Chapter Thirteen

I barely slept.

There was no way I could relax when I was full of rage at the Temporals. The Auraxa Reiv would be fully aligned on Wednesday, which was two days away. I had to stop them before that.

Sure, I could take my sword and Ashe, bust through their time warp and pockets and start unleashing hell, but they had numbers on their side and we would be overpowered in no time. Not to mention Kinari was there, and I did not want to put her in the crosshairs. They didn’t know I knew what they’d done, and I had to keep it that way.

Depending on if Toji’s great aunt knew anything, I might still have no way of helping Kinari. But no matter what, I was getting her away from the community.

In the morning I felt terrible, but I got a call that Callan was awake and ready to be discharged, so Ashe and I headed out, taking the Jeep. I tried to tell her she didn’t have to accompany me everywhere but quickly shut up after the look she gave me.

She had to wait in the lobby again, though, and I wished her luck with some children I saw eyeing her in fascination.

Staggering relief flooded me when I got to Callan’s room and saw that he really was okay.

A stubborn part of me tried to tell me that I could avoid these scenarios if I didn’t get close to people, but I squashed it. It was beyond time that I allowed myself to be more vulnerable with my feelings. Rather than argue with myself about what Callan meant or didn’t mean to me, I allowed myself to be grateful he was okay.

He sported bandages on his arms like I did, and there were bruises on the side of his head, but he was sitting up talking to a nurse, dressed in his worse-for-the-wear clothes from yesterday. At least they’d been cleaned. I felt bad for not coming back with an overnight bag for him.

He smiled at me and I didn’t even chastise myself for noticing the cute little dimple in his cheek. I smiled back and tuned in to what the nurse was saying, which was that his scans showed that his brain was fine, with no lasting effects. She gave him his sign-out paperwork, and he was free to go.

Once the nurse left the room, I gave him a long hug, careful not to hold him too tightly, since we were both tender in places. The scent of hospital antiseptic was strong, and he wasn’t exactly shower fresh, but I didn’t care. Callan might have been the last person I thought I’d embrace like this, but if there was one thing I’d learned, it was that life was full of surprises and you never knew what would get thrown at you. Our shifting relationship was a good surprise.

I exhaled against him. “I’m so glad you’re okay.” I let go and looked up at him. “You pushed me out of the way. Thank you isn’t enough.”

“I didn’t even think, I…” he frowned slightly, as though there was a thought he couldn’t quite grasp. “I just acted. And I’m glad you’re okay, too.” He looked me over, lingering on the bandaged arm and bruises.

“Road rash is nothing compared to brain swelling. You have really good reflexes.” It was a light prod to see if he’d fess up to his Temporal magic. I couldn’t feel it right now, but magic wasn’t detectable unless it was active, and Callan wasn’t using his at the moment.

“Comes in handy for teaching karate and saving badass women from car accidents,” he said, flashing a smile. “Well, I’m ready to blow this antiseptic joint, shall we go?”

We headed down to the lobby and Ashe eagerly bounded away from her fans, running not toward us, but the exit.

Argh. I did not have time to waste waiting him out. I didn’t want to pounce on him about this right after he’d left the hospital, but the timeline for figuring out all the mysteries going on around me was tight.

I waited until we were seated in the Jeep, then turned and looked him square in the eye. “Why didn’t you tell me you were a Temporal?”

He looked so genuinely stunned and confused I wondered if I was completely off. “Wh-what? Penn, I don’t know what put that thought into your head, but I’m not a Temporal…”

“There’s a time remnant at the accident site,” I said. “Time remnants are left behind when Temporals perform major time manipulation. You used your magic to slow the car down so you could push me out of way.”

He gaped at me like a fish for a few moments, his eyes wide. Finally, he shook his head. “I think I’d know if I was a Temporal. Where would I have even gotten magic from? The nexus points have been closed for hundreds of years…”

Right, but there was a Temporal-led community who’d time jumped, and a Temporal who’d led an escape above ground a few years ago. And Temporals were capable of memory altering. Something was starting to click into place.

“Callan,” I said slowly. “What was your mother’s name?”

“Linella Bransul, why?”

I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. I settled for dragging my hands down my face and making a sound somewhere in between a laugh and a sob.

I lay my head on the steering wheel for a moment, then sat up and took a deep breath. Ashe leaned forward from the back seat and licked my ear. Probably trying to tell me to reel it back in. Now wasn’t the time to go off the deep end.

“Your mother was a Temporal from the community I told you about yesterday,” I said. “She and others escaped a few years ago for very good reasons. I learned all of this from Annala, one of the escapees. She’s the one the Diviner card box I have came from, and she said it was given to her by your mother.” I recalled Annala saying Linella and Marcai were married. That meant Marcai was Callan’s father. Whoa.

Callan was frowning deeply. “That makes no sense. My mother wasn’t a Temporal, she…” He paused. “Well, she didn’t work a typical nine to five, but we were never wanting for anything. I never saw her do magic, and I’m telling you, Penn, I don’t have magic.”

I started up the Jeep and navigated out of the parking lot. “Temporals can alter memories,” I said. “And my suspicion is that’s what your mother did to you after you came above ground. Making you forget you had magic would ensure you didn’t use it and stayed off the Necromajin’s radar.”

“I mean…I guess that’s plausible.” He sounded skeptical though.

“What if I could prove it?” I said. “I know a place that can jog your memory.”

…

I told Callan everything I’d learned from Annala yesterday, including that they’d taken my three hundred years and what that meant. He still had a hard time believing he and his mother had been part of the community, but he was also boiling in rage over what they’d done to me.

With Ashe coming along, getting through the brush in Kiabi Park was easier, and my tracking skills meant we pretty much made a beeline for the Cillari Stone.

Within the hour, we were standing next to it. Callan frowned at the large rock, then raised an eyebrow at me.

“Active Cillari Stone, like I told you,” I said. “Now that I know there’s an entire magic community below the park, it makes sense that the stone became active again.”

“So, what do we do now?”

“If you touch it, it will dump you into a memory. The downside is the memory could be from yesterday, or last week, or last year. I’m hoping it digs a little deeper and shows you the Temporal community.”

“Hmm… Okay.” He released a breath then lifted his arm, but I held my hand up to stop him.

“Wait…” He gave me a questioning look and I bit my lip, hesitating on the next part. “If I touch you while you’re touching the stone, I’ll share whatever memory you see.”

“You’ll be deep in my memories, too?” He frowned as he looked at the stone.

“That’s incredibly invasive, I know. It takes a lot of trust to let someone see inside your mind, but if you do have memories of being in the community, maybe I’ll see something that can give me an edge against them. They’ve already proven they know how to stay one step ahead.” It was asking for a lot of trust, and I rebelled at the idea of moving too fast, but this wasn’t about us sharing memories for a marriage ceremony, this was bigger than that. Still, I would respect it if his answer was no.

“I thought you were trying to get into my bed, not my head,” he said, flashing a smile and startling a laugh from me. His face sobered and his eyes searched my face as he considered. “You can do it,” he said to my surprise. “I trust you.” He looked around. “With everything you’re dealing with, I don’t think you’d have trekked us out here unless you really believed what you’re trying to get me to believe.”

It was no small thing to agree to, and I would make sure to be respectful of whatever I saw. “Thank you for that trust.” I linked my fingers with his, then he took a deep breath, and touched the stone.

…

Seven Years Ago

“Make sure your father sees you going about your business,” Mom said. “I put you on the late shift for guard duty in the London time pocket so he won’t expect you home. I’ll meet you there.”

I nodded at her and spent the rest of the afternoon working as I normally did, patrolling the time pockets in the southern hemisphere and going to our hubs above ground to bring down supplies, books, and newspapers. Now that the day was finally here, it was hard to stay composed.

I was sure Dad, Chelara, and Sorjin would sense something was about to go down and we’d be caught. Mom’s confidence had never wavered, but I knew she had to be feeling it, too. We weren’t risking only ourselves, we were risking others, and there was no guarantee we’d find safety above ground. I knew it hurt her to leave Dad like this, but she’d spent a long time trying to get him to change, and he’d refused.

I bid Dad farewell, giving him a hug that was a bit tighter than usual, and hating how much I would miss him even though I was disgusted by what he was doing.

In the London time pocket, I took my guard station up alongside Eruci, who was also coming with us. He shifted nervously before offering me a nod.

“Doing okay?” I asked, lightly bumping him with my elbow. “Whole new world awaits.”

“Yeah…again.” He frowned, and his shoulders sagged before he regained his posture. He brushed his dark brown hair off his forehead and tugged down his already neat tunic. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t hold some of the tension he did. This was the second time our lives were being upended as we took ourselves out into the unknown. And the first time we hadn’t even been trying to. The power of the Auraxa Reiv had thrown us into a future we didn’t know it was possible to travel to.

Eruci and I had grown up in the same village during the magic-era, and my parents had taken him in when his parents had been killed while traveling. They’d been trampled by Un-Tamed Iloxi, and Eruci could never be close to any of the ones in the time pockets because of it. We were like brothers, and I was glad he was coming with us.

He had doubts about leaving, especially because he’d hoped his parents could be revived, but my father had told him they were unable to locate their place of rest. I hoped once we were above ground he could truly start healing.

We all needed healing in our own ways. I didn’t want to leave my father, but he was hardly the same man who’d read me bedtime stories as a child or guided me through understanding my magic. He wasn’t the same man who used to throw Eruci and me off rock formations into the lake behind our village and silently take the tongue-lashing Mom would give him in return. I saw the sorrow in Mom’s eyes too, but we both knew we had no options left. Dad and the others wouldn’t listen, so we had to leave.

“Be nice to see more than the glimpse of sky we see in the hubs though, right?” It was a weak stab at comfort but it was hard to overcome how on edge I was, too. I trusted my mother and she’d spent a long time planning this out, but I hated not only leaving my father and everyone else, I hated that we were leaving the issues with Dad and the others unresolved.

“I’m looking forward to learning more about technology.” He said the word carefully. It was still a new word to us. “Televisions, radios, machines that warm up your food. Something you put to your ear which allows you to talk to someone on the other side of the world…”

“Telephones,” I said. “I’m interested in that stuff, too. And this thing called ‘PlayStation’ that you play screen-based games on sounds cool.”

“It does. I hope we can acquire one.” He paused. “Would also be nice to have a larger selection for courting.”

I grinned. That was more like the Eruci I knew. “The modern term seems to be ‘dating,’ but I agree.” When we moved through time from the night of the Auraxa Reiv, Eruci and I were nine years old. We were twenty-five now, so we’d grown up with everyone around our age. Anyone we could potentially look at romantically felt more like a sibling.

We heard a sound and both looked over to a large boulder on the other side of the cavern. Jia, one of the Earth Conjurers, had spent months creating a series of tunnels that led from various time pockets to this point. Public paths would raise suspicion, and there were more than enough creatures with tracking skills who could stop us before we got far.

The boulder shifted and Eruci and I tensed, but after a few moments, the boulder rolled out of the way under Jia’s manipulation, and she emerged.

My mother was right behind her, face grim, a bag strapped to her back.

Everyone had been told to carry only one bag, that everything we needed would be there for us. We believed that my mother would take care of us. She would let herself break before she let us down. Not that I would let that happen. She was leaving Dad, but she still had me.

Everyone gathered close to the barrier, huddled around my mother.

“We will not have much time until they become aware that the barrier has been breached,” she said. “So once we leave, keep moving and don’t look back. And do not use your magic, no matter what. If magic is needed, I’ll do what I can. I’ve created a series of time pockets for us to pass through and I will collapse each one after we pass, so everyone must keep up. It will lead us away from London and hopefully disorient them. Is everyone ready?”

She met my eyes. I knew how much of a risk this was, and I tried to give her strength back. She gave me a small smile, then turned to face the barrier, and held her hand up.

“Let’s go,” she said.

…

Now

Callan and I stumbled away from the Cillari Stone.

I let go of his hand and we turned and stared at each other. He was breathing hard and looked spooked. Much like I had when I’d experienced my card reading memory again. He ran his hands through his hair and started pacing.

“Oh my God,” he said. “I remember. I remember everything. The magic-era, the time jump, the years in the time pockets, the escape…” He stopped and looked down at his hands, flexing his fingers. “I can feel my magic again. My Temporal magic.” He looked so awestruck it was almost hard to look at, knowing this part of himself had been purposely blocked from him.

“This must be overwhelming,” I said gently. “Your mother placed a block on your memories. That’s tricky Temporal magic, from what I understand.”

“Yeah, it takes years for a Temporal to have the concentration needed to sift through someone’s mind and alter their memories. Most Temporals reach old age and can do memory manipulation only on a small scale; alter only a handful of memories. But my mother was exceptionally skilled. She made me forget my real life…made me think I was someone else.” He blew out a breath and ran his fingers through his hair. “I can’t believe I didn’t remember any of this.”

“She didn’t want you to.” I came closer and took his hand. “She wanted to make sure you stayed as safe as possible.”

“But to seal away my entire life? Before now, I had memories of a mundane upbringing in some isolated suburb with my mother. She planted all of that inside my head!” I understood his agitation. If I’d found out someone altered my whole life I would be ready for heads to roll.

“I’m not saying what she did was right. But however you look at it, you’ve not fallen victim to the Jigori…”

“Like she did,” he said, looking off into the distance. “At the time they said her body looked like that due to exsanguination, but…” He shook his head, pressing his lips together. His body was rigid with tension.

I remembered what it was like to see Ma’s and Kinari’s bodies after Choplim had murdered them and hated that there was a parallel with Callan. “I’m so sorry.” I pulled him in and he held me tight, his body trembling. Road rash be damned, he needed the comfort. I rubbed his back until the shuddering eased.

“I remember everything.” He pulled away. “You met my father. Marcai.”

I nodded. “He is well. Physically at least. Mentally…”

“They’re still filling Chronspheres with people’s years.” He paused. “Mom took their first stash, but it clearly wasn’t enough to stop them.” His brow furrowed with worry, and he clenched his hands into fists.

“So Annala told me. But where are the ones Linella took now?”

“I packed up her belongings and put everything into a storage unit out in Queens,” he said. “I never went through her things, never sorted anything to give away, didn’t even take anything to keep. It was too hard.”

And would probably be harder now with everything he’d just learned. But we needed to get our hands on those Chronspheres.

“Should we go check out the storage unit?” I asked. “I know it won’t be easy to go through your mother’s things, but with everything I feel brewing, it might be better to have a close eye on the Chronspheres.”

He blew out a breath. “You’re right, we should have a look. You’re also right that it won’t be easy, but would it ever be?” He shrugged. “We have bigger things going on.”

“Okay, if you’re sure. Plus, if we can get them purified it would restore the years to those who had their time taken.”

“But we still don’t have a Diviner’s help.”

“We might.” At least I really hoped so.

We started to follow Ashe out of here.

I thought about what I’d seen in Callan’s head, thankful that it wasn’t something so personal he might have regretted letting me see it. I hadn’t learned anything pivotal about the Temporal trio, but I appreciated that Callan had been okay with whatever memory we might have been met with.

“Thank you, by the way, for letting me share that memory with you,” I said to him.

“Like I said, I trust you.” He paused and stopped walking, a speculative look on his face. “Would you have trusted me to share a memory?”

I opened my mouth, closed it. Stared at him as I considered.

Memory sharing was one of the ways people used to show their commitment to each other, and Callan had let me do it without any doubt. It was before he remembered exactly what a Cillari Stone was capable of, but still.

A strange feeling rippled through me, and I had to take a steadying breath. That had been…a big gesture on his part. Would I have done the same?

I thought about the last few days and the way things had been changing between us, culminating with him breaking through his mother’s memory manipulation to use his magic to stop me from getting hit by that car. I stepped closer to him and entwined my fingers with his, using my other hand to cup his cheek.

“Yes,” I said. “I would let you in. Although you might not be able to handle what’s inside my head.”

“Oh?” His eyebrow rose. “Miss magic-era warrior thinks I can’t handle her? Or maybe you don’t want me to see the fights you lost that gained you some of those scars.” He gently thumbed the two short scars that cut through my left eyebrow, a teasing look on his face.

“First of all, I don’t lose, so watch your mouth,” I said haughtily, which Ashe backed up with a growl. Callan laughed.

“Well, maybe I’ll get inside that head sometime,” he said, bumping his shoulder against mine. “I’m not afraid of your darkness if you aren’t afraid of mine.”

“Good to know.” We stared at each other for a handful of heartbeats. Again, a small inner voice was screaming at me that this was too much too soon, but I quelled it. With the Auraxa Reiv aligning and big schemes brewing, who knew how much time any of us had left?

I was gonna fight like hell to make sure our tomorrows weren’t snuffed out like candles, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t enjoy the moments I had. If we failed, at least I’d go down with genuine friends who knew me for who I really was, and someone like Callan who was willing to fight by my side.

We started walking again.

“Just confirming, this means you’ll date me, right?” He slanted a smile. “Impending doom aside.”

“You wore me down, I guess I have no choice,” I teased, and a knot I hadn’t realized was there eased. I wanted him, and not only for his body. Why keep denying it? “But it’s gonna have to be one helluva date after all this.”

“I’m up for the challenge.”

We got back to the public paths and headed out.

“Next stop: storage unit,” Callan said.

It was tempting to head to the cave, which was on the other side of the park, but I wasn’t ready for a showdown with the Temporals yet. More than anything, I wanted to get Kinari out of there and tied to a Mortalstone. And now we needed a Diviner to purify Chronspheres.

So much was riding on a Diviner’s help and I was encountering every type of magic user except them. Irony I could live without.