The Source: Book III of the Holding Kate Series (26 page)

“Gregory.”

“Please, Kate, call me Greg.”

Kate smiled. “Greg, were you really married to the other Kate?” Her eyebrows lifted in incredulous inquiry.

“Ah, yes. There is so much we need to discuss.” Greg wiped his mouth with his linen napkin and pushed back from the table. “Let’s take this to a more comfortable setting, shall we?”

Kate stood and took Greg’s proffered arm, and he led her around the corner to an area with several beds suspended from elaborate chains. Comfortable cushions were scattered around the inviting plush swings.

Greg held out his arm for Kate to take the choice of seating areas. She crawled onto the end of one of the swings and Greg took the swing that made a right angle to hers. He stretched out on his side with his head reclined toward her. She smiled and followed suit, tucking a pillow under her arms. A floral scented breeze wafted through the veranda and ruffled Greg’s hair a bit. Lamps flickered around the area casting a soft illumination on his face.

Kate again noticed how strikingly handsome he was in a refined and dignified manner.

“Shall I begin?” he asked with an expression of pleasant bliss.

Kate nodded and tucked the pillow under her chin.

“Yes. I was married to Kate, The Mother. But before I get into that, I think I should start where we last left off.”

“The tornado world,” Kate breathed and her eyes widened in concern.

“Yes. I suppose you don’t know it, but I had a bit of a crush on you, Kate. I mean did I really ever have a chance?” He laughed.

Kate smiled and covered her face.

“You are so beautiful. Even now, you look just as you did that night we danced. I was smitten by your kindness and beauty. I felt I must protect you at all costs. Silly rationalization of a preteen, I know, but at the time it was my heroic way of protecting you. I decided if I gave myself to the tornados, they would leave you alone or the sphere would come for you.”

“You were right. The sphere came right after the tornados took you.”

Greg took in this information with a nod. “I was shocked to wake up in the care of a dear farmer and his wife in Poland in the late 1920s. They adopted me as their son. I finally had a home and a mother and father who loved me. It was far better than anything I had known to that point.”

Kate’s face was drawn into sadness. She remembered eleven year old Greg telling her horror stories about his foster care situation.

“When rumors of the invasion came to us, they sent me to a boarding school outside London to protect me. I found out years later that they were taken by the Nazis. I suppose they died in a concentration camp. They were Jewish.” His voice became husky and tears formed in his eyes.

Kate’s heart clenched inside of her chest.
Poor dear, Gregory
!

“So, I knew quantum jumps were a possibility long before anyone considered it. I studied science, physics, quantum theory and even developed my own quantum field. It was unstable, though. I went to the states to study with a doctor who had published. His name was Rick Wilson.”

Kate frowned. Why was that name familiar?

“You recognize the name, no doubt. He was the founder of your beloved Heartwork Village. He was Corey’s great great grandfather.”

“Oh!” Kate frowned. “Greg how is that possible you are barely in your thirties?”

“I would guess around twenty seven.” He smiled. “I have lived most of my life in alternate timelines.”

“You stopped aging.”

“Yes. Even this place and time is alternate. While we are here, we will not age, discernibly.” He touched the chain of the swing bed. “I have spent much time here.”

“So you met The Mother here?”

“Yes. When I invented the remote, I was able to jump at will. On one of my excursions, I came upon you. There you were, looking as young and beautiful as always, hooked to a contraption. You recognized me and I devoted several years to setting you free.”

“Not me, Greg. Her,” Kate whispered.

“Yes, her. But you need to understand that I thought she was you. I didn’t know that you had split away. I was determined to rescue you from that chair. I did finally succeed and by that time we were deeply in love. You and I were married and we built this castle together with the help of our dragon friends, of course.”

Kate scanned the dark skyline almost expecting to see the dragons hovering there.

“We were very happy. The dragons were happy. They lived here at Dragon Castle with us for many years. The rooms were built big enough to house them and their caretakers. In order for the dragons to be able to come and go at will, we built enormous entrances for each of them. We communicated easily because I made a portable version of The Mother’s chair. It did not require her physical contact, only her psychic presence.”

Kate shook her head. “I don’t understand. Psychic presence?”

“Yes. In essence she was able to conduct her business through thought-speak. Do you remember how Dagan could speak directly to your thoughts?”

Kate shuddered and nodded.

“It was because of The Mother. She was the source of that connection. With my invention, Kate could continue to source the connection between dragons and landwalkers but did not have to be connected to the device to do so.”

“I digress. Excuse me.” He flipped his hand as though tossing the thought away. “Back to Kate. She began to confide in me how she came to be The Mother and how you had been snatched away from her. At first I couldn’t believe it. It didn’t seem possible that you could have split. But I scanned the digital quantum input and saw you in a forest with Trip. You were—very cozy.” He cleared his throat as though embarrassed.

Kate remembered that night against the tree when she and Trip discussed their feelings under a blanket, wrapped in each other’s warmth. “But we discussed our feelings for Tara and Corey, didn’t we?”

“Perhaps, the digital quantum flux only records visual input. The quantum hum cancels out the sound.”

Kate grimaced, not understanding anything he’d said. He laughed.

“It doesn’t record sound, just video,” he clarified. “Just seeing you in an alternate place when I knew my Kate had been connected to the chair at the same time was enough to verify her story. She became obsessed with being whole again.” A tear rolled down his cheek and he quickly wiped it away.

Kate reached over and squeezed his hand.

“You are still very kind, Kate.” He stared into her eyes. “I wanted to reunite the two of you. I thought if she felt such a rupture in her soul that you must feel it too and be longing for that missing part of you. I launched the plan to get you back here. I had an acquaintance who worked as a lab tech at the village and she was able to get me access to the Inner Circle. I thought if I could get you back to that world, we would be able to heal you.”

He turned to Kate with great sorrow in his face. “I had no idea how much trouble I was causing you on the jumps. Everything is just so different in there. I didn’t have the control or influence I thought I would. It took everything inside of me to keep you safe.

“When that plan failed miserably I came back here, buried my wife and spent some time in mourning at a different jump site. It was difficult losing you twice.” He looked down at their hands.

Kate felt self-conscious about holding his hand, but didn’t want to hurt him more by pulling it away.

“I just needed to know that you would be happy with Corey. I jumped into your future to see and I was shocked. You were not together. You were alone and very sad and he was living it up lavishing his wealth on a new wife.”

Kate, shocked at this revelation, snatched her hand back as though realizing she were petting a cobra. “No,” she whispered, lips quivering, squeezing her fingers until they blanched.

“I couldn’t bear your sadness. So I once again enlisted the help of my acquaintance at Heartwork Village. She had cared for me diligently when I was in the Inner Circle.”

Kate suddenly remembered the day she and Corey went into the Inner Circle room so she could “meet” them. Just before they left she turned and caught the eye of the lab tech who protectively stood over Gregorvitch Mattovdzky. She lifted her eyes to Greg as recognition awakened. “It was Najwa!”

“Yes, she eagerly volunteered to help. I sent her back in time to the medical school so she could learn the Darchori ways to be ready for the Spear Cathair jump.”

Kate sat up. “You did this? Why?”

“I thought we could head off the failure of your marriage. I thought she would be able to steer you and Corey through the difficult time that led to your split. I did not know she would betray all of us.”

“She
caused
the split of my marriage, Gregory! If you had left us alone then we would have been fine.”

“No, Kate, it was not her that I saw as Corey’s next wife,” he hesitated.

Kate couldn’t bear the phrase ‘Corey’s next wife’ spoken so candidly. She closed her eyes and drew a shaky breath.

“It was Tara.” His features darkened. “The dragon slayer. The murdering—” He caught himself and wiped another tear from his cheek. “She was the wife that Corey was crazy about.”

Kate turned a shocked face to Gregory. “What? No, she and Trip—it can’t be.” Her voice trembled.

“Yes, I am so sorry, Kate, but if I had not interfered, Trip would have been killed and Tara would have turned to Corey for comfort and they would have—” He stopped speaking.

“Trip and Tara are destined to save a world. But they must remain alive and together. The timeline you were in was destructive. I couldn’t let that happen.”

Tears ran freely down Kate’s face. “Why didn’t you take Najwa away when you realized what she was doing?”

“As soon as I saw her plan, I intervened.”

“I don’t understand. You didn’t know she was separating us?”

“Not that plan, Kate. She definitely went rogue when she started bonding with Corey instead of helping the two of you. But that is not the plan I am referring to. Najwa was taking you to the cabin to kill you.”

Kate jumped up. “She said Corey wanted me back and was waiting for me there.”

Gregory’s face grew long and he shook his head. “It was a lie. Corey is irrevocably in love with her. She is seductive. She was just securing his devotion, making sure he wouldn’t be tempted to return to you. She doesn’t know that he will eventually fall in love with Tara.”

“No.” Kate couldn’t seem to breathe, she covered her face with her hands. “Oh, God, no! I have truly lost him.”

She stumbled around the swing, blinded by her tears.

Gregory’s voice was raw and broken as he called. “I am so sorry, Kate.”

She careened through the castle trying to find her chamber and eventually stumbled to the right place. She flung herself onto the bed and wept bitterly for lost love and hopeless dreams.

COREY PRESSED HIS
thumbs against his throbbing temples. The Keepers and Cheleuthi warriors stared with frowns at Najwa as she completed her story.

“He hired me, trained me, and honed me into a weapon against you.” She dissolved into sobs and her breath came in hitched spasms. Candol presented her with a towel to wipe her tears and they all sat there in baited anticipation waiting for Corey to say something.