“Dracaras, bitch,” I interrupted with a huge grin and took a last practise swing of the axe before turning to face him.
“Do you know how to use that?” Jack asked, flinching when I forced the chain onto the edge of a table.
“Nope,” I said, bringing the axe above my head.
Jack let out a cry just as I was about to drop it down. “Keep your eyes open!” he yelled.
Oh yeah, that would have been a good idea.
Two successful breaking of chains later and stealing a saw for the cuffs we covered our faces and were just about to leave when an elderly man stood in the doorway.
“What - what are ye doin’?” he cried, stumbling into the room and clutching onto a hammer.
I held the pistol up and directed it at his head but faltered when I looked down and saw a young girl clutching the man’s legs. She was pale and thin, brown-haired and clutching on to a ragged old teddy bear. They’d seen us. He was old and I had permission to kill him. Shoot him.
Pull the trigger.
Shoot the man. Leave the girl.
Shoot him.
God damn it Nova shoot him.
“Nova,” Jack snapped, forcing my arm down.
I swallowed the lump in my throat. “Get off me!” I screamed, forcing the gun to face them again, the man shakily put his hands in the air.
“Please spare her, spare young Ange.”
I looked down at the girl as she stared right through me - eerily calm grey eyes connected with my own and I gulped. The calm before the storm.
“Hide under the bed poppet,” he said shaking. The girl watched me with young innocent eyes. I recoiled, feeling as though she was peeling the layers of me apart - searching for something lost.
“How old is she?” I rasped.
The man hesitated. “She... she’s nine.”
I stumbled into Jack’s side and held the gun in his direction. He peeled my hands off of it and watched my wide eyes in shock.
“Terribly sorry.” Jack forced a tight smile and patted the axe I’d used to cut his chains with and then we backed out the doorway. Jack flung it shut and blocked it with a metal prod to buy us some time
“Are you okay?” Jack grasped for my hand as we ran through the crowd of people and tried to navigate our way out of the town.
“Headache,” I replied at the same time I stumbled on my feet.
“Sorry – it’s my fault entirely.”
“No shit,” I muttered and watched a flood of Redcoats swarm in through the gates I’d entered through.
“Damnit,” Jack mumbled, directing us to the side of the road and into the shadows. Instantly his body pressed my body against the wall and his dirty hands held onto my face as he kissed me hard.
I released a shaky breath and placed my hands on his shoulders, flattening the material of his cloak shakily. “I thought you were going to die.”
“You saved me,” he replied, searching my face with his eyes. “I thought I was going to die.”
“You can’t die now. You aren’t allowed to.” I pursed my lips together, blinking to avoid the tears and then planted my forehead on his chest breathing him in: sweat, the smell of rich earth, leaves and leather mixed with rain and smoke.
“It’s okay,” he mumbled into my hair.
“What did you even do?” I asked, pulling away and looking at him.
He smiled cheekily and took my hand and kissed it gently. “I’ll save that for once we’re back on the road.”
We looked back at the gates that were being forced shut by a group of Redcoats who were running around searching houses. Jack squeezed my hand and we fled down an alleyway with no sense of direction and no plan.
“Now I remember how I escaped this shit hole the first time,” Jack explained, weaving through houses and slowing down every time we caught a glimpse of a red uniform. I couldn’t stop myself from smiling.
Jack led me behind a building, squeezing through the small gap. I managed to get through, though I probably wouldn’t have if I were still wearing all the large dresses I’d been wearing for the past few months.
Months.
Had it really been months since I was sat being interviewed in front of the entire city? Since I’d been trying to find some asshole called the Raven - who I was now holding hands with, escaping through a burrow hidden behind the back of a building that led to the other side of the wall. Yes, yes I was.
I sighed, slithering under whilst Jack covered my back. When I climbed out and saw two Redcoats sitting together on a log with their backs to us arguing childishly. I bent down to look at Jack through the hole.
“Ugh, I think I’ve eaten too much since last time I got through here,” he groaned, wiggling on his elbows.
“Shh,” I hissed. “There are two soldiers here.”
Jack made it through and stood up, dusting himself off and watching the soldiers cautiously as one slapped the others hand as they made a grab for another apple.
“You’re putting on too much weight!” The other snapped, swiping for the apple.
“What do we do?” I asked Jack, staring at them.
Jack shrugged, also watching and then flicking his eyes over to where one of their horses was.
“Should we?” Jack said, already starting to shuffle his way over to the horse grazing behind them.
“I’m not sure...” I replied, taking cautious steps forward whilst keeping my eyes firmly focused on the two men in a heated argument.
We walked slowly, one foot in time with each other as though we were walking on a beam. Once we got to the horse Jack hoisted me up before jumping on himself.
The horse began to move behind the men and we held our breath, keeping our eyes fixated on the men who were beginning to shove and hit one another. Jack reached behind him and tightened the knot on his head, securing the bandana again. I held on to his waist and he gripped the reins, kicking the horse until we bolted out of there.
When we were a fair distance away, I turned around to see the two men look behind them for the horse, searching behind the tree and then standing in the middle of the path where they saw the pile of dust into the air as we sped up. I smiled and turned to look over Jack’s shoulder, feeling the satisfying pull that informed us we were going in the right direction.
“So Jack, are you going to tell me why between the time it took me to pee and get back to the horse, you weren’t there?”
I could feel Jack trying to fight a smile. “I ran into some old friends.”
“It really looked like it,” I commented, turning back to face the stone walls in the distance and the cloud of smoke rising steadily.
Jack took a deep breath. “So remember when I told you I didn’t remember why I ran away?” I nodded my head at him. “Well, I remember now.”
“And?” I cocked my head to the side amused.
“And turns out I did run away to escape that Beatrice girl who - I think we can both agree - is a psycho.”
“Yep, I can definitely agree.”
“But originally I ran North, in a moment of a spontaneous need for adventure and found this shit hole of a town. I got into a little trouble as you might have imagined - especially with these two guys Harold and Harry. One of them was this big shiny bald boulder kind of dude and the other in this skinny hairy guy-”
“Okay Jack I get it. And they were the ones who found you on the horse?”
“Yep - they were pretty proud of it. The whole village seems to hate me.”
I rolled my eyes. “I couldn’t tell... they were throwing rocks at you.”
“Oh trust me. I would have preferred that than getting beheaded - losing your head is a lot more painful - honestly.”
“Have you been beheaded before?” I was intrigued.
He turned his head to me. “Twice. But that’s beside the point. I tried to bargain with the executioner - see if I could get stoned instead - but he said getting the crowd engaged had already happened that morning. Whoever that was, was clearly
the opening act.”
My mouth dropped open and I stared at the back of Jack’s head. “Are you high?” I slapped his shoulder. “You would have died. Probably for good and here you are joking about getting beheaded like-”
“But you saved me.”
I huffed angrily, not bothering to argue with him. I was the one who took death so lightly. He was the one who valued life.
“I trust you, I knew you would have come.”
“Don’t get used to it.” I sighed and placed my head on his shoulder as we began climbing a steep slope. I watched the mountains surrounding us with the steep jagged edges of stones.
The highlands. This place was seriously far.
“Thank you,” Jack said after an hour. I didn’t reply, I just breathed in the cool air and squeezed his waist with my arms. Back on the road, I sighed.
CHAPTER 33
Time: 22nd September 1661
Location: Scotland, Highlands
We’d been travelling for what seemed like forever when really it had been a couple days since Jack got kidnapped and almost beheaded.
We were following the strange sensation in our chest that was beginning to feel suffocating with the amount of pressure spreading through our body - igniting every cell with a dull thud that made our ears ring for an entire hour. Jack and I couldn’t speak to each other, just clenched our mouths tightly and rode closer to it.
Then in a split moment, everything stopped. We were at the base of a large sloped hill with long grass that tickled our ankles and small trees that were scattered around the surface of the hill. It was here. We’d travelled across the country for however many days, almost gotten killed numerous amounts of times - for us to then climb this bloody hill.
And we had to climb. We had no horse after it flipped out on us, kicking its front legs into the air and dropping half our stuff on the ground as it bolted away from the hill.
It was magical in a way - not in the rainbow over the hill and pixies holding hands as a pot of gold sat waiting to be collected way. No, it was a kind of magic that warned people away. Dark clouds surrounding us for miles overhead and the shudder of thunder we felt in our chests.
“It’s like we just stepped into a fantasy film.”
“Lord of the Rings,” I replied, watching the top of the hill. “It’s just up there,” I said. We didn’t move. We just continued to watch the top and the clouds and rain that surrounded it. Honestly, it wasn’t the same kind of feeling we thought we’d get. We weren’t running to the top as if we’d just found treasure. We just stood silently, watching it not quite wanting to leave so urgently now we knew we could.
“Want something to eat?” Jack suggested taking his eyes off the sudden clouds and turning to face me hopeful.
I nodded my head because this would be it. Our last meal together before we jumped down into a dark well that was hopefully at the top of the hill.
Who was I kidding? Hopefully? The place was surrounded by a dark cloud that swirled and shot lightning at a single tree repeatedly whilst at the bottom of the hill it was just a normal day, albeit pretty miserable too. But still, it was almost comical how fantasy-like it was.
Jack was slow and deliberate in choosing a place for us to set up camp for however long we intended to stall. There was a large oak tree with roots sticking out that Jack decided to place his stuff between. I stood watching him move, the muscles of his back contracting as he collected some of the dry leaves and sticks sheltered under the roots and piled them together. He struggled to set light to it for a moment and once it did he blew gently and added dry leaves, then built the flames higher with sticks.
We moved silently around each other, occasionally holding eye contact for a moment before we finally sat down, our backs against the tree and our legs pressed together as we faced the hill. It would be dark soon and we had a lot to do before then.
Still, we ate the last of our bread and took slow gulps of the water we’d collected from streams as slowly as possible.
I was digging my heels into the dirt and tore bits of leaves off with my hands when my eyes caught sight of a feather, I reached between the roots and picked it up, it was slightly old but it would do.
“Is this a Raven feather?”
Jack looked at me and plucked the feather from my fingers with a sharp intake. He replied, “definitely.”
I looked at him as he turned the feather over with his fingers, his eyes examining every part of the black feather and stroking it fascinated.
“Ravens signify death,” I pointed out and he turned to me with a smile.
“Thanks for the light-hearted remark,” he chuckled. “I know, my lives clearly have a lot of death in them.” He smiled with his mouth closed sadly.
I leant my head on his shoulder and watched the hill. “I have no idea where I’m going to find a blue light.”
He turned his head and I looked up finding him with wide eyes. “Seriously? You’ve been carrying it this entire time.” I looked at him expectantly and he returned my look dumbfounded. “Oh my God Nova,” he said, taking my left hand and pulling off my wedding ring.
He was right, I wouldn’t have known because I never paid any attention to it. He held the wedding ring up in the light and the blue sapphire caught what little light there was left from the day.
“Oh.”
“Yes, oh,” he laughed, taking my hand and slipping it back onto my finger. When he tried to take his hand back I pulled it softly forward, interlinking our fingers and gazing up at him.
“What is the first thing you’re going to do once you get back?” he asked, brushing his thumb against the back of my hand. It was covered in dirt and rough to my skin but I didn’t complain, I didn’t want him to stop.
“Have a shower.”
He let out a loud laugh. “Ugh, a warm shower.” We both moaned and laughed under our breaths. Under the leaves of an old tree that no longer remained, two people who could change the future, go back into lives they lived hundreds of years ago were spending these last moments in each other’s company. Two people who had intended to kill one another but now couldn’t bring themselves to do it.
“We should get a move on if you’re ready,” Jack mumbled, watching as the dark grey clouds grew in size and the trickle of rain pattering onto the top of leaves sped up. It fell beneath the branches and landed with a heavy splash on the top of our heads. I nodded numbly, accepting the hand he held out for me and was hauled to my feet.
Jack stomped the small fire out with his feet whilst I tightened my belt and put my hat back on. Jack pulled his things together, taking his sword and attaching it to his side.
“Ready?” he asked. I nodded and led the way to the hill.
CHAPTER 34
Time: 22nd September 1661
Location: Two minutes away from getting home
“It’s so typical,” Jack panted once we’d gotten a quarter of the way up. I turned to face him as he was a few paces behind me and raised my eyebrows at him.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, of course, it has to be at the top of a hill surrounded by thunder and lightning. Pathetic fallacy much?”
“What a big boy you are, using big words Jacky-boy,” I teased, laughing when he scowled at me.
“Might I remind you that you aren’t the one carrying all this crap?”
“Let it go, we won’t need it once we get to the top.”
He stopped in his tracks and looked at me incredulously. “That’s true,” he said, dropping most of the stuff including his tattered maroon cloak under a tiny shrub of a tree. “Goodbye old friend,” he said.
Jack picked up his pace, climbing the hill alongside me. The rain was falling in heavy but refreshing drops and I welcomed it as it trickled down the back of my cloak and through the shirt.
I twisted the ring on my finger, running my thumb over the sapphire, willing my Totem back, drawing it to me instead of being drawn towards it. Show me what I desire most, take me there.
Soon I would be home, back in my body alive and real - my mind, my own life where I could live freely. Well as free as it gets. I was going to be in a lot of trouble once I got home. I breathed in the air - air that was hundreds of years old. I felt the rain that hadn’t yet been contaminated. I lived my final moments of 1661 and enjoyed it - relished in the forgotten but renewed memory of it all.
This would probably be one of my last times in a past life. I couldn’t keep doing it. And I could never go this far back again, not with the risks.
I would never from this moment accept money to go and change the future for some corrupted assholes in the future - to worsen the lives of others and gain from peoples misery. I would not erase another thing from history.
I was done.
Jack held out a hand as we reached the top of the hill and he pulled me up onto the rocky slope. It was windy and larger than I would have thought from the bottom. But there it was, a circular well just big enough for a person to fall through. All that remained was the circular wall, everything else had long rotted away. The tree you could see from the bottom of the hill was behind it, scorched black from being struck by lightning. I could only hope it wouldn’t get struck whilst we were here.
Jack was the first to stand over the well, pulling back weeds and greenery and dropping them to the floor. I stood in my place, not wanting to go near it.
“Do I just drop it in?” Jack shouted over the howling wind. He didn’t wait for a reply before throwing the feather into the well, he turned expecting me to be behind him but I stayed a little away.
“You ready?” he asked, peering over the broken stones. Jack placed both hands over the well until a rock crumbled, he moved around it until he found a way to get in. I felt a rush of panic as I saw him take a step forward.
“Jack!” I cried.
NOVA: The Time Bender Series Book 1 Page 24