she make it?”
Coen’s face falls as he shakes his head. I close my eyes, indebted to the girl who gave her life to save me. “And Handal?” I ask, already knowing the answer.
“He was never recovered.”
I nod, feeling sick to my stomach. Of course not. He was dead long before I even managed to wiggle into that cage.
I blow out a heavy sigh and mentally shake myself. “Donan, Hyde, Reyes, Vondran, Natasha, Handal...they are all dead. What about Callisto? Did you see what happened to her?” I ask Coen.
“She was Hendrix’s second in command. She would have slit your throat in your sleep if she thought it would have pleased him,” Coen says.
My throat clenches at the thought. I liked her. I guess that just goes to show that sometimes you never really know a person.
“What about Marius? Which side was he on?”
Coen shrugs. “Neither. He was unlucky enough to be caught by the wrong people at the wrong time. My guess would be he is in one of the mines.”
“They are gone,” I whisper, turning my face away.
“What do you mean they are gone?” Coen sits forward. “How is that possible?”
“Your buddy Hendrix collapsed the mines. Thesa barely made it out with her life. She said thousands of workers were killed.”
Coen leans back and places his head against the wall. “He must have found it…”
I glance to Bastien to see if he knows what Coen is speaking of but he shrugs. “Found what?” I press.
Rolling his head to the side, Coen drills me with a gaze that makes my skin begin to crawl. “He found the source.”
THIRTY-THREE
Bastien’s grip on my shoulders tighten as he pulls me closer under his arm. I go willingly, needing to draw strength from him. “The source for what?”
“Not for what. For when.” Coen amends. He scratches at the edge of his jawline, absent in thought. I can’t help but wonder if he has forgotten that he has changed form and no longer has any facial hair. “Buried in the depths of this planet is a spatial anomaly. We do not know when it was formed or even how. Only that it exists. My kind have spent thousands of years searching for it. Some believe that it is the source of all life.”
“Is that why you are here now?” I ask, leaning forward but I quickly realize that my stomach hinders that sort of movement now so I sink back into Bastien’s embrace.
“I am here to protect it, of course,” he answers as if it were the most obvious explanation in the world. “The power trapped within the core of this planet is enough to destroy countless worlds if it were ever to implode. Having the anomaly in such close proximity could be disastrous if such an explosion should occur. It could end our entire timeline, make it is if we never even existed. Hendrix was a fool to think that we could just bury it and remain safe. This is not something that can simply be ignored or forgotten.”
“And what would happen if the core of this planet were to explode near the anomaly?” I ask.
Coen looks very grim when he answers. “I honestly don’t know.”
“How is this even possible? Shouldn’t something like that be out in space instead of buried in the heart of a planet?” Bastien questions. His skin feels delightfully cool against mine and I realize that my fever has begun to return. Pressing my hand to my belly I feel an immediate kick and smile. At least I know my children are still safe.
“Illyria had to alter matter and stop time in order to save your life, Bastien. Any change, whether to the past, present or future affects our timeline. Things that should have happened no longer will. You surviving that attack set a new path of events into motion that no one could have predicted because none could have known Illyria was capable of such a feat. I believe that when Illyria pushed on the veil of time she did more than affect time but space as well. That is why Hendrix is here. He discovered this power source.” Coen turns his gaze to me and then dips low to stare at my hand. “I believe that you possess the ability to shift that anomaly, to move it to somewhere safe again.”
“But I can’t do that,” I splutter. “Even if I had a clue how to do that, this stupid necklace is preventing me from using my abilities.”
Coen smiles. “I was not speaking only of your abilities.”
My hand tightens over my belly. “My children?”
He nods. “You were once told that there has never been anyone like you before, and this is true. The same will be true for your children. Although Eamon may not possess any unusual qualities beyond his visions of the future, he does share a bloodline of great power. One that is shared with Bastien as well.”
I turn to look at Bastien and see his gaze is fixed firmly on Coen. “How do you know that?”
Coen smiles. “I am a seer.”
I slowly shift my gaze to look at Coen and realize why he feels familiar to me. “You are Kaladan? Sariana’s brother that was supposed to be trapped on Murilian?”
His smile deepens. “I am not her brother. I am her as well.”
“Whoa,” Bastien is careful to ease me back against the pillow before he rises to his feet. “So you were Coen in my army, then you met us in the woods to reveal our destiny as Sariana and then you went to Calisted as what? As Satal?”
“No.” Coen shakes his head and he offers Bastien an apologetic smile. “I was Callum as well on the outer rim. I felt that being your second in command would be a good position to be in to watch over you.”
Bastien blows out a breath and runs his hands through his hair. “That’s just messed up.”
I blink, shocked by this admission. Thomas was one of the elderly men that our group cared for after the parents were killed. He was kind to me as a child. Took care of me when my parent went on raids. He was the one who comforted me first when they did not return that last time. “That’s why you were so emotional before. I couldn’t figure out why you cared so much when I discovered that you weren’t truly Bastien.”
He nods slowly. “I knew the path that your life would take and knew that you would need guidance along the way.” He hangs his head low. “I am truly sorry that I did not see the good in Hyde sooner. It is my fault that you were in danger from Hendrix.”
Bastien stops walking and turns back to the man. “Did you bring her here? Is that what all of this has been about? To solve this anomaly thing?”
Coen hesitates before he looks up. “Illyria cannot see into the future for one very important reason...there is no future.”
I suck in a breath. “How can that be?”
“I once warned you that you have the power to destroy worlds. You also have the power to save them. I led you along this path for this moment...to save countless lives.”
“And how does she do that?” Bastien asks.
Coen looks away and I feel my stomach clench. Bastien closes the gap between himself and Coen and seizes the man by his neck and lifts him off the ground. As Satal, he would have been difficult to lift, but Coen is smaller.
“That I do not know. All I could foresee is that she had to come here.”
“And my vision?” I ask, looking at up into Coen’s burnt orange eyes. “I saw the snake people attacking Earth, slaughtering millions. My dead husband Aloysius sought to stop that from happening, but then I come here and discover that the snake people are gentle. Was my vision false?”
Bastien loosens his grip on Coen’s neck so that he can answer. “Not false. A different timeline.”