He was a very dramatic and excitable person - I supposed most heroes in stories were.
“Do you understand?” He appeared in front of me, shaking my shoulders, his wide brown eyes looked mad.
“I don’t,” I replied blatantly.
“A power,” he repeated himself, searching my eyes for understanding. He shook me again. “It’s a power. We’re special don’t you see?”
Okay Superman - I know I just called you a hero but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
“Can I have some of whatever you’ve had?” I raised an eyebrow.
“There’s a select people - sure there might be more. But this is a power is it not?” He let go of me and began pacing, a hand cupping his chin as he thought to himself. He turned to me suddenly. “A superhero doesn’t just lose their power - you aren’t really a hero but just pretend-” thanks. “Just think. It’s not just something you train to do. You either have it or you don’t. And it’s always there. It’s magic,” he whispered excitedly.
I pursed my lips pissed off. “You’ve officially lost your mind. This is real life, not some comic book or sci-fi novel.” I went to leave through the door but he stood blocking my way, hands clasped on my shoulders again.
“Nova. Please just have an open mind,” he said strongly. “For once in your life. Just consider it.”
I sighed and nodded my head, by this point I was willing to listen to any suggestion he had for me. He opened his mouth to explain and then closed it with an exasperated sigh.
“I don’t know how to explain it.”
“Well show me.”
He stood thinking to himself for a moment, mind racing and eyes far off before he finally returned to the bed and took hold of both my hands. “I’ve never done this before.”
“Well, what are you trying to do?” I asked.
“Interlink our minds.”
I snatched my hands away. “Bad idea. You realise what that can do right?”
“No?”
“Judging by one of Vix’s theories he thinks our minds would become interlinked. No secrets and it would be irreversible. You can’t undo it. Our Totems become each other’s. No. Your past becomes my past; I could go into any one of your lives even if I don’t have a life there - well maybe not. I don’t see how that would work, but it could be that I have access to your life. And I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t like me around you-”
Jack grimaced. “Do you want to get out of here or not?”
I paused for a moment and shook my head. “Yes but I don’t want you to - there could be bad side effects.”
“What are the side effects?”
“How would I know? It’s just a theory,” I sighed irritated, he was getting on my nerves and there was no way in hell I’d let him see into my mind.
“So it hasn’t been done before?”
“I don’t think so-”
“Well, then we don’t know if it’s a bad thing. Nobody’s ever lost their Totems in the past. Therefore anything we try will be the first time trying it,” he explained with a wide smile.
“But we also don’t know if it’ll work,” I fired back.
He sighed exasperatedly. “Fine. Suit yourself, marry the Count, go and get pregnant by-”
I jammed my fists into his stomach. “Go to hell. This is your fault-”
He caught my fist in his hand and instantly I was transported into darkness.
Fuck.
CHAPTER 19
Time: Does it exist here?
Location: Don’t look at me
How did he do that? How could he just touch me and send me to the timeline? How in the hell had he reached into my mind without us even interlinking?
How does one even interlink?
“Holy shit.” I heard a voice.
I wasn’t in 1661 anymore. I wasn’t anywhere and I couldn’t see the timeline. I couldn’t feel anything. I felt paralysed - no silky strands of darkness. I was stuck in the balance of time.
“Nova? Can you hear me?”
Yes you asshole, but I can’t speak back. It’s like I’m stuck in my mind or something.
“Nova?”
And then I was back - drawn into 1661 and Jack was looking over me with his mouth opened in shock.
“That was awesome!” he cried excitedly.
“What was that?” I scrambled up from the bed and pushed his shoulders away from my face. “What the hell did you do to me?”
“I don’t know. You just punched me really hard and it really hurt and then bam your eyes like, I don’t know - you were there one minute and gone the next.”
“You didn’t do it purposely?”
“It just happened, you hurt me, I got angry and bam there you go.”
“We didn’t just link minds though, right?”
“I don’t know. What’s my favourite food?”
“Uh... spaghetti?”
He gasped and I felt my heart drop, but then he broke into a large grin. “Nah, close but steak is a lot better.”
I felt my body sag with relief. “Okay. We should go, let’s try that again later. I want a go to see if I can do it,” he rambled excitedly, leading me out of the room.
⚔
A lot had happened and yet nothing all at the same time. I’d finally sunk into the routine of Marion’s life whilst also juggling Jack and mine’s attempt at finding a way back to the future.
My health had escalated within the week and Jack had finally decided it was enough for me and only pulled me into our timeline when he felt a tug.
Oh yeah, that became a thing. ‘Our timeline’ seemed to appear overnight. Not the timeline we came from in the future - and it wasn’t that we had linked minds either. This was different. I had no idea how to explain it and it was probably something Vix would get incredibly excited about and begin researching and experimenting.
But whilst we’d been taking it in turns to draw each other into that nothingness he’d suddenly started thrashing hold of my hands and drew me into what he was seeing. He’d caught the timeline, except it wasn’t the one we’d come from originally - the one he thought it was.
At first, he’d been incredibly excited but then he noticed the details and I could feel his excitement sink until it became wonderment. Whilst it wasn’t the timeline we were looking for - this one looked beautiful. A new timeline perhaps or the timeline we were currently in, I had no idea.
But it did nothing.
He was right though, what we had was a power. I wouldn’t necessarily call it magic but whatever it was, we had no idea how to control it.
Our so-called powers were developing faster than our minds and we were struggling to keep up with it. Especially now my nosebleeds were happening more consistently.
Pathetically enough, I was more worried about a nosebleed happening during the wedding than I was worried about never returning to Prospect.
And that was another thing. The wedding was tomorrow and I was dreading it. Somehow I’d grown accustomed to the grey walls that trapped me in the past. The people here were decent enough and I’d only just started acting relatively normal toward the people here.
But still, that didn’t mean we didn’t have serious problems.
And one of those problems was pacing back and forth in front of me.
“I should be the one pacing.” I sighed, leaning my head against the headboard and sinking into the covers.
Jack came to a halt at the end of the bed and put his head in his hands. “Relax, the wedding goes smoothly from what I remember... well apart from the evening when your aunt-” He sniggered and shook his head. “Never mind.” He turned his head to the floor.
I didn’t bother asking questions. Soon enough, I’d see what happened after the wedding. It was still weird to me that he remembered my life here more than I did and that we shared a life together in the first place.
“Jack, what are the chances of me waking up in my body in Prospect after I kill myself?”
He froze for a mome
nt and looked away. “You can’t do that.”
“I can’t do that because there could be a chance I would survive and you would have failed your mission?” I asked, my tone flat. His shoulders tightened.
“Because I still need you here,” he said and looked over at me with his eyes narrowed. I studied him for a moment. I was an excellent judge of character and could usually tell when people were lying.
“Do you think you can use me and then kill me before you have the chance to get back?” I smirked but he continued to hold my eye contact.
My smirk slipped as I tried to peel through his thoughts and couldn’t determine his facial expression.
“You wouldn’t be able to stop me though,” I said sitting up. He turned to face me angrily. “Technically I’d be doing you a favour killing myself - you won’t defeat me otherwise. Besides it’s what you were supposed to do - you intended on killing me in this body correct? Because you thought I wouldn't be able to survive without my Totem?”
“You can’t do that,” he repeated. “Marion can’t die yet. She’s got a life ahead of her.”
“What impact is she going to make within-”
“You don’t know!” he shouted, slamming his fits onto the front of the bed. I watched him with wide eyes as his body moved up and down with frustrated breaths.
I narrowed my eyes. “No parallel timeline has to be identical to the others.”
“That’s what you think,” he growled. “We have different beliefs - different opinions.”
“I’m going to die either way,” I rolled my eyes. “Whether I kill myself or whether this illness takes over.”
“You will die - Marion won’t.” He looked back at me and scowled. “Besides, I lied anyway. The illness or whatever it is won’t kill you in the next month. I don’t even know if it will kill you, just drive you to insanity.”
Well, that was a relief. Or was it? I was fine with dying - I was well acquainted with death. But what else had he lied about?
He seemed to read my mind and reluctantly assured me. “I wasn’t lying about a cure. You aren’t the only ones who know about Time Bending, we’ve been watching you.”
I wondered why he was telling me this. Why he was revealing that they’d been spying on us.
I pursed my lips. “Let me get this straight. You knew my health wasn’t in top-notch condition – it’s why you waited so long before you went into this life - you were trying to get me to lose my Totem. You planned to trap me here.”
His jaw clenched and his eyes flickered.
I continued. “You planned to trap me here and kill me so I wouldn’t return to my body - but what really happened was that you trapped yourself too. And now you have no idea what you’re doing?”
He growled. “I can’t kill you because you clearly know more about this bullshit than I do.”
“Yes. I get that. But why are you so focused on me sticking to Marion’s life? This is a separate timeline. If we figure out how to get back I won’t bend this timeline with our own - as long as you don’t.”
He blinked. “I haven’t figured out how to do that just yet.”
I scowled. He didn’t know how to avoid Time Bending? “You’re a goddamn hypocrite then. Any time you’ve gone back into the past you’ve bent the change with our own timeline, haven’t you? You’re just as bad as us-”
One second Jack was standing in front of the bed with his back turned to me and then next he was on the bed with me. His hands wrapped around my throat and his body pressed me into the soft mattress. “I am nothing like you,” he snarled - a face of disgust and hatred blended together.
I fluttered my eyelashes down at his broad, calloused hands around my throat and winked. “Kinky,” I wheezed.
If he was disgusted with me he didn’t reveal it. Instead, he pressed himself further against my body and growled. “You are a murderer.”
“Weren’t you just planning on killing me?” I arched a brow.
He sneered. “One less evil person on the timeline - to save plenty of other people? Yes.”
Despite the hands around my throat, probably strong enough to snap my neck, I still smirked. Unable to help myself I purred. “Try.”
I moved too fast for him to even blink. One moment Jack was on top of me - the next we were both on the floor. The position was reversed and I had a dinner knife I’d kept under my bed to his throat.
He panted and struggled beneath me as I positioned my body in a way that paralysed him. I leant my mouth to his ear and hissed. “You aren’t ever going to be able to kill me. So don’t bother wasting that limited brain energy on contemplating how you’ll use me to help you get home - and then slay me last minute.” I pulled back and looked at him – he’d gone still under my body, his face no longer an angry glare.
Silence.
And then he grunted. “Okay well how about you get off of me?”
I continued to sit on him for a moment, looking down at our bodies and smirking. I looked back at his face, scowling when I realised he wasn’t blushing or turned on in the slightest. I removed the knife from his throat with a bored sigh and climbed to my feet.
“How about we compromise?” he suggested, also rising to his feet. I stared at him bored and then he continued. “You can teach me all this Time Bending stuff - so I can figure out how not to bend time. And you can just do what I know happens in this life and make this timeline continue similar to the past in ours?”
I pursed my lips. “That’s a lot to ask of me.” And I got nothing out of it - well apart from a cure providing we made it out of this life alive.
He nodded his head. “I know I’m not the one who’s being forced to marry an old fat guy and give him children. But if you could just... help me out a little with keeping to your old life’s path. It’s part of your rules too... perhaps it’s the only thing we agree on,” he chuckled lowly.
I held my breath and spoke softly. “I know.”
Cautiously and foolishly I placed a hand on his shoulder. “I'll help you - and you can help me,” I rasped.
I didn’t need his help in this life. Why was I helping him?
A cure my thoughts answered.
I swallowed the thought and watched the side of his face, his shoulder was warm under my hands and I realised just how much I’d been craving human contact. I wanted him to look at me - not even in a sexual way. You start to feel incredibly lonely when you’re stuck in the past surrounded by people you don’t remember and he was the only person from home... and yet we hated each other.
I say that we mutually hated each other when in reality I’d grown to like his brown eyes, his infuriating humour, love for history and the determination he had to get home.
Everything else I hated though.
“Thank you.” He gritted his teeth and walked out of my touch, the space between our bodies grew cold.
I pursed my lips. “What do we do if we never find a way back?”
“We will.” He stated it as if it were a matter of fact - that there was no chance we’d stay stuck here.
I wasn’t sure whether to believe him - but I decided to - I decided to trust him.
CHAPTER 20
Time: 7th August 1661
Location: England, Montgomery Estate
Hell was I worrying. No matter how much I tried to focus on my steps, all I could think about was last night and Jack.
There were a large number of people here - all wearing their finest clothes and hats, no matter how bright and colourful they were I knew I stood out amongst them.
The dress was stunning; in all my lives I’ve been married in I’d never worn a dress this spectacular. It was white, with lace sleeves and an exposed neck, my hair was twisted up neatly and I wore a golden headpiece with metal flowers holding a long veil. It was my mother’s and my father had given it to me, alongside the necklace she wore on their wedding day. He told me to pass it on to my next child, but I knew that wasn’t going to happen.
One step in front of
the other, my arm latched onto my father. The details of the location were blurry to me. I was too focused on my shaking hands as I reached the end of the aisle.
To my surprise, Jack was posted behind the Count, also dressed in a tailored outfit. He gave me a reassuring look, one that told me I just had to get today over with and we’d be on our way. Bounding over meadows hand in hand into the future.
Probably not the latter.
I tried to avoid looking at the Count as much as possible. Instead, I hid under the lace veil and looked at our joint hands after my father had handed me off like any other business transaction. Once the vows were over a sigh seemed to engulf the room. It was done. Our families were joined and now they could relax.
When the Count lifted the veil over my head and set his eyes on me I felt myself go numb. If anything, I think he felt the same as me, he’d spoken the vows as if they were just part of his daily routine. This was a feeling I was used to and I welcomed it. It was a feeling assassins needed - separate their feelings away from the job. I didn’t know why he felt it though.
I took myself away from the situation. When he kissed me, my lips kissed back but it wasn’t me who was kissing. I could feel nothing. I could only see his eyes and his surprisingly soft lips as they pressed coldly against mine.
“Countess,” he smiled tightly.
And that was that. I walked out of there numb, my arm linked with my husbands, whose name I didn’t actually know and I didn’t care for it either. Numb.
I was on autopilot for the rest of the day, exchanging commentaries with strangers and accepting wedding gifts. I was acting as the ideal wife: clinging on to my husband, only speaking when spoken to.
Partway through the day, I caught a glimpse of Jack. I’d have expected him to look confused but a look of understanding reassured me. It told me he was impressed - maybe even scared by my act. It made me wonder if he doubted how honest I was with him.
By the time evening swung in the numbness had faded and I could now detach myself from his side, have a few drinks and dance back at the garden of the house. A party was being thrown and I was in dire need of a drink.
NOVA: The Time Bender Series Book 1 Page 15