Cogs in Time 2 (The Steamworks Series)

by SJ Davis

  Her boots hit hard into the black ground, and she longed for the soft dirt from her own time. The street was as hard as the cobblestone town center roads, and she despised running on them. Pain traced a slow path through her body, and her chest heaved from lack of air as she finally ran into the carriage that had gotten them there.

  Jase was already inside with an arm outstretched to pull her up. She was grateful, her eyes were watering from the exertion, and she was having so much trouble breathing, she didn’t think she could’ve made the step up on her own.

  “Mia, I hate to be insensitive, especially seeing as how I’ve caused this, but you need to get us out of here now. I did just steal these.” He dangled the foreign items in front of her, and she swatted at them, not even wanting to discuss how poorly this plan had been thought out.

  “Thieves! Someone stop them! Those actors from the faire, they’ve stolen from me!” The shopkeeper’s voice reached her ears, and her blood ran cold. In their time, thieves were thrown in a dungeon and murdered at first light. Criminals were no longer tolerated as the Stormlings could literally get away with murder if consequences were dire. They wielded too much power to have it go unchecked.

  “Don’t rush me, Jase!” She screamed at him, but didn’t tear her eyes away from the crystals.

  She needed to hit the blue one; the return. Her hands frantically rubbed together, and she heard the shopkeeper’s feet coming closer. She wasn’t prepared for what happened. There could have been no way to judge the course of events as she pointed her hand at the blue crystal, ready to take them home.

  Multiple hands slammed into the carriage with great force. The impact and pounding on the outside shook the carriage and knocked her feet out from under her. She crashed onto the floor and gasped as the air was knocked from her lungs. There was nothing that could control a lightning blast once it was directed and the motion had pulled her hand clear to the left of the crystal line; to the red crystal.

  “No! Jase no!” She screamed as she saw the concentrated strike land on the red shard. There was nothing she or Jase could do. If it worked the same way as the green crystal had, the carriage was about to launch itself through time, to god only knew where, and not home. They’d never calibrated the return crystal. The thought suffocated her; they’d never made sure to set a way to even get the vehicle to know where to return too. They had been crazy, thinking to shove all the souls in, and hope that it would simply pop back from whence it came.

  The vehicle started as violently as the last time, but she was already sitting, and had nowhere to fall. Her head and back slammed into the seat, and she felt Jase wrap his hand around hers. Tears streamed down her face as it grew worse, and she felt it begin to lurch forward. Mia bit and chewed on her lower lip, forcing her eyes to squeeze shut as she silently prayed the carriage didn’t drop them some place deadly.

  Chapter Five

  It stopped moving. The violent thrashing about and the incredible wind tunnel simply ceased. She cried; small, silent sobs that shock her shoulders. She tightly squeezed Jase’s hand with her own, and tried to take deep gulps air.

  His lips were on hers then, soft and gentle, but there. She felt them like a whisper, and she leaned up a little, pressing her lips to his. This kiss wasn’t like the first one. It was slow and tender, and when Jase pulled back, she opened her eyes and saw him smiling a her.

  “I’ve been waiting for an opportunity to do that again.”

  His eyes were sparkling and he was smirking at her. She wanted to punch him, wanted to land a proper fist against his mouth.

  She pushed backwards, suddenly very angry at him. “Do you have no concept of what just occurred, Jase? Does nothing sink in for you? Ever?” she growled at him and turned away. She wasn’t ready to open the carriage door and see where they were, when they were. But she knew if she looked at him for one second longer, she was going to slap him.

  “I take us seriously.”

  His words resonated deep within her and she felt her breath catch. There were so many things she could ask him about. So many different questions bombarded her thoughts, but she chose to ignore his blatant attempt to soften her.

  “Don’t be daft, Jase. I mean about this, did you even see what happened?” Her voice held a steely bite she’d never spoken to him with before.

  “It was a little hard to miss, Mia, even in the commotion.”

  She saw him slip his hands into his pant pockets and shrug from the corner of her eye.

  “So where do you think we are?”

  “I don’t even know where we were, Jase.” She sighed and put her hand on the bar to open the carriage door. “We miscalculated. How we were foolish enough to test this without setting some sort of tracker?”

  “Mia, how could we even create a tracker?”

  She snapped. All the tension and worry that had been building up, since the first moment she had arrived and saw the shards missing that morning, unleashed like a storm.

  “How could we build a time travel machine, Jase? Hmm? How could we, but we did! We did, and we put no safe guards in place to assure we can get home, and your response is to tell me we don’t know how to make one!” She could feel herself huffing from working herself up. “Why didn’t we learn how to make one first?”

  His hand reached out and touched her shoulder. She wanted to pull away from him, but his touch was the only thing she could sure was what it was supposed to be right then. Her hand shook slightly on the door handle as his warm fingers covered hers.

  “We’ll open it together, Mia. We can’t sit in here forever. We need to know where we managed to take ourselves.” He sounded so much gentler than usual, more understanding, and it just made her feel even worse for ripping into him.

  She didn’t trust herself to talk again, so she just nodded and took a deep breath. At the same time as Jase put pressure on her hand, she put pressure on the handle, and the carriage door swung open.

  Her breath whooshed out in a sigh of relief when she saw the area around her. There were no gigantic buildings, no sun beaming off panels. They were inside a large church with darkly colored pews and impressive stained glass windows. The church. They were inside the church.

  Services were not in session, as there were none inside. Candles flickered with life to the side of them, but there was no artificial light, which meant they had gone backwards too far. She’d been hoping it would mysteriously send them to the right point in the past, but apparently, the soul was old enough that it took them to the time from when its human body had died.

  Carefully, she jumped down from the carriage, wincing as her feet smacked into the ground and echoed in the big church. She didn’t want to leave; she wanted to get right back inside the carriage, since they knew it wasn’t the right time. But when Jase jumped down beside her, curiosity got the better of her, and she started walking towards the heavy doors.

  “That’s right, Mia. We’re here. We may as well have a quick look.” Jase’s voice was chipper behind her, and she had such an urge to turn around and blast him with a bolt, just to change his tone for once

  The doors pushed open with ease, and she let out a breath she hadn’t realized she had been holding when the town came into focus. No flying, floating carriages. No people racing about in strange dress.

  Almost like home.

  Jase pushed past her. His grin was infectious, not because it was his, but because they had to be close to their own time. “Well, I for one, think we may as well have a look around, Mia.”

  She didn’t move though. Something stopped her, a feeling that messing around in the past could be far worse than the future. “Jase, let’s just go. If anyone saw what just happened, or see’s an unhitched carriage in the town centre, they’re going to ask questions.”

  He extended his hand to her, and she sighed as she took it, and stepped out. “How could you not wish to look around, Mia. We’re in the past.” He dropped her hand and raced across the cobblestone road.

  �
�Jase, for the love of all that is holy, watch what you shout!” She picked her skirt up and raced after him. Minutes before, they’d been running because he’d gotten them into trouble, there was no telling what would happen next.

  She was shocked that, when they stopped, they were in front of a shop window. In the exact same place as in the future.

  Jase pointed to a sign in the window on a yellowed parchment. “Look Mia. America! We’re in America!”

  She followed and saw the symbol used to denote currency. It was American, which meant they weren’t home, but they couldn’t be too far off. Perhaps they hadn’t gone that far back into the past. It had only been about twenty years since the collapse of American rule and maybe a hundred prior to the storm. She swallowed hard. They could be anywhere from 1770 through to 1863. A wave of nausea rose up in her stomach, and she pushed it down as best as she could.

  Jase would never understand the severity of the situation. In the future, their powers still would have existed for generations. In the past, they were witches. “Jase we need to leave. Please listen to me this one time. What if a spirit walks up to you? What if they see me spark to power the carriage to leave? It’s so dark in the sky, Jase, a storm is coming and we have no dry clothes anyway.”

  He turned away from the window, and she felt gutted by his expression. His face perfectly mimicked a child who was attempting to beg his parents for sweets before the evening meal. An expression she never had been able to say no to.

  “Mia, ten minutes. We have to look around. Grab something American, you know for proof.”

  She stood her ground and crossed her arms over her chest. “No, Jase. Just no. Not this time. We need to leave.”

  He tugged her against him, and she shivered at the contact, forgetting that they were in the middle of the road. His lips stopped a hair from hers, and she wanted to kiss him. Despite their situation, she couldn’t help what she felt for him. No matter how much trouble he always got her into.

  “Mia….”

  She hissed at him under her breath. “Jase. No. No, no a thousand times no. Look what just happened because you wanted proof. You have proof. We don’t need to be in the past and the future in the same day!”

  He laughed, kissed her, a gentle brush of lips, and pulled back. “Deal. Never tell me I always stir up trouble, Mia. I want it to be remembered that I conceded, and solemnly vow to walk back to the carriage with you and let you take us home.” He smirked and her, and she playfully punched him in the stomach.

  “You are so hard to get along with, Jase. The charm of the nobleman you are, and the maturity of a toddler.” She started walking and left out the part about how she’d always loved him because of those reasons.

  The sky was eerily dark and she had a feeling people might make their way to the church soon and she wasn’t really interested in explaining how a carriage with no horses got inside.

  He pulled open the door to the carriage and helped her step up. She tripped as her skirt caught along the edge, and the tearing sound broke her heart. She didn’t own many fine dresses anymore. Most had been destroyed when she was training, and her parents didn’t have the money to dress her in finery.

  Jase jumped in and rocked the carriage. She shot him a look and he grinned. “How about we hit the blue crystal this time, Mia?” He winked at her and she wanted to swing at him.

  “Step out of the carriage.”

  Her blood froze in her veins as the booming voice cut through the carriage door.

  “Mia, don’t. Just focus on your lightning, and get us out of here. We’re not from their time. It isn’t as if they can charge us for anything more than witchcraft, and essentially we are witches, so I’d rather not have a way to prove them wrong.”

  She nodded and tried to force herself to focus, but she couldn’t.

  The door to the carriage jerked open, and she turned her head. The men in front of her were dressed in old-fashioned American militia clothes, complete with the terribly dyed blue coat and black cap.

  “Step out of the carriage. I have no knowledge of how you moved it here without horses, when it wasn’t here moments prior, but I will find out,” the closest militiaman was talking, his black bearded mouth moving far too fast for her addled mind to comprehend.

  Then the tip of the gun barrel was shoved into her face, and Jase shouted as he knocked it away. “Watch where you point that thing. I am a Kristol, and this is my lady betrothed. We can explain it plainly. Without weapons.” He pushed past her so he was in front, which proved to be a mistake.

  The man slammed the gun into Jase’s head, knocking him backwards into her. They both toppled to the floor, Jase without any sound. She panicked as she tried to spin in her full skirts to see if he was all right.

  “Jase!” Hands wrapped around her shoulders and pulled her backwards out of the carriage. She felt the tip of another musket to her head, and she forced herself to stop struggling. Wherever they had landed, she was fairly certain of one thing, the Great Storm had yet to pass, which meant they were in very hot water.

  “Miss, I have no care or concern for whoever a Kristol is. You’ve arrived here by some means of sorcery, and that is all I do care about. Congress will need to know of this action.”

  Congress. She said nothing in response to the man. There was nothing she could say. They had arrived by means of magic. The only thing she could do was trick them into letting her back inside the carriage, so she could get them out of there.

  Her eyes flicked to Jase, and he still lay unmoving on the floor of the carriage. Her head spun as she looked from him to the imposing man before her. He had an unkempt black beard and small brown eyes, not quite beady, but certainly close. She shifted her chest a bit, pushing her small breasts out as she tilted her head so her hair fell over the front of her body. She’d seen whores sell themselves enough to know that, even though she might be lacking bosom, there were certain tricks to getting a man.

  “Would you see harm in allowing me to grab something off the carriage? I assure you it is no weapon. Merely a special token my fiancé gave to me. I keep it under the seat should we be robbed, and if I am to rot in a prison cell, I would take great comfort in having it.”

  The man looked at her, and a slight softness shifted into his eyes. “You may have one minute to secure it. The storm clouds are setting my nerves on edge, and it’s a long walk from where I’ll be taking you straight to the sheriff. I don’t want to get caught up in the storm.”

  Her eyes glanced up. The sky looked as if it was ready to go to war. She’d assumed it was evening when they’d arrived, but now she knew the truth. Great gray clouds covered the sky above them. If she looked further away to the west, she could see some blue peeking through, but above them it was angry and dark.

  This couldn’t possibly be the day of the Great Storm. Could it? She felt her heart speed up and swallowed, trying to force the panic down. It’s probably just a storm. She couldn’t be certain, as she was only three when it had struck, but the clouds were so much thicker and darker than any storm she’d seen in her lifetime.

  She curtsied to the man. “Thank you for your kindness. I will be a moment.” She pulled herself back up onto the carriage, accidentally kicking Jase with the toe of her boot. He moaned, and she was glad he seemed to be awakening. “Sorry Jase. It might be better if you were awake for this though.”

  Mia began to rub her hands together. She felt them begin to warm as the friction built, and she could feel the pull of the lightning in her body. A warm streak licked through her, and she concentrated on pushing it through her hands.

  “What are you doing in there? Standing around isn’t grabbing a token, miss. I’ll be having you step out now.”

  She turned around and smiled at him, the ball of electrical energy sparking in her palm. “I do not think that will be happening, sir.”

  He shouted as she sent a small strike out towards the ground near his feet. There was no point in harming them, but she needed them to take
a step back so that she might get out safely.

  “Magic!”

  “The devil!”

  “A goddess!”

  She heard all their shouts, but she ignored them, because once she turned back to the crystal panel her heart sunk. She had no idea which crystal to power. The return would be the logical choice, but since they had never took the time to calibrate anything in any way, return could mean the future timeline.

  The present? Could that be the right one?

  “Miss, that is enough. You are under arrest by orders of the Americas. Come along without a fuss, and you may be allowed to ask forgiveness for your sins before we burn you at the steak.”

  The leader’s gruff voice sent a chill through her. The Great Storm had not come to pass. Stormlings did not exist yet, and she was not certain she could kill people in order to secure their escape.

  “Just believe, Mia.” She focused on the return crystal and let lose a bolt of power into it. Her heart stopped when the result wasn’t the same as before. The crystal did not glow; the carriage did not shake and bounce violently. Bile rose up in her throat.

  What is going wrong? Why is it not moving as it has the last two times?

  The souls! Jase had only been holding three of the crystals when he’d come back that morning. So he’d only supercharged the three. Tears streamed down her face, fear paralyzed her, and she knew that if she didn’t try the present crystal, all was lost.

  Everything moved slowly. She heard the crack of thunder in the air and the whooshed downpour of rain as the sky opened up. Whether or not it was The Great Storm, or just a storm, it had begun. She pushed the current towards the blue crystal, but hit the green. For a moment, she hoped they would move in a little into the future, but nothing happened. When a streak of light lit the sky behind the carriage, it distracted her before she could try for the blue crystal again. She’d never used her own skills during a storm, and didn’t know what would happen.