Ricochet Through Time (Echo Trilogy Book 3) (4 page)

I stared at him, mouth agape, and hugged my belly. My kids weren’t just going to be gods whose very existence would restore balance to our failing universe. They
already were
gods. And they hadn’t even been born yet.

The moment I walked through the doorway from the basement laboratory into Tarset’s recovery room, the moment I saw Marcus hunched over the bedside, I could breathe a little easier. It was a basic, physiological reaction to seeing him.

Marcus and I shared a bond that went beyond love. We were, quite literally, addicted to each other, courtesy of a rather obscure pheromone emitted by my kind. It was rare that one of us found our biological and spiritual match, as Marcus and I had, and as wondrous as our bond was, it could be as much a curse as it was a blessing. It opened the door to unimaginable pleasure, but also to the very real possibility of death. Were we to be separated for longer than a few days, we would go into bonding withdrawals and, in time, we would die. People say they can’t live without the one they love all the time; they rarely mean it quite so literally.

“Go on,” Nik said, and the sheet of shimmering At evaporated into a wispy smoke containing all the colors of the rainbow. “I’m going to speak with Neffe. I’ll seal you in here.”

“Thanks.” I took a step toward Marcus, who still hadn’t raised his bowed head, then glanced back at Nik. “We’ll only be in here a moment.” I didn’t want to interfere with Tarset’s treatment. “Will you tell Dom to meet us upstairs in the conference room? And anyone else you think needs to be there? And can you alert the Council of Seven to be ready for an emergency meeting?”

“I’ll take care of it,” Nik said with a quick nod. “Just knock on the At when you’re ready for me to move you upstairs. I’ll hear it.”

I watched him erect a barrier in the doorway, then pass through the solidified At like it was as insubstantial as air. Once upon a time, when I’d possessed Re’s sheut, I could’ve done the same thing. Of course, that same sheut had also threatened to tear me apart from the ba out.

Sometimes, when I slept, I dreamed of the explosive episodes when my borrowed sheut threatened to rip free of me; I always woke screaming in pain and covered in a sheen of sweat, Marcus holding me close, murmuring to me in our people’s ancient language, the original tongue. I didn’t miss the power one bit, not when the cost was so high. Now, I was perfectly happy to be a regular ol’, sheut-free Nejerette. With two gods growing inside her.

“Why are we calling an emergency meeting?”

I spun around and stared at Marcus, taking in the weariness lining his chiseled features. I dreaded telling him about Apep, knowing how much more stress and worry it would pile on his already burdened shoulders. We were at war with the Kin, that much had been decided weeks ago, not that we’d made much headway in defeating them. Or in even finding them. But this escalation—the Kin releasing Apep—it was so much worse than anything we’d planned for so far. And Marcus, as our people’s general, would be responsible for seeing us through this horrendous situation.

I opened my mouth and the words caught in my throat.
Apep’s free,
I didn’t say. Couldn’t say. Not when, right before me, Marcus sat at his daughter’s bedside, watching her struggle to stay alive.

“Tell me, Little Ivanov.” He scrubbed his hands over his face, his stubble scratching against his palms. “I won’t break.”

I swallowed roughly and nodded, offering him a weak smile. And here I was the one always getting on his case for treating me like a fragile thing; hearing him say those words almost teased a laugh out of me. Almost.

“How is she?” I asked, moving across the room to stand at Marcus’s side. I rested my hand on his shoulder and leaned down to press a kiss against the top of his shaved head.

“Stable.” He covered my hand with his and tilted his head back to look up at me. “They’re keeping her in an induced coma. Neffe tells me she’s out of the woods . . . for now.” He grasped my fingers and brought my hand to his lips. “Tell me.”

I sighed and perched on Marcus’s knee, and it felt like my spine caved in on itself, just a little, as I recounted everything I knew about the situation so far. I watched his expression as I spoke, taking note of the subtle changes to his features as they tensed along with the rest of his body. His eyes, however, retained that weary glint.

“And if he really is possessing the Nejeret who freed him, we’re pretty much screwed,” I said, voice heightened by the threat of hysteria. “Can you imagine the damage someone with Nik’s power could do if they decided to use their sheut as a weapon? They could destroy this place in a matter of minutes. If Apep’s possessing someone like that . . .” I shook my head, limbs twitching and heart fluttering with the desire to run, to flee, to go
away
, anywhere but this place where Apep would know to find me.

“We won’t let that happen,” Marcus said with so much conviction that part of me believed him. Maybe. Just a little. I wanted to believe him so badly.

“Well, Re says the twins’ sheuts should kick in with some sort of automated defense and ‘carry me away to safety’ as soon as they sense that Apep’s an immediate threat, so that’s something at least . . .” I let out a despondent laugh. After everything we’d been through this past year, I’d had the audacity to hope that the threat posed by Apep had truly been neutralized.

But based on Marcus’s lack of shock, part of him had expected something like this to happen. I leaned forward, more or less collapsing against his chest and nuzzling his neck. His spicy scent soothed me enough that the tide went out on the ocean of panic threatening to sweep me away.

Marcus’s arms curved around my back, and he held me close. “We’ll figure it out, Little Ivanov. It’s simple, really—all we have to do is kill the person who released Apep, then have Nik imprison Apep in At once more . . . then lock the whole thing away in a vault that nobody will ever get into again.”

Another of those desperate, verge-of-tears laughs bubbled up from my chest. “So simple . . .”

My sarcasm wasn’t lost on Marcus. Hands gripping my upper arms, he pushed me away enough that he could see my face. His eyes burned with conviction. “Apep will
not
harm you or our children. I swear to you . . .” He clenched his jaw. “I won’t allow it. You’re too important.”

I squeezed my eyes shut, and a tear broke free. It snaked down my cheek, only stopping when its path was barred by Marcus’s lips. “You know,” I said, my voice unsteady, “I wish the universe would be done with me already. I don’t want to be important anymore.” It wasn’t something I’d ever wanted. I just wasn’t a fate-of-the-universe kind of girl.

“Not important to the universe, Little Ivanov.” Marcus pulled away, the corner of his mouth twitching. “Though you are
that
,” he conceded with a nod. He slid his hands up over my shoulders and along the curve of my neck until he grasped either side of my head. He drew me closer, his burning golden eyes engulfing my world. When he spoke next, his lips were a hairsbreadth from mine, so close I could feel the ghost of their touch. “I meant: you’re too important
to me
.”

“Oh,” I said. It was all I could get out before his lips were on mine, his tongue gently wrestling mine to silence.

At the sound of a throat clearing, we froze. My eyes opened wide.

“Sorry,” Nik said. “I, uh, thought you heard me . . .”

Marcus and I broke apart, and I sprang off his lap, smoothing down my jeans and T-shirt and looking anywhere but at Nik. My cheeks were ablaze.

Marcus, however, remained seated, crossing his leg in that über-masculine, relaxed way. His gaze was palpable as it trailed over my face, and when his eyes met mine, I caught the hint of a smile.

He stood smoothly and started across the room. When he reached me, he stretched his arm across my abdomen, curling his fingers around the side of my waist, and leaned in close to brush his lips along the length of my cheekbone. “You’re blushing, Little Ivanov. Whyever might that be?”

“I, um . . .” I choked on my response. He was tracing the waistband of my jeans with his fingertips, causing a tingling warmth to cascade throughout my body.

“Hold onto that thought,” he said, pulling past me and continuing toward the doorway.

His footsteps stopped, I assumed because he’d reached Nik. I
assumed
because I wasn’t ready to turn around and face them all wobbly kneed and googly eyed. But as embarrassed as I was that Nik had caught us making out—right next to Tarset’s bed, no less—I was immensely grateful to Marcus for being able to distract me from our dire situation.

“So this is how it starts,” Marcus said, his voice low and quiet. “Did you know?”

My ears perked up.
This is how
what
starts? War? The end of the world?

“I think Re suspected,” Nik said. “But he doesn’t share everything with me.”

“I see. Is everyone gathered?” Marcus asked.

“For the most part. We’re waiting on a couple Council members to link up, and Dom is on his way now.”

“Good,” Marcus said. “Let’s head up. Lex?”

I inhaled deeply, then blew out the breath. Turning, I forced a tight smile. “Ready when you are.”

Nik faced me, flashing his pearlescent eyes. Re was back in control. He gestured to my abdomen. “Your children’s defensive reaction should be proportionately relative to the severity of the perceived threat. If the twins sense a more minor danger—such as Apep lying in wait in his host but not overtly attacking you—they’ll likely not react so drastically and merely become upset, thus alerting
you
of the danger by making you feel off, possibly even nauseated.”

Frowning, I nodded slowly. I was fairly certain I knew what that would feel like. A couple weeks ago, a harmless-looking pocket watch came into my possession, bringing with it a nauseating sense of complete and utter wrongness. The watch had been crafted from an obsidian-like material Kat had dubbed “anti-At”—the physical manifestation of the universal force polar opposite to At. When given physical form, anti-At became a ravenous, soul-sucking material that consumed all it touched. Any Nejeret unlucky enough to come into contact with it would slowly unravel from the ba out, all threads tying them to the timeline rotting away until it was as though they’d never even existed.

The anti-At pocket watch had been a “gift” from the Kin, and the closer I’d come to it, the stranger I’d felt. My discomfort had been a warning from the twins, and once we’d enclosed the watch in a shell of solidified At, the sensation had abated. It was no longer a threat.

“And conversely,” Re-Nik continued, “the twins should not have any reaction if they don’t sense danger. It is the most definite way to tell if someone is a threat to you or them.”

“So, what—you want to use me as some kind of an Apep detector?”

“Precisely, dear Alexandra,” Re beamed at me using Nik’s lips and cheeks and eyes. It was a little disconcerting, seeing the godly pride I’d come so used to seeing on Nuin’s face altering Nik’s features. “Wouldn’t it be nice if we could expand our protective barrier to include all of our trusted people instead of carrying it around with us everywhere we go?”

“Or we could just run,” I suggested. I looked at Marcus. “You’ve got a helicopter. Let’s fly somewhere . . . get away. If we go now—”

“It won’t do you any good,” Re-Nik said, drawing my attention back to him. “Apep can sense the sheuts your twins carry. Their power calls to him. Wherever they go, he will find you.”

“But—”

“Apep
will
track you down, and the twins
will
jump you to a safer time and place,” Re-Nik said, talking over my objection. “It is already written in the timeline, my Alexandra. It is what
is
.”

“Oh,” I said numbly. “Oh, I see. Well then . . .” I frowned. “Did you know?” I looked from him to Marcus and back. “Those things you keep saying—‘this is how it starts’ and the like . . . did you know this would happen?”

“No, Lex,” Marcus said. “I knew—”

“Heru . . .” Re-Nik’s voice was ripe with warning.

Marcus exhaled heavily, rubbing his hand over his shaved head. “I knew nothing of this—of Apep or Carson or Genevieve.” He stared at Re-Nik, his gaze hard, challenging. “I only knew you would travel through time once more.”

My mouth fell open. “And you didn’t tell me?”

“Aset warned me the stress would be unsafe for you and the children so early on in the pregnancy.”

“What about the stress of traveling through freaking time?”

“We only did what had to be done to keep you and the little ones safe,” Re-Nik said. “Your health and comfort have always been our top priority.”

I made an ugly scoffing noise but couldn’t bring myself to actually speak. I was too pissed.

Marcus cleared his throat. “Should we get on with this, then?”

I nodded once, unable to even look at him, the liar.

Re-Nik encased us in a bubble of solidified At, and the three of us made our way up to the conference room on the second floor of the house. By the time I’d finished clearing Neffe, Aset, Carlisle, and my heads of guards, Sandra and Vali, who’d all been waiting for us in the conference room, Dominic had arrived.

Nik shrouded the room in a film of impenetrable At, and the nine of us took our seats around a circular mahogany table, the six virtually present members of the Council of Seven visible on the monitors hanging at even intervals on the walls around the room. Among them were my great-grandfather, Ivan, and my biological father, Set, the latter of which who shared a screen with my grandfather, Alexander. Set and Alexander were currently in Eastern Washington, watching over my family—my parents, sister, and grandma—as they packed up enough of their lives to move here for the duration of my sister’s and my pregnancies.