Royal Hearts (23 page)

But he didn’t. He looked just as serious as
before. “They are tall creatures, similar to humans except that
they have extremely white skin, no hair and black eyes.”

“So an alien did attack me out there! I knew
that thing couldn’t be from Earth.”

“Are you sure a Paler attacked you?”

“Yes. She looked just like what you
described.”

“She? You’re sure the Paler was a woman?”

“Of course, I’m sure. She spoke to me. It was
a female voice that I heard.”

He sat back for a moment. “That doesn’t make
sense. The Paler who’s after you right now is a man. Why would a
woman attack you?”

“Another one of those things is after me?”
she asked, this time her voice rising a higher octave.

“Yes. That’s why I’m here. I am to protect
you so he can’t get to you, but he’s at a place called the United
Nations. There’s no way he could have gotten here so fast. I just
saw him on TV twenty-five minutes ago.”

“If there was an alien on TV, I would know
about it. It would be broadcasted all over the place.”

“No. This Paler has disguised himself as a
human.”

After a moment, she started laughing. She
couldn’t believe this. “Nice try. Haha. Is there a camera hidden
somewhere?” She scanned the room, searching for anything that might
be concealing a camera.

“The first time we met, you thought the whole
thing was a dream,” he said.

She studied him, noting he was still utterly
and completely serious. Either he was a fabulous liar, or he was
telling her the truth.

“I know it’s a lot to take in,” he added.
“But it’s true.”

“Well, I know I’m not dreaming,” she replied.
And since he wasn’t giving away any indication that he was lying,
she was beginning to suspect he was, in fact, being honest with
her. “Is this a weapon a creature from Pale would use?” she asked
as she pulled out the knife from her back pocket. “I don’t
recognize the letters on it.”

He took it from her, his jaw dropped. “You
managed to get this from the Paler?”

“I don’t know how I did it. I mean, I’ve
never taken any training in how to fight. One minute, I was walking
around the parking lot, and the next thing I knew, I felt this
weird sensation on the back of my neck, as if someone was behind
me.”

His eyes grew wide. “The classic Paler
attack? You finally conquered that attack method?”

Again, she couldn’t get over how serious he
seemed. “I can’t explain it. It all happened so fast. It’s one big
blur in my mind. All I remember is that I felt the breeze on my
neck and the next thing I knew, I had the thing lying on the ground
and I was holding the knife to her. She jumped up and ran
away.”

He smiled. “You’ve been working on that
particular strategy for six months. You’ve finally mastered
it.”

“That’s what I’m working on four years from
now? Fighting Palers?”

“Not exactly. Four years from now, you leave
North Dakota, fight the Palers and win. With Omin dead, the Palers
actually become friends with you. You, in turn, become queen of
Raz, so Pale and Raz become allies.”

“Okay.” This was a lot of information to
process. “So then what? Why is a Paler after me if we’re
allies?”

“Two years after you become queen, Omin’s
clone wakes up from a deep sleep. This clone brought you and me
back six years into the past and is seeking to kill you before you
get a chance to go to Raz. That’s why you don’t remember anything.
He wiped out all of your memories so that you won’t fight him when
the time comes for him to get rid of you.”

“Get rid of me?” She gagged. What a lovely
thought. She was a queen on another planet? She had Palers after
her, trying to kill her? Did she really want to be a queen? It
seemed like a job that required great personal risk. “What about
you? Where do you fit into all of this?”

“I’m the king. We got married right after you
became queen.”

“So if you’re the king, then are the Palers
after you, too?”

“No. The king doesn’t have the power on Raz.
Only the queen does. Your role is crucial to the survival of the
planet. My job is to serve and protect you.”

“The king and queen aren’t equal?”

“No, they’re not. And as I recall, you
thought that was wrong when I first told you about it in North
Dakota.”

“Well, it doesn’t seem right. I mean,
marriage is supposed to be a partnership, not a situation where one
person is to serve the other.”

“It’s the way things are done on Raz.” He
grinned. “Look, I have no complaints. Being married to you is the
best thing in my life. I wouldn’t trade what we have for
anything.”

She couldn’t believe it. She was
twenty-three, married and the prime authority figure on another
planet? It was too much to take in. As much as she wanted to laugh
the whole thing away, she felt too overwhelmed. This couldn’t be
true. It was impossible. The whole notion of time travel and losing
her memory…or even the possibility of going from one planet to
another… It just wasn’t possible.

“There’s something else you should know,” he
said, his voice soft.

“There’s more?” she asked.

“We have a daughter. Her name is Katherine,
and she’s a little over a year old.”

“I’m a mother, too?”

She didn’t know where to begin in processing
all of this information. Everything was happening too fast. She was
only seventeen. She was still in high school. This couldn’t be
possible. She couldn’t be married with a child. She couldn’t be old
enough to rule a planet. All the responsibility was too much. Her
biggest worries were supposed to be what she was going to wear the
next day or which one of her friends to hang out with on the
weekend. She didn’t know anything about being an adult, ruling
another world, marriage, or motherhood.

“I need to sit down,” she said, but she
fainted before she could do so.

Chapter Twenty-One

When Ann regained consciousness, she was
lying on a bed. She opened her eyes and saw Hathor peering down at
her, his eyebrows furrowed in concern. “Do you feel alright?”

“I don’t know. Did you just tell me I’m a
queen on a place called Raz and that we’re married and have a
daughter?”

“Yes, I did.” He took her hand in his and
squeezed it. “I know it’s a lot to take in. I didn’t tell you
sooner because I knew it’d be a shock. I thought it’d be too much
of a shock that you wouldn’t be able to cope with it.”

Not only was it a shock, but she didn’t know
if she could believe it. After a few minutes of silence, she
finally asked, “Why do you remember all of this and I don’t?”

“I’m not sure. We both ended up six years in
the past. We were on our way to planet Olympia to get help for the
Palers when we ended up on Earth. We were separated though. So you
went back to your home in Xenia, and I landed somewhere on this
planet where there are lots of trees. I went back to Raz, thinking
I’d find you, but you weren’t there. I’ve been trying to figure out
a way for you to regain your memories or to get us back to our
correct time, but this book hasn’t given me any answers. So all I
could think of to do was find you and try to protect you from the
Paler when he comes to kill you.”

Most of what he said made no sense to her.
All she understood was that this person sitting next to her was
claiming to be her husband six years from now and that they had a
child. Then he was claiming he remembered everything but she
didn’t? How was this possible?

“How did we get to the past?” she finally
asked.

“William had contact with Omin’s clone.
Omin’s clone is the Paler who wants to kill you. Omin’s clone-”

“Whoa! Hold on. William? William Nichols is
involved in this?”

He nodded. “I’m not sure how, but he also
came back to the past. He remembers everything, too.”

“This is getting stranger all the time.” She
sat up and studied him. “Please tell me you’re joking.”

“I can’t because I’m not. I know this is hard
to believe.”

She sighed. She wasn’t sure if she should
keep asking questions or not, but in the end, she ventured, “What
does William have to do with this? I’m not going out with him
anymore.”

“No, not in this time. In the past you did.
It’s a long story, and I don’t even understand all of it, but he
wants to be the king of Raz.”

“How does he know I’m the queen?” She shook
her head. “That is, if I really am a queen, as you say.”

“He found out when you went back into the
past the first time.”

“I’ve been back to the past before? Did I
have my memories then?”

“Not right away, but you slowly gained them
back because the Palers allowed it. You see, the first time you met
William, you two went out for half a year and you moved to Florida.
He broke up with you and dated other people. You wanted him, but he
didn’t want you. It’s something that I heard quite a bit when we
first met because you were still in love with him.”

“But I chose you instead?”

“Not at first. When the Palers took you back
to Earth, you got to be with him again, as if you two had just met.
He didn’t remember going out with you before, so it was all new to
him. You said you saw him in a different light and realized you
didn’t love him after all. You told him about Raz and being the
queen there, and he watched you leave Earth. I’ll never forget how
you came back to Raz and said you wanted me instead of him. That
was the best day of my life.”

Again, most of what he said was too much for
her to understand. It was like looking down at an incomplete jigsaw
puzzle. She got glimpses of the picture but couldn’t see the entire
thing. But did she really believe this? Why was she entertaining
him by asking more questions? Why didn’t she just get up and leave?
This whole thing was ridiculous. It had to be. Yet, there was a
part of her that felt like what he was telling her was right, and
that was the part she couldn’t ignore, no matter how weird
everything seemed.

“You chose me again,” Hathor said. “You have
no idea how much it means to me that you chose me over William,
especially since he was being as charming as he could be.”

“William is such a jerk,” she replied. “There
was no competition there.”

He grinned. “You didn’t always think that
way.”

She could only stare at him
in wonder. He loved her.
Really
loved her. But could she believe all of
this?

Her mind switched back to the Paler who
wanted to kill her. “You said there’s a male Paler after me,” she
said. “Where is he?”

“Have you heard of Alexander Napoli?”

Her jaw dropped. “The leader of the United
Nations?”

He nodded. “He disguised himself as a human
in order to blend in. He knew it would be difficult for me to find
him if he was somewhere I didn’t think he’d be. I never imagined he
would be in such a public place. It was only by chance that I
happened to see him on TV right before you got here.”

“But Alexander Napoli is a good man. I
watched him give a speech at Teresa’s house earlier today, and what
he says makes sense. The best way to protect people and keep the
peace he started on Earth is by giving everyone a chip. I don’t see
how that’s wrong, even if he is a Paler.”

“That’s right. He wants to give everyone a
chip. I was too busy figuring out he was Omin’s clone to think
about the chip. Everyone seems to like that idea. The people on TV
were worshiping him, calling him a god and everything. The girls in
the cafeteria were mesmerized by him. They were giving him the same
look you have now when you think of him.”

She broke out of her trance. “I’m sorry. What
did you say?”

“You have to see this man for what he really
is.” He picked up the book and flipped through it.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m finding a spell to make you see his
deception. You can’t fall for his lies. You’re the queen of Raz.
You have the ability to help destroy him.”

“What? Why would I destroy him? He wants to
help Earth. We have wars, famines, plagues… He’s going to eliminate
all of that.”

“Maybe, but he’ll also make everyone on this
planet his slave in the process.”

A tiny spark lit up in the back of her mind
as she realized he was right. She began to recall why she had
originally objected to the idea of being implanted with a chip. It
was a violation of her privacy.

“No, no,” she argued aloud. “I can’t believe
he would be so deceitful. Not him. He brought peace to the Middle
East. No one has ever been able to do that. He wants nothing but
peace.”

“Are you arguing with me or with yourself?”
he asked, glancing up from the book.

“I don’t know. I think it’s me. I had a bad
feeling about the chip when I first heard about it, but I don’t
know why. It’s the right thing to do. It’s easy and logical.”

“You need to focus on the part of you that
knows it’s wrong.”

“Why would I want to do that? It doesn’t make
sense to object to it.”

He put the book down, put his hands on her
shoulders, and looked her in the eyes. “Please, Ann. Do this for
me.”

After a moment, she relented. “Okay. What am
I supposed to tell myself?”

“The same thing you told yourself when you
first heard about the chip. What was your original thought?”

“That it was invasive.”

“Anything else?”

“Uh, let’s see. I didn’t like it. I had a bad
feeling about it. I wondered if Alexander Napoli was really doing
what was best for us. The chip isn’t voluntary. It’s mandatory.
Everyone has to get one.” The more she talked, the easier it became
for her to see through the fog of adoration she had felt for
Alexander Napoli.

“Good, Ann,” Hathor whispered.

“When I started watching the TV at Teresa’s
house, I couldn’t understand why she and her family seemed to be
hypnotized by him. Then I watched him talk, and it was like I was
being pulled into him. Suddenly everything he said made perfect
sense. I would be a fool not to do what he wanted.” Through the
dissipating fog came a startling realization. “Manipulation,” she
said. “Control. It’s all about mind control. That’s what the chip
will do. It will control us. The mind control I experienced from
watching him on TV was temporary. It was just meant to mesmerize me
long enough so I’d accept the chip. Once I get the chip, I’ll be
his. What a horrible thing to do to someone.”