Whenever-kobo (16 page)

I didn’t have to say the words. I could change his very future, right here, right now. “Callum?” There was so much more to tell him, but I had to ask him a question first. I had asked him twice before and this would be the last time. I whispered, “Do you like being a prince?”

“You ask me things no other girl would ask.” Callum kept his voice low. “My wishes don’t matter. My father will be a good king. He’ll be a positive force for Ireland. What is to be is.” He nodded with a rough jerky movement. “Tell them about the tombs.”

The tombs. The DNA. The image of his parents wavered in front of me and I had the impression that I was about to be torn away, as if this was one of those temporary, fast, curlicue tattooing trips he’d told me about. “You’re King Brian, descendant of the high kings of Ireland. The crypt below the chapel contains the DNA to prove your claim.”

Brian shook his head. “DNA? Like police evidence?”

“DNA.” I began to go into a more detailed explanation when two boys appeared in the doorway.

One boy was small and fair, maybe three or so and he held hands with a taller boy. I stilled as if seeing one too many miracles. Jamie but a little older.

Jamie said, “Hayley?” His voice wavered and cracked. “Callum?” He let go of the little boy’s hand. “You kneel down for the traveler, Sean.”

Sean knelt.

Jamie moved forward, his bright eyes searching ours. This Jamie appeared closer to fourteen than the child we’d left. “I waited for you. ‘Til you got here. I knew you’d come one day. I’ve learned so much and now will go to be reunited with my family.” He started the words to send him home.

“Wait Jamie.”

The chapel shimmered.

Please let us return home to 2013
. I reached for Callum.

***

Time pushed us forward. The pain bit sharp and relentless. I landed on my feet, clutching my side, and slipped to the floor.

White, polished concrete lay under my palms and the filmy medieval gown was little protection against my knees. I fell back to my butt and sucked in a breath, trying to counter the pain. Even expecting it hadn’t helped fight the intensity. “Callum,” I gasped out, feeling an urgent need to find him. Walls wavered in and lockers appeared.

The church was gone. Where were we? When were we? “Callum?”

“I’m here.” He crawled over, his face pale, his midnight eyes sharp. “Jamie’s gone.”

I threw myself against him. “I hope he made it back okay.” I bowed my head on his chest.

“We have to trust he did.”

I wanted to say more, but I couldn’t shake the anxious feeling running under my skin. “Something’s wrong, I feel so antsy.”

Callum ran his hand over my back. “I do too. It’s like before. Like we’re not in the right place.” He pulled to his feet with a groan, tugging me up after him. He cupped my face and gave me a brief electric kiss, tying me to the moment.

I closed my eyes a second, and then opened them, searching his gaze. “Are you sure I should have told your family about the DNA? We could have ended all your responsibilities as royal heir in one moment of silence. If we hadn’t told your parents about the high kings buried below the chapel, they’d have never gotten the DNA to prove your family’s claim to the throne.”

He was silent a few beats before answering. “I was born to this family and the responsibility. I have no right to make that choice for them.”

“I have to tell you something.” The first time I told Callum he wasn’t a prince was at the decathlon. It was accidental, unproven and may have saved his life while putting everyone else in jeopardy. He was a stranger then. Now I had to tell him intentionally because it was true, but it would change his life. And the truth was hard, because he was no longer a stranger. “Your blood didn’t move us.”

“It did. There was a delay.”

“In 1313 King Mael’s blood was on the emerald when we left.”

“So was mine.”

I swallowed. “When we were in the church and the King was threatening to send me back to King Mael, I got close enough to see his eyes. Did you notice the color?”

He raised his eyebrows in a guy way. “Blue?”

“Not just blue. Weird blue. Light blue. Blue with white in them. I’ve only ever seen that color once before.”

He held open his hands, having no clue what I was talking about. I stepped closer and made myself stop, turning away so I faced away from him. “I have to tell you something.” Thoughts screamed inside me to say what I’d figured out. That he didn’t belong here. He belonged in Trallwyn. But the truth seemed so self-serving now that it felt like a lie. I swallowed. “Austin,” I said. “Austin has eyes that color. I don’t know how, and I swear my decathlon DNA speech was a last minute made up one created on the spot. But maybe I wasn’t wrong. Maybe you
were
switched with Austin, because he looks like your ancestors. He has the same color hair as Jamie and those weird eyes like the King.”

Callum paled, his jaw tightened, and he backed away from me, his expression one of denial. “That’s not possible.”

“And your blood. Your blood didn’t move us.” A waft of artificially chilled air came over me and the images around us sharpened into full focus. I gasped at a poster on the wall:
Go Dragons, Decimate the Decathlon. Pop Trallwyn Prep.
The place smelled like books and bagged lunches. “I know where we are.” My gaze flew to the round white face of the industrial clock on the wall.
2:50 p.m.
“The decathlon starts in ten minutes. I’m home. Oh God, Callum, I’m home.” I covered my mouth with my hand as if to counter the emotions rolling through me.

“We’re not aligned with the right time.” His Irish voice came out oddly and I didn’t try to make him talk about my theory.

I concentrated on now. “Whenever we are, it’s close enough. It’s home.” The walls of the hall flickered and I knew, with a sick certainty, that we wouldn’t be allowed to stay. “I’m already here on stage. Can I be in two places at once?”

Callum held out his palms. “I’m sorry. I don’t believe we’re here long or even all here if that makes sense.”

Possibilities of why we were here tossed through my mind. “Come with me.” I ran down the hall toward the lab, wiggling the handle. Locked. I shook my head and braced a hand against the painted brick wall, trying to think.

The janitor rounded the corner and it was so weird to see someone from my real life in modern clothes that I could only stare. “Um, I need your help. There’s a prop in the lab I need.”

I thought the janitor would have some suspicious questions or odd looks at our clothes, but he just opened the door. “There you go.”

“Thanks,” I said as he left.

“No
problemo
.”

I ran to the desk and pulled out the drawer that held confiscated phones. Please, let at least one be held here over the weekend. There were four. I snatched one up and dialed Mom’s cell, crossing my fingers. Her voice came on the outgoing voicemail message and tears burned my eyes at the familiar sound. I swallowed hard and worked out a lie. “Hey, Mom. This round’s about to be rescheduled. The crowd for the prince is getting out of hand. Austin wants to hang out and practice so he’ll give me a ride home. Love you.” I swallowed again. “Love to the boys and Dad.” I hung up. They’d leave. They’d be safe away from here when the trouble started.

I pocketed the phone, hurried to the lab equipment and found the wrench, silently thanking Dad for making me help him on home projects, fixing things I thought we should throw out.

“What can I do?” Callum asked.

I handed him a screwdriver. He stared at it blankly.

“Like this.” I showed him how the tool worked and put him to work removing the screws. “We escaped so easily,” I said. “I hadn’t realized we had help.”

“Us.”

“Us.”

We did the ones on this side, went through to the other vent, then back into the lab. I spotted the bluebonnet planter and moved it onto a top shelf.

“I can still see it and reach it.”

I turned to Callum and frowned, wiping my hand on my skirt. “Don’t.” I dropped my gaze to his waist. “Can I see your scars?”

He lifted his shirt and turned to the side. I stared at two wavy blue lines, a blue curlicue and a pink curlicue. He dropped his shirt and held out his hand. “Do we match? Show me yours.”

I took his hand and let out a breath. “Not happening.” I eyed the bluebonnet. “And despite your penchant for theft, I like you. When did you know you liked me?”

“The second I saw you.”

I smiled. “No, when?”

“The second I saw you on the side walk. Your eyes that remind me of home, with their wee bits of crazy bright green. Your silky dark hair. Your skin that looks like touchable cream.”

“Looks.”

“Until I got to know you.” He stepped closer. “Then it was your smart mouth. Your bravery. Your sense of fun. But it’s more than that. There’s something about you that draws me to you. You’re compelling.”

The flattering words said with sincerity in his lyrical accent made me want to throw myself against him, put my hands on his shoulders, rise up and press my mouth to his. I closed my eyes resisting the urge. “Maybe you’d help me? If I reached you on the stage and asked you to follow me?”

“I’d go.” He sounded so certain, I felt another rush of pleasure.

“Then maybe we can stop this from happening at all. I can get you away. Remove their target.” But that meant he’d never take me to Ireland. I’d never time travel. I’d never know him, the way I do now. Entitled. Spoiled. Handsome. Intelligent. Brave. Mine? I tightened my fingers and swallowed. “Even if it means we change things. That I won’t know you.” My voice cracked and my face heated.

Callum squeezed my fingers in return. “You don’t know me if you think that. As I said. I get what I want. Somehow, some way, some time.” He pressed his lips to mine, a fast fleeting kiss, a promise that he knows me now and would know me in the future. And then we pulled apart and ran toward the auditorium.

The sensation of being rushed intensified, and my heart thrummed against my chest. “We don’t have much time.” My free hand went to my waist in anticipation of the pain.

“I feel it,” Callum said.

We crossed backstage and I paused a moment, hearing the crowd through the curtain. I had such a wicked sense of déjà vu that I had to stop myself from going on the other side of the curtain and taking a seat at the decathlon table. My real life was there. I shook off the feeling. We were losing time. The sense of urgency ran through my whole body like caffeine high on top of an all-nighter.

I opened my mouth to call for Callum, to yell because the pain hit, but there was no sound. I pulled the confiscated phone from my pocket and dialed 9-1-1. The phone blurred and became light as air. It fell, thumping to the stage. The pain intensified, jerking me back.

I landed dead center on the pulpit, right beside Callum. I recognized the voices around me and understood them instantly. Austin. Sean. Lisette. Home. In the same way that a bubble pops, the room snapped into focus. Sean waved the gun and said, “It’s you. You.” Wild fervor colored his voice.

Lisette was there. Unhurt. Not shot. Time had shifted. She held her hands out. “Everyone stop. Please.”

They all seemed to see Callum and me at once. They froze.

I could imagine what we looked like. A minute ago, I’d been in a green silk dress covered in hiking-incident scratches. Now, I’d returned in a full medieval gown covered with gems.

Almost involuntarily, Sean dropped to his knees. “Whatever we may provide.”

Austin jumped Sean, going for the gun. Sean didn’t let go. He elbowed Austin in the side, scrambling up. Austin landed a punch on Sean’s face that knocked him back a step.

Rotating on his heel, Sean leveled the gun. Austin lurched to the side.

I knew what would happen. “Lisette, move!” I screamed.

Lisette dove away. The bullet released, burrowing into the stone wall with a
crack
.

The air smoked with a burnt smell like fireworks.

My heart raced, and I gasped out, “Sean, you know who we are. You know where we went. We’re travelers.”

His attention froze on me.

“If all this is to preserve the throne, truly protect your family, you have to stop. It’s your most sacred duty. Drop the gun.”

Sean’s wild gaze swiveled from one person to the next.

Austin inched back a step, his hands high in the air. His mouth opened and closed.

“Drop your weapon. It’s over. It ends now,” I said.

Sean aimed the gun between us, pointing mostly at Austin and Callum.

“No,” I said.

Callum stepped forward and in front of me. He held one palm out and the other clutched his waist. “We saw, Sean. We saw Jamie disappear. You were there.”

Sean twitched and his whole body rocked. “Jamie.” He shook his head. “I imagined that.”

“Jamie went home.” I made my voice soft. “It wasn’t your fault. Nothing bad happened to him. He just went home.” I hoped that’s where he went. Or maybe some place better.

Sean dropped the gun. The metal weapon hit the marble floor with a loud crash.

Callum ran and scooped the weapon up. He emptied the chamber.

Sean didn’t move.

Callum handed Austin the bullets and placed the empty gun in a stone nook behind the altar. He paused there and turned back to us. “How many men are after us? What did you set up?”

Sean stayed silent, seeming incapable of speech.

Callum shook his head and motioned to us. “There’s a tunnel in the crypt that leads to the castle. If the tunnel’s still there, we’ll bypass anyone trying to stop us. We have a way to get to get home. Who’ll go with me?”

I ran to his side and took his hand.

He tilted his head toward me. Austin and Lisette stared at us with slack jaws, their expressions held more disbelief than they’d held this entire unforgettable trip. Callum pulled back.

“When did y’all change?” Lisette asked.

“You got all blurry and then came in clearly, all dressed up like the drama department headed to the renaissance festival,” Austin said.