Ricochet Through Time (Echo Trilogy Book 3)

by Lindsey Fairleigh

  Ricochet Through Time

  ECHO TRILOGY, BOOK 3

  By LINDSEY FAIRLEIGH

  Copyright © 2016 by Lindsey Fairleigh

  All rights reserved.

  This book is a work of fiction. All characters, organizations, and events are products of the author’s imaginations or are used fictitiously. No reference to any real person, living or dead, is intended or should be inferred.

  Editing by Sarah KolbWilliams

  www.kolbwilliams.com

  MORE BOOKS BY LINDSEY FAIRLEIGH

  ECHO TRILOGY

  1: Echo in Time

  1.5: Resonance

  2: Time Anomaly

  2.5: Dissonance

  3: Ricochet Through Time

  KAT DUBOIS CHRONICLES

  1: Ink Witch

  2: Outcast

  THE ENDING SERIES

  After The Ending

  Into The Fire

  Out Of The Ashes

  Before The Dawn

  THE ENDING BEGINNINGS

  Omnibus

  I: Carlos

  II: Mandy

  III: Vanessa

  IV: Jake

  V: Clara

  VI: Jake & Clara

  FOR MORE INFORMATION ON LINDSEY FAIRLEIGH & THE ECHO TRILOGY:

  www.lindseyfairleigh.com

  DEDICATION

  For Katie, Jenna, and Nicole, the best friends a girl could ask for.

  CONTENTS

  MORE BOOKS BY LINDSEY FAIRLEIGH

  DEDICATION

  MAPS & CHARTS

  PREVIOUSLY IN THE ECHO TRILOGY

  PART ONE: TIMELESS

  1: Revive & Revile

  2: Catch & Release

  3: Safe & Sound

  4: Flight & Fight

  5: Fool & Foil

  6: Lost & Found

  7: Honey & Vinegar

  8: Bend & Break

  9: Up & Down

  10: Land & Sea

  11: See & Know

  12: Meet & Greet

  13: Bound & Free

  14: Feast & Famine

  15: High & Dry

  16: Boredom & Surprise

  17: Peace & Love

  18: Far & Away

  19: Dust & Bone

  20: Life & Death

  21: There & Gone

  PART TWO: TIME BOMB

  22: Love & Hate

  23: Her & Me

  24: Fault & Blame

  25: Hunger & Drive

  26: Watch & Learn

  27: Batman & Robin

  28: Secrets & Lies

  29: Friends & Frenemies

  30: Plan & Action

  31: Kat & Mouse

  32: Nik & Re

  33: Tick & Boom

  34: Mothers & Daughters

  35: Enemies & Allies

  PART THREE: OUT OF TIME

  37: Ghosts & Memories

  38: Perception & Reality

  39: Sun & Moon

  40: Chance & Fate

  41: Horus & Seth

  42: Fight & Die

  43: Stay & Go

  44: Time & Place

  45: Now & Never

  46: Almost & There

  PART FOUR: TEMPUS FUGIT

  47: Kat

  48: Lex

  49: Kat

  50: Lex

  51: Lex

  EPILOGUE

  GLOSSARY

  CAN’T GET ENOUGH OF LEX AND KAT?

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  MAPS & CHARTS

  PREVIOUSLY IN THE ECHO TRILOGY

  In the first book, Echo in Time (was Echo Prophecy) Lex discovers she belongs to an ancient race of people, the Nejerets, who are relatively immortal and can see the past, present, and future. She discovers that she’s the central figure of an ancient prophecy, falls in love with an enigmatic and gorgeous 5,000-year-old “god”, and is gifted the ability to travel through time…so she can stop her evil father, Set, from destroying the world. She also learns she has a half-sister (Kat) and half-brother (Dominic) through that same evil father, and that her dead grandfather, Alexander, isn’t so dead after all. Oh, and her childhood best friend and first “love” was really Nuin, uber-god in disguise. Plus there’s archaeology and an excavation, and Lex assists in destroying part of Hatshepsut’s mortuary temple…by getting shot. Whoops! In the end, Lex and Marcus, in possession of different parts of Nuin’s godly power, defeat Set, who runs away to hide while he regathers his forces and plans his retribution.

  Then, in Resonance, the novella following Echo in Time, Lex discovers a statue that Marcus has been hiding in the Galleria dell’Accademia in Florence that just happens to look exactly like her. An attempted abduction of Lex is thwarted, and Marcus kills a whole slew of Set’s people with nothing but his bare hands. In the end, Lex and Marcus fight, make up, and Lex realizes the statue’s uncanny likeness to her means she’s destined to travel at least back to the Renaissance, maybe further.

  And then, in the second book, Time Anomaly (was Echo Queen), Lex travels back thousands of years to Old Kingdom Egypt, where she must learn to control her borrowed power over time (and space, sort of), to keep it from destroying her. Also, she gets to fall in love with Marcus (Heru, in ancient times) all over again, tension and steaminess ensues, yada yada yada… While she’s in the ancient past, Lex discovers that Set isn’t actually evil, but is possessed by an “evil” being, Apep. She also learns that Nuin is similarly possessed by Apep’s less-evil counterpart, Re. She makes new friends (Aset, Heru’s not-so-dead twin sister, Nekure, Aset’s son, and some pretty cool priestesses who decide Lex is actually the goddess Hathor and devote a whole ancient religion to her). She spends some time at the ancient Nejeret homeland, the Netjer-At Oasis, almost destroys it, saves Heru’s youngest daughter, Tarset, by freezing her in At, and adopts a kitten, Rus—who she also freezes in At. Oh, she also goes back even further in time to rescue Aset from an earlier incarnation of Apep, but not before the evil turdball can violate and impregnate Aset with Nekure. Lex returns to the future, gets knocked up with twins who are destined to be uber-gods fated to restore ma’at, universal balance. The book ends with Apep’s soul trapped in a sphere of solidified At that looks an awful lot like a snow globe.

  And then, in Dissonance, the novella following Time Anomaly, Lex takes a day trip to the University of Washington with Kat, Nik, Dom, and Neffe. Neffe heads off to the medical center to do some research on whatever poison Tarset is suffering from (though she’s currently still frozen in At), while Lex and the others plan to meet up with her former graduate advisor, Professor Ramirez. Things go awry, and a mysterious pocket watch made of some otherworldly black material—what Kat dubs “anti-At”—threatens to destroy Lex. The Kin appear to have sent it to her in the hopes that she would touch it, thus destroying her from the ba out and erasing her and everything she’s ever done from the timeline completely. Lex doesn’t fall for the trap, Nik neutralizes the threat, and all is well. For now…

  PART ONE: TIMELESS

  Lex

  1

  Revive & Revile

  “It’s time.” Neffe’s words settled over us, a muffling cloak stealing breath and silencing tongues in the sterile room.

  The group of doctors and nurses surrounding Tarset’s bed of stony, opalescent At tensed collectively, prepared. Waiting. In just a moment, Neffe would give the word and they would jump into action, attempting to save Marcus’s frozen-in-time little girl.

  Nik stood at the head of the bed, his mother, Aset, at the foot with Neffe. The two ancient, beautiful women were codirectors of their highly trained and even more highly experienced orchestra of Nejeret medical savants. A pair of them stood on either si
de of Tarset, others standing behind them, ready to tap in once the little girl had been awakened from her eternal slumber and transferred to the waiting hospital bed just a few feet away.

  Generic blue scrubs were the outfit of the day for a team that was anything but generic. This group of people was about to attempt to revive a four-year-old girl who’d been on the verge of death four thousand years ago, frozen in At ever since. They would do everything they could to counteract the effects of the ancient poison killing Tarset and achieve the impossible, returning this tiny, dying child to health. But they were Nejerets, mythic gods of time; impossibility lay at the heart of their very existence.

  Marcus and I stood with our backs against the wall near the doorway to Neffe’s state-of-the-art laboratory, taking up as little space as we could. Staying out of the way. Keeping our mouths shut. Letting the experts do their work. Trying to not have a damn freak-out.

  “Nik.” Neffe’s voice was sure, commanding. “When you’re ready, please begin.”

  My hand sought out Marcus’s, our fingers lacing together in a painfully tight grip. We watched, helpless and useless, as Nik cupped either side of Tarset’s head, closed his eyes, and inhaled deeply. He held his breath, looking so strange without his standard garb—no black clothing or leather or spikey hair. Now, his myriad of graying tattoos and silver piercings looked out of place next to his blue scrubs. Now, breath held and clothing matching those around him, he appeared the quintessential team player, a regular joiner.

  I suppressed a highly inappropriate laugh and swallowed, cotton mouth making the action ineffective.

  As Nik began his exhale, color bled back into Tarset’s opalescent body. First her hair blossomed to onyx black, then her skin to an ashen hue. The blanket covering the rest of her body, a relic woven millennia ago, faded from shimmering moonstone to vibrant crimson, yellow, and teal.

  “Wait …” Nik’s voice was strained, quiet.

  Though Tarset appeared to be made of living flesh now rather than solidified At, her body showed no signs of life.

  “Almost …”

  A tiny, pained noise came from Marcus as he stared at his unresponsive little girl. I gave his hand a squeeze.

  This was it—the moment of truth. In just a few seconds, we would know whether Tarset had even the slightest chance of recovering from the ancient poison Apep had tainted the Oasis’s water source with thousands of years ago, or if her damaged organs would give out and she would be truly gone.

  I’d made a promise to her mother, Seshseshet, to save Tarset. To look after her. To raise her as my own daughter. To give her a chance at a normal life in a world that would seem foreign and alien. But at least it would be a life, a chance to grow up. At least it would be a promise kept.

  A few weeks back, we’d revived the kitten I’d frozen in At with Tarset so long ago. Rus had been a gift from Heru, Marcus’s ancient counterpart, given to me during my first homesick night in ancient Egypt. The fuzz ball was, once again, the rambunctious creature he’d been millennia ago, though his first few days had been a little rough, and that was poison free. Tarset’s transition into modern times would be far bumpier. Which was precisely why the room was packed with a small army of highly skilled Nejerets waiting for Nik to finish the transformation process.

  Sweat beaded on Nik’s brow, and I was fairly certain he’d yet to take another breath. “And …” he said on the final stretch of his exhale. “Done.”

  The room exploded with activity. The four Nejerets standing on either side of Tarset’s ancient bed gathered her up in a choreographed movement and swiftly shifted her to the hospital bed. Before their hands were even free, other Nejerets moved in, intubating, inserting needles, injecting antidotes, setting up IV bags, and placing electrodes. When one moved away from the bed, another would swoop in, weaving between the others and a vast array of bulky machines in a fluid, expertly executed dance.

  As the machines came to life with beeps and whirrs, Tarset seemed to revive as well. Her cheeks filled with color, and she coughed on the breathing tube, her small, fragile body writhing on the mattress.

  “Administer two milligrams of pentobarbital,” Neffe ordered.

  Seconds later, Tarset’s body grew still and quiet, her limbs askew. Her chest rose and fell in time with the whoosh and beep of the ventilator set up near her head.

  “BP is sixty over forty—low, but stable,” one member of the team said mechanically while another delivered a pinky-sized vial of blood to Neffe.

  “Take another sample after the transfusion,” Neffe told the Nejeret, then looked at Aset. “You’re up.” She gave her aunt’s arm a squeeze, and the two small but brilliant Nejerettes exchanged a nod.

  Neffe turned and headed toward the doorway. She paused at the threshold to place her hand on Marcus’s shoulder, flashing him the tiniest of smiles. “So far, so good, Father.” Her caramel eyes were bright with excitement, her cheeks flushed.

  “Thank you,” Marcus said, his voice husky.

  Neffe pulled her hand back and hurried through the doorway into the lab.

  “Sir.” Carlisle, Marcus’s “man,” stepped into the doorway in Neffe’s place, his features tense. “I know this isn’t the best time, but—”

  Marcus tore his gaze from the activity surrounding Tarset to look at Carlisle, who leaned back a few inches.

  “What is it, Carlisle?” I asked softly.

  With a quick nod to himself, Carlisle regained his bearings and shifted his focus to me. “Apologies, Meswett”—he bowed his head, just a little—“but a couple of people were detected attempting to breach the wall at the north end of the compound. Dominic is detaining them as we speak.” British aristocracy dripped off of him with every word and movement.

  Marcus looked from Carlisle to Tarset and back, his expression torn. I could only imagine what he was going through. I was barely a month pregnant and I already felt like I’d slaughter anyone who even mentioned harming our twins.

  “I’ll handle it,” I told my husband—my bond-mate. “Stay here with Tarsi. I’ll check in soon.” I leaned in to brush my lips against his cheek, then caught Nik’s eye across the room and nodded toward the doorway. He was on his way before I’d even taken my first step.

  Carlisle led Nik and me through the lab toward the stairwell leading up to the main floor. We were in the basement of the Heru compound’s mansion of a main house on Bainbridge Island. Dozens of other buildings populated the complex, including homes for other Nejerets in Marcus’s line, garages and outbuildings, a training facility, and, I had no doubt, some sort of detention or holding cells.

  “Where’s Dom holding them?” I asked.

  Carlisle paused with his hand on the handle of the stairwell door and looked at me. “The dungeon, Meswett.”

  I grabbed his arm. “I’m sorry—did you just say ‘dungeon’?” This was the Pacific Northwest, after all. Our oldest buildings were a century and a half, maybe. Hardly built during the age of dungeons.

  “Yes, Meswett.” Carlisle glanced down at my hand. “Might we continue?”

  “Sure.”

  He pulled the door open and waved me through the doorway. I hurried up the stairs, Nik and Carlisle close behind me.

  “This way,” Carlisle said once we’d emerged in the hallway on the main floor. We crossed the entryway and passed through the tall front door. A posh electric golf cart waited in the driveway, what the inhabitants of the Heru compound used to get around within the walls when they didn’t feel like using their own two feet.

  “So who are these intruders?” I asked as we jogged down the stone steps at the front of the house. I figured it had to be someone notable, or Carlisle would’ve waited until Marcus was free.

  The look Carlisle shot me confirmed my suspicion, but it was the names he uttered that turned my blood into lava. “The young Nejeret Carson,” he said, holding out his hand to help me onto the cart.

  I waved him away, but he remained there for a moment longer, his eyes m
eeting mine.

  “And Genevieve.”

  2

  Catch & Release

  I have trust issues. I know this. Earning my trust is like pulling teeth, and regaining it once it’s lost is like trying to shove those pulled teeth back into their respective holes, dead roots and all. It’s probably my biggest flaw. But what can I say? I’ve been conditioned to expect those who love me most to lie to me. My parents did it, my grandparents did it, my friends did it … even Marcus did it.

  All that dishonesty makes a girl wary. And, at times, pissed off.

  Last winter, I’d been a normal grad student at the University of Washington, well on my way to earning my PhD in archaeology. I’d been a bit of a loner, my only true friend in the program being a fellow archaeologist, a classicist named Carson. Or I’d thought he was my friend.

  It turned out Carson was an agent of Marcus’s, planted at the U to keep an eye on me on the off chance that I manifested into a full-blown Nejerette. But what Marcus hadn’t known was that Carson was a double agent, so to speak. He’d pledged his loyalty to Marcus, claiming to be of his bloodline. And maybe he was—none of us knew for sure. But Carson’s true loyalty belonged to the Kin, a hidden, subversive group of Nejerets opposed to the Council of Seven’s rule for reasons we didn’t fully understand yet.

  Carson had kept his head low, earning his way into the close circle of Marcus’s trusted few by capitalizing on his friendship with me and manipulating the emotions of my young Nejerette half-sister, Kat. He’d fooled us all, and in the end, he’d shown his true colors by shooting Dom, holding Kat hostage with a gun to her head, and stealing the At orb containing the twisted soul of one of the most ancient and powerful beings in the universe—the Netjer Apep.

  And who’d helped him accomplish that great feat of betrayal? None other than Kat’s mom, Genevieve. And now they were both here, within our walls. Our home. My deceitful former UW peer and Kat’s traitorous mother were somewhere nearby, just under my feet. I had no idea what I would say to them when they were finally in front of me. Accusations and blame were the only things that came to mind.