Perigee Moon (23 page)

Finally Alex sighed and rolled off of me, signaling the end of the danger. I sat up slowly, stretching my aching joints and noticed he was digging in a wooden chest obscured by the honey suckle and brush. He pulled out a white linen shirt and slipped it on. It was slightly ruffled and very old-fashioned. It matched the strange brown pants he was wearing. He was furious. I could feel it radiating off of him, tiny pin pricks of heat. So much in fact that he was shaking. I pulled my knees up to my chest and ran my hands over my hair to smooth it, waiting for him to speak. He finally turned.

“How the hell did you get here?” he said. I flinched at his tone.

“I followed you.”

“Why?” His eyes narrowed.

“I wanted to see where you were from. You’re always keeping all these secrets and I think I deserve to know.” It all came out in a rush so I paused and took a deep breath to calm myself. “If we’re going to be together, if you want me to trust you, then I deserve to know.”

He sighed. “I don’t just mean that…it’s impossible for you to be here,” he said. Then he stopped as realization settled across his face. He knelt down in front of me and grabbed the necklace form around my neck. After a moment he mumbled something under his breath and dropped it.

“Of course,” he whispered and went back to digging in the chest.

“Alex what are you talking about? Stop speaking in code and talk to me, damn it!” I demanded, the frustration boiling over, nearly blocking out the pain.

He tossed me a long black hooded cloak. “We don’t have time, here. It’s not safe. Put that on,” he said.

I lifted it up and frowned, “Why?”

“Because if people here see you dressed like that we will both end up with nooses around our necks by sundown. Now put it on,” he said. I swallowed past the lump in my throat and slipped it on. He stepped forward and gingerly helped me to my feet, tugging the hood over my head.

He sighed as he wiped a tear from my cheek and his face softened. “You’re hurting.”

I nodded unable to mask the pain on my face. Every part of me ached. All I wanted to do was lay down and rest but it was clear that it wasn’t an option so I kept my mouth shut.

“I forgot how painful it can be the first time,” he said as he tucked a strand of hair behind my ear, adjusting the hood.

“What are you talking about?”

“I’ll explain everything. I swear. Just trust me right now. Can you do that?”

I nodded again.  

“Okay. Then follow me and don’t say a word.”

Alex laced his hand through mine and tugged me back the way I had come. He was taking me home. But when the voices wafted through the trees again Alex froze and gripped my hand tight. They were coming back. And whoever they were, Alex was afraid. I could hear the blood pulsing behind my eardrums and feel his fear as he stiffened and pulled me backward.

“Damn,” he whispered under his breath.

“Alex? What is it?”

He glanced back at me. “It’s not safe this way now. We’ll have to wait until dark to get you back.” He hesitated, his face torn.

“Follow me.” His fingers squeezed mine reassuringly and pulled me forward. Well, I guess it was forward. I wasn’t sure where I was anymore. Nothing looked the same. But even stranger, nothing felt the same.

We hiked for what seemed like forever. My legs were aching but thankfully my confusion was making it hard to concentrate on the pain. Alex wasn’t saying a word and neither was I until the trees started to part. I looked ahead and saw my grandparent’s large white house come into view and smiled. The thought of curling up in my bed was almost euphoric.

“Hey I thought you said we couldn’t…” I trailed off, my head spinning. This wasn’t home. Was it? Nothing looked right. The road was gone. Here there was just a worn path. The house didn’t look right either. It looked…new, but still somehow incredibly out of date.

“Alex where are we?”

“I don’t think where is the proper question Rowan.”

I yanked my hand from his grip and stopped. “Well then what is the right question Alex? Because I’m tired of the cryptic crap.” My lungs were gasping for a decent breath and I felt dizzy. I grasped for a tree, anything to brace myself on, but all my hand found was air. Alex darted to my side and slipped his arm around my waist before I could tumble to the ground.

“Not here,” he whispered against my ear, causing me to shiver. “Not out in the open like this.”

I nodded and followed him to the eerily familiar house.

Inside, Alex led me to the staircase, but before we could reach the second step a shrill voice stopped us.

“Alex? Who’s this?”

Alex quickly pushed me behind him and flashed me a warning look. I pulled my cloak tighter and held my breath.

“Just a friend Aunt Marion,” he said nonchalantly. I peeked out from under my hood at her. She was a tall statuesque woman, maybe in her mid forties. Her skin was like cream and ivory but you couldn’t see much of it. She was wearing a navy-blue dress that fastened with a pearl button up around her neck. A bit of white lace trim lined the sleeves that clung to her boney wrists and around her collar. Her lips were drawn up into a tight line as she eyed the two of us. Even more than the strange way she was dressed, I was wondering why Alex was hiding me from his own Aunt.

She took a step forward and extended a long boney finger, beckoning me forward.

“Come here girl,” she said in a sharp tone. I started to move forward but Alex grabbed my wrist to stop me.

“You don’t have to Rowan,” he whispered, but judging from the scowl on her face, I knew she had heard.

“May I remind the two of you that you are in my house? Now I suggest you step forward and name yourself.”

I took a deep breath as Alex loosened his grip on me, and stepped forward. “I’m Rowan,” I said in a shaky voice. I took another breath and straightened my spine to stand tall. It was obvious this woman was the type that fed off of fear, and I couldn’t let her bully me like she did Alex. “Rowan Bliss,” I said.

Before I could say another word she stepped forward and ripped the hood from my head. She stared at me for a long moment, disbelieving.

“Aunt Marion I can explain.”

She held up her hand to silence him and narrowed her eyes on me. My skin crawled as her cold black eyes drifted over me.

“You fool!” she hissed and turned her attention to Alex. “You brought her here?”

“It’s not what you think. She followed me. I never would have put her in this kind of danger,” he said nervously, coming up behind me and placing his trembling hands on my shoulders.

“Her safety is not the issue at hand here. You know they are searching for any reason to put you in the ground. How could you be so careless?”

He hesitated for a moment and his fingers squeezed my shoulders. “I love her. I won’t stop seeing her.”

My stomach twisted and my face felt hot. I suddenly wished I still had the cloak to hide under.

“And your Mother’s prophecy? What of it? Are you telling me that you’d choose death for a silly romance with this girl?”

His jaw tightened and I could feel the fear and anger swelling in him. “Maybe I can change it. Maybe she was wrong.” He was reaching. I could feel that even he didn’t believe what he was saying.

“Nonsense.” She looked away and flapped her fingers as if to brush the idea away. “You’ll do no such thing. I’ve already arranged for you to be with a girl perfectly suited for you. You will not throw away your life and everything I have done for you over this.” She motioned to me like I was nothing. I felt sick. It was clear she was never going to approve of our relationship.  

“You can’t control him like this,” I said and Alex tensed, his fear pelting my back like shards of broken glass.

Her cold laughter trickled through me like acid and I cringed at the sound.

“She doesn’t know does she?” she said, amused. “I doubt she’d have anything to do with you if she did.”

I glanced up at Alex and he was shaking his head grimacing.

“Stupid girl, you have no idea what you’ve stumbled into. Run while you can.” She walked away still laughing but called out over her shoulder before she disappeared into the kitchen, “I want her gone before sundown or I will call the elders to take care of this.”

Alex’s breath came out hot against the back of my neck.

“Come on,” he said and pulled me up the stairs and into what I could only guess was his bedroom. If I hadn’t known any better I would have said it was my room. The entire house was laid out the exact same as my grandparents. It was like something out of the Twilight zone. I glanced around the room taking in the old-looking furniture and bare hardwood floors. Alex walked across the room and stared out the window, the fading sun turning his face the color of sunset.

“Is this where you live?” I managed to ask as I eased down onto his bed. The bed was hard and covered with only one thin worn quilt and a white sheet. The room looked bleak and cold, like a prison cell. Nothing like a normal teenage boy’s room should look like. My last boyfriend’s walls were covered in posters of classic cars and one borderline x-rated photo of Megan Fox. Not that I wanted to see his room like that, but this was just…depressing.

He nodded.

“Are you going to tell me what’s going on now?” I said. My heart sped up as he turned to face me. Tiny clicks like explosions were going off in my head. The house. The way his aunt was dressed. His room. Each thought sparked and ignited,
boom, boom, boom
. I squeezed my eyes shut.
You already know the answer Rowan. You just don’t want to believe it.

“I’ll tell you. But that doesn’t mean you’re going to believe me.”

“Alex I–” he held up his hand.

“It also means I don’t expect anything from you after this. If you don’t feel the same way about me…then I’ll understand.” I watched him cautiously as he crossed the room and knelt down in front of me. He grabbed my hands and held them to his chest sending waves of heat rippling through my body. I closed my eyes and reveled in the feeling. It didn’t matter what he had to say. Nothing could change the way I felt for him. I wouldn’t let it.

“Rowan you have to know that I love you. I’ve loved you for as long as I can remember. Please whatever else happens, never forget that.”

I frowned.

“Alex what are you saying?” I’d only met Alex this summer. How could he have loved me for as long as he could remember?

“Rowan, when I told you that you shouldn’t be asking where…”–he paused, struggling for the words–“I meant you should be asking when.”

“When?” Another wall of denial came down. My skull rattled with the force of it.

“It means I’m not from your world. I live in 1692, Rowan.
You
are in the year 1692. When you followed me you came through the gateway my mother set up and left your world behind. I didn’t know how at first, but then I realized that you had the necklace. You have my necklace. And somehow you knew the spell.” He closed his eyes, shaking his head. “I begged you to leave that book alone.”

He picked up the necklace from his neck and pulled a knife from his back pocket. I tensed as he flipped it open then scraped a line across the back. He tossed the knife to the floor and pulled the necklace from my shirt and flipped it over to show the same scratch. I gasped, grabbing the two necklaces and examining them. They really were the same.

My head started spinning and tiny obsidian dots began to bloom across my vision but I blinked them away. Time travel. I had
accidentally
time traveled? One last boom left my brain a pile of ash.

“This is too much. I…I just want to go home.” I tried to stand up but he pulled me back down.

“I’m telling you the truth. Rebecca Foster is my mother. The book you have was hers. The sketches in the back are not of a girl that looks like you, Rowan. They
are
of you. I drew them.”

He squeezed my hands, his eyes pleading. I couldn’t think straight.

He released my hands and gripped his hair like he wanted to pull it out. I flinched as he bolted up and crossed the room to the spot beneath the window. I watched in awe as he lifted the same floorboard that I found the book under in my room. He lifted out the book and carried it over to me.

He held it out and nodded. “Go ahead. Look at it.”