“My job is head of the royal guard.” Harold’s voice brought Lark back to the present. Or future, depending on how one looked at it. “Protecting King Avi and Franklin is ultimately my responsibility. I wasn’t there that day, and several of the Wysteria Corps had been bribed by Casimer to become traitors. If it weren’t for you…” Harold cleared his throat. “The kingdom of Lothar owes you a debt she can never repay.”

Lark shook her head. “I just happened to be the person there at the right time. Or maybe the wrong time.” She chuckled.

“I’ve always wondered what possessed you to jump into the fray instead of running away,” Harold said.

They were still sitting on the comfortable chairs in the front of the vacation bus, but the tiger cub had worked her way behind Lark’s back to play with her long ponytail.

“I’m an idiot?” Lark laughed at Harold’s frown, then shrugged. “Every martial art teacher I had said that in an emergency, you fall to the level of your training.” She brought the pair of dog tags out from her shirt to look lovingly at them. “Whether my brothers meant to or not, they taught me to think through a situation, figure out the options. And to protect others. I guess I fell to the level of my training.”

She looked up to see Harold and Conan studying her. She felt like Conan had been testing her before, or maybe expecting something from her. But his expression was much softer now.

She lowered her gaze.

“What did you do after saving them?” Conan finally asked.

“As my Jet Ski was being fixed, they treated me to a scrumptious homemade meal.” Lark’s mouth watered just thinking about it. “When I finally checked the clock, I realized I was going to be late for an appointment that had taken months to set up. I vaguely recall yelling apologies as I ran out of there like I was on fire.” She laughed. “I really enjoyed talking with Mr. Franklin and Avi over the next couple of weeks. My brothers, Alex and Sterling, wanted to meet them after hearing the story. Sterling usually likes everyone he meets, so it was no surprise they got along great. But even stoic Alex warmed up to them. We sent them some letters once we got to our new duty station, but we never heard from them again. What happened?”

“Time travel is pretty new,” Harold said. “We’re still figuring out the rules and idiosyncrasies. It’s taken us four years to find you again.”

“Four years?” Lark furrowed her brow. “It’s been three years for me.”

Harold nodded. “The perks of time travel. The harder part of time travel is the fact that you need a certain set of circumstances for a trip—ingredients, if you will. The farther away the destination, the more ingredients you need. And unfortunately, those tend to move around.”

“Move around?” For some reason, an image of a frog jumping all over, slipping through grasping fingers, popped in her head. While it was entertaining, it didn’t make Harold’s explanation any clearer.

Harold grimaced. “Sorry, I’m not the most knowledgeable about this. My other son, Joshua, will be able to answer your questions more thoroughly. But here’s the short version. Time travel is still an imprecise science. Trying to find someone two thousand years in the past, on a different planet no less, was not an easy task. We were finally reasonably sure we had found a path to you, so we began plotting out this route. About a week ago, Doctor Franklin was on his way to meet us from a diplomatic meeting in a neighboring country when he was attacked. Investigations are currently underway, but there were no indications the attackers knew he was trying to come for you. Right now, we’re assuming it was just an attempt to kidnap him gone wrong. He is—was—a very prominent man here. Unfortunately, he was injured, as you know. He managed to tell us what happened and found the closest place he could use for a time jump. We followed the signal he sent us.”

“Wait,” Lark shook her head. “You said he was attacked a week ago?”

Harold nodded. “It took us several days to get everything we needed to the most sustainable jump point. If we have a beacon, like the one Franklin sent us, we can easily do a round trip to and from the signal, as long as there are enough particles to sustain the jump.”

“Without that signal, though,” Conan chimed in, “it’s much harder getting to a specific time or place so far away. Long story short, you lost touch with King Avi and Doctor Franklin in the past because they couldn’t get back. They never got your letters.”

“It’s kind of a relief to know they weren’t ignoring us,” Lark said. She and her brothers didn’t often give overtures of friendship. “We were sad they didn’t stay in touch. I remember thinking it would be really fun to have a grandfather like them.”

She fiddled with the dog tags again. Harold shifted his gaze uncomfortably. Thinking he was wondering about the dog tags, Lark held them up.

“My brothers’. They gave me copies as a birthday present a few years before...before I lost them.” Her voice got a little hoarse at the end, trying to hold back sudden tears. Two years since the gut-wrenching notification. Every time she remembered it, was still like a knife in the heart. Not wanting to dwell on it, Lark plastered a smile on her face. “Is anyone else hungry?”

Harold looked like he wanted to say something else, but he nodded and said, “This isn’t a bad spot to break for an early dinner. We’ll make camp here tonight, then send the vacation bus back in the morning.”

“Send the bus where in the morning?” Lark followed Conan out into the fresh afternoon sunshine.

A couple of their companions climbed into the vacated bus, making use of the mini kitchen to prepare a large dinner. Altogether, their company numbered twenty. Everyone but Conan, Harold, and Lark had been following the bus on their own hoverbikes, some pulling small storage containers behind.

“Your arrival needs to stay secret for now,” Conan answered. “Airplanes and sky trams are too public. Hoverbike is going to be the fastest way to get over these mountains and back to our capital, Vusal.”

“Really?” Lark looked at the closest bike curiously, excited to try one herself.

“Hovercraft run off of Hewa energy, usually with enough juice to last about two or three days without recharging. But the larger the craft, the longer it takes to recharge if it’s not near a Hewa battery. We’d have to sit still for twelve hours every couple of days if we kept the vacation bus. The bikes will recharge enough each night for us to get home within a week.”

Lark nodded, pretending she understood anything Conan was saying.

I’m already getting a headache with all the new things I have to learn.

“Lark!” Shamira’s voice called.

Lark watched her trot up from where she had been talking with Harold, a broad grin lighting up her face.

“There’s something just through the trees I think you’ll like,” Sharmia said. “The commander general said we could take you while we wait for food.” She motioned to Conan.

Curious, Lark shifted the tiger cub to a more comfortable position in her arms. “All right, show the way.”

A light breeze rustled the trees as the trio set out, wrapping a refreshing, clean scent around them. Was that a waterfall she heard in the distance? When they pushed their way through a thick line of bushes, Lark found herself in a meadow.

“Are these real?” she whispered.

Instead of the wide range of soft pastels she was used to seeing, these wildflowers were something…otherworldly. Sparkling in the sunlight, the flowers looked closer to gems. Blossoms of every shape and size looked like they were made of rubies, emeralds, sapphires, topaz, pearls…Lark ran out of jewels she knew to compare them to. Even the greenery had a metallic sheen to it one couldn’t find on Earth. Was this why everything seemed odd to her eyes?

Lark let the tiger down to frolic, allowing herself to sink to her knees. She reached out a hesitant hand to touch a metallic purple flower, half expecting to feel cool, hard stone as opposed to the velvety softness that greeted her fingers. She looked up at her companions, who were watching her with amusement.

“Look a little different than you’re used to?” Conan teased.

“Is this normal here?” Lark asked.

“On Evren, yes.” Shamira nodded. “Other planets have different dominant colors.”

“Dominant colors?” Lark asked.

“Each terraformed planet’s makeup influences colors a little differently,” Conan said. “Evren’s dominant chemicals and minerals make jewel and metallic tones the most common here. Atlantis has more pastels, and Mars has earthy, coppery tones.”

“Mars? People are really living on Mars?” Lark squeaked excitedly.

I really shouldn’t be surprised by anything anymore. If I’m standing on a different planet two thousand years in the future, of course Mars would be an obvious choice.

“Oh yes.” Lark barely heard Shamira. “There are four inhabited planets. Earth is still alive and kicking, although it was questionable for a while there. Then Atlantis, Mars, and Evren were terraformed.”

“I wish Alex and Sterling could be here with me. Their minds would be blown,” Lark whispered, touching the dog tags under her shirt.

She inhaled sharply when an idea struck.

Time travel! Why didn’t I think of this before? If there’s a chance I could save my brothers...but, I’ve got to know more. There’s too much that could go wrong. What was the name of Harold’s son...

“Joshua?” Lark accidentally said out loud.

Conan glanced over. “Josh? My brother?”

“Brother?” Lark’s eyes widened. “The time travel guy?”

“Yeah. Joshua Cynbel. One of those annoyingly brilliant geniuses,” Conan said in a playful tone. Lark could hear the pride in his voice.

“So you and Harold…?” Lark wasn’t sure why this was so difficult to grasp.

“Yep.” Conan grinned. “Mr. Salt and Pepper is my dad.”

Lark blushed furiously. “Am I ever going to live that down?” she groaned.

“Probably not,” Conan laughed.

She hadn’t paid attention before, but Lark could see similar facial structure between father and son. Strong jaw, long nose. Instead of his father’s hazel eyes, Conan’s were blue. Although now that she really looked at them, they also had pretty green specks.

“Josh could have turned his hand to anything,” Conan said, interrupting Lark’s thoughts about pretty blue eyes. “But he practically breathes formulas and equations. Director Franklin discovered the time travel particles and invented the bio-bots, but Joshua was key in their development.”

Lark perked up at this. Maybe she wouldn’t be stumbling blindly when it came to understanding the new her.

And it sounds like he should have all the answers I need about time travel, as well! For a chance to save Alex and Sterling, I would accept any job—even inheriting a planet 2,000 years in the future.

Conan looked down at his silver bracelet. When he pressed something on it, a small black holographic box about half the size of his hand appeared above his wrist. When Conan announced dinner was ready, Lark realized the black box must have been a form of texting.

Lark glanced at her own empty wrist, remembering she was the only one in their group without a matching bracelet. It must be a team or unit marking. It had been a long time since she had felt part of a group.

Everyone needed friends and allies. Holding these guys at arm’s length would be stupid.

She snuck glances at Shamira and Conan as they helped her chase the white tiger cub around the meadow. She was a little out of practice in the making friends department, but Conan had definitely warmed up to her since their first meeting. Shamira seemed like a fun, energetic young woman. Both looked near her age.

Instead of rescuing her brothers and staying on Earth, maybe, just maybe, she could create a safe home for her family here, in the future. And if being a Kynaston gave them that security, then so be it.