The Assassin: (Mortal Beloved Time Travel Romance, #2) (21 page)

“You look like you are far, far away from here.” Samuel walked toward me, a small smile tugging his lips upward. “How are you feeling?”

I startled. “Much better. Almost like this afternoon never happened.”

“Oh, it definitely happened.”

I felt myself blush and hoped it was too dark for him to see. “What are you doing here?”

“I saw the bonfire from inside the villa. I could not endure the boredom of noble chatter and the incessant preening one minute longer,” Samuel said.

“What about Giulia?” I asked.
 

“What of her?” He shrugged. “She is my step-sister.”

“She feels a bit more than ‘sisterly’ toward you.”

“I know,” he said.

I blinked. I didn’t know what to say. She was constantly throwing herself at him, but truthfully, I never saw him return her affections.
 

“At last, Miri’s stern face has been graced with a smile,” he said. “We wondered if Tomasis would ever be able to crack her icy exterior.”

I glanced up and couldn’t help but smile as well. They looked so perfect together. Tomasis leaned in and whispered into Miri’s ear as she threw her head back and giggled out loud. He seized the opportunity and pulled her closer to him.
 

Meant to be, I thought. In any lifetime they were meant to be.

“Dance with me.” Samuel bowed and then held out his hand to me.

I shook my head. “Oh… no. That’s not a good idea.”

“You said you felt well. Please do me the honor and dance with me, Nadja?” he asked.

Jofranka overhead him and grinned. “Maybe you can overcome the hardship of your two left feet, Nadja, for a handsome nobleman’s request. I know I would.”

I looked up at Samuel. “Seriously, I’m terrible. You don’t want to dance with me. I’ll step on your feet; maybe even break one of your toes. Why don’t you dance with Jofranka?”

“Because Jofranka has work to do,” she said, “and will not be dancing with anyone tonight.” She smiled at Samuel. “I knew you were going to ask me next, and I thank you ahead of time, but I must decline your courteous offer, my Lord.”

Samuel smiled at her and bowed. “I fear it is my loss,” he said and turned back to me. “Nadja?”

~ twenty-five ~

We danced in a meadow next to a bonfire as its flames flickered and hovered in the air for moments, as if they were nature’s sparklers. People around us laughed and flirted, smiled and fell in lust, or love, perhaps a bit of both. Hearts were won, kisses were stolen, future and current lovers embraced.

Not us however, at least not on the outside. The music reached into my soul and lit the dark pockets. I couldn’t help but stare back at Samuel as my face blushed and my breath quickened. I felt happy for the first time since I journeyed to Portugal.
 

That’s when he grabbed my hand. “Come with me!”

“But it’s perfect here,” I said.

“Come with me.” He led me away from the dance and grabbed a lantern from the ground. We passed a few people chatting and drinking mead on the bonfire’s outskirts.

“Where are we going?”
 

“Just a bit away from here.” He squeezed my hand tighter and pulled me closer. “Someplace quieter.”

I bumped up against him and nearly tripped on his heels. “Sorry!” I said.

He stopped in his tracks and turned toward me. He cradled my chin in his palm and brushed his thumb over my cheek. “I am the one who is sorry. You are kind but I push you away. You are open but I shut you out. When others turned away, and pretended they did not notice, you stayed and fought. I kept so many secrets from you when you have only been honest and forthright with me.”

“No.” I blushed and looked away. “That’s not true.”

If only he knew…

“Nadja,” he said. “Look at me.”

I did so reluctantly.
 

“You are so beautiful,” he said. “When I first met you I thought, ‘No, this girl cannot be a servant, she cannot be a gypsy. She must be noble because she must be mine. There was a piece of me who already recognized you. I have a confession. I have these dreams and you looked exactly like the girl who visited me in difficult times. She smoothed my forehead, held my hand, and said, ‘Really, truly everything will be okay. We can figure this whole thing out.’ You look exactly like that girl.”

My hand flew to my chest. After all this time, he was still my Samuel. Right here, right now, in front of me stood my Samuel. My defenses melted away and were replaced by hope.

“So please, My Lady.” he bowed. “Come with me to a place that means so very much to me, come with me to a place that gives me courage. Because I need courage to tell you who I am, Nadja. It is time that you knew.”

“It’s time I tell you something as well,” I said.

~ ~ ~

Cylindrical stone columns, tall archways that formed a broken circle, and other crumbling, ancient buildings surrounded us. I sat on a low stone wall, the bottoms of my feet brushing the tendrils of grass that poked through chipped mosaic tile. “Where are we?” I asked and held out my hand and waved it through the air around me. “The energy here feels magical, but kind of crazy.”

“Roman ruins,” he said. “A temple and a city dating back to before the birth of Christ. I come here when I need to be alone, when I need to think, or pray to anyone in the heavens who will hear me.” He paced back and forth in front of me, agitated.

“Tell me what’s on your mind,” I said.

“Lord De Rocha is not my father. He is my step-father.”

“I know,” I said.
 

“How do you know?”

“Miri told me ages ago. Besides, I have a step-mother, too.”

“My real father left when I was only eight years old. The very night he departed, I spied on them from behind a door. He kissed my mother with passion and said, ‘Maria, I will always love you. But I cannot settle down. I cannot be this nobleman who collects rents, throws parties, and grows fat, old, and complacent on his land. I will always be there for you and Samuel. But I will not live in a cage, no matter how beautiful you and it, is.’”

“So your mom let him go?” I asked.

He nodded. “Time passed. Some years we would see him and others we would not. Eventually, my mother met Lord De Rocha and he fell in love with her. I knew he would never be in her heart the way my father was, but I also could tell he would treat her kindly.”

“Did he?” I asked.

“Yes.” Samuel smiled for a heartbeat.

“Good. So everything got better after that,” I said.

“For a while. Lord De Rocha had a daughter, Giulia, who acted like I didn’t even exist. That is, until she turned sixteen years old and became a different person, practically overnight.”

“What happened?” I asked.

“She associated with nobles who were wild and acted dangerous. She’d disappear for days on end and return; her clothes dirty, ragged, sometimes even bloody. And one day she looked at me differently. Not as a sister should look at a brother.”

“She was falling in love with you,” I said.

He shrugged. “A few of my friends said the same, but I refused to believe it. I made excuses every time she pulled me away from a group of people because she just had to speak with me privately. Every time, she massaged my shoulders and told me to relax. ‘Enjoy yourself for a change, Samuel,’ she said. ‘Stop thinking so much. You are a Lord. All you need to do is enjoy life.’”
 

“What did you tell her?” I asked.

“I told her that her ways were not mine. That I needed to find my purpose, my dedication.”
 

“But she didn’t leave you alone,” I said.

He shook his head. “One day she sent word she was sick and would I visit her in her rooms? So I went to her. But when the doors were shut she asked me to lock them. She said that she was scared of one of her guards. So I did. By the time I turned back around, she’d slid her top open, and it draped around her waist. She bared herself to me, smiled, and said that she knew I wanted this as much as she did.”

My heart dropped and my stomach turned. “Did you?”

“I thought of her as my sister,” he said. “I told her that but she grew angry. Accused me of leading her on. Giving her mixed signals.”
 

Oh crap.

“What did you think?” I asked.

“I thought she was out of her mind. I backed out of that room and avoided her for months. I made excuses to travel. I visited other King’s courts. Volunteered for missions and duties that would take me to places far away from her.”

“Did you tell your mother?”

He shook his head.

“Mothers are intuitive,” I said. “I bet she knew.”

His brow furrowed as he gazed into the night sky. “She came to me once and asked me if I was in trouble, if I needed to tell her anything. I said, no.”

“She knew,” I said.

“Not that long ago, I returned to the estate for a quick visit and Giulia cornered me. She had heard news of my real father. Her friends shared vicious gossip and claimed that he was not only a mercenary, but also a highly paid assassin who worked for prominent royals. I told her to stop her ridiculous lying. She said she had proof, that I should meet her at an inn a few villages over.”

Oh, God, no.
 

“I was torn,” he said. “I wanted to protect my father and yet I still wanted to stay away from her.”

“What did you do?” I asked, my stomach twisting in knots.

“I met her and I got the proof.” He looked away and cleared his throat.
 

Right. I was incredibly naive to believe Samuel was inexperienced, just like me.
I felt my throat start to close off as I stared at my feet and then squinted up at the night sky. A million stars were twinkling far overhead and I would have given anything to be in their midst.

This wasn’t the best time to tell him I time traveled here from present day Chicago.

“I see.” I shivered.

“You hate me.” He dropped to his knees in front of me and clasped my hands in his. “I should not have told you. I am so sorry. What an ass I am.”

“I don’t hate you.” I blinked back a few tears. “Quite the opposite, actually. I like you a lot. I might have fallen in love with you, again.”

“Fallen in love?” He asked.
“Again?”

Suddenly, muffled shouts and screams bounced off the ruins just hundreds of yards away from us and I stared at Samuel as my breath hitched in my chest.
 

He dropped my hands, grabbed the lantern, and thrust it at me. “Take this. Go back to the people at the bonfire. Now!”
 

“No,” I said. “You carry it. As long as I have breath, I’m staying with you.”

~ ~ ~

I ran behind Samuel as we raced through the ruins dodging twisted trees, crumbling aqueducts, and tripped over scattered stones. He stopped in front of a small structure built into a hillside, a dilapidated archway framing it.
 

The cries grew louder and sounded more violent. Samuel held the lantern high in the air and I could make out a worn stone staircase that descended behind him. “Where are we?” I asked.

“Catacombs,” he said. “Do not follow me. Find some place to hide.” He grabbed me and pulled me flush against him. “And for once,
please
do what I ask.” He raked his fingers through my hair with one hand, tilted my head back, leaned down, and kissed me. At first his kiss was soft, his lips gentle on mine, exploring, but quickly he grew more urgent. He kissed me hard on my mouth, his teeth claiming my lower lip for a moment, his warm breath mingling with mine. I was flooded with memories of everything we once had, everything we had right now, and I pressed myself against him.

But he abruptly pulled away, leaving me breathless and light-headed. “I apologize,” he said. “But I have been wanting to kiss you since the first night we met. When you were drowning today, I promised myself that if you came back to me, I would kiss you. Because if something happens to either of us and I never grew the courage to do that, I would regret it for the rest of my life.”
 

My lips were tingling and it was all I could do to stop myself from asking him to kiss me again.

“Right,” I said. “You totally had to do it. You would have been tempting fate if you hadn’t kissed me. I’m coming with you. I can help.”

“No. I cannot focus on helping if I worry about you. Go and hide in a place they cannot easily find you.”

“Who are they? Who’s going to find me?”

A woman’s shouts wafted from the grave’s entrance and pierced the night air.

“Whoever wins that bloodbath. Go!” He stepped inside the building and swiveled back toward me. “I promise I will come back for you, Nadja. And you had better be in one piece when I do.” He held the lantern high in the air, jogged down the stairs, and disappeared from sight.
 

My heart pumped and my face burned. I gave my head a shake, then glanced around for a hiding place.
 

There
—behind that thick grove of tangled trees.

Or, there
—in the shadows of that decaying building.
 

A man screamed long and deep. I shuddered and my gaze flew to the staircase and the archway that led to it. Words that looked like Latin were etched along the curve on top.
 

Dammit, why didn’t I take Latin instead of Spanish at Preston Academy?

I squinted at the words that were worn by hundreds of years, the winds, and the rain. I might not have known Latin but a chill went through me when I recognized a few Sanskrit words that had forever changed my life:

Sa. Ta. Na. Ma.
 

It was carved in the tiles tucked at the lower right hand side of the archway.
 

“Samuel!” I shouted and raced toward the staircase.

~ twenty-six ~

I tripped down the worn set of steps, leaving the nighttime’s friendly starlight, and entered the tomb’s dank blackness. It smelled musty and earthy down here and a hint of light glowed around the twists and turns of the passageways in the near distance. Now that I was on their level, the screams sounded louder and more bloodcurdling.