Ricochet Through Time (Echo Trilogy Book 3) (5 page)

I glanced over my shoulder at burly Ivan, with his sculpted goatee and diamond-hard eyes. He gave me a somber nod in greeting. Alexander and Set shared the screen on the wall directly opposite Ivan, sitting shoulder to shoulder and looking cozy as could be. I no longer thought of Set as the man he’d been while possessed by Apep; though others still had issues separating Set’s actions from Apep’s, he was, to me, once again, the kindly man he’d been millennia ago, when his body had been his and his alone.

I shifted in my chair, my focus flitting to the open doorway. A thin sheet of At provided us more than enough privacy, though it felt like a flimsy wisp of a barrier to me. It was nothing but a false sense of security. A glorified alarm system. Despite Re’s assurances that the twins’ latent power would kick in the moment they sensed danger, I couldn’t help but feel that once we were alerted to the danger, it would be too late.

“We’ll get through this, Little Ivanov,” Marcus said, his voice barely a whisper. He was seated on my right, Re-Nik on my left. Marcus claimed my hand under the table and gripped it tight. When I tried to jerk my hand free, he held on. “
We
will get through this.”

I gritted my teeth and managed a tight, close-lipped smile. I still couldn’t bring myself to look into his lying eyes. “Of course we will,” I murmured.

“We all know why this emergency meeting has been called,” Ivan said. “Dominic, if you would begin.”

All eyes shifted to my half-brother, seated on Marcus’s other side, and a breathless hush fell over the room.

“Yes, of course,” Dominic said. “The prisoners told me much, most willingly.” His dark eyes turned to Marcus, then settled on me. “They claim they did not know it would come to this. Both believed the Kin’s false goals of taking down the Council, of establishing a new world order, with a democratic system of Nejeret ruling over humans from the shadows to usher in a modern golden age. Neither was aware of an extremist faction within their ranks.” He paused to meet the eyes of every Nejeret seated around the table, virtual and otherwise. “I believe them.”

His chest rose as he inhaled deeply. “It would seem that Carson witnessed a member of the Kin called Bree—apparently a Nejerette with a sheut, like Nik—free Apep from his prison and welcome him into her body. Carson fled and alerted Gen of what he’d seen, and together the two came straight here to warn us.” Dominic’s eyes honed in on Re-Nik. “You allowed others with sheuts to be born. You did not do a good enough job of policing the timeline.”

“Watch yourself, Dominic,” Ivan cut in. “Do not forget to whom you are speaking.”

“I could never forget,” Dominic said, his voice low and cold. He blinked, then seemed to shake himself out of a trance and once again scanned the faces surrounding the table. “There are more Nejerets with sheuts than just Nik and this Bree, not to mention whoever created the anti-At pocket watch. Gen claims that dozens, if not hundreds, of the Kin’s members have sheuts. Their power sounds slight in comparison to what the Meswett could do with the full Netjer sheut, but their minor sheuts do afford them a variety of special abilities, nonetheless. Somehow”—he shot a quick glare at Re-Nik—“they seem to have found a way to hide themselves from our ever watchful and diligent
Great Father
.”

“Dominic,” Ivan warned.

A thought struck me, and I sat up straighter. “Can one of them travel through time?”

Dominic’s eyes narrowed infinitesimally. “How did you know?”

“A time anomaly—that’s how they could be hiding from us. One of the Kin’s members being from another time would conceal them from us for, I don’t know, however long they’ve been building up their army of über-Nejerets. And it would be effortless—no need for cloaking in the echoes or anything like that. The time traveler just needs to be slightly out of time, and they and everything they influence around them won’t show up in the echoes.”

“I am in agreement with Alexandra,” Re-Nik said. “It is the only way they could have remained hidden from me for any amount of time.”

Dominic looked from Re-Nik to me and back. “Their leader, Mei, is supposedly ancient and somehow managed to go undetected until she discovered her ability to travel through time. For whatever reason, she started forming the Kin in utter secrecy hundreds, maybe thousands of years ago. Gen and Carson were unsure. As the Kin’s numbers grew, so did Mei’s power. Gen claims Mei had no interest in freeing Apep—”

“Then why hasn’t she gone back in time to stop it from happening?” I asked.

“Unless she can’t,” Re-Nik said. “Because she’s dead . . .”

I looked at him, eyebrows scrunched together.

“Mei’s body was found only moments after Apep was freed,” Dominic said, confirming Re’s supposition.

I felt sick, and slightly breathless. Just when I’d grown used to my current perception of the world, immortal beings with powers over time and all—godly children
and all
—the universe had to go and throw a viper into the mix. I was done. I didn’t want to know any more. No more surprises. No more revelations. No more.

“From all that Gen and Carson have told me—we do not know how many people might be working with this Bree or how long it will take Apep to settle into her body.” Dominic looked at me, his dark, deep-set eyes filled with compassion. “Assuming Apep’s goal is unchanged and he will, once again, attempt to possess the being currently holding what was once his sheut, we must expect him to come for you, Lex. And as such, we must prepare for the worst—that Apep is only minutes from our gates now, and that his and Bree’s companions are numerous and possess every possible sheut ability imaginable.”

My tongue turned into a cottony thing, so dry it stuck to the roof of my mouth. I wanted to throw up.

“Do not fear, my Alexandra,” Re-Nik said, leaning closer and rubbing my arm in what I supposed was meant to be a comforting gesture. Maybe it would have been if I could still feel. But I was numb, absolutely and completely.

I once had an odd conversation with an anatomy grad student over drinks, something that had stuck with me, though I hadn’t realized it until now. He told me that nature had the kindness of a mother, because when faced with deadly physical trauma, an animal—any animal—will go into shock. Their brain will sort of shut off the part of them that feels afraid, that worries, that thinks about the winter stash of nuts that will go uneaten or the babies that will starve in their absence. When faced with certain death, they go numb, mentally, physically, emotionally. Nature, benevolent mother that she is, provides them at least this comfort in the end.

I couldn’t help but wonder if Mother Nature was reaching out to me now, a preemptive attempt to cloak me in peace before the inevitable.

“Lex.” Marcus squeezed my other arm, not enough to hurt, but enough to shake me from my languid acceptance.

Damn it, I’d never been a quitter. I wasn’t about to start now.

“When the time comes,” Re-Nik said, his expression earnest, “the twins will protect you. They will whisk you off to safety. It is already written into the timeline. You must simply let it happen.”

I drew in a shallow breath, then another. Another. I had a bone to pick with him, Aset, and Marcus, all of whom had lied to me about my supposedly fast-approaching travels through time, but this was neither the time nor the place for that. I shelved my hurt and betrayal, tucking this latest edition in beside all the others I’d collected this past year, and focused on another worry. “What about the rest of you?”

While I might be whisked off to safety by the godly children in my womb, people I cared about would be left behind. Marcus and Dominic and the others—young, innocent Kat and poor little Tarset—they would be here, facing down an unknown number of super-Nejerets with unimaginable powers.

I looked at Marcus for the first time since we left Tarset’s room, feeling like a doe staring down a mountain lion. “You have to get everyone away from here—away from me. You can’t fight these people, Marcus.
Don’t
fight them. You have to run.”

A hard glint flashed in his eyes, a dark promise eclipsing their golden glow. “What would be the fun in that?”

***

“Talk to me, Little Ivanov.” Marcus planted himself behind me, placing his hands on my shoulders. We were in our suite’s sitting room. I’d been staring out the tall window for some time, watching dusk fall over the forest and the Puget Sound beyond, stewing in a mess of hurt feelings.

I gave his hands the slip and sidestepped to the next window over. Usually, I would go for a walk by myself to clear my head, but that was out of the question now. A bald eagle soared over the treetops outside. I envied it for its freedom.

“Lex . . .” Thankfully, Marcus stayed where he was. A good thing, because I’d have slapped him if he tried to touch me again right now.

I crossed my arms over my chest. “Is it just chemicals? Is that all we are—a pair of perfectly matched pheromone producers?” When Marcus didn’t say anything, my head drooped. “How long have you known I would be traveling back in time again?”
How long have you been lying to me?

“Since you came back from Kemet,” he said, using the ancient name for
Egypt
. “When you unblocked my memories, you unblocked all of them . . . not just the ones you’ve been a part of so far.”

I laughed under my breath and shook my head. “I feel like I’ve been the butt of some sick joke between you, Aset, Nik, and Re.”

“Nobody is laughing at you.”

“No, you’re just whispering about me in dark corners, planning my future—”

“What need do I have to plan your future, Lex, when it is my past?”

I looked at Marcus, drawn by the heat in his voice.

He moved to stand in front of me, his perfect face a thundercloud staring down at me, threatening a storm. “I live in fear every second of every day that each moment will be the last I share with you. And at the same time, I worry I’ll slip up and reveal something to you that will change things. Your future is my past, Little Ivanov. That’s all I’ve known since you returned to me.
Your
future is
my
past, and anything I tell you about what’s to come—any way I try to prepare you—might change how you act in that future. In
my
past. The very same past that has led us here to this moment. It is a loop that
cannot
be broken. This timeline—
our
timeline—must be protected.”

I sucked in a halting breath, then gave in and leaned against him. “I understand.”

His arms wrapped around me, encasing me in a false sense of security.

“I’m still mad at you,” I said against his shirt.

He chuckled, resting his chin atop my head. “I would expect nothing less.”

I’d never felt less safe in Marcus’s home. It was the knowing, I supposed. The sense of dreadful inevitability. The sun shining brightly through the living room’s broad picture window mocked me with its cheerful light. Usually I found Marcus’s taste in furnishings and decor too modern and cold with all of its sleek, clean lines and wide array of gray tones. But not this morning. At present, gray and cold fit my mood perfectly.

I sat on the end of the couch furthest from the snickering sunshine, one leg tucked under me, the foot of the other ticking the passing seconds just above the ashen hardwood floor. Thora, my brown tabby, and Rus, my ancient fluff ball of a kitten, basked in a rectangle of sunlight a few feet from my toes.

Kat, my half-sister, sighed, and I cast her a sideways glance. She was sitting on the far end of the couch, elbow on the squared-off sofa arm, cheek resting on her palm, and one slipper sitting on its side, forgotten on the floor. She looked even more miserable than me. Poor thing. Her mom was upstairs, locked away in the conference room with Dominic. In the days since Genevieve and Carson arrived, Dominic had taken to interrogating Genevieve in the house, far away from Carson’s prying Nejeret ears.

I was a wreck, constantly worrying about what would happen tomorrow . . . later today . . . in five minutes. At some point, I would be yanked away from this time and place; that much was all but written in stone. I just didn’t know
when
it would happen, and the anticipation was killing me.

Even so, I couldn’t imagine being in Kat’s shoes—or shoe, in the case of her abandoned slipper. She was one of a kind, and not in any enviable way. She was, like me, a newly minted Nejerette, and she was, like me, a daughter of Set. But unlike me, Kat was also a product of gross incest—Apep-Set having seduced his own unwitting daughter, Genevieve. The reality of Kat’s bloodline had come to light several months ago, revealed by Marcus in a last-ditch effort to rescue my ba from Apep-Set’s prison in the At. Only someone so genetically close to Set could break through his prison’s walls.

Unfortunately for Kat, eighteen at the time, she was still a few years away from manifesting, which meant her Nejerette traits had to be triggered early by forcing her into the At. Her body was forever stuck at its current level of maturity. She hadn’t cared. Once she’d heard that she was my only shot, she’d volunteered—against her mom’s wishes, of course—knowing full well that she would be the world’s first eternal teenager. She’d saved me, dooming herself to be forever eighteen in the process.

And just a few weeks later, Kat’s mom had left to join the Kin. Genevieve’s reasons were noble enough, I had to admit—from Dom’s interrogations, I knew she’d thrown her lot in with the Kin in order to create a more tolerant world for her daughter. Kat wouldn’t talk to anyone about it, but it was clear that Genevieve’s return was torture for her. She refused to visit her mother, no matter how many times Dominic relayed Genevieve’s requests. It was painful to watch. I couldn’t imagine living it.

Figuring it was just about time for us both to suck it up and stop wallowing—or, at least, to make a show of it, I cleared my throat and forced a wooden smile. “Hey, Kit-Kat . . .”

I waited for her to glance my way. I could practically see the dark cloud raining down on her.

“I’m going to head down and check on Tarsi. Come with me?” The four-year-old was still comatose, but neither Neffe nor Aset could say for certain whether Tarset could or couldn’t sense us when we visited her. I chose to assume she knew we were there and therefore visited her often, sometimes reading to her, sometimes just talking to her, and sometimes simply sitting there, holding her hand. It helped to pass the time. But even more so, it felt right.

Kat’s long mane of curly chestnut hair was knotted into a messy bun atop her head, and the stray curls sticking out here and there would’ve lent her a wild, wacky appearance had the usual sparkle shone in her brown eyes. But the glassy, dull gleam, the faraway stare despite looking directly at me, made her simply look wrung-out.

“Sure,” she said with a halfhearted shrug.

Stretching and groaning, I hauled myself up off the sofa, earning disinterested glances from the cats for disturbing their sunbathing. Kat rose as well and had to fish around the floor for a moment to recapture her lost slipper. She dragged her feet as she followed me into the entryway, the rubber bottoms of her slippers marking her path with a shsh-shsh-shsh.

“Lex!”

I sucked in a breath and clutched at my chest with one hand, flinging my other arm out in front of Kat like my mom always did when she had to brake suddenly.

Nik came barreling down the stairway, taking the steps four at a time and reaching the bottom in barely three strides. “Get into the basement and lock the door!” he ordered as he flew past us.

Kat and I stumbled backward a few steps, and Kat’s hands latched onto my arm.

Marcus and Dominic were halfway down the stairs, Neffe and Aset close behind them. The two ancient Nejerettes hauled a distraught Genevieve between them, twisting in their hold and gasping, “I didn’t know! I swear, I didn’t know!” She spotted her daughter clinging to me at the bottom of the stairs and redoubled her efforts. “I swear, Kat! I had no idea!”

“Now, Lex!” Nik took hold of my arm, practically dragging me to the basement door.

“What’s going on?” Panic threaded through my words. I didn’t fight against Nik, but I couldn’t help but stare back at Marcus as I passed him. “Is this it? Is it Apep? Is it time?”

Someone banged on the front door hard enough to rattle it on its sturdy hinges, and I had my answer. Nik had enshrouded the entire house and its immediate grounds in a shell of solidified At, and the only way anyone would’ve been able to get to the door would have been
through
the At.

“Yes,” Marcus said, pushing me after Nik. “Now go!” As we’d talked strategy over the past week, Marcus had revealed that it seemed to take the twins’ innate defense mechanism a little while to warm up, especially earlier on in my pregnancy. Our first priority was to buy them time once we knew Apep was here, his threat to me—to the twins—imminent.

I watched, wide-eyed and gaping, as the shimmering iridescence of At crept across the surface of the door like the deepest of freezes, transforming it into the otherworldly material. A moment later, the entire door dissolved into a glittering dust that floated away in the warm, midday air.

Carson stood in the open doorway, my old grad school peer. My academic competitor. The adorable, goofy, sweet young man who’d tricked me into believing he was my friend. The Nejeret who’d been in a healing trance just days ago. The one actual living person who I blamed for this entire, hopeless situation.

When his eyes met mine, an all-too-familiar inky darkness churned just below the surface, and my knees gave out.

“No . . .”

Nik shoved me behind himself, though I would’ve gone willingly. Hell, I
was
going willingly, but my foot tangled with Kat’s, and we both stumbled to the floor.

Carson—or rather, Apep—twisted his lips into a cruel sneer, his bright blue eyes laughing at us. At me. “Hello,
Mother
.”

“M—mother?” My stomach twisted, and I pressed my palm against my belly to stave off a rush of nausea. Was I looking at some time-traveling version of my grown-up unborn son?

Some distant, less dumbfounded part of my brain puzzled out his meaning. Carson wasn’t my son. And he wasn’t here to kill me, or to kill my children. He wanted to possess them—to ooze into their still-forming bodies, eject their emerging souls, and hoard their sheuts, their power, for himself. He wanted to
become
my child. To become the most powerful being in all the universe. And I would be his mother.

The prospect was more terrifying than death.

I was on my knees and pulling Kat up with me when a strange, butterfly-like sensation tickled me from deep within. It was closely followed by a gut-twisting cramp. I doubled over but didn’t give up the retreat. I crawled toward the basement door, Kat pushing my rear to propel me ahead.

Behind me, Kat yelped, and a moment later, the grunts of a scuffle give way to heavy breathing and a whole lot of nothing else. I risked a backward glance, daring to hope it was over and that Apep-Carson had somehow been subdued. Damn hope gets me every time.

Wearing what appeared to be a glimmering, almost transparent suit of armor, Apep-Carson stood before a trembling Kat. He was holding a pistol, the nozzle pressed against her forehead. Marcus stood just out of arm’s reach of Kat, hands upraised in surrender, Nik stood a few feet away from me, and Dominic lay sprawled on the ground near the missing front door, framed by a seeping puddle of blood.

I slapped a hand over my mouth.

Dominic wasn’t moving. I couldn’t even be sure he was still breathing, and with all that blood . . .

And Kat—this was the second time Carson had held her at gunpoint. It didn’t matter that he was possessed by Apep this time. I could only imagine how terrified she was.

“Let me pass or I’ll kill sweet little Kat here,” Apep said, using my former friend’s lips.

The combination of emotions I felt toward him and Carson at that moment knotted in my stomach, and I groaned under a violent wave of nausea. I gritted my teeth when another cramp throbbed in my belly, and some remote part of my mind realized that maybe it wasn’t the terror of the situation or the fear for Kat’s and Dominic’s lives or the disgust and betrayal that was causing my gut-wrenching discomfort.

Smoky threads surrounded me in reds and blues and yellows, wrapping around me like a ghostly cocoon.
It’s the twins,
I realized. They were reacting to the threat, trying to carry me—and, with me, themselves—away to safety.

Apep-Carson took a step forward—toward me—forcing Kat to step backward awkwardly. Another step. Another.

“Nik . . .” Marcus’s voice contained a warning.

“I know,” Nik snapped. “I’m not fucking blind!”

The gossamer rainbow surrounding me was growing denser, but it was still somewhat transparent. I was still here. The twins were still vulnerable to Apep. Their built-in defense mechanism was taking too damn long.

“Don’t you go anywhere yet,
Mother
.” Apep-Carson was close. Too close. Maybe a couple yards away.

Nik made as though to step between us, but Apep-Carson tutted him. “I really wouldn’t, if I were you,” the possessed Nejeret said, his tone dripping with condescension. Another step. “You won’t stop me.”

“Who said anything about stopping you, shit-stain?” Nik growled, lurching to stand before me. A sheet of At sprouted from both of his hands, curving around me until I was locked away in an impenetrable shell, surrounded by nothing but silence and that thickening, otherworldly mist.

I watched, sealed away, as Genevieve launched herself not at Apep-Carson, but at Kat. She shoved her daughter to the side with the force of her impact.

Not a second later, blood and hair and bone and other things sprayed from the back of Genevieve’s head.

It was the last thing I saw before the misty rainbow smoke thickened to opacity, and the world fell away.

“No!” I screamed. Because I was safe now, but everyone else I’d just left behind might very well be dead. I slapped the inside of my crystalized pod with both hands and howled in outrage, in pain, in desperation. “
Noooo!
”

My cocoon vanished between one slap and the next, and I fell forward on my hands and knees. The swirling colors of the At burst to life around me, and I floated there, breathless and terrified for the others. A moment later, an unrelenting black abyss consumed me.