Storm Front: NA Fantasy/Time Travel (Tesla Time Travelers Book 3) (23 page)

They hit the end of the yellow rope and it whips their heads back. Once they realize they’re suspended, Tiana scrambles toward Constantine, desperate to climb him. He reaches for her, but they’re too far away to touch. His feet stretch to reach the sides of the crater, but he’s a foot away and dangling by nothing more than my rope burning the grass and smoldering against the dirt. With every movement they make to try and get out, my hold slips and I’m drawn closer to the edge.
 

“Don’t move!” I scream at them. They have to hold still or I’ll drop them for sure. I don’t have the strength or intensity to do anything but keep them from landing on the wrestlemania down below.
 

It’s less than eight feet to the bottom, and they’d probably be fine other than scrapes and bruises, but my gut won’t let them go—I don’t want either of them anywhere near Penya. Not when she’s this unstable. All it would take would be one missed punch from Ilif, one nicely landed right hook from her, and she’d slip his hold, grab the people I love more than life, and disappear forever. I have to hold them, I have to get them up and out of the crater. My arms start to shake from the exertion.

But then I see it… and a new terror fills me. Now I can’t let them fall. No matter what happens, no matter how much it hurts, I can’t let go.

Penya’s holding another handful of residue.
 

I struggle to hang on, but my shoulder burns, and the small amount of work is draining me fast. I’m not recovered enough to pull this off and I’m going to lose them both. My chest tightens.

Penya shoves the residue toward Ilif to force the situation, but he knocks her hand, sending it skyward toward Tiana’s dangling feet.

The shimmering strands of residue hang delicately in the air, three feet below Constantine’s left heel. He stares at me and I can’t meet his gaze, can’t see the confidence he has in me, knowing I’ll be able to succeed this time where I failed the last time we used this damn yellow rope. Tiana’s crying and alternating between reaching for him and reaching for me. Luckily, she weighs about a hundred pounds, but it’s still enough to strain the rope and my ability to hold her. “Please hurry,” she whimpers.

Constantine slips a few inches. I struggle to hold onto him, but he’s too heavy. I need to use the strand that’s holding Tiana, or get her up top so I can put more energy into his.

“I can’t hold you.”

Ilif and Penya ignore me, caught in their own battle and right now I don’t care what happens to them. This is all their fault. Now I’m on the precipice of losing two people—I shove the thoughts away. “Focus, Evy,” I tell myself. “Think.”

I need more power and if I do, Ilif will vanish. We need to kill Penya. That would solve everything.

Constantine meets my gaze and nods, coming to the same conclusion. “Drop me.”

“No! You’ll fall into the residue.”

He unsheathes his sword and glances over at his shoulder at the pattern of residue and Penya’s position to the left and on top of Ilif. “Do it!”

My body aches with a fierce rebellion and it’s going to start shutting down. I’m beyond exhausted. My legs buckle and I crash into the dirt, dropping both of them another foot. Tiana screams.

I can’t hold them both. I can’t.

“Now,” he yells.

I release him at his command and wrap the strand around Tiana and yank her to me. She collapses into my arms and we’re both covered in yellow. I can’t take my eyes off Constantine as he falls in slow motion toward the bottom of the crater.

Tiana turns away, burying her face in my neck. I flare my lightning, prepared to leave at the exact moment my heart breaks. He holds his sword high and he falls past three strands of residue, nearly touching all of them at the same time.

I shove Tiana behind me and throw a huge ball of yellow at Constantine, desperate to save him, unwilling to let chance and hope save him, and counting on my skill to time this perfectly. He needs to kill her first, but I can’t let him fall through the residue. I can’t let him be flung to the far reaches of the universe without me. I have to try.

His sword tip drives into the base of Penya’s neck and her eyes open wide in shock. He pushes hard on the hilt, sending it through her and there’s no question he’s succeeded. I stretch forward, pulsing the rope, needing to grab him and pull him up to safety.

My lightning is an inch away from kissing the sole of his foot when his elbow brushes a floating strand of residue.

I cry out and Tiana flares a fistful of lightning.

I lunge toward the empty space Constantine occupied. She pulls me back, hand fisted in my collar. Darkness swallows us whole.

We land in the kitchen and Papi instantly pulls us to him. “Thank God. Evy, I knew you could do it.” It takes him a second to figure out we’re both sobbing. I can’t speak, can’t tell him why.

“Evy!” He’s in my face, arms on my shoulders. “Evy, tell me what happened. Are you hurt?”

I think I am, I was, but now maybe not. I don’t care. I don’t know. I stare right through him. Why did Tiana do that? Why did she take us home before I could save him? She didn’t know… Didn’t know I could have grabbed him, but he was already gone. Already gone. It didn’t matter because I failed.

“I’m so sorry, so sorry.” Tiana hugs me to her and Papi holds us tight, rocking us, then my legs give out and he lowers me to the ground.

“Girls, you have to tell me what happened.”

My mind is a spinning mess of thoughts and a blackness so dark no amount of lightning will eradicate it. Papi turns to Tiana but she’s blubbering and crying too and can’t answer any of his soft questions. He pats us down and once he’s satisfied we’re not injured, he gently gets me up and on a stool, Tiana tucked on the one beside me. We hold hands and she pets my arm, mumbling her apologies.

I’m numb to the events cleaved my soul in two.

Constantine wasn’t supposed to do that. I suck in breath but it clogs in my throat. He wasn’t supposed to pick Tiana. But I should have known given the chance, he would. He gave himself to save her because he knew I’d never forgive myself if anything happened. Saving Tiana was never supposed to come at the cost of him. I had her, I’d saved her. I’d saved them both and if he’d have waited… waited we could have figured out another way.

Mami hurries into the room, tucking me against her chest and stroking my hair.

“I can’t lose him,” I mumble. “I can’t.”

Ilif stumbles in, clothes torn, bruised, bloodied, looking like he’s been through a meat grinder. His gaze touches mine.
 

“Penya?” I ask.

He closes his eyes and lets out a stuttering breath. “Dead.” He lifts two silver cubes. “I still have this matter to contend with, but I wanted to see to your safety.”

I swallow. “And Constantine?”

He shakes his head. “I’m sorry. Penya’s body was the only one at the base of the crater. I left her to come to you.”

I bite my fist and curl forward while he explains everything to Papi. Mami reheats a bunch of food and puts it on the counter behind us though none of us are in the mood to eat. She retreats to the front room so we can talk. I grab her hand on the way by. “Gracias.”

She kisses my temple. “Hold hope, Evy. All is never lost.”

I stare at the wall, not hearing anything Papi and Ilif are saying. Tiana hugs me tightly and rubs my cheek. “We’ll figure out something. I love you.” I hug her back as best I can and she asks Mami to tuck her in. I can’t think about sleeping… I may never sleep again.

My eyes burn with unshed tears and Ilif lays a hand on my shoulder. “You should go look for him.”

Papi nods. “Then you’ll know for sure.”

I blink and shake my head. “If I know for sure then there’s no chance he’s still out there.”

“But what if he’s back home?”

I waver, my gaze bouncing between Papi and the door to the living room my baby sister passed through, safe at last. Safe because of Constantine.

“I’ll keep her home. Don’t worry,” Papi says.

Ilif squeezes gently. “There may be the tiniest bit of residue.”

I stand and nod. If nothing else, I’ll be able to cry my heart out in the darkness of a Spanish sky.

I land at the door to the armory. Janus glances up from a pile of armor he’s mending and I nearly collapse at Constantine’s absence. He smiles and straightens, stretching his back. It’s the old him, not the one I saw moments ago. “He’s in the North field, fixing a section of fencing.”

I falter and cry out in relief.
 

My hands fly to my chest and I choke back the sobs.

I’d held out little hope he’d be here, little chance he’s somehow managed to come back home. My eyes fill with tears and I sniff back the onslaught of emotions I’m unprepared for.

I pull it together, thank him, then take off running, unsure why I didn’t land closer. Now I’m terrified of what I’m going to find since I’ve never arrived so far away—is this some sort of warning he’s not who I’m expecting? My heart pounds and I push my legs faster.
 

My muscles burn and I’m exhausted as I barely make it over the last hill. The two arcs have helped heal me though they weren’t true alterations, but none of matters. If he’s here and alive, I’d willingly opt to be permanently injured for the trade.

When I’m a dozen feet away, he steps into the clearing and the sob I’ve been holding in tears loose. I nearly crash to the ground at the vision of him, this older version, the one who knows me inside and out. The one who’s still very alive after trading his life for Tiana’s. I don’t understand any of it or how it worked, but I don’t care. He’s alive. But he shouldn’t be. “How could you?”

His lips curl in the slightest of smiles. “I wondered when would happen for you.” He leans the ax against a pole and straightens. “Only a month of waiting on you since her disappearance.” He runs a hand through his hair. He’s quiet and teasing, like maybe he’s come to grips with the strange flow of our relationship and I will always come to him. On some timeline, it’s been a lot longer than a month since he pulled bullshit stunt, so he’s had plenty of time to get over his near-death experience.
 

Nothing matters now and my anger and fear abates with the acceptance he’s really standing in front of me. My entire body trembles as I wait for him, shaking my head in disbelief.
 

If there is one man who understands the importance of sisters and what we’re willing to do to keep them in our life, it’s him. He’s seen pain and death—lived every moment of heartache and regret, knows the blackness of grief from the inside out. He promised me long ago he’d give up everything he had to keep me from experiencing one moment of pain like that. Tonight he proved it.

Through a throat thickened with emotion, I whisper my wonder. “It’s not possible for me to love you any more than I do in this moment.” He gave it all for me, gave his very life to keep my own intact.

He opens his arms to me and I launch myself the last few feet. “Don’t do again,” I say, pelting him with kisses.

“Every time, Evy,” he whispers, crushing me to him. “Every time.”

I kiss him with abandon and for the desperate confirmation I haven’t lost him. I still don’t have my own home to go to, and I’d like to stay here until I can find a new place to live, but while I love Constantine’s small, cozy place—The one where we’ve shared so much, learned about each other, the only place in the world where I’ve exposed any vulnerability, there’s one other place I need to be.

For the immediate future, I want to prove I’ve learned from my biggest—and worst—mistake. I take Constantine’s hand and loop lighting around us, immediately taking him back to Papi’s so I can ensure every single member of my family is safe.

We arrive in the kitchen and the mood is better than when I left. Ilif’s showered, or gone and come back. His face still looks like shit and his shirt’s seen better days, but I’m glad he’s here. He greets Constantine warmly and they shake hands. Mami’s cooking and eagerly kisses Constantine on both cheeks. Other than the time-traveling, Roman-warrior bits, it’s a normal evening.

I relax and sit on a stool. We’re all here, I’ve managed not to endanger any of them, or lose a single one—It’s been a long damn day.

Papi leans over and claps Constantine on the shoulder. “Maybe take her to bed, eh?”

He nods solemnly and picks me up, cradling me against his chest. I direct him toward my room and he manages not to be completely stunned at the size or softness of the bed as we crawl in.

I’m too tired to undress, so Constantine does it for me, leaving my T-shirt and panties on before ridding himself of his own clothes. Tucked tightly behind me, he holds me like he’s never going to let me go and I sigh, relaxing into him. Safe. We’re all safe.
 

We sleep like the dead… For a while…

I wake in a panic, freaking out about the torture device strapping me down, then I slowly recall the events and turn in Constantine’s arms. He’s awake and watching me. I trail my fingers across his face. “You could have died.”

He kisses my fingertips. “I would not have wanted to live had your sister perished.”

My eyes water at the thought of losing her and my throat constricts. No one understands the depth of my love and connection to my family like he does, but he wasn’t supposed to give his own life for hers. “Thank you,” I whisper as tears slide to the pillow. “But losing you would have destroyed me.” I swallow and force the words. “
Did
destroy me.” The agony of it is so fresh it steals my breath. I sniff as a new wave of tears overtakes me. “Every time I come home without you, not knowing whether you’re alive or dead…”

“I know.” He traces the line of my nose, then brushes his fingers across my cheeks. “It is the same for me. Being apart from you is my greatest torture.”

“But when we’re together, I can’t protect my family.” I don’t want to have to choose. Too many bad things have happened when I’ve stolen this time with him and I can’ t take not being with him. He’s the other half of me whether in battle, or strategy, or here, in bed.

“We are all together now. And under my protection.”