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Authors: Lily Worthington

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Time Eternal (32 page)

BOOK: Time Eternal
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He felt her body stiffen. He knew she was unsure about their future together, especially since she was no longer the Elizabeth he knew. He was about to tell her it did not matter who she had become, that in fact he felt more connected with her now because of who she was, a warrior in her own right, a warrior who had seen blood and darkness just as he had, when a blurry vision like a mini-tornado appeared next to them. He barely had the time to push Skyla behind him when Mr. X stepped out of the theatric, self-contained wind funnel. It all happened too fast. By the time he saw the sword, glowing blue in Mr. X’s hand, it was already too late. The sword was buried into his chest, aimed right at his heart. No mortal weapon could kill him, but he could feel the lethal and ancient power melting through his ribs. Skyla screamed as he slumped down. Velvet darkness engulfed him rapidly, completely. He tried to call out to Skyla, but thick, copper-tasting liquid clogged his vocal cords, so thick that there was no room for his throat to move. And it was getting cold. The dampness of it reminded him of the bone-deep chills from the winter in his homeland. It also reminded him of the day he lay dying on the battlefield next to his family. Yes, this was his end. He knew it, had no doubt of it. Elizabeth. Skyla. He called out to her in his mind as the last of his consciousness slipped away.

 

Chapter Thirty-Two

“Rei!”

Skyla was stunned. One moment she was about to say
yes
to his proposal, the next moment he pushed her behind him before his body staggered against hers, just like her cousin’s had not long ago. She fell on the ground, and when she looked up from Rei’s falling body, Mr. X was standing there, holding an odd-looking sword. It glowed an eerie blue and was dripping with blood. Rei’s blood. He smiled at her enigmatically.

“No…” Her agent instinct was kicking in, demanding she apprehend Mr. X. It was the Agency’s directive, but her soul was screaming for Rei. The pool of blood around Rei was getting larger by the second. She watched in horror. Agency directive be damned. Dropping down next to him, she pressed both her hands on his chest, trying to stop his blood gushing through her fingers. “No, no, no…”

“Rei, stay with me! You promised you wouldn’t leave me again. Dammit, fight!” She hissed at him, applying more pressure on his chest. “Fight!” His eyes slowly opened, but they were unfocused.

“Elizabeth…” Blood was choking past his already-blue lips. “I love you, my sweet.” He raised his cold hand on her tear-stained cheeks.

“Shh…” Skyla didn’t dare to let up her hands from his wound. “It’s okay…” Her voice was trembling. She knew the inevitable. “I love you too. We will get you back to the headquarters. Knox will work on you like he did the other night. You’ll be fine.”

His eyes were shut again, but a faint smile was on his lips. He looked almost peaceful, as if he had accepted the ending, their ending. “I’m sorry I didn’t find you sooner, Elizabeth.” His hand moved over hers, whispering now. “I wish we could’ve had more time together. I…” His hand slipped away from hers and dropped next to his lifeless body.

Skyla was stunned. Her brain took a long while to process what was happening. Then she howled. “Rei!”

Heavy sword blows and grunts sounded not far from her. If she was in her collected agent’s mind, she would have picked up Rei’s sword and defended her team, but she didn’t care. She stood up, raised her head toward the sky, and yelled out, “Whatever gods you are, you get your asses down here and save him!” Her fists clenched at her sides. “Or I swear I’ll find your hole and make you all pay!”

Silence, except the fighting noises behind her. She whirled around in a full circle, looking for any sign of the gods that Rei had served. Nothing. No sign of those cowardly gods. Then her eyes caught a shimmering apparition to her left.

“You!” Her hand shot out and shackled the handmaiden’s wrist like a band of steel manacle. Fiery freezing cold burned through her hand. But she refused to let go. This was the first time she had seen the handmaiden. Her beauty was magnificent, befitting for a divine being, but her expression was cold. So cold that it reminded her of the Antarctic icescape she had visited years ago —desolate and eternally frozen, yet so peaceful and beautiful.

“Save him,” she demanded. Her voice sounded raw and feral.

The handmaiden remained expressionless. “I cannot.”

“What do you mean you cannot?” Skyla looked down at Rei’s lifeless body, his once warm, handsome face now ashen. She looked at the handmaiden again and was surprised to see a hint of sadness in her frozen green eyes.

“This is the price he must pay for betraying the gods, for saving the congressmen, for saving your world. He knew the risk.”

He knew the risk?
“He has served your gods for centuries, faithfully, tirelessly. Are you saying they won’t save him because he went against their wishes?” Anger, grief, and sorrow bombarded her. She wouldn’t accept defeat so easily. She grabbed the handmaiden’s slim wrist tighter, so tight that it would definitely leave bruises. But she didn’t care and snarled, “Take me to them. Now.”

“Let her go, Skyla.” Knox spoke quietly behind her. His voice was commanding.

She shook her head tightly but didn’t bother to turn around and look at him. “No.”

“Skyla, listen to me. This was meant to be centuries ago. One of you must die so that the other can live. You and Rei cheated death once. Fate won’t allow that again.” His voice was just as calm as the handmaiden’s.

What?
She turned around to face Knox but still didn’t let go of the handmaiden’s wrist. Skyla didn’t know which was more shocking—that Rei knew the consequence of defying the gods, yet he still did what he did, saving her world from plunging into a complete chaos and the likelihood of World War III, or that Knox spoke about the gods as if he knew them intimately.

“Come again?” Her agent’s eyes took a swift sweep of her surroundings. Besides the fallen bodies of Fernando and his soldiers, her team was now standing behind Knox. Butch was spotted with a big slash wound on his forearm, while Gus and Vivi were both looking the worse for wear.

“Butch, you all right?” Her chin tilted toward his gashing wound. He nodded back at her solemnly, but his eyes were showing a rare sign of concern. In fact, the same concerned looks were coming off Vivi’s and Gus’s expressions too. Her team must be thinking she had lost her mind, hissing and growling at anyone who dared to come near her and her lover’s dead body.

Knox brought her focus back to him. “There’s nothing you could do to save Rei. It’s done. This is meant to be.” For all the years they had been friends, she could always tell when he was not telling the entire truth. And he wasn’t now. She let go of the handmaiden and stepped in front of him, staring up at his towering body. “What are you holding back from me?” She squinted because she saw a soft glow coming off Knox. That was just crazy. Rei told her about the gods that he served. He told her that one way to spot a deity was the faint, soft glow that appeared around them whenever their emotions were highly charged. It couldn’t be. She blinked her eyes, wanting to make sure her desperation did not trick her eyes. And sure enough, the glow was gone. Disappointment enveloped her. She asked him softly this time. “Knox, how do you know all this?”

His hands grabbed on her shoulders gently, as if trying to anchor her through the chaotic emotions.

“Remember what I asked you when we took the Comparative Literature class at Columbia?”

She was confused by his question. What did that have to do with anything? Then it came to her. She loved literature, especially romance literature, from the highbrow ones to the more sizzling commercial ones.

“Selfless love,” she whispered, and Knox’s hands left her shoulders. That was her answer. She kneeled down next to Rei’s body and pressed a gentle kiss on his already cold lips. “I love you, Rei.” Her hands caressed his handsome face one more time. Then she looked up to the handmaiden with a nod.

The handmaiden pulled out a vial from her sleeve, and Skyla accepted it without any hesitation. The vial held a deep red liquid inside. How utterly tragic and romantic it was, almost like Romeo and Juliet. One of her all-time favorites.

A commotion sounded off behind her. “No, Skyla. Stop!” It was Gus. He was yelling at her through gritted teeth, as if he was trying to push through a brick wall. Another frustrated growl came from Butch. “Step away, Vivi. Don’t make me break my rule about no hitting women.”

“Try it, big boy, and see who would be bleeding first.” Her fearless Vivi, a sister she had never had, casually answered his threat. And when Butch was mad, no one in the Agency would dare to challenge him head on. Skyla smiled, remembering the innocent times she had shared with Vivi and Knox when none of them knew blood and terror, or to be more accurate, when she did not remember blood and terror.

Sounds of bones and flesh coming in contact, and then a low menacing grunt from Gus. “You bastard. You are going to let her sacrifice herself for that no-good mercenary, aren’t you? The director will skin you alive.”

“It must be. Either her life or his. It is a choice she has to make.” Knox sounded out of breath too. Another battle cry roared from Gus. And more fighting. Time was running out. Gus was known for fighting dirty from his terrorism days. Knox wouldn’t be able to hold him off much longer. With a swift tilt of her head, Skyla gulped down the liquid from the vial.

 

Chapter Thirty-Three

The liquid tasted surprisingly pleasant, like the fruit wine Rei had shared with her just a few nights ago. Drowsiness blanketed Skyla suddenly, and her body dropped slowly on top of Rei’s. Then all hell broke loose. First it was Gus and Butch yelling at her to stop. Then the ground shook as if there were an earthquake, and the sky parted with hurricane-like gusts of wind. The tremors of the ground were strong enough to knock her over. But within a few seconds, everything was back to normal. She could hear the river running in the quiet, desolate winter air. She looked around and saw Gus and Butch facing off against Knox and Vivi. There was no sign of the handmaiden. Just as she was about to stand up, a strong, familiar hand took hold of hers. Her body froze, not sure what to make of it because she was afraid her sanity had truly slipped away from her. Before she looked down at her hand, a tingling sensation was traveling up and down her spine, just like the first time she met Rei inside the bank vault. She looked up, and there he was, his stormy gray eyes staring down at her with a mixture of confusion and relief.

“Skyla…” He was leaning up on his elbow.

“Rei!” She paused, not sure if she was seeing things. “Rei…”

“Yes, love. I’m here.” He pulled her palm up, rubbing it against his face.

Her arms went around his neck immediately. Not worrying about who was there watching, she kissed him all over, his stubborn mouth, his handsome face, his stubble-covered jaw. And he returned her unabashed passion with just as much hunger and heat.

She didn’t know how much time had passed before Rei let go of her to breathe. “Skyla, I thought—” Before he finished, he fiercely pulled her back to him again, as if he was afraid somehow she would disappear. After a few long moments, he pulled her up but still held her by his side.

She turned to look for Knox. He was standing next to Vivi, and he answered her before she even asked. “Selfless love. That was your choice, and that’s what saved Rei. Not the gods, but you.”

She was about to ask Knox how he knew all this, but Rei pushed her behind his tense body. Skyla tried to get around him but with little success. “Rei, what are you doing?”

Rei ignored her question and bared his teeth at Knox. “You are one of them.” It was not a question. It was not a statement. It was an accusation. Realization gradually came to her. Knox and the gods. She knew it was pointless trying to push Rei away from her when he was in his protective mode. She stretched her neck around to peep from his side. “Knox?” Then she turned to his twin sister, her best friend. “Vivi?”

Apparently, Gus and Butch understood what Rei meant too. They both looked at the twins with identical bewildered expressions. She would have laughed at the comical look on their faces—utter surprise on their normally stoic faces—but for here they went again, another unexpected turn of events.

“I’m sorry, Skyla.” Vivi spoke up first. “We didn’t mean to lie to you or the Agency. But our secret could mean life or death for us.”

“Yes, Vivi and I are descendants of the pantheon of gods that Rei served.” Knox continued, “But we’ve never been part of them. We were cast out when we were toddlers.” His voice sounded distant. “Why or how doesn’t matter. I’ll brief the director when we are back at the Agency.”

Before anyone could ask more questions, Skyla was spun into a black hole. When she opened her eyes, she was inside one of the Agency’s mission rooms, along with her team and Rei. She shot Rei a look of displeasure. “What did I say about sending me through time without asking me first?” Rei immediately took a step back and held up his hands. “I didn’t do it.” She looked over her shoulder at Knox. He was rubbing his hand on the back of his neck and giving her a bashful grin.

“You did that?” she asked incredulously.

Knox was about to answer when the metal doors hissed open. Director Jensen, followed by Curtis, stepped inside the room. She came straight to Skyla and hugged her. After a full minute, the director turned to look at each of them. Her eyes stopped briefly at Butch’s forearm before moving on to Gus, who she lingered over the longest. Once she was satisfied no one needed immediate medical attention, she turned to Rei. “Thank you.”

 

Epilogue

“I do.”

Cheers erupted and champagne corks popping sounded off loudly around them. Skyla looked up at him and smiled the same bright, warm smile Elizabeth used to have centuries ago. Before the priest had finished pronouncing them husband and wife, Rei had already bent down and kissed his bride. His bride. He still could not believe that he somehow had escaped the wrath of the gods and was now married to Skyla in front of her family and relatives and her team at the Agency. It seemed everyone in town was here to celebrate the happy occasion. He tugged her gently toward the center of the dance floor while the emcee introduced them as “Mr. and Mrs. Dusan.” More clapping and cheering erupted. A few suggestive, loud whistles too.

BOOK: Time Eternal
10.75Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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