Ricochet Through Time (Echo Trilogy Book 3) (42 page)

“I’ll be careful, Little Ivanov.”

“Besides, Mother,” Susie said, “it’s still repairing itself, so it’ll be a while before he can actually use it, and with the At closed off, he won’t be able to travel through time, just space, so . . .”

“But—”

“Mother,” Susie said, “it’s going to be fine.
Trust
us, please. Trust him.”

I closed my mouth, swallowing further protestations.

“Our last gifts are for you,” she said, kneeling before me. “You, who sacrificed so much so we could have a chance at life . . . so the universe and all of the life teeming within it could continue on.” She pulled a small velvet drawstring bag from her back pocket and handed it to me. “You lost precious years with your mortal family.” She smiled, swirling green and golden eyes shimmering with emotion. “We want to give you those years back . . . with interest.”

I stared down at the bag in my hand, wondering how what felt like a small stash of marbles could do any such impossible thing. “I don’t understand.”

“There are five silver marbles in the bag, enough for Grandma and Grandpa, Aunt Jenny, and Bobby and Judy.”

“But, how will that—”

Susie’s smile widened to a grin. “Each one contains a new, moldable ba, ready to soak into its new host and turn them into a Nejeret.”

I stared at my mostly grown daughter, eyes wide and unblinking, and inhaled shakily. My sister and her human kids—my mom and dad—they wouldn’t fall victim to the passage of time. They would live forever, like me—
with
me—continuing on in the form of their everlasting ba, even after their physical bodies perished.

On my exhale, I clutched the little bag of immortal souls to my chest and gave in to the unavoidable urge to cry. For once, my tears weren’t of sadness or pain or loss or defeat. Not this time. For once, I cried tears of joy.

***

I sat on the bench of the picnic table, Marcus on one side of me, holding my hand, my mom on the other, her arm curled around my shoulders. My mother and bond-mate, doing what they could to offer comfort while I stared at the patch of grass my children had disappeared from just a few minutes ago. They’d said their farewells, given promises to return as soon as they could, and then they’d melted into glowing beings of iridescent light and vanished with Re and Apep.

My children . . . they were gone. I thought I should be crying, but I didn’t seem able. I felt hollow and wrung out.

I’d thought we were done; I’d thought this was all over—the universe was saved. I’d thought my future would be filled with family birthday parties and excavations and working in the restructured Nejeret government—you know, normal things. I’d thought we would finally get to be a family. Maybe we still would, one day.

But not yet.

“They’ll come back, sweetie,” my mom said, leaning the side of her head against mine. “And now your dad and I will live long enough to see their return.” She held out her arm, examining the back of her hand like she was showing off a ring. “I think I’m already less wrinkly.” She lowered her hand to her lap. “You know, I’ve felt like I was still thirty for the past forty-five years, but to look it again . . . I don’t know if I quite believe it’s going to happen.” She sighed heavily. “I just wish my mother had lasted long enough . . .”

My eyes wandered from the spot of grass left vacant by my kids to the picnic blanket where Alexander sat alone, knees drawn up and arms latched around his legs. He was staring off at nothing, and I had no doubt that his mind had gone in the same direction as my mom’s.

I scooted to the edge of the bench and released Marcus’s hand. My fingers gripped the knees of my jeans. “I think I need to walk for a bit. Clear my head . . .”

My mom’s arm fell away from my shoulders.

“Do you want company?” Marcus asked.

I turned to him, offering him what I could of a smile and leaning in to plant a light kiss on his lips. “No. I’d like to be alone . . . just for a little while.”

The concern in his golden eyes faded until only a hint remained. He knew me well enough to understand that this was how I processed things, how I figured out and worked through my feelings—in solitude—and he returned my smile, his a much better attempt. “Go on, then.”

I gave his thigh a squeeze, then stood and arched my back in a stretch. The picnic-goers were still there, scattered around the lawn on blankets and folding picnic tables, but the collective mood had shifted from carefree and celebratory to subdued and contemplative. There was still so much we didn’t understand about our existence, about our universe and whatever others were out there.

The twins’ revelation that they were visiting the Netjer home universe had shaken a lot of people. We’d all known Re came from somewhere else, but most of us hadn’t really considered what that meant, myself included. Our own universe was inconceivably large, its multiple planes of existence and parallel realities far too complex for even my kind to understand in our never-ending lifetimes.

I headed for the woods that surrounded the park-like backyard, aiming for the pathway that led to the beach. The Puget Sound always gave me peace of mind when nothing else could.

When I reached the break in the woods, where stepping over a fallen log transitioned my boots from a path of compacted dirt and pine needles to crunching pebbles, I was surprised to find that someone had beaten me there. Kat stood in the shallows of the shore, her bare feet almost emerging from the frigid saltwater as it receded. The wind picked up and flung about pieces of her short, bleached hair.

“I wondered how long it would take you to find your way out here,” she said, not turning to me or raising her voice above a murmur, but knowing I’d hear her all the same.

I meandered down the beach, stopping just behind the kelp line. The rhythmic whoosh of the gentle waves rushing up the rocky beach was already soothing my soul. “Will you go after Nik?” I had no doubt that Aset had asked Kat to help her find him.

Kat shook her head. “He doesn’t want to be found. I can respect that.”

“Can Aset?”

Kat laughed, no hint of humor in the sound. “Would you, if he were your son?”

I acknowledged her point with a tilt of my head, my fingers automatically finding the crystalline falcon pendant, my only link to my children. “What will you do, then? Will you stay here?”

Again, Kat shook her head. “I’m different, now. The things I’ve done—I don’t belong here, not anymore.”

“Kat—”

“It’s true, Lex. A lot has changed since you left. I’m not the weak girl you used to know.” Her voice was filled with regret, with longing. With resignation. “She died a long time ago.”

I crossed my arms over my chest, hugging myself against the chilly ocean breeze. “You were never weak.”

Kat turned her head just enough that she could see me out of the corner of her eye. “I’m not going to go back to the party. Will you tell Dom I said . . .” She frowned. “Just tell him thanks . . . and sorry. He’ll understand.”

I nodded. “Where will you go?”

She turned back to the endless stretch of gray-blue water. “Home. It’s time for me to go home.”

“I talked to Kat this morning,” I told Marcus. “While you were out in the vineyard. I was actually surprised she answered. The call was a bit of a Hail Mary.” My hand was in his as we strolled across a rolling Tuscan hillside, a blanket rolled up under my other arm. We’d been staying at the farmhouse just outside of Florence for the past month, decompressing. Marcus was taking a break from the Senate, Aset filling his seat in his absence. It was the first time we’d been alone for more than a day or two since we first met a year and a half ago. Even in other time periods, there were always people around us.

“Oh?” Marcus glanced at me, eyebrows raised. I didn’t think I’d ever seen his face so relaxed; it made him even more beautiful—painfully so. “And how is she?”

“She seems . . .” I frowned. “Busy. And distant. She said she hasn’t been avoiding my calls, but . . .” I trailed off with a shrug.

“She is setting up a whole new business,” Marcus said. A tattoo parlor, in fact, where the shop used to be. He gave my hand a squeeze, then released it. “She
should
be busy.” He stopped walking. “How about here?”

I looked around and grinned. We were roughly in the same spot where we’d picnicked the afternoon we’d allowed ourselves to get carried away with, well,
ourselves
. The city below was more sprawling than before, but it was still recognizable as that same bustling place I’d viewed from up here so many centuries ago.

“This is perfect,” I said, unrolling the blanket and shaking it out so it would lay flat on the tall grass. “I don’t know,” I said, returning to the subject of my youngest sister, “I just worry about her.”

Marcus set down the picnic basket he’d been carrying in the middle of the blanket and knelt beside it. I joined him, watching as he pulled out item after item—a baguette, a few plastic-wrapped hunks of cheese, a couple salamis, a bundle of napkins and knives, a wooden cutting board—until he found the two plastic wineglasses, the corkscrew, and the bottle of Verdicchio tucked away in the bottom of the basket. He quickly went to work uncorking the wine.

I tore the end off the baguette and nibbled on it. “I can’t help but feel like she’s shutting us out. Maybe if Nik were around . . .”

“They have both been through quite a bit,” Marcus said, tugging the cork free. “If they need some time, then they need some time. Luckily, time is something they both have more than plenty of.”

My heartbeat picked up as I watched him pour wine into one of the plastic glasses. I’d been anticipating this moment all morning, ever since I became certain.

Marcus offered me the glass. When I didn’t take it from his hand, he looked at me.

I shook my head, ever so slowly, and smiled.

Marcus’s brow furrowed, and his eyes searched mine. After a few heartbeats, his brow smoothed and a broad grin spread across his face. “Little Ivanov? Are you saying—”

“I’m pregnant.”

His hand was shaking as he set the glass and bottle of wine on the ground beside him. He didn’t notice when the glass fell over, spilling the wine into the grass and dirt; he was too focused on me. He leaned across the picnic basket and took hold of my face, kissing me and laughing and possibly even crying a little all at the same time. It was pretty much the best reaction I could’ve imagined.

“How long have you known?” he asked when he finally released me.

“I received a call from the doctor’s office this morning, just after I got off the phone with Kat.”

Marcus shook his head slowly, wonder filling his golden eyes, making them glow like the sun.

“Mother? Are you there?”

My mouth fell open, and I slapped my hand to my chest, my fingers gripping the At falcon pendant hanging there. “Yes!” My eyes locked with Marcus’s. “It’s Syris,” I told him, chin trembling, then reached for his hand and brought it up to the pendant so he could hear our son as well. “We’re both here,” I said. It was the first time we’d heard from the twins in a couple weeks. They usually checked in every few days. “Where have you been?”

“I’m sorry, Mother!”
Susie said.
“It’s my fault. I accidentally created a time vortex, and . . .”

As I stared into Marcus’s eyes, listening to our divine children recount their most recent exploits in an entirely different universe, a swell of pure, unadulterated serenity rose up around me and I felt an intense sense of rightness. This was what it had all been for—all the pain and suffering, all the fear and worry and not-knowing. This perfect, joyous moment, on this hillside. It had all been for this.

And it was worth it.

The end

***

Thanks for reading! You’ve reached the end of
Ricochet Through Time (Echo Trilogy, #3)
, and this concludes the Echo Trilogy, but Kat’s story is only just beginning.
Ink Witch (Kat Dubois Chronicles, #1)
continues Kat’s story. And don’t worry, Lex is in there, too. :)

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GLOSSARY

Akhet
 The first of three seasons in the ancient Egyptian year.
Akhet
is the inundation season, when the Nile floods, and is roughly correlated with fall in the northern hemisphere.

Ankhesenpepi
  Nejerette. Nuin’s eldest daughter and queen and consort to many Old Kingdom pharaohs, including Pepi I and II.

Apep (Apophis)
  Netjer or “god.” One of two Netjers responsible for maintaining balance in our universe, the other being Re. Apep was historically worshipped
against
as Re’s opponent and the evil god of chaos.

At 
Ancient Egyptian, “moment, instant, time”; The
At
is a plane of existence overlaying our own, where time and space are fluid.
At
can also be used to refer to the fabric of space and time.

Ankh 
Ancient Egyptian, “life”.

Ankh-At
  Nuin’s power. Includes (at least) the power to travel through time, to create and remove memory blocks, and to manipulate the At on this plane of existence.

Aset (Isis) 
Nejerette. Heru’s sister. Aset was worshipped as a goddess associated with motherhood, magic, and nature by the ancient Egyptians.

At-qed 
State of stasis a Nejeret’s body enters when his or her ba departs for the At.

Ba 
Considered one of the essential parts of the soul by the ancient Egyptians. In regards to Nejerets, the ba, or the “soul,” is the part of a person that can enter the At.

Bahur 
Arabic, “of Horus” or “of Heru”.

Blade
  A ruling Nejeret’s chief protector and companion.

Council of Seven 
The body of leadership that governs the Nejerets. The Council consists of the patriarchs of the seven strongest Nejeret families: Ivan, Heru, Set, Sid, Moshe, Dedwen, and Shangdi. The Meswett, Alexandra Larson Ivanov, is also an honorary member of the Council.

Dedwen 
A member of the Council of Seven. Dedwen was worshipped as a god associated with prosperity, wealth, and fire by the ancient Nubians.

Deir el-Bahri 
Located on the west side of the Nile, just across the river from Luxor in Upper (southern) Egypt. Several mortuary temples and tombs are located in Deir el-Bahri, including Djeser-Djeseru, Queen Hatshepsut’s mortuary temple.

Djeser-Djeseru
  Ancient Egyptian, “Holy of Holies”. Queen Hatshepsut’s mortuary temple in Deir el-Bahri.

Hatshepsut 
(ruled 1479—1457 BCE) Female Pharaoh during the Middle Kingdom of ancient Egypt. One of Heru’s many wives, and mother to the Nejerette Neferure.

Hat-hur (Hathor)  
Ancient Egyptian goddess associated with love, fertility, sexuality, music, and dance. According to the Contendings of Heru and Set myth, Hathor is the goddess who healed Heru’s eye. She is often depicted as a cow or a woman with cow ears or horns, and a sun disk is frequently cradled by the horns.

Heru (Horus) 
Nejeret. Osiris’s son, Nuin’s grandson, Aset’s brother, and former leader of the Council of Seven. Heru stepped down from his role as leader to function as the Council’s general and assassin, when necessary. Heru was worshipped as the god of the sky, kingship, and authority by the ancient Egyptians. He is often depicted as a falcon or falcon-headed.

Ipwet
  Human, Nejeret-carrier. Nuin’s primary
human
wife at the time of his death.

Ivan 
Nejeret. Leader of the Council of Seven. Alexander’s father and Lex’s great-grandfather.

Kemet 
Ancient Egyptian, “Black Land”. Kemet is one of the names ancient Egyptians called their homeland.

Ma’at
  Ancient Egyptian concept of truth, balance, justice, and order. To the Nejeret,
ma’at
refers to universal balance.

Men-nefer (Memphis)
  Ancient Egyptian city.
Men-nefer
was the capital city of Egypt during the Old Kingdom.

Meswett 
Ancient Egyptian (mswtt), “girl-child”. The Meswett is the prophesied savior/destroyer of the Nejerets, as supposedly foretold by Nuin upon his deathbed, though none actually remember it happening. The prophecy was later recorded by the Nejeret Senenmut.

Moshe (Moses) 
Nejeret. Member of the Council of Seven. Central figure in most western religions.

Neferure (Neffe) 
Nejerette. Daughter of Hatshepsut and Heru.

Nejeret (male)/Nejerette (female)/Nejerets (plural) 
Modern term for the Netjer-At.

Netjer
  Ancient Egyptian, “god”.

Netjer-At 
Ancient Egyptian, “Gods of Time”.

Netjer-At Oasis
  The ancient, historic home of the Nejerets, deep in the heart of the Sahara Desert.

Nuin (Nun) 
Netjer/Nejeret. One of two Netjers responsible for maintaining balance in our universe, the other being Apep. Also known as the “Great Father”, Nuin was the original Nejeret and the father of all Nejeretkind. Nuin was worshipped as a god associated with the primordial waters and creation by the ancient Egyptians.

Old Kingdom 
Period of Egyptian history from 2686—2181 BCE.

Order of Hat-hur
  An over 5,000-year-old, hereditary order of priestesses run by Aset and devoted to aiding the goddess Hat-hur (Lex) during her temporal journeys.

Osiris 
Nejeret. Heru and Aset’s father and leader of the Council of Seven until his murder a few decades after Nuin’s death. Osiris was worshipped as a god associated with death, the afterlife, fertility, and agriculture by the ancient Egyptians.

Pepi II (Pepi Neferkare)
  Pharaoh of the 6
th
Dynasty of ancient Egypt, 2284-2180 BCE. Final ruler of both the 6
th
Dynasty and of the Old Kingdom.

Peret
  The second of three seasons in the ancient Egyptian year.
Peret
is known as the season of emergence, during which planting and growth took place.

Re (Ra)
  Netjer. One of two Netjers responsible for maintaining balance in our universe, the other being Apep.
Re
was historically worshipped as the ancient Egyptian solar deity.

Ren
  Considered one of the essential parts of the soul by the ancient Egyptians, closely associated with a person’s name. In regards to Nejerets, a
ren
is the soul of a Netjer, like Re or Apep, much like a
ba
is the soul of a Nejeret or human.

Senenmut 
Nejeret. Scribe of Nuin’s prophecy and architect of the underground temple housing the ankh-At at Deir el-Bahri. Senenmut was the “high steward of the king” to Queen Hatshepsut as well as Neferure’s tutor. Senenmut was killed by Set after the completion of the underground temple.

Set (Seth) 
Nejeret. Nuin’s grandson, father of Dom, Genevieve, Kat, and Lex, and member of the Council of Seven. Possessed by Apep, Set went rogue when the Council of Seven chose Heru as their leader after Osiris’s death around 4,000 years ago.

Shangdi 
Nejerette. Member of the Council of Seven. Shangdi is worshipped as the supreme sky deity in the traditional Chinese religion.

Shemu
  The third and final of three seasons in the ancient Egyptian year.
Shemu,
literally “low water,” is known as the season of harvest.

Sheut
  Considered one of the essential parts of the soul by the ancient Egyptians, closely associated with a person’s shadow. In regards to Nejerets, a
sheut
is the power of a Netjer, like Re or Apep, or the less potent power of the offspring of a Nejerette and Nejeret.

Sid (Siddhartha Gautama) 
Nejeret. More commonly known as “Buddha” to humans.

Wedjat (Eye of Horus) 
Ancient Egyptian symbol of protection, healing, strength, and perfection.