Time of the Draig

by Lisa Dawn Wadler

  His forehead leaned down to rest against hers. “You could have our child, yet you leave me.”

  She pushed him away roughly and rose to her feet, anger pulsing through her body. “I’m not leaving you. I’m saving you and all of this.” Samantha spoke as she gestured to the world around them. “You knew this would happen, damn you. You knew I would have to leave. How dare you make me think about that? What gives you the right to make me think about one more perfect thing I will never know?” Tears fell, and she choked out, “I don’t want to know. For the first time in my life, I don’t want to know the answer.”

  Blinded by tears, she never saw him rise but felt his arms band around her from behind. Her body shook with the force of her sobs, and the most beautiful place she had ever seen became one more location filled with dread.

  He waited and held her while the grief ran its course and left her exhausted. Strong arms held her as she turned within his arms and buried her face in his chest. I’m a scientist, a physicist, and far too brilliant to live in a land of denial. Plus, she could count and knew her body. The game of a perfect day was over. She whispered, “I think I could be.” Samantha explained her irregularities and finished with, “Two weeks of sleeping and eating properly should have . . . but I still don’t know.”

  “Then for now let us think you are,” Faolan said as he placed a kiss to the top of her head. “The thought pleases me.”

  Samantha shook her head. “Not me. Not given what will happen to me.” She pushed back from him. “If I don’t come back, it’s a death sentence. You know that. What kind of a monster of a mother conceives a child when—”

  Soft strong lips brushed the remainder of the sentence from her lips. Gentle hands lifted her face to look him in the eyes. Warmth gazed down at her as did love. “Forgive me, my heart. We live in the now. I should have never asked.” Faolan swallowed hard, and moisture pooled in his gaze. “I thought it would be something to think on this day. A child would be a fine thing between us. It gives you one more reason to fight to come home to me.”

  She attempted to smile at the apology even as a piece of her heart died. “I already have so many reasons.” She stared into his brown gaze. “I love you.”

  “Have hope, my heart, even if it argues with your wisdom.” Faolan winked and stepped away from her. “Let us eat our meal in the sunshine. The clouds will provide a diversion for the afternoon.”

  Samantha wiped the tears from her cheeks and forced a smile as he returned from the tied horses with a bag in hand. His gaze held regret for the question and, sadly, her answer. People living only in the now should never speak of possibilities that implied a tomorrow. Despite the emotional overload, her stomach rumbled at the small banquet he laid out before her.

  As she sat by his side, he leaned down to kiss her softly. He whispered against her mouth, “Eat and find shapes with me. When you have found five visions to share with me, I will spend the rest of this day loving you in the nature you so enjoy. When dusk falls, I shall take you home, and we will lock ourselves in our chamber, and I will love you until the sun rises.”

  Still he played the game, but his eyes bore the wounds he didn’t give voice. If it were possible, Samantha loved him even more for it. After pulling him closer for a hard kiss, she asked, “Is that a promise?”

  “Aye, my heart.”

  Dawn had come far too quickly for a night with little sleep. Faolan had kept his promise and had spent the night loving every inch of her flesh. He had whispered words of love and devotion with each caress. Each gasp and sigh she had made rang in his ears. Her vows of love had filled his heart through the night.

  He would remember the dawn if he lived for one hundred years. There had been no words, no sounds, only soft touches. Bright green eyes held his as he had entered and filled her for what could be the last time. When her body had tightened around his in pleasure, her gaze had remained locked on his. His release had left him hollow and spent, buried against her neck.

  Neither had spoken as they rose from the bed to dress for the day. His only smile had been for the leather trews she had donned, a gift from Keira for a hard day of travel. Samantha was a sight to behold in soft deerskin trews with his dagger strapped to her side.

  Her men had gathered at the gates and had formed a line with their hands pressed to their foreheads. Boomer had explained it was a salute, an offering of respect. Samantha had returned the gesture and rode ahead without looking back.

  While the journey to his keep had taken two and a half days on foot, they reached the destination by mid-afternoon. There were no animals to slow their progress, and he had taken the shorter path like a fool.

  Faolan paced the field while he stared at Samantha sitting in the grass with the metal attached to her temple. Her fingers flew over her computer as she finished whatever needed to be done to open her cursed door.

  His finger itched to pull his sword from his back and hack the foul tool to pieces. Yet a large part of him was certain she would never forgive him if he doomed the fate of time. His father had explained many times that being laird meant making decisions for the greater good of the clan. Faolan never thought to be faced with such a painful example. He exhaled sharply as he stopped pacing at her feet. She was unaware of his presence, but Boomer nodded from behind her back.

  All too soon, Samantha sighed and stood before him. He faced the major who stood straight with conviction. A weak smile crossed her features before she turned to speak with Jeff.

  “I’m ready,” she said, and she patted the bag strapped to her waist containing the small orb of power.

  Jeff nodded. “Do you want to go over this one more time?”

  “We’re good,” Boomer said as he stretched his shoulders. “We know exactly where the enemy is, and we each have our targets.”

  Jeff nodded. Faolan had already heard the plan several times that morning. Two guards and one other stood between immediate life and death for his wife. Samantha had sketched a rough map in the dirt that showed their positions and the assumed entry point. Boomer claimed he would receive a weapon of incredible power upon arrival from himself. The thought boggled his mind—Boomer meeting Boomer was beyond his comprehension.

  Samantha lifted the cursed metal box from the ground and placed it in Jeff’s hands with firm instructions. “I will begin the sequence and need you to press the enter key on my signal. Expect the same noise and wind that you experienced in the lab. Whatever you do, don’t drop it. My hope is that the connection running through my system will keep the second door open long enough for us to retreat.”

  Jeff blinked rapidly as the question formed on his face. “In the lab, you opened the door between two metal poles.”

  Samantha laughed. “Props that took four months to procure. The requisition gave me the time I needed to finalize the initial plan.”

  Faolan understood none of it and only knew Jeff had not found a reason to delay her departure.

  Jeff handed the computer to Boomer and moved to take Samantha in his arms. His words were whispered, and he could not hear what was spoken between them. Both stood apart with hands wiping eyes before tears could fall. Jeff turned and faced Boomer. The mountain shook his head.

  “Not much on goodbye.” He added with a wink, “Besides, I’ll be back in just a few, and then you’ll feel ridiculous for getting all weepy over me.”

  Laughter filled the clearing for a sweet moment. Jeff replied, “Watch yourselves in there. The potential for more incoming exists, and I—”

  “I’ve got his back,” Samantha interrupted as she placed the computer back in Jeff’s hands.

  Instead of a verbal reply, Jeff faced her with a salute, and she stood a bit straighter to offer the same. Samantha then reprimanded him. “Both hands on the hardware, please.”

  She stood in front of Faolan with her emerald g
aze fixed on him and the metal attached to her temple. Faolan forced a smile to his lips as his eyes focused only on hers. “Hurry back to me, my heart.”

  Soft hands pulled him down to meet the sweet kiss she placed on his lips. Samantha whispered against his mouth, “With you is the only place I wish to be, remember that.” With a step backward out of his reach, she said, “You please me.”

  Boomer moved between them, and Faolan stared up at him. Boomer smiled and nodded. “When I get back, I’m thinking I’d like to call you brother.”

  “Nothing would please me more, Dark Mountain,” Faolan replied, touched by the words. It did not escape his notice that Boomer offered no words of hope. The only certainty was that the mountain would protect his wife with every ounce of strength he possessed.

  Jeff stood by his side as Samantha and Boomer stepped closer to the area they had arrived at weeks ago. Faolan’s hands clenched in fists, and Samantha touched the metal on her temple and raised her hand to Jeff.

  Once again, the air screamed and the ground shook as the trees in front of his wife wavered. The door came into view while wind buffeted against him. His eyes widened in shock, and he saw her world appear before him; bright white light came streaming from the forming door.

  Fear caused his feet to move. Faolan ran to Samantha’s side, and he pulled her to face him as the shimmering became an opening between their worlds. Boomer stepped forward with his hand high in the air. Faolan screamed over the wind, “I love you now and for all time, my heart.” He then turned her back to face her duty and pushed her forward.

  Samantha stepped toward the light, and he heard her word as she left him, “Forever.”

  As soon as her feet cleared the door, the opening began to waver and shake. Faolan heard Jeff cry out a warning that the computer was shutting down. Faolan only knew it was not supposed to happen, they were to come back through the door, back to him. Before he could leap in to save his wife, Jeff grabbed the back of his shirt, and the door began to slip from sight.

  The complexity and probability his wife spoke of meant little to him, but he understood what was happening. The two orbs of power threatened to destroy the entire world; he knew of their need to be together. Such a passion he could easily comprehend. Faolan reasoned that the orbs knew the moment they shared the same place and time. He saw the moment his hope died and the door closed. Faolan fell to his knees and screamed until he could no longer make a sound.

  Chapter 21

  Boomer pushed through the screaming wind and stepped through the quantum door from the grassy field. His booted foot hit the tile floor as if he had walked into the lab from the main door. As usual, Samantha’s memory was spot on perfect. Everyone was exactly where he expected them to be. Three feet in front of him were the two armed guards and the earlier version of himself. The colonel stood just left of the guards with a quite surprised Captain Chandler behind the desk.

  The earlier version of himself, who had yet to enter the first quantum door, only glanced at him briefly. Shock had ceased to be a part of his mental state after so many years with Samantha in the lab. He knew the earlier version of himself accepted what he saw. The other Boomer quickly looked past him to the sight within the new quantum door. In his memory, Boomer knew what held his attention. The sight of Samantha in the arms of a strange man and the pain so clear in the man’s eyes spoke clearly of love and loss. Behind them, Captain Jeff Harrison stood holding her precious laptop computer. A feat no other living human being, besides himself, could boast of doing.

  Even with his back turned to the scene, Boomer heard Samantha yell over the wind the word forever. That was what had spurred the other version of himself into action that day in the lab when everything had seemed to go so wrong. If she had found a man worthy of her and he had approved, it was something worth fighting for.

  Boomer held his hand up in clear expectation, while he pointed at the side arm strapped to the other version of himself. As he remembered, the other version of himself threw him the side arm while the two armed guards tried, and failed, to make sense of the two Sergeant Michaels. It all happened within five seconds, not enough time to process the unimaginable.

  Without a pause, Boomer pointed the handgun at the colonel, shot him, and watched him drop to the floor. Killing the man who had mentally tortured Samantha for so many years was as satisfying as he had hoped it would be. Boomer had regret for smashing one the guards in the temple with the handle of the weapon, but he needed a clear path. There was no thought for the other armed guard as the other version of himself flung the man against the far wall, severely incapacitating him. Captain Chandler had the good sense to huddle in a corner.

  Samantha entered behind him, and she screamed as she cleared the door. Boomer knew why she wailed. The door never shimmered or wavered; it simply wasn’t there anymore, though Faolan’s cry could still be heard echoing off the white walls of the lab.

  “Now, Samantha!” Boomer yelled to the woman who had stopped in her tracks due to her grief. “You have five seconds to rip that fucking orb and we run.” When she hesitated, he added, “We already know an explosion follows on our heels.”

  As Samantha’s fingers moved in a blur over the mainframe’s keypad before she grabbed UNK005 in her hand and shoved it into her bag, Boomer retrieved the two automatic weapons from the floor. Sirens and red lights flashed in the lab. Whether they were due to the gunshot or the abrupt removal of the orb, he didn’t know and didn’t truly care.

  He grabbed Samantha’s hand and pulled her toward to the original quantum door on the far wall between the two metal posts. Boomer screamed, “Run!” as the doorway shimmered and threatened to fade from sight.

  Hot air kissed their backs as they ran through the jungle to the next door at their left, over the footprints in the snowy field and through four other places he never really saw. Boomer’s only focus was on pulling her faster than the blast wave’s heat.

  They almost fell as a pair when they stumbled over the sandy beach and the door ahead of them threatened to fade from sight. On sheer will power alone, Boomer dragged Samantha through the last door, ran over his own back, and fled into the forest.

  Her arm ached as Boomer dragged her through the budding branches of the forest. Samantha would have lifted her arm to protect her face from being stung by the foliage, but she was taking no chances on dropping the bag that held the UNK005s.

  Finally, Boomer slowed and came to a stop, gasping for air. “You can thank me now,” he panted.

  His comment danced in her mind, and she realized what he had done. Exuberance filled her as she realized where and when they were. Her feet shifted, and her body began to run back to where they had just come from when Boomer’s muscled arm wrapped around her waist, holding her in place.

  “Let me go, Boomer. Faolan’s in the field.” All she wanted to do was run back to the man she had left behind. Her heart pounded in need for the man she was afraid she would never see again.

  “He’s not your Faolan, not yet, anyway,” Boomer said as his arms tightened its grip.

  The “but” never left her lips after Boomer reminded her they had entered at the initial point of entry. They had just arrived, and the initial meeting was about to take place in the same field she had just left. Only, they had re-entered forty-six days after their initial entry. The paradox of two of her and Boomer in one time and place crashed into her mind. They had to stay clear of the earlier versions of themselves and the men, or history would be changed.

  Samantha slumped in Boomer’s hold as reality took shape. She wasn’t home yet. Too much still had to happen for the current version of her to be in the right place at the right time.

  “You knew,” she whispered as the lack of immediate victory crushed her heart.

  Boomer chuckled and slowly released his grip on her. “I had hoped but never saw who ran over my ba
ck. I only knew we went back to the lab because of what I saw and that Faolan was the man you were going to be with. I trusted Jeff immediately because I had seen him holding your laptop in the distance.”

  Samantha stared into the opening leaves of the forest canopy, and Boomer explained how he had seen them enter the lab on the day the colonel forced her hand. The future version of himself received his side arm. He continued with seeing her and Faolan say goodbye with Jeff in the background. Boomer never saw who ran over his back, but over the passage of days, he had begun to hope it was them.

  “Now we need to find a safe place to wait for our departure so we can get back to our future. Or something like that. I was hoping for a profound and wicked cool statement,” Boomer finished.

  Samantha laughed and turned to wrap her arms around his waist. “Thank you. I never thought of using the original door.”

  “You never could see the obvious solution to anything. One of the many reasons you need me,” Boomer said, squeezing her. He pulled back enough to gaze down at her. “As much as I would love to watch you tear into Faolan again for trying to buy you, we need to stay out of sight. Weiler is one heck of a sentry, and he’s scanning the area as we speak.”

  With her hand wrapped around Faolan’s dagger tied to her waist, Samantha followed Boomer’s lead and lay down on the forest floor. The initial meeting played over in her mind, and she couldn’t help but smile. The man she had married had behaved like a fool that day, and she would have loved to see it play out before her.

  Forty-six days is going to be a long time to wait and stay hidden. Forty-six days without his smile, without his touch, simply without Faolan.