Always and Forever (46 page)

Quinn's heart broke thinking of Gabriel learning of the deception by someone he cared about. They had been in Katherine's presence every time they were in his home and had never known.

"You showed up on Gabriel's door step to keep an eye on him," Quinn accused.

"Of course. I wasn't done with him, yet, not when he still had you," Katherine purred.

"And you were my boss, before I went back, you were the silent boss that I wasn't allowed to meet." The pieces began falling into place for Quinn.

"You are smart, I'll give you that. Yes, how else was I going to get close to you and Derek, make sure you were following the path I had set for you? Besides being the voice over the box, like Charlie's Angels, was just too much fun. Not even Cole knew my true identity."

"Who's Mr. Payne?"

"An actor. I figured why not rework the original plan?"

Quinn didn't miss the note of anger and resentment in her tone at the mentioning of Mr. Payne.

"What happened to him?"

It was surprise in those pale eyes before she said, "He grew very fond of Gabriel and you and was no longer of any use to me so he's dead."

It wasn't just that she killed him but the manner in which she offered the news, she really was insane. Quinn realized, with sudden clarity, that she wasn't going to live through this.

"Why Katherine?"

"So you do know. I probably didn't need the hair dye and contacts looking as I do but I didn't want to take the chance."

"Why are you doing this?"

"I love him. Loved him since we were kids, but he never noticed me. Then one day you walked into Brazen Head Pub and all it took was one look and he was lost. Completely and totally lost to you. Do you know what it's like to watch the one you love with another? I was forced to watch the courting, the engagement, the marriage, the children; it was the children that made me snap. I didn't mean to kill him. You, yes, I meant that, but not him."

"Our anniversary party," Quinn whispered.

"Yes, he came in right after I shot you and he was so enraged that I had to shoot him or he would have killed me. After, I realized what I had done but there I was standing over your bodies in the home of Archer and Morgan and the romantic tale of how you and Gabriel were really Archer and Morgan's souls that found each other again and that was when the idea formed."

"I didn't have a lot of time because it wasn't going to take long for the cops to figure out who killed you. I knew about the Mayan's theory, hell, everyone in the future did. I had spent a great deal of time looking into Tessa's research so I knew I could go back and fix what I had done," she said.

"I wanted someone to test it first though so I approached Constance and Derek, who were all too willing to take the ball and run with it. I didn't think it all through, didn't realize all the repercussions because there simply wasn't time for that. I did have the foresight to realize going back for Gabriel wouldn't change the outcome. But I realized if I went all the way back and had Archer fall in love with me," Katherine paused, "then the soul his would seek in the future would be mine and not yours."

"It didn't work though."

"No, Archer didn't want me, paid me no notice so I killed him which altered the future and still Gabriel didn't want me. I don't handle defeat well so I slipped back into the past again and tried a different tact to win over Archer and then you appeared. Like Gabriel, one look and he was yours. How the hell did you appear in the past, anyway?"

"I don't know. I was sent back," Quinn answered honestly.

Katherine snorted at that. "Explains why you didn't age. Look at me? As if Gabriel would want me now."

"You've caused so much pain, destroyed lives and dreams, just so you could force a man to marry you. A man who you already knew would never love you," The pain that exploded in Quinn's head when the butt of the gun nailed her in the temple caused her to stumble backwards, blindly reaching for something to balance herself.

"Well, he may not want me but he isn't going to have you either," Katherine's dire words hung in the air as she raised the gun, aimed and fired. The pain was searing as Quinn's hands immediately reached for her stomach where her white blouse was rapidly turning red.

"I won't kill him this time, just like our last little bout, and now he can mourn your loss again and spend the rest of his life grieving for you. With the Codex and the pendant destroyed, Constance and Derek's memories of time travel have been erased so no one can go back to fix what I've done. I warned you, Quinn, it never seems to end well for the women who link themselves to Archer or Gabriel."

Katherine's demonic laugh, a sound that was devoid of sanity, chilled Quinn. "I've grown rather tired of all this."

As Quinn watched, Katherine raised the gun, pointed it to her temple and smiled a tragic smile then pulled the trigger.

Quinn closed her eyes but she swayed and landed on her back, looking up at the ceiling, knowing that Katherine had killed her just as surely as she killed herself. A numbness settled into her limbs and her eyes grew heavy and then she heard the voice. She turned her head to see three figures in the doorway but it wasn't until the figures moved into the room that Quinn realized who they were.

"Maude, Colleen, Mrs. Hamston?"

"Quinn, we're so sorry."

"It was you, all of you, wasn't it?"

"Yes, we sent you back to save him from Katherine."

"And you sent Gabriel to me."

Maude looked down at her hands for a moment and when she looked back up there were tears in her eyes.

"Yes, and we tried to help you along the way by giving you the answers that would keep you on the right path."

"Gabriel shouldn't be forced to watch me die again, to suffer through not only the loss of me but the lifetime of mourning me."

Quinn's vision was turning black around the edges but she forced the words from her tight throat. "Who are you?"

Mrs. Hamston knelt down next to Quinn and took her hand into her own, "We are the Fates."

"Then you must fix it. You must right the wrong." Quinn grew quiet for a minute as déjà vu filled her and then she asked, "We've done this before, haven't we?"

It was Maude who answered. "Yes, after the first time Katherine shot you and Gabriel, I came to you. And, though he had already passed on, you were alive but just barely. I'll never forget the look in your eyes or how, with your last bit of energy, you reached for him. You saw me and pleaded with me to make it right, demanded that I promise to do just that. It took a while to correct the ripple effect of Katherine's actions but it's over now. The promise has been kept."

Gabriel's footsteps sounded from the hall and, as Quinn watched, Maude and her sisters faded just as Gabriel came running into the room.

Gabriel had been sitting in the great hall feeling a peace he hadn't felt in a long time. Regardless of what happened now, Quinn would be safe and that was all that mattered to him. When the chill suddenly swept over him, he thought nothing of it until a vision of Quinn filled his mind just as ghostly words echoed in his ear, "Help her." Terror filled him as he jumped up from the sofa and ran from the room.

It was mindless fear that filled him when he pushed open the door of Nick's solar and saw her on the floor. His nightmare flashed through his mind and he knew that he was too late. The others were just behind him, he could hear their sounds of agony as they witnessed her death but his mind was only on Quinn. There weren't words in any language that could describe the pain that was stabbing into his heart like a thousand knives. He ran to her and fell to his knees, his tears coming so fast he could barely see her.

"Stay with me, Quinn. Oh God, stay with me." He would have sold his soul in that moment to trade places with her. Her eyes were dull and her breathing was so very shallow and the blood, it wouldn't stop flowing as he pulled off his shirt to staunch it. She reached for him, took his hand into her own and held it over her heart. And when the small smile spread across her lips, his heart shattered. He heard her whisper, "I love you. Always and forever."

"Please don't leave me." But he knew his plea had fallen on deaf ears when her hand went limp in his and the light faded from her eyes. He heard the broken sounds from behind him as he roared his grief. He pulled her into his arms, and held her against him, as his anguished sobs echoed into the silence.

The cottage was tucked deep in the woods, the smoke curling up the chimney to scent the night air. Inside three sisters sat in front of the fire, their attention on the orange flames that snapped and curled wildly in the fireplace, but they were seeing what no others could.

"We can't leave it this way, Maude," Colleen barked as she stood and started pacing.

"I agree."

"It's been a long road but the wrong has been righted," Mrs. Hamston declared in a voice filled with emotion.

Maude reached over and covered her sister's hand with her own. "Yes. Our promise to Quinn has been kept and now we need to set them at the beginning of their journey."

"Why did we interfere? People die every second, but we don't go changing their destinies?" Colleen asked.

Maude looked over at her sister as surprise passed over her features. "Tis true love, a rarity these days. What better reason than to preserve something so special especially since she is kin."

Colleen thought on that for a moment before she replied, "Fair enough but you've changed it a bit."

"I have. We are the Fates, t'is our right."

"It's Quinn, not Morgan," Mrs. Hamston observed.

"She is Morgan O'Cuinn in any lifetime. But yes, it's Quinn, a more evolved version of Morgan." Maude looked to her sisters before she looked back into the fire. "He fell in love with Morgan but it was Quinn who stole his heart. I think that fact should be observed. Besides I think they've earned it."

"Earned what?" Colleen and Mrs. Hamston asked together.

Maude smiled and replied, "The beginning to their happily-ever-after."

The river cut along the landscape and the gentle babble, as the water swept over the rock beds, was very soothing.

"I think it's time for someone to go to bed," Archer said to a yawning Nickie.

"I'm not tired."

"Sure, you're just catching flies." Thaddeus said as he threw a wink at Quinn.

Archer lifted Nickie up over his shoulder before he reached for Quinn's hand as his lips brushed over her ear.

"Let's put our son to bed and then we should retire, too, I think."

Quinn looked down at the emerald sparkling on the third finger of her left hand. Married for six years and still as wildly in love as the day they first met. She looked up at him with everything she was feeling reflected in her smile. He pressed his lips to hers then they walked up the hill to their little piece of heaven and the nearly completed castle that sat majestically in the distance.

Her feet ached but it had been such a wonderful evening. Ten years, ten wonderful years, they had been married and she was still as wildly in love with him as she had been that day she stepped into the Brazen Head Pub.

Nick handed her something earlier in the evening, called it the Scarcliff treasure, and asked that she wait until she returned home to open it. Since Gabriel was looking in on the children, Quinn took the package from her purse and carefully removed the silver paper it was wrapped in.

Inside were three items. Two small miniatures, one she knew to be Archer and the other which looked remarkably like her. The other item was an emerald ring that was nestled in the satin, and though it was magnificent, it wasn't just its beauty that drew her. She recognized the ring, knew that somehow it had at one time been hers.

She heard him before she saw him and when he appeared in the doorway her heart flipped over in her chest. He leaned up against the door jamb as a grin tugged at his mouth. He was dressed all in black and his spiky black hair was messy, as if he had pulled a hand through it a time or two.

"Thad and Nickie are teething. I don't think we're going to be getting very much sleep tonight."

Quinn watched him as he started toward her with that easy stride of his. He was working his tie off and had unbuttoned the top few buttons of his shirt before he reached her. He was about to pull her up and into his arms but when he saw the emerald a strange look passed over his face. He knelt down next to her as he reached for the ring and removed it from the box.

"Where did you get that?"

"Nick gave it to me."

His eyes, the color of the emerald, looked up into hers. "Why do I know this ring?"

Quinn's hand brushed softly down his face. "I think because once upon a time you gave it to me."

His voice was almost reverent when he said, "I think you're right."

He reached for the one miniature as she took the other. "This looks exactly like you," he whispered before turning it around to see the inscription on the back just as Quinn turned over the one she held.

Always and Forever, Archer Gabriel

Always and Forever, Morgan Quinn